PokerStars micromillions gives winner second Christmas win

POKERSTARS MICROMILLIONS GIVES WINNER SECOND CHRISTMAS WIN

42,036 players enter MicroMillions Main Event with 7,865 players winning cash.

ONCHAN, Isle of Man – December 2016 – Thousands of players have been claiming early Christmas presents in the PokerStars Christmas Calendar, but for Stian ‘SlemPastor’ Hansen, the festive season is definitely one to remember. He celebrated the anniversary of his first big poker win of $40,000 by scooping $70,310.99 and the $22 MicroMillions Marathon Main Event title, all part of the online Christmas Festival promotion, organised by PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand.

POKERSTARS MICROMILLIONS GIVES WINNER SECOND CHRISTMAS WIN The 22-year-old from Oslo, Norway, said, “My biggest win was the Supersonic last Christmas for $40,000 on PokerStars, so this was sort of my anniversary.” To celebrate, he plans to travel and bring his poker skills to some live poker events in 2017.

For more than ten hours, Hansen, battling as ‘SlemPastor’, his PokerStars alias, beat fatigue to top the 42,036-strong field to win the Main Event, devouring a smorgasboard of players along the way such as runner-up ‘Fofan10’ from Russia and Estonian ‘markzil’ in third.

The next big tournament of the Christmas Festival promotion takes place December 26, when the festive celebrations conclude with the $2M guaranteed Monday Million. Players can buy in for $215 directly or win their seat via satellites starting from just $1 currently running around the clock at PokerStars.com.

The MicroMillions Marathon Main Event was the culmination of 25 micro- and low-stake tournaments throughout December 11. The lowest stake tournament on offer had a buy-in of just $0.11 but saw the winner, ‘kiskutyus23’, beat a field of 22,403 entries to scoop the top prize of $1,236.57, a massive return 11,000 times greater than the original stake.

The Christmas Festival continues to run online at PokerStars.com. Players can unlock a new festive offer every day as part of the Christmas Calendar in their Challenges Window on the desktop client or mobile app.

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About PokerStars

PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker sites, serving the global poker community. Since it launched in 2001, PokerStars has become the first choice of players all over the world, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best online security. More than 155 billion hands have been dealt on PokerStars, which is more than any other site.

PokerStars is the flagship brand of Rational Group, which is ultimately owned by Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) and operates gaming-related businesses and brands, including PokerStars, Full Tilt, StarsDraft, BetStars, PokerStars Casino and the PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival live poker tour brands (incorporating the European Poker Tour, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker Tour and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour). Amaya, through certain subsidiaries, is licensed, approved to offer, or offers under third party licenses or approvals, its products and services in various jurisdictions throughout the world, including in Europe, both within and outside of the European Union, the Americas and elsewhere. In particular, PokerStars is the world’s most licensed online gaming brand, holding licenses or related operating approvals in 16 jurisdictions. PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate globally under licenses from the Isle of Man and Malta governments, respectively.

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