We captured the 50 Billionth Hand being dealt at PokerStars, which was to award at least $50,000 to the winner of the hand. The hand was dealt in the morning on September 22nd, 2010 as part of the huge 50 Billion Milestone Hand promotion at PokerStars, the world’s largest poker site. We captured the the final hand, which happened to take place at the Micro-Stakes at a $0.02-$0.05 6-handed No Limit Hold’em table. On the promotional hand, all players wisely went all-in to maximize the amount of VPPs they earned in the hand, as PokerStars added a multiplier to their last 50 hand VPP counts.
The final hand was won by a player named “tbvle” who was able to parlay QQ (pocket Queens) to win the Mega Milestone award. It was most assuredly his lucky day as he was able to play at a table with nickel big blinds into a payday of $56,140 on top of a $5,200 WCOOP Main Event seat ticket. All players received the same Main Event WCOOP ticket for participating in the hand as well as the big cash rewards distributed. In total, the single hand awarded $71,410 to the six players plus $31,200 worth of WCOOP tickets for a total promotional prize pool of $102,600.
The promotion is a regular one at PokerStars for every 10 billion hands they deal. With this promotion, for this Mega Milestone, they promised that all players dealt in the hand will be rewarded $500 for every VPP earned in the previous 50 hands. The winner of the hand will win the pot, their prize money doubled plus an additional $50,000. The $5,200 WCOOP Main Event will take place on September 26th, 2010.
During the final hand, many of the members of Team PokerStars Pro joined the table and entered in their congratulations to the lucky six before the hand was dealt. Jason Mercier was gracious enough to say, “Really happy to see this hit in the micros!” while wishing everyone good luck for the fateful hand.
“On the promotional hand, all players wisely went all-in to maximize the amount of VPPs they earned in the hand”
That’s not why they all went all-in…