This year, the largest online poker room will once again send players to the main event in packs. Estimates currently place the number of Main Event seats PokerStars will award at over 1,000. There are several ways to win the $12,500 prize package ($10,000 for the seat, $2,500 for expenses).

First, there is a plethera of cash satellites, which all lead up to weekly Main Event qualifiers. There are four weekly events – the “High Roller” qualifier with a direct entry buy-in of $1,050, the European qualifier for $650, the Australian qualifier for $475, and the “Main” qualifier for $650. They are open to anybody – the regional qualifiers are simply held at times more convenient for Europeans and Australians. Players can satellite into each of the qualifiers through a variety of paths, with buy-ins ranging from $2 on up to $225. Several different tourney formats will be used for the satellites, including sit-n-go's, shootout, re-buy, freezeout, and turbo.

Players with "frequent player points" to spare can also play in FPP satellites. There are three different initial satellites to reach the final FPP qualifier:

• 40 FPP re-buy multi-table tourney (MTT),
• 400 FPP MTT, and
• 40 FPP freezeout MTT. ..Each awards seats into the weekly qualifier for the Main Event prize package.

Finally, there are the fun and popular sit-n-go’s. In these, players can work their way up a ladder of six sit-and-go levels to attempt to win a seat in the Main Event. Step 1 has a buy-in of $7.50 or 500 frequent player points, but each Step (except for Step 6) can be skipped by simply buying-in directly to a higher Step. The top two finishers in each step move up, while other finishers may get the opportunity to try again or loop back to a lower level. The winner of Step 6 earns the Main event seat, while the second through sixth place finishers win cash. PokerStars will also give players great cash bonuses for making a TV table during the Main Event and for making the final table.