<img src="http://www.liquidpoker.net/user_pictures/11b19.worldrecord.jpg" align="right" style="margin:5px;">It was PokerStars' desire to break the record for largest tournament in the world. In order to break the record, the poker room created a special tournament with $300,000 guaranteed and invited each player to register in for just 1 dollar, no aditional fee.
It was obvious that an attractive prizepool plus such an appealing goal would result in great success. The tournament drew a turnout of 149,196 players and shattered the previous record, which was set by PokerStars itself just a few months ago. Last time, there was a cap on entrants (65,000). This time there was no cap or limit, so we could get to know PokerStars' potential. Apart from a few complaints about lag problems early in the tournament, everything went smoothly.
PokerStars Blog put the number of players into perspective by making some comparisons: [x] It would fill the Rose Bowl or Wembley stadiums and still have another 60,000 people with tickets waiting outside in the tailgating parking lot.
[x] The players would have filled up the hotel rooms in the Las Vegas MGM Grand 30 times
[x] There were approximately 23 times as many players in the Tournament as in the WSOP Main Event won by Joe Cada
The winner of the tournament is oskar69, who cashed a whooping $50,000. That payout becomes even more impressive when we think about how much his investment was, a mere dollar!
Fun fact
In spite of scoring a runner-up finish, Bommel222 doesn't have much of a reason to celebrate his year-end anymore. Just a couple days following his great performance, he played a few hundred hands in high stakes games and managed to lose $29,337, the majority of his paycheck. Quite a sad ending after achieving such an improbable accomplishment.
Here are the final results:
1. oskar69 (garbsen) $50,000.00
2. Bommel222 (Steirer) $30,000
3. TLWPB (Kiel) $20,000
4. willis59 (billingham) $10,000
5. kruglay (Samara) $8,000
6. madmick62 (Basingstoke) $6,500
7. DS1982 (Lier) $5,250
8. denmil53 (mpls) $4,000
9. bigsnapper7 (brisbane) $3,000 |
