PokerStars Sets Numerous World Records, by Dan Cypra - Poker News Daily - 30th December 2008
Recently, World Record Week was held on PokerStars. Already the Web’s largest poker site, PokerStars sought to expand its player base and notoriety by attempting to shatter two key industry records: The Largest Online Poker Tournament and the Most Players to Simultaneously Play Poker Online. At the end of the weekend, PokerStars managed to set the bar high for itself and its competition.
A Guinness World Record attempt for the Largest Online Poker Tournament brought in exactly 35,000 players. Each coughed up $11 to play in a $500,000 guaranteed tournament. The unofficial record to break was 26,517 players, a number that was set by PokerStars late last year. Its promotional offering during the Christmas holiday week was focused on generating as much traffic and publicity as possible.
By bringing in so many players for the $500,000 Guaranteed event, PokerStars also broke the record for the Most Players to Simultaneously Play Poker Online. The mark to beat was 213,000, set by the online poker room on November 30th of this year. Prior to that, 151,758 players took to the felts exactly one year ago today, December 30th, 2007. On Sunday afternoon around 3:30pm Eastern Time, 250,500 players were logged into the online poker site, a new world record. About 14% of those players were trying to become a part of history in the Guinness World Record Tournament.
PokerStars dished out over $12 million in tournament winnings to its members. A sizable chunk of that occurred during the largest Sunday Million ever held. It featured a $2.5 million guarantee, which was up 67% from its usual prize pool of $1.5 million. As a result of the increased cash up for grabs, a flood of players participated. In fact, 16,260 PokerStars members each posted the $215 buy-in, creating a $3.2 million prize pool. A total of 2,475 players finished in the money, with Swedish player lp_SakiSaki ultimately emerging victorious.
Not to be outdone, the Sunday Warm-Up had its prize pool boosted from $750,000 to $1 million. There were 5,836 players who turned out, the largest showing ever for the weekend tournament on PokerStars. “Hr_Herman” defeated Australian poker pro “Andy McLEOD” heads-up in the Warm-Up. The abbreviated heads-up play lasted just nine hands in total. “Hr_Herman” was seventh in chips entering final table play.
Also held over the weekend was a Team PokerStars Pro Championship Match. The tournament was held in order to select a captain for the PokerStars All-Star Weekend, which the online poker room claims is “a new online team competition debuting next year.” No additional information has been released, but Victor Ramdin defeated the field of 30 Team PokerStars Pro members. PokerStars kicked in $30,000 to the prize pool to be given away to the charities of choosing by the top three finishers. Ramdin defeated Daniel Negreanu heads-up. The latter can be found on the virtual felts of PokerStars under the name “KidPoker.” Others at the final table included Chad Brown, Hevad Khan, Bill Chen, and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker.
Other events occurring on PokerStars included bonus money given out to players involved in every one-millionth hand. The amount awarded depended on the table’s stakes as well as a player’s VIP status. In addition, a series of $1 buy-in 10,000 player tournaments with $10,000 added to the prize pool appeared in the PokerStars lobby. The result of the promotional effort was the breaking of several landmark records and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. (Credit: Poker News Daily)
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