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How casual players like you can live their poker dreams through Power Path

January 16, 2024

Poker

by Jack Stanton

watch_later

7 Minute Read

We’ve already seen dozens of casual poker players turning their dreams into a reality thanks to Power Path. Now it’s your turn…

How many times have you watched a live stream from a big live poker event over the past year and wished you were there, battling it out at the tables for eye-watering prizes?

If the answer is every single time, then you’re not alone.

Perhaps you don’t have the bankroll to play such events, or the online satellites crammed with top pros are too hard to win. Both points are valid.

But with Power Path, PokerStars has changed things. And from here on, there’s no reason why you can’t be playing the events you usually watch from home.

Power Path is a qualification route that protects recreational players by restricting entry to the fourth and final step, ensuring every participant must go through at least one of the previous steps. This prevents top pros and those with large bankrolls from buying into the final stage directly and re-entering as many times as they like.

The best part? Every day you play a real-money game on PokerStars – no matter the buy-in – you get a free $0.50 Step 1 ticket to start your journey. These daily tickets could see you go all the way and end up playing on the European Poker Tour (EPT), PokerStars’ regional tours, or the biggest online events.

Since Power Path launched in June 2023, we’ve met dozens of casual players at live events who did just that, winning their way there via this game-changing qualifying route.

WHY IS POWER PATH IMPORTANT FOR RECREATIONAL PLAYERS?

PokerStars live events are the best in the business. But there’s one thing that all of them are missing.

You.

You should be playing these events. You should be taking poker vacations and battling for the big bucks. You should be giving the pros a run for their money in the largest online tournaments, regardless of your bankroll or experience.

Poker needs more Moneymaker stories. More Platinum Pass-like experiences for regular players. More dreamers given shots on the biggest stages.

It needs more of you.

Construction worker and Platinum Pass winner Glen Craigen had an incredible run at the PSPC 2023

PokerStars created the Power Path with the sole intention of getting more casual and recreational players into its biggest events, whether it’s winning packages to EPT stops worth $10,300, or packages to regional tours around the world worth $2,500 each, or even just the ability to play the $109 Sunday Million online each week.

But to do it, PokerStars had to create a path that wouldn’t be crowded with professional players. And by making the final-step qualifiers ticket-only satellites, it means that everyone has a fair shot of securing one of those packages.

For the perfect example of just how immediate Power Path can be, let’s look at the journey of 67-year-old Polish Gold Pass winner Wojciech Niedzwiecki, who plays on PokerStars as “Niemar”.

Niedzwiecki received his free daily $0.50 Step 1 ticket and less than three hours later he’d turned it into a Gold Pass (a special edition Las Vegas Gold Pass worth $20,000, to be precise).

First, he won a $0.50 Spin & Go. He then won a $1.50 Step 2 ticket and finished in the top spots to claim an $11 Step 3 ticket. He got through that too and ultimately went all the way in the final $109 Step 4 stage to win the Gold Pass.

For the record, Niedzwiecki has no live cashes and only plays online poker occasionally.

He’s just a regular casual poker player, like so many of us. But he won the experience of a lifetime through Power Path.

There’s nothing quite like a good underdog story. Nothing gets us more excited than seeing PokerStars qualifiers playing in big events.

And in the second half of 2023, we were excited a lot.

POWER PATH SUCCESS STORIES

Age, occupation, background, bankroll, even poker experience – none of this matters when it comes to Power Path. It’s a protected environment in which anyone can flourish and achieve their poker goals of playing in big events.

Take retired doctor Egidio Salandi, for example. The 70-year-old Italian entered an €11 buy-in Power Path Step 3 event without even realising the magnitude of the prize he ended up winning – a full package worth $10,300 to play at EPT Prague.

Salandi played his maiden live event thanks to Power Path

There, he played the first live tournament of his life. “My experience is limited, but my ambition is not,” he told us on the tournament floor, and Egidio is keen for this to be only the beginning. “I have enjoyed it very much,” he said. “It’s a very nice experience and something that I’m keen to repeat.

“I definitely recommend the Power Path to other players. This is the best opportunity for players who love the game to play these big tournaments.”

Even if you don’t have $11 in your PokerStars account, you can still play Power Path every day thanks to the free $0.50 tickets awarded daily when you play a real-money game. Win one of the $0.50 Spin & Go’s and you’ll move on to either a $1 Sit & Go (16 players) or a $1.50 MTT qualifier with dozens of $11 tickets up for grabs.

It was from a $1.50 Step 2 event that the UK’s Jodi Hurley won a Silver Pass worth $2,500. The Londoner chose to use his Pass at UKIPT Nottingham and even managed to win a second Silver Pass in the run-up to the event.

“From the moment I heard about the Power Path and the passes I was locked into trying to qualify for one,” he told us. “I have always appreciated when there is extra value in games and with all the added tickets and overlays in the qualifiers there isn’t anywhere else with so much value available to players.”

Hurley was insistent that he never invest more than $1.50 per Power Path attempt. After a couple of weeks of grinding the Step 2 and subsequent Step 3 tournaments, he’d accumulated a collection of $109 Step 4 tickets that he could use to try and win a Pass – or for entry to online events like the Sunday Million.

Like buses, two eventually came along at once.

TRAVEL THE WORLD

One of the many beauties of Power Path is that when you win a Pass, the target event is not pre-determined. You get to pick which tournament stop you’d like to visit.

This makes Power Path an incredibly cost-effective way for recreational poker players to travel the world for cheap, as both Gold and Silver Passes come with hotels and money for expenses provided.

But don’t take it from us.

Andy and Jenny Steele

At EPT Barcelona we met Andy and Jenny Steele, a husband-and-wife duo who use Power Path and regular PokerStars satellites as a means to travel. Andy booked their trip via Power Path with just an $11 investment.

“It’s nice being husband and wife, being poker players, because we get it,” Jenny said. “We bounce hands off each other, strategies off each other. We do help each other quite a lot. And we get to travel together. We get to experience the whole thing off felt as well. When we’re not playing poker, we get to see the rest of the world, enjoy ourselves and meet lovely, lovely, nice people.”

The couple took full advantage of all the incredible activities that PokerStars puts on for qualifiers, including taking a free catamaran trip along the Barcelona coast. “You can’t get much better than that there,” Andy told us once he was back on dry land. “Absolutely amazing, especially from $11.

“That’s the great thing about [Power Path and] the Power Passes, it’s like a credit note,” he continued. “You can go from 50c to these fantastic locations. You can pick and choose opportunities to win amazing money, and if not you’re in a fantastic place with great people, so it’s all good.”