DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, March 13, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- PokerStars.com (www.pokerstars.com), the world's largest online poker room, celebrated the first anniversary of its Sunday Million(tm) Tournament with a record-shattering $2 million online poker tournament. The $200 buy-in event attracted 10,508 players, the largest pool of players ever to play in a cash poker tournament of any kind.
The Sunday tournament at PokerStars has been a tradition for poker players since 2003, when the site inaugurated the event with a $100,000 guarantee. The pool has grown dramatically over the years, and in February 2006 PokerStars became the first card room of any kind to offer a $1 million guaranteed no-limit Texas hold'em tournament every week. Players either bought in for $200 (plus $15 entry fee) or won their entries in one of many weekly Sunday Million satellites offered by PokerStars.com for just a few dollars.
The top five players in this historic event each finished the tournament with winnings of more $100,000. Of the lucky five, three were from Europe, with winning player "Zeddor" coming from Denmark, who walked away with $131,971.
Over the past year, PokerStars has paid out more than $64 million in Sunday Million winnings. The Sunday Million has remained the unchallenged biggest weekly tournament, roughly three times larger than any other comparable online tournament and more than 20 times the size of comparable live play tournaments.
Sunday's event was the largest online prize pool after the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker(tm) (WCOOP), the largest poker tournament series ever held online. The fifth annual WCOOP boasted 18 events and an overall prize pool of more than $18,500,000, with a main event prize pool of over $6 million.
"The Sunday Million has become an online institution for millions of poker player around the world," said Lee Jones, PokerStars Poker Room Manager. "This is an incredible milestone for poker, for the Internet and for one very skilled player from Denmark. He is a real champion."
For more information about the Sunday Million go to: www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/sunday-million
About PokerStars:
PokerStars (www.pokerstars.com) is the world's largest and most innovative online poker site. PokerStars was the first site to introduce features that became industry standard such as sophisticated multi-table tournaments, integrated game statistics, players' notes, personalized images, time bank for tournaments and big bet ring games, satellite tournaments, multi-table sit and go tournaments, and much more.
To date, PokerStars has dealt out over eight billion hands and run more than 45 million poker tournaments, awarding well over $7 billion in prize money. PokerStars is the world's largest poker room, with over eight million registered player accounts. PokerStars' support team is truly unique, as help and assistance are available around the clock from people who know and understand the game of poker and the importance of impeccable customer service.
The PokerStars site is also one of the most secure. PokerStars uses industry-leading security software to ensure the integrity of the system, including encryption, card shuffle randomness and preventative measures against cheating and collusion. Money covering player's balances is held in segregated accounts managed by one of the leading European banks, ensuring that PokerStars can fulfill its obligations to players at all times.
In February 2006, PokerStars.com became the first poker website ever to reach the 100,000 simultaneous player mark. That watershed achievement marked the largest poker event in history, an event important enough to make the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records. The PokerStars Sunday Million weekly event is the largest weekly tournament on the planet with a $1 million guaranteed tournament prize pool.
PokerStars is an official member of the World Poker Tour, and the title sponsor of the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Each fall, PokerStars hosts the world's largest online tournament, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which last year featured a record prize pool of over $18 million. PokerStars also sponsors major events around the globe, such as the World Cup of Poker and other exciting tournaments. For more information, go to www.pokerstars.com
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