Today the MicroMillions start: which tournaments to play and how to select them

Today, Sunday, January 25th, as we have extensively anticipated in recent weeks, the new edition of MicroMillions, the first of 2026, begins.

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Born as an Online Festival to satisfy players with lower average buy-ins than the norm, MicroMillions has consistently maintained its main characteristic over time, and this will be exactly the same for the edition that runs from January 25th to February 8th.

But what might a beginner player need to understand which tournaments would be best for them to participate in?

The MicroMillions from Sunday, January 25th

Regardless of the dates, January 25th – February 8th – and the names of the individual tournaments, the real question many Assopoker readers ask is different: how do you prepare for and approach a long and demanding festival like MicroMillions, without getting halfway through feeling “drained,” confused, or with the idea that you’ve played more than was sensible?

Precisely for this reason, what you are reading is not intended for those who already have experience and know how to navigate such an event, but especially for those who have recently started playing online poker and want to experience MicroMillions the right way, because yes: here we are talking about a sort of Italian Championship of low buy-in poker, which for many represents the “most important” event of the year.

Which tournaments to choose: the Buy-In

The first doubt that should naturally arise is simple: which tournaments should I actually play?
And for a beginner player, the answer cannot be “all the ones I like”, because MicroMillions is a marathon, not a sprint.

Those who are starting out, almost always, do not yet have the automatisms and rhythm to handle many tables at once: this is why it becomes crucial to select daily events with criteria, focusing on those that best suit your habits and your way of playing at the table.

And the first filter, inevitably, is the buy-in. Not only because it defines the tournament tier, but because it directly impacts a rule that never goes out of style: playing while respecting your bankroll.

The first parameter will obviously be the Buy-In, which will act as a dividing line from all other choice options, given the extreme attention that anyone, not just a novice, must pay to their bankroll.

Staying “in bankroll” means something very concrete: investing amounts that don’t put you under pressure, and that don’t make you think during a hand “oh god, if I get knocked out, it’s a problem”.
When you play with money you can afford to risk, you make clearer decisions, you make mistakes with less fear, and above all, you don’t get conditioned by the obsession of “having to reach the money at all costs”.

The Structure

The second decisive element is the structure, because not all tournaments are experienced in the same way. And here there is a fairly common misconception: people tend to believe that slow, deep, and super playable structures are preferred by everyone. In reality, this is not the case.

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Many players – especially younger ones or those with a very dynamic approach – also appreciate faster tournaments, those that lead you to an advanced stage in just a few hours: turbo and hyper turbo.
These are events that reward those who like to push, who are not afraid to apply pressure from the early levels, and who aim to build an interesting stack quickly to “navigate” better in the second half.

Especially players of the new generation do not disdain events that finish in a short time, a maximum of a few hours, the so-called turbo and hyper turbo, but this depends on your player characteristics.

Be careful, however: this choice has a technical cost. In fast tournaments, the moment comes quickly when you find yourself playing a huge part of the tournament with all your chips in the middle, because the dynamics shorten rapidly.

And when, especially later on, the average stack drops below 20/25 big blinds, it becomes crucial to know how to recognize the right moments to move, without waiting for the blinds to slowly consume you.

If, on the other hand, you are a more patient player, one who prefers to work on solid hands, bet on value, and not “jump in” indiscriminately with connectors and marginal plays, then you will feel more comfortable in slow structures. But even there, there is an important warning: slow does not mean “I can wait forever”. Sooner or later, even the deepest tournaments demand courage and timing: the secret is to reach that point with a stack that allows you to choose, not to be forced.

Hold’em and Variants

With a return to old favorites from a few years ago, in recent editions of the Series, variant tournaments have reappeared continuously, which not everyone likes, but which are frequented by a particular segment of players who are always present.

If, on the other hand, you focus on Hold’em, then you need to train your eye to recognize the specific characteristics of the events: today there are no longer just “freezeouts” and “re-entries”, because in the schedule there are formats that completely change the approach.

Mystery Bounties, for example, are now a staple of modern poker, and you’ll find them in abundance in this MicroMillions, a number that shows how central this format has become.

Then there are, of course, the classic Progressive Knockouts, in all their variations, and all the tournaments that remain more “linear”, without the mental obligation to chase bounties and mystery envelopes, and which can therefore be played more calmly and cleanly.

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The complete schedule

Here for Assopoker readers is the complete schedule of MicroMillions 2026