PokerStars Sets Tournament Record

This past Sunday, PokerStars set an online poker tournament record in its Sunday Million. No, Stars didn’t fill half the seats with its players at the World Series of Poker, although the way Stars runs, that might happen someday. The record the online poker room did set was the largest number of players ever to play in a real money poker tournament, live or online – 10,508.

This insane number of entrants was attracted because PokerStars added an extra million dollars to the weekly tournament, in celebration of the one year anniversary of the
$200 buy-in Sunday Million. As one would expect, the normal prize pool is still an astounding one million dollars.

The top five finishers all banked six-figure payouts, with $131,971 going to the winner, a Dane who goes by the screen name "Zeddor."

The Sunday Million has not always been the Sunday “million.” The tournament has been a staple every Sunday since 2003, but not until February 2006 did the guaranteed prize pool become one million dollars. Prior to that, the prize pool was “only” $100,000.

Originally published 6:27 PM Tuesday, March 13, 2007