PokerStars

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Screenshot of the Pokerstars GUI at a real-money table game

PokerStars is the largest online poker cardroom in the world.[1] PokerStars' satellite tournaments produced the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, Chris Moneymaker, as well as the 2004 champion, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer. Those two now act as spokespeople for the cardroom, as does 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem, also a regular player on the site. PokerStars is the headline sponsor and part owner of the European Poker Tour (EPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), Italian Poker Tour (IPT) and Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT). PokerStars sponsored an event on the World Poker Tour called the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). The World Poker Tour no longer stages this event, so it is now a stop on the European Poker Tour. In 2005, eGaming Review named PokerStars.com the "Best Poker Operator of the Year". PokerStars offers a downloadable poker client for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems, offering the same features to users of each client.

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[edit] History

PokerStars launched its beta play money only site on September 11, 2001, and later began real money wagering in December of 2001. PokerStars was originally a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, majority owned by the Scheinberg family of Israel.[2][3] The company was subsequently moved to the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from America.[2] PokerStars holds its license with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission, and is also licensed in Italy by the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS).[4]

Since relocating, PokerStars has been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible initial public offering or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimate its market value would be approximately $2 billion (US), which would make the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies.[3] PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room at around the time the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did not.[5] Since then PokerStars has grown and has upwards of 220,000 players at their tables during the busiest hours, and it continues to grow at a steady pace. On February 16, 2009, PokerStars dealt its 25 billionth hand.

[edit] Games offered

PokerStars offers ten varieties of poker games: Texas hold 'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Stud, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Razz, Five-card draw, Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, Deuce to Seven Single Draw and Badugi. HORSE, HOSE, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo and 8-Game, "mixed games" that rotate through several of the above, are also offered.[6] Players can participate in real money games ranging from $.01/$.02 up to $1000/$2000. The home of the World Championship of Online Poker, the largest online poker tournament series in the world, PokerStars has over 20,000 players playing real money ring games daily, plus thousands more playing real money tournaments or free-play games.[7] During peak operating times, this often adds up to over 250,000 players online simultaneously. PokerStars.com's play money players mix with those logging in from PokerStars.net, a free play-only site without real money games. In October 2008, PokerStars launched PokerStars.it, exclusively for Italian players, which will offer real money tournaments in Euro currency in addition to the usual play money games.

The site's flagship weekly event is the Sunday Million, a weekly tournament with a guaranteed $1.5 million prize pool with a buy-in of $215. On July 8, 2007, PokerStars debuted a new weekly event, the $11 buy-in Sunday 1/4 Million, which regularly attracts around 25,000 to 30,000 players, making it the largest participated-in real-money poker tournament ever. This total surpassed the previous record of 10,894 players who participated in the May 20, 2007 Sunday Million tournament.[8] On March 2, 2008 the Sunday Hundred Grand was won by World Series of Poker Europe champion Annette Obrestad, who won $20,000 for first place. In 2009, PokerStars began running what it calls "Ante Up!" tournaments with a unique structure—the blinds remain constant throughout the tournament, but antes are extracted from the start of the tournament and increase at each level.[9]

[edit] Team PokerStars

PokerStars sponsors several professional players including Bertrand Grospellier,John Duthie, Lee Nelson, Luca Pagano, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, Noah Boeken, Andre Akkari, Hevad Khan,Chad Brown, Victoria Coren, William Thorson, Marcin Horecki, Ylon Schwartz, Dennis Phillips, Juan Carlos Alvarado, Johnny Lodden, Leo Fernandez, Maridu Mayrinck, Ivan Demidov, Juan Maceiras, Marcel Luske, Arnaud Mattern, as well as WSOP bracelet winners Barry Greenstein, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Humberto Brenes, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Griffin, Dario Minieri, Alex Kravchenko, Alexandre Gomes, Katja Thater, Jason Mercier, Angel Guillen, Jude Ainsworth and 2008 WSOP champion Peter Eastgate.[10] Actor Jason Alexander; former Major League Baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser; author and part-time poker player Anthony Holden; hockey player Mats Sundin; WSOP bracelet winner Bill Chen, 1983 WSOP champion Tom McEvoy, Brazilian auto racer and race team owner Gualter Salles; and Darus Suharto, who made the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event alongside Eastgate, Demidov, Schwartz and Phillips, promote the site as "Friends of PokerStars"[11]. Also, PokerStars has a sport team, including French rugbyman Sebastien Chabal and former tennis champion Boris Becker.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ PokerScout.com: PokerStars
  2. ^ a b "PokerStars to move its base before possible London float". The Times. 2005-08-03. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article550883.ece. 
  3. ^ a b "Family stand to net $2bn from their online gamble". The Times. 2006-01-04. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article784745.ece. 
  4. ^ CardPlayer: PokerStars Breaks Through to Italy, Now Fully Licensed There
  5. ^ CardPlayer: PokerStars Will Keep Serving American Customers
  6. ^ List of games offered by PokerStars
  7. ^ Poker Site Scout: Online Poker Traffic Report
  8. ^ Pokerstarsblog: Sunday Million Results for May 20, 2007
  9. ^ "PokerStars "Ante Up!" tourney liveblog". The Poker Moth. 2009-02-17. http://pokermoth.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/pokerstars-ante-up-tourney-liveblog/. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 
  10. ^ List of Team Pokerstars members from PokerStars site
  11. ^ "Friends of PokerStars". PokerStars.com. http://www.pokerstars.com/team-pokerstars/friends/. Retrieved 2009-03-22. 

[edit] External links

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Team PokerStars Pro
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