Stake Poker's $125,000 GTD Stake Showdown High Roller

Tournament structure

Stake Showdown $125,000 GTD is a one-day PKO tournament with the following features: 

• Starting stack: 20,000 chips (200 BB).
• Blinds increase every 10 minutes.
• Two-hour late registration period with re-entries.
• 8-max tables.

How to get into a high roller through satellites?

In addition to the direct $1,000 buy-in, players can get into the tournament through satellites.

• Step 1 to The Stake Showdown with a $0.50 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of 10 $10 tickets. Tournaments start three times daily.
• Step 2 to The Stake Showdown with a $10 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of 5 tickets for  $100. Tournaments start twice daily.
• Final Step to The Stake Showdown with a $100 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of 3 or 4 tickets for $1,000. Tournaments start once daily at 18:00 GMT.

Why You Should Play Stake Showdown: Our Opinion

Stake Poker regularly runs tournaments with guarantees that significantly exceed those of the MTTs in its daily schedule. Stake Showdown is the first high roller in the poker room’s history with a $1,000 buy-in, while standard tournaments have buy-ins of no more than $100.

The $125,000 guaranteed prize pool is also impressive for a relatively young poker room. For comparison, the flagship The Weekly Treasure Hunt has a guarantee of just $15K.

To prevent Stake Showdown from becoming a tournament exclusively for players with large bankrolls, Stake Poker runs three-tiered step satellites every day, with buy-ins starting at just $0.50. Interestingly, all of the satellites come with guaranteed prize pools.

In our opinion, the combination of a low starting buy-in for the steps, relatively small fields, and just three levels between the initial entry and the $1,000 ticket makes qualifying for Stake Showdown realistic even for players with smaller bankrolls. Moreover, a satellite player doesn’t necessarily have to reach the money to boost their bankroll significantly: eliminating just one opponent is enough, as the base bounty is $500.