I hesitate to post this on April Fool's Day in fear people might think I'm joking. So, let's make one thing clear as crystal. This is true. If you don't think it is, track this guy down in Vegas and ask him.

Here's the deal: Three weeks ago, PokerStars.com announced the first $1 million guaranteed weekly tournament in history. Yesterday, the world's largest tournament poker site made history once again, registering its five millionth player.

PokerStars had been quietly watching the registrations. After all, growth has been, in a word, insane in recent months. Reaching the five-million player landmark demonstrates a phenomenal rate of growth for PokerStars, and the online poker industry overall, in recent years. PokerStars was launched in September 2001. Less than a year ago, PokerStars had 2.5 million registered players. Since then, that number has doubled. PokerStars has become a poker industry leader largely due to its wide diversity of games and limits, world-class customer support, sponsorship of major tournaments and events worldwide, and its close affiliation with the last three World Series of Poker champions.

So, the registration list hit five million when a Las Vegas chef signed up a couple of days ago. As the 35-year-old man from Las Vegas logged in to PokerStars, little did he know what was about to happen to him. As PokerStars five millionth registered player, George Draper has received a World Series of Poker main event prize package, with an opportunity to win a possible $10 million first prize. Not only that, Draper has received an entry into the main event of the fourth annual PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, the world's largest online poker tournament, with an estimated prize pool of $5 million.

To put these stunning numbers in perspective, if the PokerStars community were a country, it would be the 112th largest country in the world, ranking higher than half of the world's countries. The PokerStars population is larger than the populations of Los Angeles and Dallas combined.

"It is no surprise that PokerStars is leading the boom in online poker," said Chris Welch, PokerStars.com Group Marketing Director. "Many people who might be intimidated at the thought of playing inside a casino find that playing at PokerStars is a comfortable and convenient alternative. Millions of players from all walks of life who are living in many different countries have signed up at PokerStars because we make playing poker fun, exciting, and easy."

At its peak, PokerStars.com has over 100,000 players at a time. That translates
into tens of thousands of games and tournaments from which players can choose. By comparison, PokerStars has nearly 50 times more players and games than the world's largest land-based poker room which has only 243 tables.

Oh, and henceforth, you'll find Draper online under his new screen name:

Mr5Million.