PokerStars Makes Online Poker Tournament History – Again

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Monday, June 17th, 2013 | Written by Stephen Smith

PokerStars – the largest real-money online poker site by a wide margin – has made online poker history.

The record in question: The largest online poker tournament involving a cash buy in.

The record set by PokerStars: an astounding 225,000 players, who each ponied up a $1 entry fee to be a part of online poker’s record books.

Just the latest world record for PokerStars

If the above paragraph sounds familiar, it should. This is not the first time PokerStars has set a poker-related world record. In fact, this isn’t even the first time that PokerStars has set this particular record for largest real-money online poker tournament.

It’s also not the second time. Or even the third. In fact, PokerStars has set (and then broken) this record an amazing five times.

The first record-setting tournament was a decidedly smaller affair than the most recent feat. That took place back in December of 2008, when PokerStars garnered a field of 35,000 players for an $11 hold’em tournament.

The record was met and reset again in July of 2009 and once again in December of 2009. And in December 2011 as part of the site’s 10-year anniversary celebration. That tournament saw 200,000 players turn out to compete for a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool.

This year’s attempt, capped at 225,000 players, had a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000 – meaning PokerStars pitched in $75,000 to cover the overlay.

Record attempt part of the 100 Billionth Hand Celebration

The record-setting tournament was part of the promotions surrounding PokerStars’ 100 billionth hand dealt. It’s difficult to really conceptualize that number, but if it helps, consider that the amount of hands that PokerStars has dealt in its decade or so of existence likely exceeds all of the total hands of poker in history prior to PokerStars.

The centerpiece of the 100 Billionth hand celebration was, as you might have surmised, the dealing of the hand itself.

PokerStars awarded a significant prize – at least $10k – to all of the players who took place in the historic hand, which was dealt at a table of .02/.05 No Limit Hold’em. But the winner of the hand, a Greek player with the screen name Microulis69, took home the lion’s share of the bonus, booking over $100,000 for his part in the promotion.

Interestingly, PokerStars dealt the hand on the same day that they were filing an appeal in their ongoing legal battle with the Atlantic Club Casino and the day after their CEO reached a multi-million dollar settlement with the United States government relating to the legality of online poker in the United States.

How long until 1 trillion hands for PokerStars?

It might sound like a fantastic question, but consider this: PokerStars dealt their 100 billionth hand on June 13th, 2013. On August 20th, 2012, PokerStars dealt their 85 billionth hand.

That means that in the space of 10 months, PokerStars dealt over 15 billion hands. While it would take quite a bit of time at that pace to hit 1 trillion, the growth PokerStars is experiencing suggests that they will only continue the amount of hands they deal each year, meaning that the goal of a trillion hands might be not quite as far off as it appears.