LONDON – PokerStars is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its long‑running Sunday Storm tournament with a special edition featuring a boosted $500,000 prize pool, the company announced Monday.
The commemorative event, which concludes May 10, retains the tournament’s signature $11 buy‑in and uses a phased, multi‑flight structure designed to accommodate a large field. Dozens of starting flights are already underway, with roughly 3% of players advancing from each session. Survivors carry their chip stacks into the final stage, where they will compete for the expanded prize pool.
The anniversary edition also features a Progressive Knockout format, allowing players to earn bounty payouts for eliminating opponents. The structure gives participants additional opportunities to cash even if they fall short of the final stages.
A Low‑Stakes Staple With a Global Following
Since debuting in 2011 under a different name, the Sunday Storm has become one of PokerStars’ most popular weekly tournaments, known for its low buy‑in and large fields. Past anniversary editions have drawn tens of thousands of entries, with many players turning small investments into sizable payouts through both prize money and bounty rewards.
PokerStars is also offering satellite qualifiers starting at $0.55, giving players additional low‑cost paths into the $500,000 event.
The tournament’s guarantees have fluctuated over the years as online poker markets evolved and regulatory changes affected player liquidity. Despite those shifts, the Sunday Storm has remained a fixture on the platform and continues to attract a loyal global audience.
The anniversary edition brings back the larger prize pools associated with earlier milestone events while introducing new structural elements intended to keep the format fresh. Organizers expect thousands of players to take part in what is projected to be one of the biggest Sunday Storm events in recent years.
