PokerStars Registers 20 Millionth Account

Bigger is better at PokerStars. Recently, the world’s largest online poker site registered its 20 millionth account. The milestone designation went to a brand new PokerStars member from Slovakia, piposko. The online poker site awarded its friend from Eastern Europe a $215 ticket to its marquee Sunday Million as a reward.

The massive online poker room, considered by many to be the benchmark against which all other sites are measured, began skyrocketing in popularity back in 2003, when a little-known accountant from Tennessee named Chris Moneymaker took down a satellite on PokerStars to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. In the end, he defeated poker pro Sam Farha heads-up to win the prestigious event and $2.5 million, proving that amateurs could contend with the big guns in poker. Six years later, Moneymaker remains an icon of the game, joining Doyle Brunson as arguably its most recognizable name.

With poker’s popularity has come the massive growth of PokerStars. To put its current player count in perspective, according to the 2007 Census, the population of the United States is 301 million. That would mean the equivalent of one in every 15 U.S. residents has signed up a PokerStars account. The entire state of Texas has about the same number of residents as PokerStars has members. Finally, the sum of the metro populations of the top six largest U.S. cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, and Philadelphia) is about 20 million.

In December, PokerStars set out to shatter records by holding the World’s Largest Online Poker Tournament to enshrine itself in the Guinness Book of World Records. It hosted an $11 buy-in $500,000 guaranteed tournament that attracted a capped field of 35,000 players. The groundbreaking event was won by PokerStars member stan34powa, who took home $30,000 for his efforts. At the beginning of the World Record tournament, PokerStars etched its name into the Guinness publication for the Most Players to Simultaneously Play Poker Online at 250,500.

The site’s Sunday Million boasts the largest weekly online prize pool, $1.5 million. The $215 buy-in event regularly attracts over 8,000 players and doles out a first place prize in excess of $200,000. Last week, life-changing money was won by StefanProdan, who took home $209,000 for the win. Other sizable prizes went to jbrown04 (second place for $141,223), Bob Vitis (third place for $96,170), wywrotX (fourth place for $77,976), WlkRambo (fifth place for $60,648), IRENE666 (sixth place for $43,320), Princess480 (seventh place for $30,324), G6Dragon (eighth place for $19,927), and Vincent Eley (ninth place for $12,130). PokerStars also keeps its clientele entertained with the Sunday Warm-Up and Second Chance every week. The tournaments feature $750,000 and $250,000 guaranteed prize pools, respectively.

In addition to Moneymaker, Team PokerStars Pro also includes 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer and 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem. Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu represent the online poker site at a bevy of live poker tournaments. Its flagship female player, Vanessa Rousso, recently appeared in the 2009 Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated and was just named the newest Go Daddy Girl, joining Danica Patrick and Candice Michelle. Team PokerStars Pro also features renowned female players Isabelle Mercier and Katja Thater. Other card-carrying players include Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Humberto Brenes, Lee Nelson, Victor Ramdin, and Hevad Khan. Two members of the inaugural WSOP November Nine, the players at the final table of the 2008 WSOP Main Event, have also joined the site’s ranks: Ylon Schwartz and Dennis Phillips.

PokerStars serves as the presenting sponsor of the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Russian Poker Tour (RPT), Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT). Online, it hosts the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), which debuts next month. The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, a sanctioned EPT event, is held at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in Nassau, The Bahamas each January.