Even the best sometimes make mistakes, and PokerStars HQ certainly knows that. This past week, the classic Hot $82 was played again as scheduled on Wednesday night, with the guarantee hovering around $5,000 due to the small field of players. This time, however, a competent staff member seems to have "missclicked" and suddenly the guarantee for this tournament has risen to $56,000!

Hahahaha stars intern is getting fired.

*Unfortunately games aren't this alive*

Somebody missclicked the prizepool and made it $56K Guaranteed instead of the usual $5K. pic.twitter.com/WvWBDG79wT

- Ghilley (@Ghilleyyy) February 21, 2024

However, as soon as this information was brought to light, players didn't leave it to chance and everyone wanted a piece of the looming overlay. In the end, however, a record 624 players entered this tournament, meaning that there was "only" $4,832 left to fill the guarantee. All things considered, this mistake could have been much more costly, and an overlay of this value can be considered a success.

Based on this experience, the powers that be at PokerStars were emboldened and increased the guarantee for this tournament to $8,000 the very next day. So we can safely expect that the guarantee of this and other similar tournaments can be gradually increased. In retrospect, then, was this a mistake with a happy ending, a cunning piece of market research, or a clever marketing ploy? What do you think?

Source - Twitter (X), PokerStrategy