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Weekend Review: Hicks proves staying power with Sunday Million win

A look at all the major stories from this past weekend on PokerStars.

Weekend highlights


* Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks wins the Sunday Million
* XingsMaster of Germany wins the Sunday Warm-Up
* Team Pro Online week starts today


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Round up of latest results

I remember a few years ago at an EPT seeing the name Ken Hicks on the player list. I noticed it because I noticed it at every EPT, one of those players who always qualified, and always played the Main Event. He'd do well, cash, and then show up at the next one, whether it was Dublin, Warsaw, London, Berlin or the PCA. Then just two years ago he reached the final table in Monaco, finishing seventh.

I suppose my point here is that Hicks is one of those workmanlike players who may not light up internet forums, or grace high roller events, but is at least still here nearly ten years after his first live cash in a game that re-invents itself each year. This weekend he proved just how well he does that by winning the Sunday Million.

As Martin Harris reported, Hicks even managed to secure the best deal for himself four-handed, to take away a first prize of $133,405.

Elsewhere in the Warm-Up XingsMaster took the first prize of $74,828 in a deal-free final table. As David Aydt reported, the eventual winner took on the role of table bully with great results.

Talking of which, here are those two results in full:


PokerStars Sunday Million results (2/28/16)
Entrants: 5,727
Prize pool: $1,145,400
Places paid: 855

1. Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks (Canada) $133,405.67*
2. slayertompa (Sweden) $100,420.20*
3. JanekJorgman (Norway) $135,141.73*
4. _m0ney2_89 (Russia) $97,384.80*
5. Armani1974 (Germany) $48,106.80
6. pinkwins (Denmark) $36,652.80
7. p€troceli (Hungary) $25,198.80
8. Köstritzer83 (Germany) $14,317.50
9. mo-big-big (Netherlands) $8,934.12
* denotes a four-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner


/en/blog/online/sw/2016/sunday-warm-up-x-marks-the-spot-as-xings-160690.shtml
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (02/28/16)
Entrants: 2,368
Prize pool: $473,600.00
Places paid: 342

1. XingsMaster (Germany) $74,828.91
2. Crashsite!! (Netherlands) $56,202.11
3. cigarromata (Brazil) $40,256.00
4. Peter "RcknTheSbrbs" Nigh (Costa Rica) $27,705.60
5. Hoegh93 (Denmark) $21,075.20
6. ciaca21 (Romania) $16,339.20
7. olelemaiko (Bulgaria) $11,603.20
8. Maxxx72alba (Russia) $6,867.20
9. PataNegraXD (Czech Republic) $4,025.60


The weekend's top online tournament winners

EVENTWINNERCOUNTRYPRIZE MONEY
$215 Sunday MillionLoneHixxCanada $133,405.67
$215 Sunday Warm-UpXingsMasterGermany $74,828.91
$530 Sunday 500Callisto 5Canada $53,148.75
$215 Sunday Supersonic [6-Max]MONSTER_DONGAustralia $47,385.42
$109+R Sunday RebuyStackedOffCanada $39,217.50
$215 Sunday 2nd ChanceEvnomiYaRussian $37,404.00
$22 Sunday Mini-MillionNikiforos86Greece $28,933.31
$109 Sunday KickoffBusyman919Switzerland $28,816.65
$11 Sunday StormWoody fingerPoland $25,707.84
$162 Sunday 6-Maxbah23Bulgaria $20,655.18
The Weekender: $530 NLHE [8-Max, 2-Day]DaNuts90Germany $20,227.50


Click here for a complete list of major results on PokerStars for the weekend of February 27 to 28, 2016.


Now is the perfect opportunity to get a PokerStars account. Open your account here.

Team Pro Online week

Team Pro Online week is upon us, giving you chance to Beat them or Back them. As we wrote last week there's plenty going on over the course of the next seven days that's Team Online orientated. But given they're not allowed to win anything other than bragging rights there are plenty of opportunities for you to profit, which you can read about in detail here. It's usually a lot of fun, so get involved. And you can follow the Pros minutely on Twitch. We have the full broadcast schedule here.


Red Dragon

Lastly, while it's one of the smaller events on the PokerStars calendar the Red Dragon events are always good for a few surprises. Coverage from Macau began over the weekend and is worth following to see a mixture of local and foreign talent competing on one o Macau's biggest stages. Brad Kain is our reporter in the field, with live updates on the PokerStars Blog.

That's the weekend in a nutshell. As always send your questions and comments to us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.




Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.





Sunday Million: Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks gets win, $133K after four-way deal

We've seen Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks of Canada deep in big events on PokerStars before, including winning a Super Tuesday once back in 2010. We've also seen him at various live events sponsored by PokerStars where among his cashes he made the final table of the EPT10 Grand Final in Monte Carlo two years ago, finishing seventh.

Now we have another Hicks sighting to report, this time at the final table of the latest Sunday Million where he managed to survive to the final four, strike a deal at that point in which he asked for and received a little extra from his remaining opponents, then go on to win the whole thing for a big final payday of $133,405.67.

The Norwegian JanekJorgman was chip leader at the time of the four-way chop and in fact would take a little more from the prize pool ($135,141.73) before finishing third. But Hicks would be the one scoring the final knockouts of the night, and here's the story of his triumph.


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Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks

With 5,727 entrants this week that meant a $1,145,400 prize pool, exceeding again the event's $1 million guarantee. It took almost five hours exactly for the field to play down to 855 players and the money. 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event champion Mike "SirWatts" Watson had been sitting in first position as the bubble approached, and was still in the top five when it burst while Köstritzer83 moved ahead to lead the chip race.


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Mike "SirWatts" Watson

Eventually Watson would fall back to the pack, then be ousted in 218th for a $595.60 cash. A couple of hours after that the field would shrink to under 100 players, with Köstritzer83 still above the average and one last red spade among the counts, Friend of PokerStars Felipe "mojave" Ramos sitting on the first page of the counts inside the top 20.

By the nine-and-a-half-hour mark they were down to just two tables with Ramos sitting on a short stack, then soon after getting the last of his chips in with ace-king versus Armani1974's ace-jack. Alas for Ramos a jack came among the community cards, and the Brazilian hit the rail in 18th place for $3,207.12.


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Friend of PokerStars Felipe "mojave" Ramos

DuTTiFruTTi9 (17th) and Glenn_Dysja (16th) would soon follow, like Ramos earning $3,207.12. Then my1u (15th), artsi888 (14th), and jumbas1 (13th) were knocked out, cashing for $4,925.22 apiece. Jamie "pokerjamers" Armstrong (12th) and Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov (11th) were the next to go, picking up $6,643.32 each.

With 10 left, hand-for-hand play followed, then came simultaneous knockouts on each of the five-handed tables.

First it was Krouks all in and at risk with [Kh][5h] versus LoneHixx's [7d][7s]. A seven on the flop meant Krouks was drawing dead by the turn, with a 10th-place finish equaling a $6,643.32 payday.

Then on the other table mo-big-big appeared in decent shape all in behind [Ks][Kd] versus JanekJorgman's [Tc][Td]. But a ten came on the turn, and mo-big-big was knocked out in ninth for $8,934.12.

With Köstritzer83 still there (though short), JanekJorgman the new chip leader with more than 20 million, and a seat already empty, the final table was underway.


2016.02.28-sundaymillion-finaltable.jpg

Seat 1: empty
Seat 2: _m0ney2_89 (Russia) -- 3,217,146
Seat 3: p€troceli (Hungary) -- 5,244,080
Seat 4: Armani1974 (Germany) -- 3,153,952
Seat 5: Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks (Canada) -- 11,635,491
Seat 6: Köstritzer83 (Germany) -- 1,065,810
Seat 7: pinkwins (Denmark) -- 4,187,316
Seat 8: slayertompa (Sweden) -- 8,225,628
Seat 9: JanekJorgman (Norway) -- 20,540,577

They were not quite an orbit into the final table when a hand arose that saw Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks open-shove from the small blind, then Köstritzer83 call all in with the almost 1.71 million left after posting a 250,000 big blind.

Köstritzer83 had [Kh][Qc] and two live cards versus Hicks's [2c][2h], and the [7s][8h][Ks] flop hit one of them to put Köstritzer83 in front. But the [2d] fell on the turn to give Hicks a set, making the [4h] river no matter and knocking Köstritzer83 out in eighth.

A short while later leader JanekJorgman raised 3x to 900,000 from early position, then p€troceli three-bet shoved for about 3.25 million from a couple of seats over. The others folded and JanekJorgman called, turning over [As][Js] while p€troceli had [Kd][Kc].

The [3s][Ac][2c] flop was bad for p€troceli, giving JanekJorgman the edge, and after the [6s] turn and [Jh] river, p€troceli was done in seventh.

pinkwins next became the table's short stack and would be all in for less than a big blind shortly after with [9s][6d] and up against _m0ney2_89 in the big blind with [Qh][9h]. A [Kc][5s][3c][3d][8d] runout didn't help pinkwins who was ousted in sixth.

The remaining five played on a short while, then agreed to stop the tournament to discuss a possible deal with JanekJorgman still on top with about 25.5 million, _m0ney2_89 next with 10.1 million, slayertompa third with about 9.1 million, Armani1974 fourth with just over 6.8 million, and Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks fifth with almost 5.7 million.

"ICM"-based figures were produced (leaving $20,000 for which to play) and all agreed except for Hicks who wanted $10K more than what he was being offered. The others were not interested in considering that, and soon cards were back in the air.

It wasn't long before Armani1974 had slipped back to become the short stack, then a hand came up that saw the table fold to Armani1974 in the small blind who pushed for about 4.28 million (about eight-and-a-half BBs), and Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks called from the next seat. Armani1974 had [7d][6s] and needed help against Hicks's [As][Qs], but hte [9s][5h][Qc][Ts][Js] gave Hicks a flush and ended Armani1974's run in fifth.

Deal talk immediately began again, and soon the tourney was stopped again with JanekJorgman at almost 30.5 million, Hicks now second with about 9.8 million, slayertompa third with 8.9 million, and _m0ney2_89 fourth with just over 8 million even.

"ICM"-based numbers were presented again (again saving $20K), and once more Hicks asked for more than what he was being offered -- specifically $2,500 more from each of the other three. The others agreed this time, Hicks got his extra, and the deal was made.

The final four battled on and after a while Hicks managed to wrestle the chip lead away, then slayertompa grabbed the top spot after doubling through JanekJorgman. The latter then appeared about to go out in fourth, but JanekJorgman doubled up to leave _m0ney2_89 the short stack.

Soon _m0ney2_89 was reraising all in for almost 2.74 million (about 4.5 BBs) over a Hicks UTG open and Hicks called, showing [Qc][Js] while _m0ney2_89 had [8d][8s]. The board then came [5c][7d][3c][Qh][Jd] to give Hicks two pair and knock _m0ney2_89 out in fourth.

About five minutes later JanekJorgman min-raised to 1.6 million from the small blind, Hicks reraised to 4.8 million from the big, JanekJorgman shoved for about 18.1 million total, and Hicks called.

JanekJorgman had [As][9d] but Hicks had that dominated with [Ad][Qc]. The board came [7h][Td][7s], then [2h], then [Kd], the kickers played, and JanekJorgman's run was over in third.

With that pot Hicks had a commanding lead to begin heads-up play with 43,771,350 to slayertompa's 13,498,650. The pair played 17 hands for small pots, with slayertompa getting whittled to just under 10.5 million. Then on the 18th hand between them, the end finally arrived.

With the blinds 400,000/800,000, slayertompa open-pushed for 10,378,650 from the button and Hicks called, and their hands were revealed:

LoneHixx: [Ah][7d]
slayertompa: [Qc][2c]

The [2h][Jc][Tc] was great for slayertompa, making a pair and providing a flush draw, and the [8d] turn card was fine as well. But the river brought the [As] to give Hicks the better pair, the final pot, and a Sunday Million title.


2016.02.28-sundaymillion-hicks.jpg

Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks

Congratulations to Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks for outlasting more than 5,700 opponents to win this week's Sunday Million, and kudos as well to slayertompa, JanekJorgman, and _m0ney2_89 for making it to the four-way deal and ensuring themselves handsome cashes as well.

2/28/16 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em, $5M Gtd) results
Entrants:  5,727
Prize pool: $1,145,400
Places paid: 855

1. Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks (Canada) $133,405.67*
2. slayertompa (Sweden) $100,420.20*
3. JanekJorgman (Norway) $135,141.73*
4. _m0ney2_89 (Russia) $97,384.80*
5. Armani1974 (Germany) $48,106.80
6. pinkwins (Denmark) $36,652.80
7. p€troceli (Hungary) $25,198.80
8. Köstritzer83 (Germany) $14,317.50
9. mo-big-big (Netherlands) $8,934.12
* = denotes a four-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner

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Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.



MPC24: Day 1b live updates

MPC24 Red Dragon Day 1b begins soon

It's time for the second Day 1 flight of the Macau Poker Cup 24's feature tournament - The Red Dragon!

The poker room here is already filling up with players preparing to make a run at that prestigious title and impressive trophy. We'll be kicking off today's proceedings at 2:00pm but you can read all about Day 1a yesterday right here.

China's Chao Yang set the benchmark yesterday by emerging as chip later late in the day. He bagged up 168,700 in chips at the conclusion of play and time will tell if that number can be bested here on Day 1b.

Once again we'll be following all the action from the tables today. Be sure to keep your browser locked to the PokerStars blog for all the live updates!

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All photos by Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau



Sunday Warm-Up: X marks the spot as XingsMaster earns $74K

Lots of fun news flying around this week with the start of Team Pro Online week returns with EPT Grand Final packages ready for the lucky fans. To prepare for the upcoming Team Pro Online invasion, 2,368 players tried to acquire funds through the $425K guarantee Sunday Warm-Up. After about ten hours of play, XingsMaster peaked at the right time and ran over the final table to claim the top the prize of $74,828.91.

Read on below as XingsMaster did not start with the most chips at the final table, but played the part of the bully after taking the chip lead and going on to win in convincing fashion.

Before the eighth hourly break two well-known players would head to the showers before the final two tables. 2015 WCOOP Event #36 champ Matthew "mjw006" Wakeman ended another lengthy run at a Sunday Major title in 23rd place ($1,468.16) followed shortly by two-time SCOOP champ Ami "UhhMee" Barer taking away the same amount of funds in 21st place.

Ram_siva1 notched a final table at the Sunday Million in 2014, but would fall one table short here in 18th place ($1,752.32). Vmnielsen has been in the hunt here with two tables remaining before, but this was not the Dane's tournament to finally claim the crown as vmnielsen took away $2,415.36 in 15th place.

After vmnielsen's elimination things would speed up towards the final table as only 11 players still remained halfway through the eighth hour of play. Seven minutes later vatniekaknie's kings would go down to flopped trips by Maxxx72alba (Russia) as hand-for-hand play broke out.

Pyszalek has been here before. Close to another Major final table taking fifth here a few years ago as well as a Sunday Million final table. But, this time there would be no shot at the top spot after shoving with [Kh][Qs] and coming up short against ciaca21's [As][9s] on the [Ac] [8c] [Jh] [8h] [3s] to start up the final table below:


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Seat 1: XingsMaster (2721276 in chips)
Seat 2: Maxxx72alba (7172218 in chips)
Seat 3: Hoegh93 (2515751 in chips)
Seat 4: ciaca21 (2289196 in chips)
Seat 5: Crashsite!! (614397 in chips)
Seat 6: PataNegraXD (1441275 in chips)
Seat 7: cigarromata (3195095 in chips)
Seat 8: olelemaiko (1358379 in chips)
Seat 9: RcknTheSbrbs (2372413 in chips)

All nine players would get to start the ninth hour of play with Brazil's cigarromata taking the chip lead from Maxxx72albashortly before the break. Cigarromata is in an excellent position to improve on an eighth place showing here last month.

Five minutes back from the break with the blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K a shortstacked PataNegraXD would shove 618,688 from early position as XingsMaster re-shoved for two million from the button. The blinds checked out as PataNegraXD's [3d][Ac] was in trouble against XingsMaster's big slick [Ad][Kc]. No treys on the [4h] [6c] [9s] [8d] [Ah] board would send PataNegraXD $4,025.60 in ninth place.

Top pair no good. As the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K XingsMaster and Maxxx72alba would reach the river with 3.3 million in the middle and [6d] [Tc] [7h] [6s] [2s] showing on the board. XingsMaster set the trap with a little pause then a shove for 2.6 million as Maxxx72alba made the call all-in holding [Ts][Jc]. XingsMaster also showed a ten, but with a six [Th][6c] for the full house, knocking-out Maxxx72alba in eighth place ($6,867.20).

Olelemaiko tried to spin up a shortstack over the hour but fell short. With the blinds moving up to 80K/160K ante 16K olelemaiko put in the remaining 445,674 in chips as the chip leading XingsMaster reshoved to get everyone else out. While olelemaiko's [7s][Ks] flopped top pair, XingsMaster's [Qs][Td] found a turned straight [Jh] [Qh] [Kc] [Ac] [2s] shipping $11,603.20 to olelemaiko in seventh place.

Two hands later XingsMaster looked to add to the lead three-betting a min-raise by RcknTheSbrbs. Instead, ciaca21 threw a shortstack of 759,598 chips in the middle as RcknTheSbrbs stepped out of the way. Ciaca21's [Kc][Qh] failed to hold against the chip leader's [Td][9c] on the [Js] [3c] [9h] [8s] [6c] board earning $16,339.20 in sixth place.

Five minutes later the XingsMaster domination continued. Hoegh93 is no stranger to a Major final table having made it here at the Sunday Warm-up around Christmas time taking seventh for $14K. With the blinds holding at 80K/160K ante 16K Hoegh93 would lead all-in for 907,427 as XingsMaster called from the big blind with [9d][Kd]. Hoegh93's pocket fours [4d][4h] would hold until a rivered ten [6s] [Qs] [8d] [Jc] [Ts] made a straight for XingsMaster as Hoegh93 fell short of a title in fifth place ($21,075.20).

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Four players would make it to the tenth hour of play but one left shortly after break. With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K Ben Folds fan Peter "RcknTheSbrbs" Nigh would try his luck against the run away chip leader. The 2015 WCOOP Event #1 champ would shove 3.8 million from the button as XingsMaster re-shoved to get Crashsite!! to fold. Nigh's [Js][As] would flip against XingsMaster's pocket eights [8d][8s]. The spades nor the high cards helped [7h] [6h] [Kh] [6s] [Qs] as Nigh took away $27,705.60 in fourth place.

In four minutes time, XingsMaster would knock over the last two obstacles on the way to this week's title.

First, with the blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K cigarromata shoved for 2.7 million from the button as XingsMaster min-raised from the small blind. Crashsite!! would show pocket threes and folded from the big blind. A mistake in hindsight as Crashsite!! would have tripled up. XingsMaster's pocket jacks [Jh][Jd] however would take care of cigarromata's [Jc][Kh] on the [Ah] [3c] [Qs] [Qc] [7c] board as cigarromata earned $40,256.00 in third place.

Two hands later Crashsite!! would shove for 6.1 million holding a small ace [Ah][2s] as XingsMaster went for the win with pocket fives [5d][5c]. A flopped set and rivered boat was unnecessary [3h] [7s] [5s] [6c] [6h] but an exclamation point on XingsMaster's $74,828.91 Sunday Warm-Up victory!


PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (02-28-16)

Entrants: 2,368
Prize pool: $473,600.00
Places paid: 342

1. XingsMaster (Germany) $74,828.91
2. Crashsite!! (Netherlands) $56,202.11
3. cigarromata (Brazil) $40,256.00
4. Peter "RcknTheSbrbs" Nigh (Costa Rica) $27,705.60
5. Hoegh93 (Denmark) $21,075.20
6. ciaca21 (Romania) $16,339.20
7. olelemaiko (Bulgaria) $11,603.20
8. Maxxx72alba (Russia) $6,867.20
9. PataNegraXD (Czech Republic) $4,025.60


Want to get in on the Sunday Majors action? Click here to get a PokerStars account today.




MPC24: China's Chao Yang charges ahead on Day 1a

The Red Dragon took flight again today.

The feature tournament of this Macau Poker Cup 24 generated an electric atmosphere across the room here at PokerStars LIVE. When late registration was locked out it was a total of 205 who had posted up the HK$12,000 buy-in but when all was said and done only 49 remained.

Of those it was China's Chao Yang who rose to the top in the closing stages of Day 1a. Yang bagged up 168,700 at the conclusion of play to edge out Koen Breed in second spot with 152,300 and Shuang Hu who rounded out the podium on 137,300.

mpc24 day 1a chip leader Chao Yang wrap.jpg

End of day chip leader Chao Yang

Yang has a total of $33,004 in live earnings and with his showing today he is well on his way to adding some more to that tally. His biggest score so far was right here in Macau when he shipped the HK$3,000 Midnight Turbo event for $11,951 last year.

Joining Yang on Day 2 will be former chip leader Steven Cody (66,700), Japan's second-ever WSOP bracelet winner Takahiro Nakai (51,400) and reigning Asia Player of the Year Alan King Lun Lau (49,700).

While the survivors will have a two day respite before returning for the official Day 2, for everyone else it just wasn't to be. Three PokerStars Team Pros were in the running but only Chen-an Lin (50,000) managed to survive the day. Celina Lin was eliminated by way of a flip in the later stages and Aditya Agarwal registered late and failed to last the better part of half an hour before finding the rail.

mpc24 day 1a celina lin.jpg

Eliminated: Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin

Also falling by the wayside were MPC22 champion Yuguang Li, Asia Player of the Year runner-up KC Wong and 2014 Asia Player of the Year Pete Chen.

MPC24 Red Dragon Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
Chao Yang (China) - 168,700
Koen Breed (Netherlands) - 152,300
Shaung Hu (China) - 137,300
Yiu Wah Kwok (Hong Kong) - 136,100
Gang Wang (China) - 119,600
Yan Li (China) - 91,200
Takashi Ogura (Japan) - 88,900
Weichun Jiang (China) - 86,100
Soon Ann Gan (Malaysia) - 85,900
Yuexin Wang (China) - 79,200

Click here for full end of day chip counts

And that takes us to the second opening flight. That's expected to be even bigger than today and we look on track for another impressive MPC field. Things are just heating up and its promising to be a spectacular week of poker.

Day 1b kicks off at 2:00pm local time on Monday. We'll be here again for all your live reporting needs. We hope you can join us!




The poker tournament bigger than a small country

On October 5 2015 PokerStars blazed a trail into the Guinness World Records once again when an incredible 253,692 players took part in the largest online poker tournament in history. To put that number into context there were more players in the Common Cents kick-off event than there are human beings in countries such as San Marino, Liechtenstein, Tonga, Grenada and Samoa!

Of course, PokerStars is no stranger to breaking world records for the largest poker tournament - last week we reported on the very first record-breaker - but the leap from 35,000 players in 2008 to over a quarter of a million players in 2015 is astounding. Mike Jones, Tournament Team Manager in Poker Room Management at PokerStars, talked about the mindset that showed such a huge progression within seven years. 'The biggest thing that changed with regards to World Record tournaments was the selective application of the Field of Dreams mentality: "If you build it, they will come."'


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Unlike other World Record attempts though, that were often planned out in advance with the minutiae of a carefully orchestrated military attack, this moment of history came about as much by luck and chance. The PokerStars team had the idea of creating a micro-stakes tournament series with buy-ins of less than $1 across the board. The first event had a one cent buy-in... and a $100,000 guarantee! There was going to be an overlay - ten million players were needed to break even! - but Jones hoped, 'that this unusual approach would kick-off the series with a bang...to be honest, breaking the record was just an afterthought.'

As word spread, thousands upon thousands of PokerStars players started to register, many of them days and weeks in advance of the first cards hitting the virtual felt. One of those was Austrian Simon 'DaDumon' Grabenschweiger who told the PokerStars Blog last year that, 'I was playing a lot of other MTTs and totally forgot I registered for this a few days before. When it popped up I actually tried to get rid of it because I had 12 other tables running!"' Luckily for Grabenschweiger, he kept the table open.

Over on the Isle of Man, PokerStars office staff eagerly awaited the start of the tournament. Mike Jones described the scene. 'There is a sense of excitement in the office when something like this is starting. We are poker people and, it was encouraging for us to see over 250,000 unique people show up to play a single instance of the game we love.' There were two main reasons that Jones and his team could be proud of themselves; first, although the event wasn't marketed as a World Record attempt by PokerStars, 'it quickly became clear that we were going to break it,' and the huge turnout was also a sign to Jones that, 'poker is still going strong.'


tournament_room_ept12_26feb16.jpgBigger than this...

Meanwhile, as the tournament progressed at a rapid pace (there was a turbo structure) Simon Grabenschweiger went from viewing the event as a minor inconvenience to a major opportunity. He was on the final table, and it was going pretty well. Grabenschweiger reminisced, 'Every hand I won was a key hand. When there were four players left I jammed from the small blind versus the big blind with Q-3 and flopped a Queen.' Next to go was a short stack in third after Grabenschweiger flopped another Queen, this time holding the lowly Q-5.


tournament_room_prague_26feb16.jpgAnd this...

Over 253,000 players had been dispatched and now it was heads-up. Grabenschweiger was feeling confident: 'With that many players there were almost no regulars at that stage of the tournament, and even though the decisions are pretty easy from a mathematical point of view a lot of players are very inexperienced dealing with such short-stacks. I was very confident in my abilities and had the run-good to back them up.'

The confidence was well-founded as he went on to win the tournament, the largest ever played. In just under seven hours he had turned one cent into $10,000. Grabenschweiger pointed out that he might have hit another world record himself. 'I guess nobody has turned one cent into $10k in under seven hours before. That's one million times the buy-in. Nice ROI right there.'


lapt_grand_final_26feb16.jpgEven this...

Mike Jones at PokerStars was thrilled at another successful milestone moment for the company - it was an important event but all involved know there will be many more to come. Jones sees it as the responsibility of the business to keep pushing the poker boundaries. 'PokerStars is the undoubted leader in the poker world with over 100,000,000 registered customers. Every decision we make about the game has a ripple effect throughout the poker world. We take pride in that fact but, if you'll excuse the Spider-Man reference, with great power comes great responsibility. All eyes are on us and there is a strong desire to make sure we get it right.'

It's tough to imagine an online poker tournament bigger than the one that Simon Grabenschweiger shipped in October 2015 but that hasn't stopped Jones from dreaming. 'My dream is to host an online tournament that is richer than the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event.' Or how about hosting a tourney with over one million players instead? Jones says, 'I can absolutely see that - and PokerStars is the place for it to happen!'



MPC24: Day 1a live updates

MPC24 Red Dragon Day 1a set to start

Welcome once again to PokerStars LIVE Macau for our coverage of the Macau Poker Cup 24 Red Dragon!

We're kicking things off with the first of three opening flights as Day 1a is set to commence shortly. In the meantime you can read all about the week to come right here - MPC24: The Red Dragon fires up.

Players will take their seats at 2:00pm local time in a bid to win the best looking trophy in poker and the lion's share of a HK$8,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Stay with us for all the action!

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All photos by Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau