California poker players must have looked longingly across the country yesterday as PokerStars officially returned to the United States for the first time in five years.

While online poker regulatory efforts have slowed for the time being in California, New Jersey celebrated a historic milestone. On Monday PokerStars NJ officially opened to the general public after a successful five-day soft launch.

New Jersey players will now enjoy a ring-fenced version of the world’s largest poker site -- one that is already showing tremendous promise.

PokerStars Already Offering More Variants Than Any Other Site

Upon opening the PokerStars client, the first thing players will notice is that the site offers many more variants than any other NJ site. Below are the poker variants currently available on PokerStars NJ:

  • Texas Hold’em (Limit and NL)
  • PL Omaha
  • Omaha Hi-Lo (Limit and PL)
  • Seven Card Stud
  • Stud 8 or Better
  • Razz
  • Five Card Draw (Limit, PL and NL)
  • 2-7 Triple Draw
  • NL 2-7 Single Draw
  • Badugi
  • 8-Game

It’s been well documented that NJ has suffered from a lack of variety in its online poker offerings and PokerStars looks to be picking up the slack.

Tournaments, Tournaments and Did We Mention Tournaments?

PokerStars is going to be a must-play site for tournament players.

Sit and Go’s will available with buy-ins ranging from 25c to $500. Turbo, Hyper Turbo and 50/50 SNG’s are among the available flavors offered.

As advertised pre-launch, PokerStars NJ is offering Spin & Go tournaments where players can win up to 1,000 times their buy-in.

Buy-ins for Spin & Gos is $1, $2, $5 and $10. As speculated previously, the top Spin & Go prize will be $10,000.

The majority of regular tournaments will be NL Hold’em but you will find some PLO, Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud events mixed in. Buy-ins range from freeroll to $500.

Not surprisingly, Sunday will be when the best events will run. The site will offer $85,000 in guarantees every Sunday. The Sunday Special will be the top event with a buy-in of $200 and a guarantee of $50,000.

The Sunday High Roller features a $15,000 guarantee for a $500 buy-in.

New Jersey (And Select Other) Players Can Transfer Their Accounts

If you’re in New Jersey and played on PokerStars pre-Black Friday, you can still access your old account and points.

Just login to the PokerStars NJ client with your old username and password and your account will be automatically converted. Your points will also be converted into StarsCoin.

However, if you login to the client, you will notice that players living in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware will also be eligible to have their accounts converted over to PokerStars NJ.

We assume this is to entice players in surrounding states to make the trek into NJ to play online poker.

Remember, if you wish to play on PokerStars NJ, you must be physically located in New Jersey and at least 21.

The launch has proven successful thus far and interest in the product appears high. At the time of this writing, the site had about 250 cash game players sitting with over 400 during peak hours. Both are tops in NJ.

Time will tell whether PokerStars will retain that top spot or if numbers will drop after the novelty wears off.

PokerStars is now positioned to be the top online poker provider in the state. They’ve built it. Now the question is whether players will continue to come play.