Yesterday, Sunday, PokerStars, the world’s largest poker website, hosted a special tournament with a $1 buy-in, no registration fee, a $50.000 first prize. And a staggering 200,000 entrants.
Places 10,001 through 12,150 paid $4.00 each. Unfortunately, your Digital Journal correspondent didn’t quite make the prize money, in spite of this classic outdraw below.
This was a world record by a big margin; imagine the complexity of a software program that can handle 200,000 individual poker hands. There was a bit of a delay here and there but nothing fatal. With $50,000 added to the prize pool, no registration fee, a $1 buy-in and satellites, this was always going to be a full house.
6 hours 22 minutes before the start, it was almost full.
6 hours 22 minutes before its scheduled start, the tournament is almost full.
Below is the tournament lobby nearly 3 hours before the scheduled start.
2 hours 49 minutes before the scheduled start, and there are no seats left at the table.
Below: By the second hand, someone already had over 8K chips, but this is No Limit Texas Hold ’Em, a wild game at the best of times.
The second hand of the tournament, and look at the chip leader.
Below, 22 minutes into the tournament, the chip leader had over 20k.
The tournament is 22 minutes old, and already someone has a massive stack.
Although your humble correspondent finished out of the money in the big one, he did make the money in a low limit Razz tournament with a small field winning $4.78, and later, he won the E5.00 + E.50 Pot Limit Razz on Ladbrokes, a small field, and a small profit, but as Dirty Harry said at the end of Magnum Force – “Man’s got to know his limitations”.
Your correspondent finished 10th in a Razz tournament on PokerStars the same afternoon as the world record was set.
The first hand on the final table; they all fold to an all-in.
Below, the final table, all-in pre-flop with jacks v 9s, and another one bites the dust.
The final table – and another one bites the dust.
Oops! Queens lose to aces, but RaZorFaZor won’t have been too unhappy as he did walk away with $8,000 for a $1 buy-in!
The tournament ends when the last three remaining players agree to a final table deal.
The tournament is over; the three remaining players agree to a deal.
[The above article was published originally December 5, 2011 with the 11 screengrabs here.]
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