May 2006 Archives

PokerStars is proud to announce our 2nd annual PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! WBCOOP is an exclusive and FREE tournament for the Internet bloggers of the world! Last year, we gave away a seat to the PokerStars Carribean Adventure and other cool stuff.

This year, we will be giving away nine World Series of Poker seats and $13,000 worth of other cool prizes. This freeroll is open to all Internet bloggers. You can find the information on the Blogger Championship here.

After a fun couple of weeks, the PokerStars Five Billonth Hand celebration has come to a close, but not before sending a bunch of people to the WSOP for free! Eleven more people are going to play in the World Series of Poker Main event and they didn't have to spend a penny to get their seats.

Players jwblack100, nyjohn53, and 100X35 won their seats in a freeroll for play money players. The following nine players won their seats in a 500 FPP freeroll: Tonne2nice, Mattisbest, hoboman50, bulld0g4life, Ciaranstout, TheNew, CapoDiMente, arl1984, and Killer_O.

Congratulations to all the winners.

When the money gets as big as it did this weekend, the art of the deal can mean a lot. This week, after playing for nine hours, there was still a ton of money on the table. After hard-fought negotiations, the final three players worked out a deal that satisfied them all. When it was over, the player who was lowest in chips at the start of the deal had emerged in first place. Congratulations to all the winners!

PokerStars $1 Million Guaranteed Results
(listed in finishing order and based on three-way deal that left $30,000 for first place)

1. lobojiji (Buenos Aires, Argentina) $115,411.71
2. stealthmunk (Orange, CT) $170,000.00
3. T_Mac (Toronto, ON, Canada) $99,204.29
4. Tomthebomb32 (Fresno, CA) $56,068.00
5. astromech (San Diego, CA) $46,636.00
6. ehedore (Lorton, VA) $36,156.00
7. RandALLin (Greenville, NC) $26,200.00
8. msftkid (Shrevport, LA) $20,750.40
9. topnetplayer (Odense, Denmark) $12,576.00

As the end of May approaches, the weekend events are piling up at PokerStars. To help you better plan your weekend events, I've put together a list of the weekend's biggest events.

World Series of Poker

500 FPP WSOP Qualifier--To finish off the PokerStars Five Billionth Hand Celebration (congrats, again, MaraJade), PokerStars is throwing a 500 Frequent Player Point buy-in World Series of Poker qualifier. Everybody at the final table will get a PokerStars WSOP package. Everybody else will be playing for $100,000 in cash. This event pays deep, down to 785 players. Registration begins Saturday at noon ET and is limited to the first 5,000 8,000 players who sign up. The tournament begins Sunday at 1pm ET.

Play Money WSOP Freeroll--Also as part of the Five Billionth Hand Celebration, 238 play money players will be fighting for three World Series of Poker seats, courtesy of PokerStars. These players were dealt into PokerStars lucky hands during the celebration and now get to play for the opportunity of a lifetime. Registration for this event is full, but it will be a blast to watch these folks battle it out for a chance to play in the big one. If you want to watch, the event is Sunday at 2:00pm ET.

WSOP qualifiers--Don't forget, there are also a bunch of WSOP qualifiers going on all weekend long. Click "Events" and "WSOP" in the PokerStars game lobby to see all you chances to win. Sunday's 6pm qualifier almost always pays more than 20 seats (and sometimes more than 30), so find a way to get into that event if you can.

VIP Club Events

Freerolls--If you are a member of the PokerStars VIP club and have reached at least SilverStar status, you never want to miss the last Saturday of the month. That's when you can play in your VIP club level's freeroll as well as the monthly $100,000 freeroll. This event pays you money for nothing every month, so there's no reason not to sign up. The events run Saturday afternoon. Click "Tourney" and "VIP" to sign up.

Moneymaker--Don't miss Chris Moneymaker playing single table tournaments with VIP Club members on Sunday. The players in this event have used their FPP points to play against the WSOP champ for a chance at real cash.

500 FPP WSOP events--VIP Club members will have a shot at some cheap WSOP seats on Sunday. Anyone who has reached at least SilverStar status can play for one of five seats. Also, anyone who has reached at least GoldStar status can play for three seats. Both events are Sunday afternoon ET and cost 500 Frequent Player Points to enter.

$1 Million Guarantee

As happens every Sunday, PokerStars will guarantee a $1 million prize pool in the Sunday 4:30pm no-limit hold'em event. This week, the buy-in is $530. Satellites to the event are running all the time under the Tourney/Satellites tab. The top finishers have been routinely walking away with six-figure paydays.

When PokerStars hit its Five Billionth Hand on a .05/.10 table and awarded $57,500 to the winner of the hand, MaraJade, everyone wanted to know who this player was. We can now introduce you to MaraJade, aka Manuela, a 30-year-old woman from Germany who now has no small amount of money in her bankroll.

At 30 years old, MaraJade was not at all unhappy with her life. Unmarried, but desperately in love with her boyfriend (who introduced her to poker), MaraJade spent her time managing a Aldi grocery store in Germany.

"It is a hard, exhausting, great job. I really like the contact with our customers," she said.

If there was anything in her life that needed changing, it was the need for money to pay for a desperately needed eye surgery. Born with a disease that forms cataracts on her eyes, MaraJade faced a tough problem. She needed to find the money for the expensive surgery or she would go blind.

Having played on PokerStars for several years, MaraJade was happy to hear of the Five Billionth Hand Celebration.

"I just had to join in and play. Such an event only comes once and I wanted to be part of it," she said. "I had not calculated on actually winning the prize money. I just wanted to be part of the fun around the event and the milestone. I just took a seat at some of the tables. Some of the players chatted about playing eight tables simultaneously to increase their chances of winning, but that is nothing I would do."

Rather than eight-table and fold until the five billionth hand, MaraJade sat down to play a little micro-limit hold'em. Nowhere in her heart did she think she would have a chance to win a milestone hand.

"Here in Germany, it was already two in the morning," she explained. She was on the verge of going to bed. And then, something happened.

"My table got stuck," she said. "I got the cards, but the game did not go on. Internet problems? No, the chat worked. A lot of chatting went on. Why? A couple of times I recognized my name in the chaos in the chat. Then I suddenly realized. I leaned in an looked closer, and above it stood: 5,000,000,000."

Anyone who saw the five billionth hand play out saw the chat chaos ensue. No one, not even Lee Jones, could get in a word edgewise. Railbirds from around the world crippled the chat bar (one even typed the words "USELESS CHAT" over and over). It's not hard to imagine how somebody could be confused. Finally, the reality sunk in for MaraJade.

"I just screamed out loud," she said. "My boyfriend entered the room and asked me if I was alright. I could not say a word. I just pointed out the number on the screen. He could not believe it either."

When the hand resumed, MaraJade realized she had a very marginal holding. She held king-ten offsuit. She knew the flop, turn, and river would make the difference between a $10,000 win and a $50,000 win.

MaraJade sat with her hands over her mouth as the board came out. A ten on the flop seemed good. A king on the river seemed even better.

"With two pair, my chances were, at least, decent," MaraJade said. "But how many times have I lost with such a hand against three of a kind, against a straight? I did not dare thinking about it."


The first competing hand to appear was a pair of nines. MaraJade waited, knowing her two pair was still good. She watched the other players as they acted.

"One after the other, they folded their hands," she remembered. "They could not beat the pair of nines. Now it was just one more player. Oh my god...and then it came... MUCK. I must have screamed down the house. I was so happy. Just unbelievable. I almost went crazy."

As a SilverStar VIP Club member, MaraJade won a bonus $7,500 to make her total winnings $57,500. The first chunk of the money will go to make sure MaraJade keeps her sight.

"Thanks to PokerStars I can now have that surgery without worrying about the cost," she said.

She also plans to play more on PokerStars and experiment with some higher limits.

As for the rest of the money?

"Hey, I'm a girl," she said. "I'll go shopping!"

Congratulations to MaraJade and all the milestone hand winners.

Two safety car periods fell unkindly for the PokerStars Aston Martin Racing cars at the third round of the American Le Mans Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, yet despite the set-backs, and a puncture while leading the GT1 class, Darren Turner and Tomas Enge finished on the podium for the third successive race in their Aston Martin DBR9.

Pedro Lamy crossed the line in the 009 Aston Martin DBR9 three-tenths of a second behind Enge to take fourth position at the end of the two-hour, 45-minute race.
The team ran an aggressive strategy which allowed Turner to lead GT1 at the end of his opening stint. The British driver was the last to pit and hand to Enge, but the Czech driver returned to the pits almost immediately when he suffered a puncture. A fantastic pit stop by the team meant that Enge re-joined in third position and set about closing the gap to the leaders with a series of fast laps. Unfortunately a third safety car period dropped the number 007 car to a lap behind the winners at the checkered flag.

In the number 009 Aston Martin DBR9, Lamy's team-mate Sarrazin was struggling during the opening stint with oversteer and had dropped back from the leading three cars when the first safety car period was called. The Frenchmans track position meant that he lost a lap to the class leaders. Lamy took over and benefited from the second safety car period to close on his team-mate Enge.

"We lost the race due to safety car decisions," said Prodrive Chairman, David Richards. "We were not quite on the pace, but the strategy was superb and we lost it because of some rather strange safety car decisions."

Aston Martin Racing Team Principal, George Howard-Chappell, added: "Our best chance of winning was by going longer on the fuel which we did. This very nearly paid off but a puncture and the safety car decision ruined that chance. We were hoping when the Corvettes had pitted and we were still out that there might be a safety car, but it did not work out as we hoped."

Turner, who started from pole position, immediately dropped a place to one of the Corvettes at the start of the race. "The left lane for some reason didn't go when the flag dropped," said Turner. "The right lane was away, the Corvette got past me. I cut across to make sure the other Corvette didn't go through. It took three or four laps to get heat into the tires and then I was a bit lucky with some of the traffic, but the strategy was good and it is a pity we didn't get more from it."

Enge took over, and almost immediately suffered a puncture. "We have to analyze exactly why it happened," said the Czech driver. "Otherwise I was pretty happy with my run. Darren did a good job at the beginning of the stint. We had a different strategy to the 009 car and at the end of the race, Pedro was putting some very good lap times on slightly newer tyres, and I was trying to save fuel. We took third place, but we know that it could have been so much better with no problems."

"We are very disappointed because the safety car periods messed it up for us," said Sarrazin. "These are only short races and when you are unfortunate like that, the race is finished for you."

Lamy was battling with the handling of his car in the second half of the race, yet was still able to pressure Enge. "The car was suffering from a lot of oversteer, which slowed us down," he said. "The safety car periods were frustrating, and we hope for better days."

This week's PokerStars $1 Million Guaranteed event came down to one of the best heads-up matches in recent memory. In a final table that saw no deal-making, Rizen and gardner52 fought for first place in a back and forth heads-up battle that lasted nearly 100 hands. When it was over, Rizen came out on top for a $156,815.60 payday. Congratulations to Rizen and everyone who cashed this week. Here are the final table results.

PokerStars $1 Million Guaranteed Results

1. Rizen (Olathe, KS) $156,815.60
2. gardner52 (Tomball, TX) $86,325.20
3. Rabscuttle (Richmond, VA) $51,080.00
4. aakkari (Sao Paulo, Brazil) $40,864.00
5. pandabear22 (Nuernberg, Germany) $31,669.60
6. kevmike (Chicago, IL) $25,540.00
7. aceviper (Burbank, CA) $19,921.20
8. fleischmo (Germany) $14,813.20
9. Fat Stack213 (Elk Grove Village, IL) $9,194.40

The frenzy on PokerStars has been amazing. As PokerStars celebrated its 5 Billionth Hand Celebration, everyone wanted a piece of the action. Over the past several days, PokerStars gave outs thousands and thousands of dollars to people who played in one of 33 milestone hands. While everyone was elated to have won some money, all players had their eyes on the big prize: The Five Billionth Hand.

Saturday night, the hand finally came. It happened at a .05/.10 limit hold'em table. Every person dealt into the hand won at least $10,000 and an entry into the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event.

Here are the Five Billionth Hand Winners:

MaraJade
kiwishyla
SantaChris
johnny79
wendingo
vball5.

MaraJade, a Silver Star VIP, won $57,5000 for winning the hand.

Congratulations to everyone who won big during this celebration. PokerStars has loved having you and welcome you to stick with us for another five billion.

Be sure to congratulate all the PokerStars milestone hand winners.

After a long, long road of heads-up matches, the final eight teams in the World Cup of Poker have been decided. Here's how the division championships shaped up:

USA - Team USA-North Carolina jumped out ahead in its championship series with USA-Arizona and never looked back. The Tarheel state players won their championship 4-0.

United Kingdom - Team England dispatched Team Wales in a 4-0 series of matches.

Canada & Pacific - Team South Africa did its best to give Team Canada-Alberta a fight, but in the end Canada-Alberta won the series 3-1.

Americas - Team Brazil, hailing from the largest country in South America, showed Team Venezuela who was boss and won its division in a 3-1 series.

Europe North - No doubt, there are some serious poker players in Iceland. Team Iceland took down Norway 3-1.

Europe Central - Ireland and France came into the division championships as tough teams and played to a 2-2 tie. In a deciding playoff, the luck of the Irish prevailed to advance Team Ireland to Barcelona.

Europe South - Team Israel proved it can play and defeated Team Spain 3-1 in the division championships.

Europe Eastern - Team Poland, after winning a playoff to make it to the division championships in the first place, decided it wasn't ready to quit and defeated Team Hungary 3-1.

Now, the final eight teams will travel to Barcelona, Spain in June to compete for $200,000 in prize money, bragging rights, and their country's pride. The PokerStars Blog will be there with live coverage.

Congratulations to all the teams for their hard work. The payoff will be worth it!

By now, it's old news to talk about the record numbers being put up by the World Series of Poker main event. The last couple of years have built fields that the early WSOP fathers would never have expected. But, just for grins, let's take a look at the numbers for the last few years.

WSOP 2000: 512
WSOP 2001: 613
WSOP 2002: 631
WSOP 2003: 839
WSOP 2004: 2,576
WSOP 2005: 5,619

Okay. Again, I know we all know those numbers. But, there's something else I'd like you to take a look at.

As of this moment (11:53am ET), PokerStars has qualified 678 of its players for the main event of the 2006 World Series of Poker.

That's right. Six hundred seventy-eight. That's more than the entire 2002 WSOP field. That's with two months of qualifying left to go, not to mention the 150-Seat Guaranteed WSOP super satellite on July 16th.

Last year, PokerStars sent more than 1,100 players to the WSOP. While you never know what will happen, it seems pretty clear, the number will be bigger than that this year.

One thing that is drawing a lot of interest among PokerStars players is the final table incentives PokerStars is offering. If you're still working on winning your seat or want to learn more about the final table incentives, feel free to visit PokerStars WSOP pages.

Team Iceland has become the first team to win its way to the live televised matches in Barcelona Spain. While the group championship matches for the rest of the teams will be on May 20th, a scheduling conflict forced Iceland and Norway to play today.

Iceland won two of the first three matches against Norway. In the first match, Iceland's raisemaster defeated Norway's theMFbat. In match #2, Norway's Mariachi beat the ever-tough CASINOICE from Iceland. Match #3 saw taqtiX defeat Morteler. Finally, in the fourth and deciding match, Iceland's bigsinc got his A9 all in against onkel_ove's A8. After winning that hand, bingsinc picked up A5 and used it to defeat onkel_ove's Q3.

Team Iceland will now go to Barcelona in June to compete on television for thousands of dollars, bragging rights, and the World Cup of Poker title.

The remaining WCP group championship matches will be played out on May 20th. Congrats to Team Iceland and good luck to the remaining teams!

If you find yourself around the area of Natick, Massachusetts this weekend, you have a chance to win a seat in the $2,500 No Limit Holdem Short-Handed event at the World Series of Poker.

May 21st at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick, Mass, the ALS Association will host a charity event. The $150 buy-in event (no rebuys) is this Sunday at noon.

The grand prize includes roundtrip airfare to Vegas, 4 nights at the Rio, and a $2,500 buy-in to WSOP event #5 (donated by PokerStars).

Other prizes include entrance to a two-day World Poker Tour BootCamp and hundreds of dollars in American Express gift certificates.

For more information, visit www.ALSPoker.org. For pre-registration, call 1-800-553-9056.

It was another international final table for the PokerStars $1 Million guaranteed event. Players from four continents battled it out for some big money. Players didn't strike a deal until play was heads-up. When it was over, Whitfield74 from Sweden walked away with nearly $150,000! Here are your final table results.

PokerStars $1 Million Guaranteed Results
(based on a two-way deal that left $20,000 for first place)

1. Whitfield74 (Arsta, Sweden) $149,000
2. fuxfux (Ramat Gan, Israel) $105,000
3. Keymaster7 (Johannesburg, South Africa) $53,000.00
4. exodus7 (Vienna, Austria) $42,000.00
5. ZeroMercy (Nashua, NH) $34,000.00
6. Barny Rubul (Austin, TX) $26,500.00
7. The Camel (County Durham, United Kingdom) $20,500.00
8. janek 12 (Ridgewood, NY) $15,500.00
9. Strakov (Gothenburg, Sweden) $10,000.00

Note: PokerStars has sponsored the Aston Martin Race team throughout the 2006 GT race series, including the complete America Le Mans Series (ALMS), The Goodwood Festival of Speed and Silverstone in the UK, and, of course, the 24-hour Le Mans race in France. The following is PokerStars blogger Brad Willis' account of his first Le Mans race.

There's a certain smell in the air that only car racing enthusiasts know. It's gasoline, oil, and sweat. It's the smell of a tightwire tension that can be snapped by one moment of failed concentration. It's a smell that I would only know as "fear."

It's what I smell as I stand within a few feet of the Houston Grand Prix American Le Mans series track. I'd seen such racing on television before, but it never looked so fast. Raised on stockcars, I knew only left turns and wide open straightaways. I didn't know hairpin turns and the sick chance for mortal injury at any second. Even the practice run I was watching seemed more than dangerous. It seemed deadly.

Perhaps every poker player has felt this before. It's the intestinal tightening that comes from sitting down and playing a cash game that's too big for the bankroll. It's the feeling that everything is moving too fast. It's the sense that if you blink, you will miss a tell that never really exists. You know you can play the game, but there is a sinking part of you that tells you you're playing too far above your head.

This is what I think as I stand on a catwalk above the Houston track and look down between the wooden slats. The blurs are going by so fast, I'm not even sure I see a blur. The speed is beyond my ability to calculate. At any second, you could ask me about pot odds and I should be able to give you a reasonable answer, but there is no chance I can tell you how fast the cars are going.

It's then that it occurs to me how poker and Le Mans racing are intertwined. As the Texas sun burns the ridge of my nose and the exhaust fumes scorch my lungs, I figure it out. See, just like anybody can play poker, anybody can drive a car. However, the ability to deal with the fear, the high stakes, and the danger is what divides real players and drivers from the people who drive a Honda to the weekly home games.

In short, there's something--maybe something I don't even understand--that separates champions from everybody else.

***

There are several kinds of beauty here in Houston. There's the adoration the fans have for the drivers. More so, it's the adoration for the cars. I'm awed by what these fans know about the exotic Aston Martin ride.
Then, there is the beauty of the PokerStars girls, Crystal and Lacy, who spend their days introducing legions of Le Mans fans to the game of poker. While there are certainly people there who have never played, we all quickly find there are tons of poker players who follow Le Mans.
Within a few hours, we have met a firefighter who knows just about everything that goes on in the poker world. Then we meet a guy who is wearing a PokerStars hat so worn and tattered, it is clear that the guy wears it every day. Both the poker players and thousands of other regular fans appreciate the poker as much as the ladies handing out the shirts.

POKERSTARS MILESTONE HAND WINNERS

PokerStars has started to hit its milestone hands in its Five Billionth Hand celebration. From now until the five billionth hand is hit, we'll be posting the winners of the hands here. Feel free to check back.

Congratulations to all the winners!

4,930,000,000th Hand
(Four out of the six winners received extra money for their PokerStars VIP Club level)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($3/$6)

zippo44
jkopp984
LakersGTD
Golden_sun (hand winner)
tn1753
Railbird

4,935,000,000th Hand
(One out of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)


Iva2004
FlaDebbie
MrSuperduper
Captain75o
fenixguy (hand winner)
CardEgineer
AL_MZ
Warm Jello
earck
Kreator80

4,940,000,000th Hand
(Two out of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.25/$0.50)

Chel (hand winner)
Cholo83
Deathzilla
JETarpon
JLande
Mookie78
Saratzila
guynamedjohn
revigres

4,945,000,000th Hand
(Three out of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00)

ksv80 $6500 (hand winner)
Potless
SmokenS2K
AtgDax
SatansSword
kajelir

4,950,000,000th Hand

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

truthgoddess
Dunkelb1 (hand winner)
pcorl007
capt77
DubCcoach
Buff1967

4,955,000,000th Hand
(One of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

xtreme04
coalpepper
Chriscou (hand winner)
pzane
swedenfalang
Ingeson

4,960,000,000th Hand

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

D-Rob12
pocketThreez
pleaser2
luckycor (hand winner)
surbru
Ryllflsh
pokergirl59
Clipse79
Buddslave

4,965,000,000th Hand
(All six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game Hold'em Limit ($5/$10)

BigRoofus
bigtoenail
VegasSK2005 (hand winner)
kudongo
KjEtTiNg
chezlaw

4,970,000,000th Hand
(Five of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($10/$20)

outofbed
davehal
Abron (hand winner)
EricMurray
Conando
eazy1mike

4,975,000,000th Hand
(Four of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($3/$6)

Faraday
riverboy4444
villefranche
zigzag
raymd
profoundC (hand winner)

4,980,000,000th Hand
(Three of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.25/$0.50)

stabvvolley
Mrmres
rpgronnieg
AAAAAArghh (hand winner)
AWS2345
Backflowjoe
iluvflops
Vinny_Vegas1
CardsofDeck
Teddy ABC

4,985,000,000th Hand
(Four of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2)

Superb Lady
bryan2788
crazydrifter
earp243
flensburger (hand winner)
tamprog

4,985,000,000th Hand

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00)

Dunkster
EyeNeverLie (hand winner)
HalvSame
PokerMikeCMH
SandmanJD
dingying

4,990,500,000th Hand
(Two of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

l_TheDog_l
kansas31
deadmanky
SiegurRos1
byrons
Broncos#1

4,991,000,000 th Hand
(Four of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4)

FishWNoBait
TheBack77
TonySB
Tortureme
altoque
joe161
pokeravs (hand winner)
tom1967



4,991,500,000th Hand

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

357 yaz
Boss2323 (hand winner)
Ezarc
Harrison57
Jiggy Moe
TWillie
Vermination
jc&jan
may50

4,992,000,000th Hand

(Two of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

Turbozzz (hand winner)
amdca
hillbilly06
ryachris
tony513
vilasophy

4,992,500,000th Hand

(Three of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

3rdWave (hand winner)
DoobMan420
FACUMDP
HD Nightrain
Kruntchar
SandmanJD (second milestone hand win!)

4,993,000,000th Hand

(Two of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.10/$0.20)

CIBUN (hand winner)
Thalmodan
spongerob
GrassyDyce
MarvTMartian
jpholdem
alleykat
Opie11
MuttaN
pokerlarry

4,993,500,000th Hand
(Five of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($1/$2)

ksv80 (hand winner)
No Jopke
byron211
SamENoles#1
Salva1
TwoSure

4,994,000,000th Hand
(Three of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10)

YoureDoomed (split pot winner)
TLVG5050 (split pot winner)
dan69ger (split pot winner)
dtc1126 (split pot winner)
Galthran
Shantaram
limpnfold24
GohanPGT
Suprjack

4,994,500,000th Hand
(Three of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($1/$2)

castine2 (hand winner)
Whitfield74
iamtrying
Mercutio69
Davidian2
FIBONASTY

4,995,000,000th Hand
(Two of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($1/$2)

Babs1337
MagicBowt
BirdBoy100
mez81
Cue-ball 66
Filthy999 (hand winner)

4,995,500,000th Hand
(One of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit (.50/$1)

FloppyJT
Kepplinger (hand winner)
Makelaris
Slogan387
hkcitizen
isharpie

4,996,000,000th Hand
(Three of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00)

DejaVuChicks
LinusK
Shakeey28
cky12
hazey79 (hand winner)
nbajam

4,996,500,000th Hand
(Two of the five winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50)

Langfuhr
RedBombshell
flakbo (hand winner)
gudfaren
micula213

4,997,000,000th Hand
(One of the five winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00)

Larry2001
Potless (repeat winner!)
aeovian
dabossman
pokerpro1982 (hand winner)

4,997,500,000th Hand
(Two of the nine winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00)

Hep22 (split pot hand winner)
brincobi
coinage_dip
fouramerica
hawarti
maestrokenny (split pot hand winner)
poolman61
sjs#1

4,998,000,000th Hand
(Four of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: Hold'em Limit ($0.50/$1.00)

Karaflos
VeNSe
doulas12
manolakis20
revigres
wasano


4,998,500,000th Hand
(Three of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: $3/$6 Omaha 8-B

13820
bigtoenail
bogoss55
fasto
geoeng
kavmaster (hand winner)

4,999,000,000th Hand
(Four of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: $1/$2 Omaha 8-B

JoeZulu
RocketRoy8
SeaMike
Stanky58AL
docpgtips
tatta

4,999,500,000th Hand
(Three of the six winners received extra money for the PokerStars VIP Club level bonus)

Game: $1/$2 Limit Hold'em

Emrald
TitleMike
Zeuvuh
billpancake
jonnypham
yukiball

5,000,000,000th Hand

Game: .05/.10 Limit Hold'em

MaraJade -- Hand winner, Silver Star VIP, won $57,500
kiwishyla
SantaChris
johnny79
wendingo
vball5.

We're on the verge of reaching the final 16 teams in the PokerStars World Cup of Poker. Only one tiebreaker remains before the teams go to the final Group Championship fight on May 20. Those matches will send the winning teams to Barcelona, Spain for the live matches.

Here are the teams that are still alive

USA -- USA-Arizona and USA-North Carolina
United Kingdom -- England and Wales
Canada and Pacific -- Canada-Alberta and South Africa
Americas --Brazil and one of these three: Costa Rica, Mexico, or Venezuela (Tiebreaker is May 12 at 11:00pm ET)
Europe North -- Iceland and Norway
Europe Central -- Ireland and France
Europe South -- Israel and Spain
Europe Eastern -- Hungary and Poland

Good luck to the remaining teams in the undecided Americas bracket.

Maybe you keep track of the number of hands you play per month. Now, think about you and several million other people playing for the last five years or so. What you have is the recipe for PokerStars dealing its five billionth hand.

PokerStars is bringing out more than confetti and champagne. From now until the five billionth hand is dealt, PokerStars is giving away more than $1 million in cash, WSOP seats, WCOOP seats, and bonuses. What's more, from May 12th to May 21st, PokerStars will be doubling all of your VIP Player Points and Frequent Player Points.

How is it working? Check out the PokerStars Five Billionth Hand celebration page for all the details.

Have fun and good luck!

From Denmark to France to Austria to Spain to the U.S.A., PokerStars $1 Million Guaranteed event looked like the United Nations. In truly diplomatic fashion, the final five players cut a deal and then played for $20,000. Here's how the final table looked when the contest was over.

PokerStars $1 million guaranteed results
(listed in order of finish and based on five-way deal that left $20,000 for first place)

1. bbbbb33 (Philadelphia, PA) $79,051.08
2. Eternauta (Zaragoza, Spain) $94,547.13
3. BMW_Wookie (Alabaster, AL) $59,232.21
4. Mi||a.TiMe (Duluth, GA) $67,271.35
5. copi (Schwechat, Austria) $72,396.64
6. SUPERTYR (Copenhagen, Denmark) $25,940.00
7. chrisb07 (Paris, France) $20,233.20
8. mari1 (Las Vegas, NV) $15,045.20
9. urukhaj (Copenhagen, Denmark) $9,338.40

It was a huge day of Round Robin action in the PokerStars World Cup of Poker. After a full day and night of play, here's how things look:

USA - A playoff will be needed to determine which two teams out of Arizona, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Louisiana will advance to the next round of play.

United Kingdom - England and Wales will advance to the next round.

Canada & Pacific - Team Alberta will surely be watching a playoff match between South Africa and Team Canada. South Africa has already locked up its spot in the next round. Canada, however, needs a win to even have a chance at the next round. If Canada wins its match, it will have to play a tie-breaker with Team Alberta. If Canada loses, Team Alberta will automatically move on with South Africa.

Americas - Brazil has locked up its spot in the next round. Costa Rica, Mexico, and Venezuela will all compete in a playoff to determine who gets the second spot.

Europe North - Iceland, Norway, and Sweden will all compete in a playoff to determine which two of the three will advance.

Europe Central - Ireland and France have advanced to the next round.

Europe South - Israel, Italy, Spain (and possibly Portugal, depending on a future match with Slovenia) will all be fighting for two spot in the next round of play.

Europe Eastern - Hungary will move on. There will be a tie-breaker between Poland and Ukraine.

Playoff matches and tiebreakers will continue on the team's schedules. Within a few days, we should have a clearer picture of the 16 teams that will move into the next round. Congratulations to all of today's winners!

World Cup of Poker Round Robin play has kicked off with the first few matches in the Canada and Pacific group.

Friday's big winners were New Zealand, Australia, and Canada-Alberta, which all emerged victorious in their Round Robin matches.

Today is a huge day of play with tons of matches going on as we speak. We'll have more results here on Sunday as some of the field starts to thin out.

To watch the matches as they happen, click Events -- World Cup -- Round Robin in the PokerStars game lobby.

After several hard weeks of qualifying, international Round Robin play is about to begin in the 2006 PokerStars World Cup of Poker. Beginning May 5 at 7:00pm ET and running through May 14, players from all over the world will compete in Round Robin play. Teams in all eight international groups are fighting to determine who will make it to Barcelona in June for the live televised matches.

The players on the World Cup of Poker teams worked hard to get where they are already. Now comes the true test of heads-up skill.

If you want to root on your favorite player or root for your country, state, or province, you can watch the matches by clicking "Events" in your PokerStars game lobby. Then click "World Cup" and "Round Robin."

Good luck to all the teams!

As of this moment, 554 people have qualified for the main event of the World Series of Poker on PokerStars. It's anyone's guess how big that number will be by the time the big event rolls around. Scanning the list of screen names, I see a lot of people I've written about here before. I thought it might be fun to show you some of the people who will be headed for the biggest poker event in history. Interested in winning your seat? Click "Events" and "WSOP" in the PokerStars software to win your seat today.

Please note: This not nearly a comprehensive list. There are hundreds of people going to the WSOP, and dozens of big, recognizable names on the list. I'm just listing a few people I've met over the past year or so. I trust I'll be meeting a lot more of PokerStars players in the coming months.

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is set to air on the Travel Channel tonight at 9pm ET/PDT. If you don't want to know how it turns out, I wouldn't click any of the links below. However, if you're the kind who doesn't mind going into the show with a little advance information on what happens, feel free to browse. Either way, I'd sugest watching the show tonight. Looks like it's going to be a good one.

2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Winner's List
2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Final Table Results
2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Final Table Report
Final Table Hand-by-Hand


Pre-Tourney Coverage

Pre-game coverage round-up
How Chris Moneymaker played the button(s)


Day 1

Day 1, Flight 1 begins
Flight A Photo Gallery
After Sundown--Flight A
Flight B Dinner Break Mambo
End of Day 1 Chip Counts

Day 2

Adjusting to Day 2
How the bubble broke
End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Day 3

All-day coverage
Photo gallery


World Championship of Battleship Poker

The Genesis of the World Championship of Battleship Poker
Flight 1
Flight 2
The winner

Other Information

2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Payout Structure
PCA Photo Gallery

After recording a double podium finish in the opening round at Sebring in March, Aston Martin Racing will be returning to the United States to contest the second and third rounds of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Houston and Mid-Ohio.

Starting at the Lone Star Grand Prix in Houston on Friday 12th May - the inaugural running of the street race in the ALMS calendar - Aston Martin Racing will field two DBR9s. The Lone Star Grand Prix will take place on a 9-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street circuit at Reliant Park and the race will see the two Aston Martin Racing DBR9s facing challenging hairpin turns and fast straights.
The team's two DBR9s will be numbered 007 and 009. In car 007 (red highlights) Tomas Enge (Czech Republic) and Darren Turner (UK) will take the wheel with Pedro Lamy (Portugal) and Stephane Sarrazin (France) in car 009 (yellow highlights).

The Lone Star Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 8 pm CDT on May 12 in Houston. Qualifying is set for 6:15 pm CDT on May 11.

The PokerStars blog will be live on the scene in Houston there to chronicle the action.

None of the top four players in this week's PokerStars $1 Million Guaranteed event left with less than $90,000 paydays. With more than a million bucks in the prize pool and more than ten hours of tough competition, the top four players cut a deal and split up more than $400,000 in cash among them. Here are your final table results.

PokerStars $1 million Guaranteed Results
(listed in order of finish and based on four-way deal that left $30,000 for first place)

1. Sooners (Houston, TX) $161,893
2. Jcardshark (Pensacola, FL) $90,779
3. GARFIELD25 (Scarborough, ON, Canada) $91,365
4. Fidoo (Aalborg, Denmark) $125,441
5. rauf007 (Glasgow, United Kingdom) $49,944.50
6. nugz420 (Orange, CA) $38,910.25
7. virus1975 (Aabyhoej, Denmark) $29,037.50
8. cglinn (Rochester, NY) $22,068.50
9. teacuppoker (Berkeley, CA) $13,357.25