In exactly two hours (take a few minutes off that as I type slow) one of the largest tournaments ever on PokerStars will get under way. Quite frankly seeing is believing.

I checked the PokerStars lobby a few minutes ago and the number of players registered for the first Common Cents event is simply staggering. A total of 226,000 (and rising) so far. Don't even think about clicking "see list of players". That won't be available until 20,000 remain.

Here's more proof of how ridiculous these numbers are. If you converted that into a real world event, and seated everyone at an actual table, the area of land would be the same as Belgium. Actually, that might not be true - I don't actually know - but 220,000 players is something like 25,000 tables. Just finding your table could take a week.

Of course the reason for this popularity is obvious, and the clue is very much in the name of the event. The opening Common Cents event costs a mere penny to play. One cent. I'm not sure there's a poker player alive without a bankroll capable of meeting that.

And there's more. While the buy in is ridiculously small, the potential windfall is ridiculously big in comparison. With a guaranteed $100,000 in the prize pool there's $10,000 of that for the winner - a simple and startling ROI calculation if there ever was one.

Later events promise even more, with a main event to finish off the series with a buy-in of 99 cents. Too rich? Well main event tickets will be given away during all the Common Cents events. If not, well then you'll get change from a dollar.

If it sounds like we're excited, well, we are. And we hope you will be too. Find all the details you need, about the events, and the giveaways along the way, on the Common Cents homepage. And if you don't yet have an account then you can get one here in a matter of minutes.

Talking of minutes there are now 99 left before the Common Cents Kick Off. Good luck to everyone.