PokerStars Deals Out 10 Billionth Hand and Over $6 Million in Cash and Prizes

DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, May 31, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- PokerStars.com, the world's largest online poker room, celebrated another major milestone recently, dealing its 10 billionth hand of poker; just
PokerStars.com  one year after its landmark 5 billionth hand.

To put this milestone in perspective, a brick and mortar card room with a 50 dealer staff would need to deal hands non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for more than 640 years to reach 10 billion hands.

Six lucky poker players who were dealt into the hand, walked away from the $.01/$.02 table divvying up an extra $186,000. Canadian college student Justine ``Justine0003'' Hall, turned a club flush during the landmark 10 billionth hand, netting $100,000, the money in the pot, and the envy of the more than 103,000 other poker playing hopefuls from around the world who were logged on to PokerStars.com as the 10 billionth hand played out.

The other five players were each awarded at least $10,000 and everyone at the marquee table received free entry into the Main Event of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). During the eleven day promotion, PokerStars doled out more than $223,000 to 635 players for being dealt into one of the many milestone hands leading up to the much anticipated 10 billionth hand.

``It was an amazing experience to be a part of the 10 billionth hand and PokerStars' history in the making,'' said the eventual winner Justine Hall. ``I am just really thankful and extremely fortunate to have had this opportunity.''

Among the other milestones achieved during the 10 Billionth Hand Promotion, the May 20th installment of the PokerStars Sunday Million tournament became the most highly-attended poker tournament with a buy-in ever, online or land-based, with just shy of 10,900 participants. In addition to the record shattering number of buy-ins, PokerStars added an extra $250,000 to the tournament as part of the 10 billionth hand promotion. This took the prize pool up to a staggering $2.4 million and a first place prize of almost $188,000. The Sunday Warm Up was also boosted with an extra $100,000 added to the prize pool.

In addition to the Sunday Spotlight Tournaments, PokerStars added more than $50,000 in extra prize money each day to its regular tournament schedule. Players were also rewarded for their intimate knowledge of PokerStars trivia, with entry to four, $1,000 free roll tournaments every day.

For more information about the 10 billionth hand, a video that captured the momentous occasion, and the Sunday Million wrap up, visit: www.pokerstarsblog.com/2007/05/justine0003-wins-pokerstars-ten.html