PokerStars has reduced the buy-ins for two of the biggest events at the upcoming PokerStars Open Prague festival, saying the decision follows direct player feedback and is intended to make the tour more accessible. The Main Event will now cost €1,100 rather than €1,650, while the High Roller has been cut from the originally planned €2,700 to €2,200.
The PokerStars Open Cup will remain unchanged at €825. The revised prices take effect from the Prague stop and are expected to become the standard for both PokerStars Open festivals that run alongside European Poker Tour stops and standalone Open events.
PokerStars says the lower buy-ins should remain in place throughout 2027. That gives players more than a one-event adjustment to plan around and returns the Main Event and High Roller closer to price points associated with earlier versions of this type of festival.
The Main Event Returns to €1,100
The largest change concerns the Main Event, scheduled for December 2-7 in Prague. Its buy-in drops by €550, from €1,650 to €1,100. That is a substantial reduction for players who enter directly, and it also lowers the total cost for anyone planning multiple bullets or a longer festival schedule.
PokerStars described the move as a response to feedback rather than a temporary promotion. The operator’s stated aim is to make the tour accessible to a wider group of players while keeping the structure of the PokerStars Open intact.
The €1,100 price point is familiar to regular followers of live poker. The source notes that these were the original buy-ins for this type of event before prices were later increased. The new decision therefore looks less like the creation of a new tournament tier and more like a return to an earlier level.
High Roller Drops to €2,200
The PokerStars Open High Roller, scheduled for December 6-8, is also being reduced. Its new buy-in will be €2,200 rather than €2,700. The €500 cut is slightly smaller in absolute terms than the Main Event reduction, but it moves the tournament back toward the middle of the price band used by many players who compete regularly on the Open circuit.
The High Roller remains clearly more expensive than the Main Event, so the festival still offers a progression between major tournament tiers. The Open Cup, at €825, sits below both. With that event left unchanged, the Prague schedule now presents three central price points of €825, €1,100 and €2,200.
For players deciding how many events to enter, that spread may make budgeting simpler. It also means the largest tournament no longer begins at a level that is 50% higher than €1,100, which may matter to players who felt the previous pricing pushed the event outside their normal schedule.
The Open Cup Stays at €825
Not every tournament is being repriced. The PokerStars Open Cup, running December 5-6, will keep its €825 buy-in. That distinction is useful because it shows the operator is not applying a blanket percentage reduction across the festival.
Instead, PokerStars appears to be standardizing the events that had moved above their earlier buy-in levels. The Cup remains where it was, while the Main Event and High Roller are being brought down.
The result is a clearer ladder for players who want different levels of investment. The Cup provides the lowest of the three headline entries, the Main Event becomes the central tournament at €1,100, and the High Roller offers the larger buy-in without moving into a substantially higher price category.
The Change Applies Beyond Prague
The revised pricing is not limited to EPT Prague. PokerStars says the lower buy-ins will be standardized across PokerStars Open stops from Prague onward, including both festivals attached to European Poker Tour series and standalone Open events.
The source specifically points to Aix-en-Provence, scheduled for November 2-8, as an example of a standalone PokerStars Open. Prague, by contrast, runs in conjunction with the EPT. Applying the same pricing philosophy to both formats means players should not have to treat one type of Open as materially more expensive simply because it is connected to a larger EPT stop.
PokerStars expects the lower levels to remain throughout 2027. If that plan holds, the decision will influence multiple stops rather than a single December festival.
PokerStars Says Player Feedback Drove the Decision
The operator’s explanation is simple: players asked for a more accessible tour. PokerStars says the buy-in reductions are in direct response to that feedback and reflect an ambition to make the series available to as many players as possible.
That does not necessarily mean every player preferred the lower prices, but the public reasoning suggests that cost had become a meaningful issue in the feedback PokerStars was receiving. Live poker schedules involve travel, accommodation and multiple tournament entries, so the headline buy-in is only one part of the total expense. Reducing the two largest Open buy-ins lowers that burden at the tournament level.
The decision also gives PokerStars a way to differentiate the Open product from more expensive parts of the EPT schedule. A lower Main Event can function as a bridge for players who want a major live festival experience without entering the higher buy-in events elsewhere on the calendar.
No Change to PokerStars Live League Categories
Players competing in the PokerStars Live League will not see their rankings altered by the price cuts. The year-long leaderboard divides eligible results into Low, Medium and High buy-in categories, and both revised tournaments remain inside the same €1,000 to €5,000 Medium tier they occupied before.
That means past results do not need to be reclassified and future Prague results will continue to count in the same category. The price change therefore affects entry cost without changing the competitive framework used by the Live League.
The current league leaders named in the source are Italy’s Danilo Donnini in the Low category, England’s Andrew Hulme in Medium and Austria’s Klemens Roiter in High. Roiter leads the High leaderboard after finishing as runner-up in 2025.
Prague Remains Part of the EPT Year-End Schedule
PokerStars Open Prague will run alongside the EPT Prague festival, traditionally one of the final major European live series of the calendar year. The Open dates are December 2-8 across the three highlighted events, while the full EPT Prague schedule runs from December 2-13.
That overlap gives players a chance to move between Open and EPT tournaments depending on bankroll and results. Lowering the Main Event and High Roller buy-ins may make it easier for some players to remain in Prague for a broader portion of the festival rather than committing most of their budget to a single event.
The source does not provide field-size forecasts, so it is too early to say how much the lower prices will affect participation. Still, reduced entry costs generally change the number of players for whom an event is financially realistic, which is consistent with PokerStars’ stated accessibility goal.
A Reset Rather Than a New Format
The most notable part of the announcement is that PokerStars is adjusting price without changing the basic identity of the Open. The Main Event, High Roller and Cup remain in place, the Live League categories remain intact, and the Prague festival still runs alongside the EPT.
What changes is the amount players need to put up at the cage. The Main Event returns to €1,100, the High Roller settles at €2,200, and the Cup stays at €825. PokerStars intends to carry those lower headline buy-ins into 2027.
For players, the practical effect is easy to understand. Two of the most important tournaments now require less capital to enter, while rankings and event identity stay the same. For PokerStars, the change is a test of whether a more accessible price point better matches what its live-poker audience wants from the Open series.
What the Result Means From Here
The fact that the Cup remains unchanged is also revealing. PokerStars is not simply discounting every event; it is targeting the two buy-ins that had moved higher. That makes the decision look more like a calibration of the Open’s core price ladder than a temporary promotional cut. Players therefore get lower entry costs without seeing the festival’s overall structure rewritten.
The pricing reset also makes the structure of the Open easier to read. The €825 Cup remains the entry point, the €1,100 Main Event becomes the central championship, and the €2,200 High Roller sits one step above it. Players can move between those events without the gap between the Main Event and High Roller becoming excessively wide, while the Live League continues to treat both larger events as Medium-tier results.
Because PokerStars plans to carry the lower prices into 2027, the decision can be judged over several festivals rather than one Prague field. The source does not provide attendance targets, and it would be premature to assume that cheaper buy-ins will automatically produce record numbers. What is confirmed is that the operator heard concerns about accessibility and responded by returning two flagship Open events to lower price points.
Prague will be the first major test of that approach in an EPT-connected setting. The festival already benefits from a dense year-end schedule, and the lower costs give players one less reason to skip the Main Event or High Roller. Whether that translates into larger fields will only become clear once registration closes, but the direction of the tour’s pricing strategy is now much clearer.