PokerStars Breaks World Record With Massive 20,000 Player Poker Tournament

[Fonzi]

Largest Online Poker Site Hits 10 Million Customer Milestone

DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Aug. 8, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The results are in. The world's official home game resides not in a college dorm, musty basement or the backroom of a local saloon. It lives online at PokerStars.com.

PokerStars, the world's largest online poker site, shattered the record for the largest cash poker tournament on July 29th with the Sunday Hundred Grand. The tournament drew a field of 20,000 online poker players to the largest cash tournament in history. First place finisher Lynna1 captured the top prize, netting her $20,000 and an almost 2,000% return on investment after only a $10+$1 buy-in.

Surpassing yet another landmark, PokerStars recorded its 10 millionth customer. In just one year, PokerStars has doubled its community of players from 5 million to 10 million. Proving that poker has become a truly worldwide phenomenon, PokerStars is attracting players from nearly every country on the planet.

"No other site brings the level of excitement, skill, and challenge that poker players crave," said recently signed Team PokerStars Member Daniel Negreanu. "The Sunday tournaments on PokerStars provide an unrivaled opportunity to prove your poker prowess with a lucrative prize pool that matches the highest level of competition."

The Sunday Hundred Grand is one of several high-profile tournaments offered by PokerStars each week. Every Sunday, the Sunday Hundred Grand joins other such tournament favorites as the Sunday Million, Sunday Warm-Up, High Stakes Showdown, as well as a myriad of other popular events of various types and buy-in levels, making PokerStars the clear favorite among poker players each and every Sunday. In fact, the Sunday Hundred Grand has broken the attendance record for a single cash poker tournament in every week for the past five weeks since its debut on July 8, 2007.

Every month, PokerStars awards upwards of $200 million in cash, prizes, and all-expense paid vacations to some of the most alluring travel destinations and world famous casinos. With tournaments like the Sunday Million, the first tournament to offer a $1 million guarantee every week, and annual events such as the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the World Cup of Poker, PokerStars consistently hosts some of the most lucrative and renowned online tournaments. In fact, over $18.5 million was awarded to players over the course of 18 events that comprised the 2006 WCOOP.

About PokerStars:

PokerStars is the world's largest and most innovative online poker site with more than ten million players worldwide. PokerStars was the first site to introduce features that became the industry standard and offers the highest levels of security and customer support in the online poker world. To date, PokerStars has dealt out over ten billion hands and run more than 50 million poker tournaments, awarding well over $7 billion in prize money. PokerStars is the world's largest poker tournament room running over 50,000 tournaments every day. In February 2006, PokerStars.com entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first poker website ever to reach the 100,000 simultaneous player mark. The PokerStars Sunday Million weekly event is the largest weekly tournament on the planet with a $1 million guaranteed tournament prize pool.

PokerStars is the title sponsor of the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Each fall, PokerStars hosts the world's largest online tournament, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which last year featured a record prize pool of over $18 million. PokerStars also sponsors major events around the globe, such as the World Cup of Poker and other exciting tournaments. WSOP Champions Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem lead Team PokerStars and prove the PokerStars credo as the Place Where Poker Players Become World Champions.(tm) For more information, go to Poker - Online Poker Games at PokerStars - Play Texas Holdem.