Last week, PokerStars took it to the small town of Campione in Italy for the very first stop of its brand new PokerStars Open tour. The new tour is geared towards small to mid-stakes players, and if we are to judge things by how it got off the ground, the operator hit the bull’s eye with this one.
The inaugural PokerStars Open Campione was a resounding success, attracting thousands of players and generating a ton of action over the course of the week.
When it was all said and done and all the numbers were in, the festival lived up to and exceeded all expectations. The Main Event was particularly successful, more than doubling its original guarantee and becoming the largest-ever PokerStars Live event in this buy-in bracket.
Campione Main Event a Huge Success
With PokerStars Open being a new tour, the organizers were somewhat cautious with the Main Event guarantee, setting it at €1,000,000. This was still a big number for a €1,100 tournament, but, as it turned out, that bar was set way too low.
By the time the registration was completed, the 2025 Campione Main Event tournament clock was showing 2,434 entries. This number comprised 1,434 original players and 1,000 reentries, bringing the final prize pool to an astonishing €2.3 million.
With this, the tournament set a new attendance record for a standalone event, i.e., a tournament that’s not a part of the European Poker Tour.
David Lappin also pointed out an interesting fact – the total number of entries in the Main Event exceeded the actual population of the town, which stands at just below 2,000 people.
As for the results, the honor of winning the first-ever PokerStars Open Main Event went to Romania’s Adrian-Sorel State, who picked up €363,000 for his efforts. Italy’s Giorgio Soceanu finished the runner-up, pocketing €225,200.
The tournament paid a total of 315 places, with everyone making it past the bubble, walking away with at least €1,790.
Strong Turnout All Over the Shot
The Main Event wasn’t the only tournament that attracted players in droves. There were 16 events on the Campione schedule, and many of them resulted in big fields, with the total for prizes paid coming close to €4.5 million.
The €550 PS Open Second Chance attracted 716 total entries, generating a prize pool of €358,000. That tournament resulted in a heads-up deal between Iceland’s Stein Karlsson and Italy’s Gabriele Patti, who took home €56,175 and €46,859, respectively.
The €400 Mystery Bounty Cup saw 934 entries and a prize pool of €336k. Spain’s Artus Gimenez Leyva took the lion’s share of that prize pool, picking up €47,700 between his first-place finish and all the mystery bounties he accumulated along the way.
It is worth noting that the inaugural PokerStars Open in Campione was truly an international affair, with players from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Brazil, Spain, Slovakia, France, and many other countries.
On to the Next One
With the Campione festival in the books, PokerStars will be looking towards the next stop on its calendar. The next PokerStars Open is set to take place in Namur at the end of May.
Before that, though, we can look forward to EPT Monte Carlo, which plays out April 30 – May 10, 2025.
All these live events count towards the new PokerStars Live League, which is set to award the best performers over the course of the year with some valuable tournament tickets, while one of these players will also have a shot at becoming a PokerStars ambassador.
These incentives should help boost tournament numbers even more, giving players a few extra incentives to join the action and try to make their poker dream come true.
