PokerStars‘ New Jersey online gambling site plans a soft-launch next Wednesday ahead of its scheduled official launch on March 21.

On Thursday, Stars’ parent company Amaya Gaming announced that Pokerstarsnj.com would allow a maximum of 500 players to download and test-drive the New Jersey site’s software starting at 4pm local time on March 16.

Real-money play will be limited to eight-hour blocks between 4pm and midnight for the first two days. This window will widen from 8am to midnight on Friday, March 18, with 24-hour access granted on Saturday and Sunday.

Assuming no five-year-old nephews of Sheldon Adelson manage to elude the site’s age-verification obstacles, the rest of the state’s poker players – if there are actually more than 500 – will be invited to start playing on Monday the 21st.