Huge numbers online

PokerStars.com has reached a very impressive milestone, announcing that for the first time the site had 100,000 players playing simultaneously last week, and to mark this impressive achievement they are guaranteeing $1 million in prize money for each of their regular weekly tournaments.

Beginning February 27th, all Sunday afternoon no-limit hold’em tournaments – with buys-ins of either $215 or $530 – will pay out at least $1,000,000 in prize money to the top finishers. On the final Sunday of every month, the buy-in is $530. For all other weeks, it’s $215. PokerStars also offers a quarterly tournament with a $1050 buy-in. The starting time for all million dollar tournaments is 4:30 pm EST.

If these buy-ins sound a bit rich for your bankroll, do not despair, the good people at PokerStars are catering for all players with many different kinds of satellite tournaments to the big weekly events, with buy-ins starting at $3. Other satellite qualifiers cost nothing other than frequent player points acquired from playing regularly at the site.

These massive weekly prizes directly reflect the growth in internet poker as the sheer numbers of players mean the operators can pump up the rewards. Less than three years ago, PokerStars broke the 10,000-player mark for the first time. Now, ten times as many players and games are playing their poker online at the site.

"I started playing online at PokerStars back in 2001," said Joe Hachem, the reigning World Series of Poker champion. "Back then, I recognized many of the opponents I regularly played against. Now, each time I log on at PokerStars.com, it’s like walking into the world’s largest sports stadium. There might be 100,000 people there. Players are logged in from countries all around the world. It’s amazing. I don’t think anyone could have possibly foreseen how popular poker would become and how fast PokerStars would grow in such a short period of time."

"A year or two ago, a $1 million guarantee on a weekly poker event would have been unthinkable," said Lee Jones, PokerStars Cardroom Manager. "Now, thanks to PokerStars and its players, it’s become a reality. Players have responded to the quality of our tournaments, and we have recognized that by increasing our guarantee, from $750,000 to $1 million. We’re delighted to do it, and look forward to some monster final table prizes in the coming weeks."

To date, PokerStars has dealt nearly five billion hands and run more than 20 million poker tournaments, awarding well over $4 billion in prize money.