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PokerStars Rewrites the Playbook with Summer-Long Sunday Million 20th Anniversary

3 hours ago

Samantha Doyle 3 hours ago

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Sunday Million 20th Anniversary is now a multi-week Phased PKO.
Runs June 28–Sept 7, 2026, with $5M guarantee and $109 buy-in.
Multiple qualification routes from $0.55 & Anniversary Spin & Go's.

While sports broadcasts are busy competing for screen time over the summer months, online poker players are turning their focus to a marathon tournament grid. Rather than compressing its signature birthday bash into a single weekend, PokerStars is shaking up the calendar by transforming its milestone Sunday Million Anniversary 20 into a multi-week phased campaign.

Sunday Million Anniversary Basics

For its 20th anniversary, PokerStars is introducing a format shift from its traditional standalone anniversary events. This year, the tournament runs as a phased Progressive Knockout (PKO) event, dropping the entry buy-in down to the regular weekly $109 price point while sustaining a massive prize pool pool structure.

Players can enter as many Phase 1 heats as their bankrolls permit, with surviving chips stacking directly into the Phase 2 finale.

Information	Details
Event Name	Sunday Million Anniversary 20
Guaranteed Prize Pool	$5,000,000
Direct Entry Buy-in	$109
Tournament Format	Phased Progressive Knockout (PKO)
Phase 1 Daily Heats	June 28 to September 6, 2026
Phase 2 Finale Dates	September 6 to September 7, 2026

Qualification Routes

PokerStars has deployed a diverse qualification tree alongside the daily Phase 1 heats to accommodate all bankroll tiers. The qualifiers are split between traditional step satellites and fast-paced lottery formats, which went live in the client ahead of the opening phase flights:

Micro-Stakes Satellites: Regular online satellites launched on June 27, with entry fees starting as low as $0.55.
Anniversary Spin & Go's: Specialized editions of the three-player hyper-turbos launched on June 25, available at the $0.75 and $4 buy-in levels, giving players a chance to instantly secure a $109 Phase 1 ticket in minutes.

Two Decades of "The Milly"

Looking back on its history, the Sunday Million has firmly cemented itself as the most prestigious regularly scheduled tournament in online poker since its formal naming back in June 2006.

Affectionately known within the community as "The Milly," the event has consistently served as a career catalyst for rising pros and a weekend focal point for recreational players. Over the past twenty years, the tournament has evolved alongside player preferences, famously lowering its baseline buy-in from $215 to $109 in 2019 to maximize field sizes, and experimenting with progressive knockouts and mystery bounty matrices to keep the action dynamic.

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