Category: Pokerstars

Pokerstars Re-Entering US via New Jersey

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pokerstars to re-enter new jersey marketResorts Casino Hotel and The Rational Group, operator of PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, have come to an agreement to provide online poker to the residents of New Jersey, the companies announced today. The agreement links the first casino to open in Atlantic City with the biggest online poker company in the world. “This is another blue chip partner for Resorts to complete a wonderful series of brands – Mohegan Sun, Margaritaville and now PokerStars,” said Morris Bailey, Resorts’ Company Chairman.

“Resorts is a fantastic partner for us and we are looking forward to launch PokerStars in the U.S. in association with the other quality brands Resorts has brought to Atlantic City,” said Mark Scheinberg, CEO of The Rational Group. “We are very happy to invest in New Jersey and we are excited about building a successful relationship with Resorts.” The agreement is pending approval by the New Jersey regulatory authorities.

Many online poker players have been hitting the poker forums and expressing their desire to now move to New Jersey. No word yet on whether Full Tilt Poker which is also owned and operated by The Rational Group will also be opening up to NJ poker players.

PokerStars Finalizes Deal to buy Full Tilt Poker

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PokerstarsReliable sources have informed Holdem Poker Chat that PokerStars has finalized a deal with The Department of Justice to take over the assets of Full Tilt Poker.  Details  remain elusive but the happy news for poker players is that any deal with the DoJ always had to include the return of funds stuck on the defunct Full Tilt Poker.

The waiting game has begun, but we have never been this close to players getting paid, and at long last there is real hope. To quote Sir Winston Churchill:  “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

UPDATE: It’s now official http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/corporate_blog/2012/pokerstars-settles-with-united-states-doj-096492.html

More On PokerStars Road to 100 Billion: Milestone Hands

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Now that we’ve brought you up to speed on the 80 Billionth Hand promotion at Poker Stars, we thought we’d take a moment to help you maximize your possible winnings in this promotion.

As we mentioned in our previous post on the subject, prize winnings are based on the VPPs a player is holding when seated in a milestone hand. To be seated in a milestone hand, simply play as often as you can, and at as many tables at once as you can manage. To earn the maximum prize you can for that stellar timing, read on…

Can’t Play on Pokerstars? Check out our list of top US Poker Sites

All players dealt into a milestone hand earn a prize equal to their VPP total over the last 50 hands cumulatively multiplied by $60, with an additional $20 tacked on to that total. The hand’s winner gets twice that amount.

There are 300 regular milestone hands in this leg of the Road to 100 Billion Hands, and then there’s the Mega Milestone 80 Billionth Hand. If you’re dealt into that hand, you get $10,000 plus $1,000 for each VPP you earned over the last 50 hands, while the hand’s winner gets double that.

After this leg of the Road to 100 Billion Hands is over, the next leg will come around 3 billion hands before the 85 billionth hand.

VIP Points are one of two rewards points currencies offered at Poker Stars, the other being FPPs. Ordinarily, VPPs determine players’ status level in the Poker Stars rewards club while FPPs are redeemed for rewards.

Get Back On The Poker Stars Road to 100 Billion

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You remember the Poker Stars Road to 100 Billion promotion, don’t you? It’s been a periodic staple at Poker Stars for a while now, as the site slowly (or maybe not so slowly) progresses toward its target of 100 billion hands dealt in its history, at various increments offering players a cash bonus for happening to participate in a 1 millionth hand milestone as the next 5 billion hand milestone nears. Last time that big 5 billionth hand milestone was the 75 billionth hand dealt. Now that next big milestone, the 80 billionth hand dealt at Poker Stars, is about to happen, and you can win a share of up to a $1 million prize pool for being there as it happens.

To win yourself a share of that million dollar prize pool, simply be playing in any millionth hand between 79,700,000,000 and 80,000,000,000, based on the hand history counter built into the Poker Stars software. So, for example, if you’re playing in hand number 79,703,000,000,000, you’ll win a prize.

And the best part is, you win cash for simply being dealt cards in that hand, no matter how you fare in the actual hand. The winner of the hand, however, receives the lion’s share of the prize pool for that hand.

Already at the time of this writing, on Friday morning, 11:41 am ET, Poker Stars is up to the 79,527,155,345th hand dealt. So you’d better hurry. There’s no time to waste before the 80 billionth hand is dealt and the biggest prize of all, $20,000 for that hand’s winner.

Pokerstars Releases Zoom Poker Beta – Fastest Poker Format Yet

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Pokerstars has just come out with the fastest format for playing online poker cash games yet. They’re calling it, appropriately, Zoom Poker, and right now at the site, player’s can test out this new advent in a Beta version.

As mentioned already, Zoom Poker is a cash game format. One of the features that makes Zoom Poker is most distinctive is that your opponents change each hand. Instead of playing against the same players at your table each hand, you’ll be playing against a pool of players and switched up among tables. How does this make game play faster?

Because you get switched to a newly dealing active hand the instant you fold out of any hand. That way, you’re not sitting around waiting for the hand to play out before you get your turn to jump in the game again. Instead you just jump, right away, from one to the other.

They even have a button called “Fast Fold” that allows to Fold whenever your ready, without having to wait for your turn to come around again.

Players can now find a special Zoom tab mixed in with the other game types in their PokerStars lobby. Usually you’ll be started out in the Big Blind when you first sit in to play Zoom Poker. Seating is random from that point onward. Which players are on the Blinds is determined based on which player at each newly formed table has been on the respective Blinds the least.

Poker Stars Celebrates 6th Anniversary of Sunday Million with $6 Million Guaranteed

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Poker Stars is celebrating the coming 6th anniversary of its revered Sunday Million tournament with a special installment of the event this Sunday, March 11, 2012 featuring a $6 million guaranteed prize pool and a $1 million guaranteed first prize.

The 6th Anniversary Sunday Million starts at 2:30 pm ET this Sunday. The buy-in is $215 if you just want to secure your seat directly. But you could opt to play in the satellite series running now at PokerStars and perhaps win yourself a $215 seat in the big anniversary tournament. There are literally hundreds of these satellites running now at PokerStars, including a special event at which 1,000 seats in the 6th Anniversary of the PokerStars Sunday Million will be awarded. That one takes place just before the action starts in the $6 million Sunday Million, while feeder satellites are running now for buy-ins as low as $1.

Many of the Team PokerStars pros can be expected to turn out for this event, including very likely, Liv Boeree, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Johnny Lodden, Jason Mercier and Lex Veldhuis.

Since the Sunday Million’s inception in 2006 when the first ever winner was the USA’s own aaaaaaaa (before the USA locked its players out of such excitement), Poker Stars has held 278 installments of the event, with a total playing field of 2,116,513 vying for a total prize pool given away of $444,149,600.

You can find the registration buttons for both the $6 million Sunday Million 6th Anniversary and the satellites into that event by going to Tourneys in your PokerStars software and then clicking Special.

Poker Stars Celebrates 75th Billionth Hand

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For about a year now, Pokerstars has been on the Road to 100 Billion hands dealt, celebrating the imminent approach of that major milestone with several smaller, incremental milestones, each with a $1 million prize pool up for grabs.

For every millionth hand dealt at the Poker Stars cash game tables between 74.7 billionth and the mega milestone 75 billionth hands, the site will award cash prizes of up to thousands of dollars to the players in that hand. The winner of each milestone hand will win the largest portion of the milestone’s prize pool while the rest is split evenly amongst the other players in the hand.

Of course the 75 billionth mega milestone hand offers the largest prize, with that hand’s winner getting $20,000 minimum.

Poker Stars even offers its players a number of tips on how to increase their chances of being in one (or more) of the milestone hands and how to maximize the prize amount you receive at those times. The best way to increase your shot at being dealt into a milestone hand is to multi-table, that is to play on more than one table at a time.

One way to increase your prize amount is to make the sessions you play longer. This is because the more you play, the more VPP (or VIP Player Points) you earn. The prize amounts you receive for participating in milestone hands is based on this number. Therefore, earning as many VPPs as you can before you hit a milestone hand means your prizes are bigger. Another way to do this is playing in higher action games like Limit Texas Holdem and PL Omaha.

Poker Stars Runs Regional Poker Promotions All Year Long

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On top of the poker promotions that Poker Stars offers to all of its players, the site also hosts a massive amount of promotions that are available soley to players who live in specific regions of the world.

For players in CIS countries, PokerStars is hosting a We Are Poker promotion involving three weekly final tournaments with freeroll and $0.55 qualifiers and prizes of iPods, iPads and poker gear in honor of the site’s new TV ad campaign.

PokerStars is hosting satellites into the EPT Copenhagen main event strictly for players in Nordic countries. These run from January 20 to 29, 2012 with the actual prize packages (5 in all) to be awarded in a €215 Nordic EPT qualifier on Sunday, January 29.

Players in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are eligible for the Play With Martin Staszko promotion giving players the chance to win a seat at the Team PokerStars Pro’s private table and a share of a cash prize pool in the thousands.

PokerStars is hosting an Asia Poker League available only to players living in Asia. This consists of free and $0.10 qualifiers that lead to daily tournaments with points rewards. Those points are then calculated to determine the players among whom to divide the weekly $500 prize pool.

The site also runs an ANZ Tournament Leader Board tracking the progress of players living in Australia and New Zealand and awarding the top performers TLB points, cash and tournament entries.

Players living in Malaysia and Singapore can enter Causeway Freerolls with $100 prize pools.

Poker Stars Launches $100,000 Depositor Freerolls

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Pokerstars is now holding four special freeroll tournaments per day, each with a $1,000 guaranteed prize pool. To earn tickets into all of these freerolls for a 31-day period, a player need only make a deposit into their real money PokerStars player account. This promotion is open to new and existing players both.

New players should use the promo code STARS600 when making their deposit so that they’re also still eligible to receive the regular Poker Stars new player bonus: a 100% match up to $600. Existing players making this deposit as a reload deposit should just use the code 100K.

Whether a new or current PokerStars player, after your initial 31 days of four $1,000 freerolls per day is complete, simply reload your account with an additional deposit and you get to play in all the freerolls for the next 31 days.

You can do this once per month, allowing you, if you wish, to play in all 4 daily $1k freerolls indefinitely.

PokerStars’ $1,000 Freerolls utilize a freebuy format which means that within the first 1 hour of play, any player can rebuy as much as they want for a cost of $0.30 each time. That $0.30, of course, is then added to the prize pool.

The $1,000 Freerolls can be found in the PokerStars lobby under Tourney and Freeroll tabs and take place at 04:00, 10:00, 15:00 and 21:00 ET each day.

Remember, this is only happening for a limited time. Make your deposit before April 19 to get a full 31 days of freerolls in. You can still make qualifying deposits after that time, but you’ll only get as many days of freerolls as remains until May 20.

Poker Stars Presents TCOOP Ticket Deposit Offer

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Coming soon to Poker Stars is its first ever Turbo Championship of Online Poker, a fast-paced online poker tournament series with a $10 million guaranteed prize pool. And now, Poker Stars players can earn free tickets into TCOOP.

To get your free TCOOP ticket, worth $22, reload your real money Poker Stars account with $60 ore more sometime from January 9 to 18, 2012. And be sure to use the promo code TCOOP when you make your deposit in order to be credited the free ticket.

There are a couple of ways you can then use this $22 free entry you’ve acquired. Either redeem it for entry into a satellite tourney awarding free entries into TCOOP events with buy-ins larger than $22 or redeem it directly for entry into a TCOOP event with a buy-in of $22 or less.

There are seven TCOOP events that have $22 buy-ins:
• January 19 at 12 noon ET, NL Holdem 6-max for $200,000
• January 20 at 8 am ET, Pot Limit Draw Poker for $50,000
• January 20 at 12 noon ET, NL Holdem with rebuys for $400,000
• January 22 at 3:30 pm ET, Pot Limit Omaha, double turbo 6-max with rebuys for $150,000
• January 24 at 4 pm ET, Stud Poker for $25,000
• January 24 at 6 pm ET, NL Holdem double turbo with rebuys for $300,000
• January 25 at 2 pm ET, Stud Hi/Lo for $25,000

You must use your free TCOOP ticket for this upcoming TCOOP, meaning that as of 18:31 ET on January 29, 2012, all free tickets awarded through this promotion will be invalidated.