Poker Stars Guinness World Record Attempt…Succeeds
This past Sunday, the last Sunday in 2009, Poker Stars tried to beat its previously set World Record for the most number of players in a single online poker tournament. To entice players to participate, PokerStars set the buy-in at $1, but for a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000.
This time the number hit 149,196 players, more than enough to break the record set last July (actually more than twice the number set on July 19, ‘09). This will make the third time that PokerStars has broken the old and set the new Guinness World Record for the most players in an online poker tournament.
In July, Full Tilt Poker simultaneously held a competing attempts to break PokerStars’ last World Record, set in December ‘08, which was by comparison a meager 35,000, and even succeeding in breaking the record, but fell short of World Record acclaim when the PokerStars numbers came in at an even bigger 65,000. This time around, Full Tilt didn’t bother trying to compete in this particular game.
With the blinds increasing every 5 minutes, the tournament took a breakneck pace, finishing up in only 6 hours with first place prize going to Oskar69, who swept up the $50,000 first prize.
Because the buy-in was kept so purposely low in order to succeed in PokerStars’ World Record attempt, not enough money was collected from players to cover the $300,000 guarantee, which means Poker Stars had to cover the difference, making more than half the payouts from this event overlays. We hope PokerStars finds it was worth it.
2010 Poker Stars EPT Germany Event To Be Held For First Time In Berlin
For the very first time, the Poker Stars European Poker Tour’s seasonal stop in Germany, the biggest poker event held in Germany, will be taking place in Berlin. EPT Berlin will take place from March 2 to March 7, 2010. In the last 3 previous years’ EPT Germany events, the host city was Dortmund.
On Berlin’s Marlene-Dietrich-Platz at Potsdamer Platz, Poker Stars will be built a 2-story glass palace made specially for the event. The 2,000 square meter facility will be able to host 1,000 players, all competing for the guaranteed 1 million euros first place prize. This is the first time the EPT Germany event’s 1st prize is so high.
The PokerStars EPT makes 13 stops each season, making it Europe’s biggest live poker tournament series.
The Berlin EPT Main Event is being cosponsored by SPIELBANK BERLIN & POKERFLOOR. Already confirmed to be competing in the event will be Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker, the EPT Season 5 Germany event winner Sandra Naujoks (herself from Berlin), and all of Team PokerStars Germany.
Poker Stars members can win free entries into this EPT Berlin event via satellites at PokerStars, though there are a few other EPT events ahead of this one.
Well before the EPT Berlin event, however, is coming the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, January 4 – 14, but satellites for this event have officially ended as of December 27. Then comes the EPT Deauville event January 20 – 25 and the EPT Copenhagen event February 16 – 21.
PartyPoker Cash Machine Returning In January
Have you ever taken money out of the Party Poker Cash Machine? If you have, then you’ll be ecstatic to know that the world’s favorite poker site is bringing back one of its memberships’ favorite promotions. And if you haven’t ever withdrawn money from the Party Poker Cash Machine, then get ready to become very excited.
The thing that makes the PartyPoker Cash Machine so Kick Ass (as it were), is that it is unlimited. That means you can win as much money as you have the gumption to win. Earn at least 10 PartyPoints for at least 10 days in the period between January 4, 2010 and January 31, 2010 and you win a bonus.
The way Party Poker explains on the site how a cash bonus from is calculated on the site (and on most of the blog postings and web news articles reporting on the story are blindly repeated) is a little confusing. So let us make it clear for you.
PartyPoker bases your cash bonus on how many PartyPoints you earned on your 10th highest-earning day. Cash Machine bonuses are calculated at a rate of $1 for each PartyPoint.
If you earn 1,000 points per day for at least 20 days of the promotion then you win a Cash Machine Booster Bonus ranging from $500 to $5,000.
Players who earn points on at least 10 days of the Cash Machine promotional period but haven’t earned at least 10 points on each of those days will receive a consolation prize in the form of a free entry into a $25,000 Cash Machine Freeroll, to take place on Feb. 3 at 3 pm EST.
Introducing Team PokerStars Online
Two-thousand players applied to be chosen for the first ever Team PokerStars Online team of some of the finest players in online poker, and as of last Wednesday (the Eve of Christmas Eve) 23 players were chosen. Of them, 20 are men and 3 are women.
One of the women on the new Team PokerStars Online is Nichole Peppe who came in seventy-fifth place at the 2009 World Series of Poker main event, and whose exploits were captured for posterity on ESPN’s nationwide coverage of the event.
Other notable names on the list include:
- Anders “Donald” Berg – winner of a 2005 Irish Winter Festival of Poker event, a PokerStars $100 rebuy event, and most recently came in 37th in the 2008 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Grand Final
- Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc – winner of a PokerStars $200 rebuy tournaments, and 2nd place finisher in the PokerStars $10,000 Guaranteed tournament
- Steve “stevesbets” Jacobs – winner of the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker $25,000 Heads-Up NL Holdem tournament
Five-thousand players were invited to apply for this online arm of Team PokerStars Pro, determined eligible by having reached SuperNova status in the PokerStars VIP program. PokerStars will select new players from its pool of SuperNova Elite players to add to its online poker team in 2010. In the meantime, all eyes will be on these 23 players to see how well they do at representing the world’s largest poker site over the coming year.
Expect PokerStars to add a feature to its lobby that makes it simpler to track the progress of Team PokerStars Online like you can of Team PokerStars Pro.
Gold Rush For New Gold Stacks At Players Only Poker
“There’s gold in them thar’ cards!” That’s what the prospectors over at Players Only are saying about all the Gold themed happenings over at the site. Check it out:
There are Gold Cards, a unique set of 52 coming out each year, that are awarded completely at random, and with yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily prizes and cash bonuses being given out to players for simply having them. Collect Gold Cards at real money ring game tables and be eligible for Daily Gold Card Lotteries and weekly, monthly, and annual Gold Card leader board prizes.
There are also Gold Chips accumulated by laying at PlayersOnly tournaments and cash tables alike. First you earn FPPs for playing in raked hands. Then PlayersOnly exchanges them for Gold Chips, the more you earn, the easier it is to earn more. Turn Gold Chips into free entries in Gold Chip Giveaway Tournaments held daily, weekly, and monthly, all with great cash prizes to be won. Or you could use them for buy-ins to Gold Chip Satellites into the big land-based tournaments such as the Aussie Millions, or Gold Rush Tournaments in the Players Only Million Dollar Freeroll Series.
And now, as if all that weren’t enough, PlayersOnly has instituted the Gold Stacks program too. At the same time as you are earning Gold Chips toward all those opportunities just described, PlayersOnly will also be applying that Gold Chip count toward your accumulation of Gold Stacks. Earn a Gold Stack and get an instant prize (without giving up your Gold Chips). The more Gold Stacks you earn, the bigger the instant prize with each successive benchmark met. You too can get in on the action at PlayersOnly, but only if you sign up now!
