PokerStars Poker Blog

• The biggest poker game ever
  

  I am probably one of the biggest fans of Al Alvarez on the planet. His book, "The Biggest Game in Town" is living history an written expertly. That said, it may be time for him to write a sequel, or at least a postscript.

  See, as much as we've always believed that size doesn't matter, we've just been handed video proof of the biggest poker game ever played. It's a heads-up match between two members of the England Rugby Team.

  There aren't many punches pulled during the match. My favorite moment is when one looks across the pitch/baize/whatver and says, "You're a child."

  Here, just have a look for yourself.

  
  

  
  With degenerates like these among us, it's hard to tell what they will come up with next (I'm formally putting in a suggestion for putting numbers and suits on their fellow players jerseys--make your best five card hand out of the first five guys you can incapacitate).

  In any case, you'd best keep up with it all over at the PokerStars UK You Tube channel.

  
  

  
  
  
• EPT to host Ladies Luxury Poker Club
  

  This week, the world is celebrating its women. While International Women's Day is relegated to one Monday in March, is really more of a year-long celebration around these parts. Nonetheless, it's a fine time to announce the Ladies Luxury Poker Club's next ladies-only poker vacation.

  The PokerStars Luxury Ladies Poker Club is a signature series of poker events designed for and open solely to female poker players. It's already staged events at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and 2009 EPT London poker festivals.

  April 27 - May 2, the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo will host poker-playing women from around the globe in some of the planet's most luxurious surroundings. The ladies will be staying at the chic Columbus Monaco hotel, home of some of the world's best treatments at the prestigious Les Thermes Marins Spa.

  Outside they club members will get a chance to see the city's historic marina, casino, and Monaco Gran Prix. Inside, they'll have a world-class poker experience. They'll receive the best in poker training at Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso's Ladies Bootcamp.

  Then it's on to the European Poker Tour grand Final where the participants will get automatic entry into the €1,100 Ladies Tournament.

  

  Vanessa Rousso

  With travel expenses and a goodie bag added to the mix, the total value of this unique vacation and poker experience amounts to €3,500.

  Sure, it's a hefty price. But, as always, PokerStars is giving the ladies a chance to win the full prize for nothing.

  Online qualifiers are running daily through April 18. You can find the tournaments in the PokerStars lobby by clicking the 'Events' and 'EPT' tabs.

  Good luck, ladies. We'll see you in Monte Carlo.

  
  
  
• March 9 Super Tuesday Victory has 1$ickDisea$E Feeling Better
  

  Typically, Tuesday doesn't get a lot of hype. It's not the beginning or the end of a week, nor the very middle of the week. Even when holidays fall on Tuesdays, they're celebrated on Mondays. But leave it to the innovative minds at PokerStars to look at Tuesday as one of the biggest online poker days of the week. And by hosting a high-stakes tournament every week - same time, same place - Tuesday has taken on a whole new meaning.

  The Super Tuesday, as it's called, brings players together with the offering of a $1,000 + $50 buy-in for the guarantee of a $250,000 prize pool. Many of the biggest names in online poker register to play each week, so it's never a surprise to see big names (and Team PokerStars Pros) like Gavin Griffin and Chris Moneymaker at the tables, in addition to well-respected players like SCTrojans and AJKHoosier1. But there are also names unrecognizable at first glance, many of whom won their seats via the weekly satellites that offer opportunities to enter the tournament at a fraction of the cost. That makes it even more exciting.

  This week, 382 players came to the tables, which pushed the prize pool well beyond the guarantee to where it landed at $382,000. That sum allowed payouts for the top 45 players in the tournament, and in that group this week was the aforementioned Moneymaker. Money800, as he's known online, soared toward the top of the leaderboard midway through the event, and though he lost momentum along the way to the final few tables, his 29th place finish in such a tough field was nothing to sneeze at.

  As play continued, it was down to two tables just before the six hour mark, and it took more than another hour to get to hand-for-hand play and reduce the field to nine players. That occurred when GHSE00011364 moved all-in preflop with [Ad][Qc]. HHHUGO called from the small blind with pocket queens, and the board brought [4h][Kh][7s][8s][Kd]. That left GHSE00011364 out of the tournament in tenth place with $5,730.00 in prize money.

  Few strangers among them

  The final table was then set and ready to go in the midst of Level 25, with blinds at 1.4K and 2.8K with a 350-chip ante. The starting chip counts were as follows:

  Seat 1: JACKPOT786 (107,575 in chips)
  Seat 2: lechuckpoker (100,233 in chips)
  Seat 3: HHHUGO (291,746 in chips)
  Seat 4: cotrim333 (260,583 in chips)
  Seat 5: iCeVeNoM (361,877 in chips)
  Seat 6: 1$ickDisea$E (296,889 in chips)
  Seat 7: jogjeg (102,042 in chips)
  Seat 8: kenneeoin (130,283 in chips)
  Seat 9: TIITTIIT (258,772 in chips)

  

  Many players at the final table were no strangers to PokerStars final tables. It was iCeVeNoM who took down a 2009 WCOOP event, cotrim333 who won a Sunday Warm-Up in late 2009, and others who were still seeking their first big...
  
  

• PokerStars Sunday tournament results (3-7-10)
  

  It was one of those weekends in which deal-making was in the air. Of the 18 final table players in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Million, ten of them walked away having chopped part of the pot.

  The Sunday Million saw a four-way chop that still resulted in a $260,000 won for MAE9690. Jen Newell has all the details in our 3-7-10 Sunday Million final table report.

  

  As if the four-way chop wasn't enough, this weekend's Sunday Warm-Up enjoyed a six-way deal. Take a peek at John Hartness' 3-7-10 Sunday Warm-Up final table report for a full rundown of the chop and Ramux's $139,163 win.

  For a complete look at the final tables of all the big events this past weekend, be sure to check out the 3-7-10 PokerStars Sunday tournament results.

  Congratulations to all of last week's winners, and good to luck to everybody playing this week.

  
  
  
• March 7 Sunday Million Gives MAE9690 a $260,000 Victory
  

  The first weekend in March brought a sizable crowd to the PokerStars tables for the big Sunday tournaments. Maybe it was the absence of big land-based tournaments to consume players. Possibly not many people cared about the Academy Awards. Or the stars could have been aligned in a particularly complicated way. Or players were simply anxious to play some online poker.

  Whatever the reason, the Sunday Million was packed with players. The final registration number was 10,123, which translated into an impressive $2,024,600 prize pool, well beyond the $1.5 million guarantee. The top payout of $283,449.40 was reserved for the first place finisher, but 1,440 players would receive some sort of payout for their $200 + $15 investment.

  As the tournament ran into the nighttime hours in America, there was one Team PokerStars Pro who is no stranger to deep tournament runs these days. Argentinian Veronica "Princesa" Dabul just scored 18th place in the March 2nd Super Tuesday event and followed that up with a solid 48th place finish in tonight's Sunday Million. Should Ms. Dabul continue this trend, she may be one that takes her South American success to an entirely new level.

  The playdown toward the final table was quicker than anticipated for the substantial starting field, but action got stuck at hand-for-hand play that went into effect for the last two tables with ten players remaining. Players were hesitant to hit that bubble, knowing what it meant - financially and otherwise - to make a Sunday Million final table. But eventually, it had to happen to someone. The all-in move came from rigodoncio with less than 100,000 in chips, and calls came from maestrocaggi and camillo30. After the [7h][8s][8c] flop, a bet from camillo prompted a fold from maestrocaggi. The cards were then shown: camillo30 had [Ad][Ks] and rigodoncio was on the line with [As][6c]. The [Qh] turn and [Ts] river ended the action for rigodoncio, who finished in tenth place with $10,123.00.

  Camillo30 in front but not out of reach

  In the start of Level 36, with blinds at 200,000/400,000 and a 40,000 ante, players quickly launched into final table action as follows:

  Seat 1: over.be (9,465,306 in chips)
  Seat 2: adam eterno (1,932,992 in chips)
  Seat 3: camillo30 (22,425,333 in chips)
  Seat 4: maestrocaggi (18,292,096 in chips)
  Seat 5: asturiano (17,730,819 in chips)
  Seat 6: reelhugefish (5,508,071 in chips)
  Seat 7: Lagerborg (7,959,486 in chips)
  Seat 8: MAE9690 (15,234,599 in chips)
  Seat 9: AA TURON AA (2,681,298 in chips)

  

  It took only two hands for camillo30 to wield that chip lead at the expense of the shortest stack at the table. The all-in move came from adam eterno preflop from the small blind with [Qc][Js], and camillo30 made the call from the big blind with [8h][7s]. The board came out smoothly for camillo30 with [6c][6s][9d][Th][7d] for the...