The hands may have slowed down a bit on PokerStars since Black Friday, but that doesn’t mean the action isn’t still fast and furious at the world’s largest online poker room. And just as the beat goes on, so does the march towards 100 billion hands. In the meantime, there are some other milestone hands to pass on the way to the big one-oh-oh (with a bunch more “oh’s” after that). Next up: 75 billion. To celebrate, as PokerStars is wont to do, the poker room is giving away up to a million dollars over the next several days as part of its “Road to 100 Billion” promotion.
The promotion is quite simple. All players have to do for a chance to win is play at any real money ring game table. The good news in this promo is that everyone has the same chance to win. High stakes players are at no real advantage over micro stakes players. The bad news is that it is all luck, as the way to win is to be dealt into a millionth hand (ex: 74,801,000,000 or 74,950,000,000).
But, if you are one of the lucky ones to be dealt into a milestone hand, you could receive quite the windfall. Anyone dealt into one of the millionth hands will receive a base cash prize of $20 plus $60 multiplied by the number of VIP Player Points (VPPs) earned during the previous 50 hands at that table (note: it’s the VPPs at that table, not across all tables). For example, someone who is dealt into a milestone hand and has earned 28 VPPs in the previous 50 hands at that same table will win $1,700 ($20 base prize + $60 x 28). Whoever wins the milestone hand will have their prize doubled.
And then there is the Mega Milestone hand, the 75 billionth hand, where the stakes are increased dramatically. Those dealt into the big hand will receive a base prize of $10,000 and have added to that $1,000 times the number of VPPs earned at that table during the last 50 hands. Thus, using the same example from above, a player who has earned 28 VPPs during the past 50 hands would win $38,000. And again, the winner of the hand will see their prize doubled. If you are one of the lucky ones to be dealt into the 75 billionth hand, by all means, do not fold pre-flop! In one of the lesser milestone hands, there could actually be some justification for doing so if the VPPs earned leading up to the hand wouldn’t produce a large enough jackpot to make up for the loss of a buy-in, but only the very highest stakes players would have a chance to be at risk of a loss in the Mega Milestone hand.
If the pot is split, every player who won some piece of the main pot will see their prize doubled.
Remember, tournament hands do not count in this promotion. Cash games are what matter. The overall hand number can be seen at the top of each table, so it is always easy to see how close the next milestone is. Best of luck to everyone!
