PokerStars Tourney attracts Record 225,000 Players – $0.02/$0.05 Grinder wins $104k

As if PokerStars hasn’t already broken enough records within the online poker industry, they recently broke another mark. PokerStars held a $1 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed tournament in hopes of smashing their own record for the largest tourney in history. The old mark was 200,000 grinders, which happened in a December 2011 event.

Surprise, surprise, PokerStars was able to break their old record after attracting 225,000 players to a June 16th, 2013 tournament. What’s interesting is that there could’ve been even more players, but Stars capped the field at 225,000 to keep things manageable. 20% of the players came from freerolls while the rest anted up the tiny $1 buy-in.

With extremely fast blind levels, almost 90% of the tournament field was gone within the first hour. Just one hour later, the remaining 28,000 players were whittled down to 2,595 grinders. By the end of the third hour, 190 players were left battling for the $25,000 top prize. ‘Mr.SlavaPro’ turned out to be the winner after he breezed through the remainder of the players and onto the title. Below you can see the complete final table results:

1st. Mr.SlavaPro (Russia) – $25,000
2nd. johnnykara75 (Greece) – $15,000
3rd. 1star09 (Russia) – $10,000
4th. jpstef06 (Germany) – $7,500
5th. Tormenter85 (Australia) – $5,000
6th. KARI#9 (Slovenia) – $3,500
7th. SOY PATO355 (Argentina) – $2,500
8th. jmmetra (Argentina) – $2,000
9th. Ravic77 (Estonia) – $1,500
10th. Evgeniy33377 (Ukraine) – $1,000

Greek Micro Stakes Player wins $103,800
A normal $0.02/$0.05 micro stakes poker player has no hope of winning $103,800 in a single hand. However, the recent PokerStars “Road to 100 Billion” promotion gave every player a shot at winning this kind of money. And Greece’s ‘microulis69’ turned out to be the lucky recipient as he won hand number 100 billion and scooped a $103.8k prize.

He wasn’t the only big winner though since every player at the winner’s table earned at least $10,000 – plus $2,000 for every VPP earned in the 50 hands leading up to the 100 billionth hand. 9,471 other grinders who were simultaneously playing at $0.02/$0.05 cash tables also earned a collective $830,790. Going back to the players on the winning table, here’s a look at how much money each one received:

• microulis69 – $103,800


• doc836 – $13,440


• HeyitsClay – $13,440


• GlassGagguas – $13,360


• MoodyMiss – $12,760


• Mayers666 – $12,460