It’s hard to believe that PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, is about to deal its 60 billionth hand. Yes, that’s billion with a “b” and PokerStars officials are expecting the milestone pot to occur sometime in the next eight or nine days. The site happily accepts players from the United States.
Starting at hand #59.7 billion, the first of 300 regular milestone hands will occur. They take place every one million hands and any player dealt into them will receive $50 for each VIP Player Point (VPP) they earned during the previous 50 hands at that table. In addition, every player dealt to will receive a base prize of 50 bucks. The winner of every milestone hand will have their prize doubled as an extra special bonus.
Again, there are a total of 300 regular milestone hands and we’d expect that cash game volume on PokerStars will skyrocket when the 59.7 billionth hand is dealt. According to the traffic watchdog site PokerScout.com, PokerStars is the largest site in existence and boasts a seven-day running average of 30,200 real money ring game players, with a 24-hour peak of nearly 50,000.
Players involved in the 60 billionth hand are in for quite a treat. Instead of receiving $50 for every VPP earned in the previous 50 hands, players will find a multiplier of $500. A base prize of $500 will be distributed and, once again, the winner of the hand will get their loot doubled. As if that weren’t enough, whoever is fortunate enough to scoop the 60 billionth hand will, appropriately, pick up an extra $60,000 in cash.
Text found on PokerStars’ website notes that the grand prize could be quite hefty: “The winner of the Mega Milestone will also have their prize money doubled, and will also receive $60,000 on top – which means a grand total of tens of thousands of dollars!” If the 60 billionth hand involves a split pot, then the $60,000 will be divvied up accordingly. All told, PokerStars expects to give away $1 million during the promotion.
Last September, PokerStars dealt its 50 billionth hand. After players at the table moved all-in to try to capitalize on the extra cash up for grabs, “tbvle” took the hand down with pocket queens and collected $56,000. He also received a $5,200 seat into the World Championship of Online Poker Main Event, which ran several days later.
A $2/$4 No Limit Hold’em table played host to the 40 billionth hand on PokerStars, which was dealt 13 months go. After making a full house on the river, “Senecady” walked away with $24,000 for winning the landmark pot. There were nearly 300,000 players logged into the site across 41,000 tables when the moment occurred as players desperately tried to be one of the lucky few to be dealt into the 40 billionth hand.
Members of TwoPlusTwo were hopeful that PokerStars would offer a cash bonus in addition to the milestone hand promotion. One poster wrote, “Just having those bonus hands is pretty boring imo. Unless I happen to win the 60 billionth one, then it’s awesome. Like winning the lottery though.”
Currently, just over 59.5 billion hands have been dealt. PokerStars has a running count displayed on its homepage and, if you’re logged into the client, look in the upper left corner of a table to see what hand number the site is on. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be writing about you winning the 60 billionth hand.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily to see who wins. If you don’t already have an account at PokerStars, then the 60 billionth hand promotion is the perfect excuse. Sign up now.
