Royal Poker Blog

For the final week of 2008 PokerStars is doing something very special. With your help,World Record Week will see PokerStars try and break yet another Guinness World Record, as well as host a series of fantastic tournaments and cash giveaways. So get festive and settle in for a brilliant week-long blow-out at PokerStars.

On December 28, 2008, 35,000 PokerStars players, will attempt to break the World Record for the ‘Largest Online Poker Tournament’ and become part of an actual Guinness World Record. It’s a great opportunity to do something special during the holiday season, as well as compete for a $500k guaranteed prize pool.

We also want to celebrate the end of another fantastic year by giving away cash, by staging special money-added tournaments, as well as a Team PokerStars Proexhibition event. And that’s not all. We’ll also be increasing the guarantees in some of our major Sunday tournaments, we‘re offering our players a special Reload Bonus, and we’ll be hosting some amazing Sit & Go’s with cash added.

For full details, follow the links below to find out more about the incredible action coming your way.

• Reload Bonus
• Guinness World Record Attempt
• $2.5 Million Sunday Million
• Extra Sunday Million Satellites
• $1 Million Sunday Warm-Up
• 10,000 player Sit & Go’s
• Milestone Hands
• Team PokerStars Pro Championship Match

Reload Bonus

To celebrate the holidays, PokerStars is giving players a special gift - a 25% Reload Bonus. Make a qualifying deposit during World Record Week to qualify for the bonus cash.

• 25% up to $150 reload bonus
• Qualifying period is from December 24 at 14:00 ET to December 31 at 23:59 ET
• To receive the bonus you must enter the code PS25 into the bonus code area of the Cashier when making your qualifying deposit
• Players must earn 20 VPPs per bonus dollar to earn the bonus (example: to earn a $150 bonus you must earn 3,000 VPPs). Required VPPs must be earned within 6 months of your qualifying deposit. To earn the entire $150 bonus, your first eligible deposit during the bonus period must be $600 or more

For full Reload Bonus details, see our 25% Bonus page.

Guinness World Record Attempt

This is your chance to play in the largest online poker tournament in history, and to be part of a Guinness World Record. We’re aiming for 35,000 players, and with a buy-in of $11, it’s easy to take part.

• Sunday, December 28 at 15:30 ET
• $500k guaranteed prize pool
• $11 buy-in
• 35,000 capacity
• Registration is now open!

To find the tournament, go to the PokerStars Lobby and select ‘Tourney’ and ‘Regular’ or ‘Special’. Or simply use the Tourney Filter in the Lobby to search for the tournament name. To use the Filter, open the PokerStars Lobby and enter a word or words from the tournament title. The Filter will then search all tournaments and provide you with the relevant results.

$2.5 Million Sunday Million

That’s right, we’re upping the guaranteed prize pool to make World Record Week’s Sunday Million an event to remember!

• Sunday, December 28 at 16:30 ET
• $2,500,000 guaranteed prize pool
• $215 buy-in
• Satellites, including VIP satellites (see below)
• Registration is now open!

To find the tournament, go to the PokerStars Lobby and select ‘Tourney’ and then ‘Regular’ or ‘Special’. You can also use the Tourney Filter in the Lobby to search for the tournament.

Extra Sunday Million Satellites

PokerStars is running extra FPP qualifiers for the World Record Week Sunday Million. Take your shot at an incredible $2.5 million prize pool.

• 50 FPP MTT Turbo, Wednesday-Saturday at 15:00 ET and Sunday at 13:30 ET, 99 tickets awarded
• 1,300 FPP Turbo, Saturday, December 27 at 14:40 ET, available to SilverStar VIPs and above
• 2,500 FPP Turbo satellite Sunday December 28 at 14:30 ET, PlatinumStar VIPs and above
• 1,000 FPP MTT Turbo, Wednesday-Saturday at 21:00 ET, 99 tickets awarded
• 50 FPP satellites at 15:00 ET on December 24, 25, 26 and 27
• 500 FPP satellites at 23:00 ET on December 25, 26 and 27
• 1,000 FPP satellites at 21:00 ET on December 24, 25, 26 and 27

To find the satellites, go to the PokerStars Lobby and select ‘Tourney’ and ‘Satellite’. You can also search for the satellites using the Tourney Filter.

$1 Million Sunday Warm-Up

The Sunday Warm-Up will also feature a bigger prize pool in World Record Week, with a guarantee of $1,000,000.

• Sunday, December 28 at 12:45 ET
• Registration is now open!
• Satellites, including VIP satellites will run all week
• VIP satellites will run in the same format as the Extra Sunday Million satellites, as above

To find the tournament, open the PokerStars Lobby and select ‘Tourney’ and ‘Regular’ or ‘Special’. The Tourney Filter can also help you locate the tournament.

10,000 player Sit & Go’s

Also running during World Record Week will be a series of 10,000 player Sit & Go’s, with extra cash added to the prize pools. We expect these to fill up very quickly, so be sure not to miss out.

• $1 buy-in
• Up to 10 tournaments will run during the weekend of December 27-28, 2008
• $10,000 added to each Sit & Go
• Tournaments will appear in the Lobby on December 27 and begin when 10,000 players have registered. Once one tournament is full, it will start immediately and be replaced by another event

To find the tournaments, go to the PokerStars Lobby and select ‘Sit & Go’ and ‘All’. These tournaments can also be found by using the Sit & Go Filter.

Milestone Hands

During World Record Week we will be giving away cash on Milestone Hands* that are dealt in cash ring games. Players involved in each one millionth hand dealt during the week December 24 at 14:00 ET until December 31 at 23:59 ET will receive the following:

This giveaway will also feature a VIP multiplier, with bonuses for the following VIP tiers:

For example, if you were dealt into a Milestone Hand on a Medium stakes table and won the hand, you’d receive $1,000. If you are also a Goldstar VIP, you’d receive an additional $300 (30% Bonus).

Team PokerStars Pro Championship Match

This is definitely one to look forward to. All members of Team PokerStars Pro have been invited to play in an exhibition tournament to determine this year’s Team PokerStars Pro Champion.

• Sunday, December 28 at 13:00 ET
• 8-Game format
• Top 3 players will have cash prizes donated to charity by PokerStars on their behalf; 1st: $15K, 2nd: $10K, 3rd: $5K
• Winner will also be named captain of Team PokerStars Pro for the PokerStars All-Star Weekend, a brand new online team competition coming next year

To watch this exciting tournament, open the PokerStars Lobby select ‘Tourney’ and ‘Special’. This tournament can also be found by using the Tourney Filter in the Lobby.

The Match will be replayed a few days after the tournament has finished, with all hole cards shown, so you can see how our Pros think and act in the different games. These unmissable replays can be found in the PokerStars Lobby by selecting ‘Tournament’ and ‘All’.