Congratulations to PokerStars for breaking their own world record for the biggest online tournament of all time.
The poker site more than doubled its previous World Guinness best of 65,000 by luring a whopping 149,196 people to the tables with a $1 entry fee and $50,000 first prize.
Sunday 27 December was a cunning piece of tournament planning, as the event was sandwiched between Boxing Day and Bank Holiday Monday – a time when people were desperate to escape from Uncle Bob, turkey soup and a shocking TV line-up – I mean, seriously, Jack Black and Jude Law want shooting for agreeing to get involved with ‘The Holiday’. The added bonus was that players could stay up and play poker without worrying about having to get up for work the next day.
Coming post-Xmas is also a time when people have maxed out on their credit cards, so can’t go out but are sorely tempted by the fuck-it buy-in of $1. I know I would have definitely taken part had I not been obliged to visit the in-laws for round 3 of serious overindulgence.
What PokerStars also mastered well was the speed of the tournament. Despite a number of entrants that would have filled both Wembley and The Emirates stadiums combined – it took just six hours to complete the event. Such is the beauty of the online format.
I don’t know about you, but the thought of winning $50,000 in an evening’s work for an outlay of 1$ is pretty appealing – as is the fact that wat least 30,000 cashed in something. In fact the more yours truly thinks about it the more he is particularly pissed off at not having got home in time to join in.
Other poker sites would do well to follow suit, because the temptation of winning something for nothing is a timeless business formula and with networks desperate to lure the fish to increasingly shark-infested waters this idea is a surefire winner. January 2 anyone?
For the record the first prize was won by Oskar69, who PokerStars inform us resisted the temptation to cut a deal at the final table and scooped the full bounty for his troubles.
$300,000 Guarantee World Record Tournament Results (27/12/09)
1. oskar69 (garbsen) $50,000.00
2. Bommel222 (Steirer) $30,000.00
3. TLWPB (Kiel) $20,000.00
4. willis59 (billingham) $10,000.00
5. kruglay (Samara) $8,000.00
6. madmick62 (Basingstoke) $6,500.00
7. DS1982 (Lier) $5,250.00
8. denmil53 (mpls) $4,000.00
9. bigsnapper7 (brisbane) $3,000.00
