To celebrate their 75 billionth hand, PokerStars recently handed out some sizable cash prizes to the players involved. The action in question revolved around a match of $1/$2 Limit Hold’em, covering six individuals.
At the time of the dealing, there were some 200,000 players active on the PokerStars servers. Once the hand was scheduled, the fortunate six were informed of their participation in the milestone. A short break was taken to allow outside viewers to log in and watch, after which action was resumed.
The way PokerStars structures the rules in these milestone hands is interesting. While everyone who participates snags at least some free cash, the winner earns an extra-hefty profit. As such, every one of the table’s six players bet their respective hearts out at each turn. In the end, however, it came down to two individuals splitting the pot with seven-high straights on a board of 5s3s7s6hTc.
Though the hand itself may have been somewhat anticlimactic, the free money more than made up for any perceived lack of drama. The player taking home the largest chunk of the prize was edroqui07, who snagged an incredible $42,810. This is made all the more impressive by the fact that he held some $35.92 at the beginning of the hand.
Next on the list was acer2831, who received $34,600 for his share of the split pot. Prior to this, he’d held just $22.36. The rest of the participants each netted somewhere in the neighborhood of $16-$20,000.
Here, courtesy of the PokerStars blog, are the comments of the lucky players after being informed of their earnings:
edroqui07: $42,810… “yeeeaaaaaaaaaa”
acer2831: $34,600
i-268: $19,450… “awesome, ty”
ant_poker: $19,010… “ooooh”
Sebastfrz: $16,970
pavl007: $16,970… “enough for a sandwich”
This practice of handing out free cash to users participating in milestone hands will continue. Keep an eye on the ticker, and make plans to log on once 80,000,000,000 draws near.