PokerStars
Encyclopedia
Online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
cardroom in the world. PokerStars' satellite tournaments
Poker tournament
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table , and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables...
produced the 2003 World Series of Poker
2003 World Series of Poker
-Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 839 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter what was the largest poker tournament ever played in a brick and mortar casino at the time...
champion, Chris Moneymaker
Chris Moneymaker
Christopher Bryan Moneymaker is an American poker player who won the main event at the 2003 World Series of Poker . His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a world champion by qualifying at an online poker site...
. 1983
1983 World Series of Poker
The 1983 World Series of Poker was held May 9th to May 12th, 1983 at Binion's Horseshoe.-Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 108 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Doyle Brunson fell just short in his attempt to win the main event for a third time when he...
champion Tom McEvoy
Tom McEvoy
Thomas K. McEvoy is a professional poker player and author. He is best known for his win in the 1983 World Series of Poker main event.-Early life:...
, 2005
2005 World Series of Poker
The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15 marked the close of play, and the largest prize in sports and/or television history at the time was awarded to the...
champion Joe Hachem
Joe Hachem
Joseph Hachem is a Lebanese-Australian professional poker player known for winning the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker. He was the first Australian to win the main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for all-time biggest tournament prize.The next year, Hachem won his...
, 2009
2009 World Series of Poker
The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker . It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 27 to July 15. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event...
champion Joe Cada
Joe Cada
Joseph "Joe" Cada is an American professional poker player from Shelby Charter Township, Michigan, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker ....
and 2010
2010 World Series of Poker
The 2010 World Series of Poker was the 41st annual World Series of Poker , held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 28 to July 17. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship that began on July 5...
champion Jonathan Duhamel
Jonathan Duhamel
Jonathan Duhamel is a Canadian poker professional from Boucherville, Quebec, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2010 World Series of Poker . He is the first Canadian player to capture the Main Event bracelet....
and others also represent the site and are also regular players. PokerStars is the headline sponsor of the European Poker Tour
European Poker Tour
The Pokerstars European Poker Tour is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour , created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold 'em popularity...
(EPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour
Asia Pacific Poker Tour
The Asia Pacific Poker Tour started in 2007 and is the first major poker tour in this region. Like its counterparts, the European Poker Tour, Latin American Poker Tour, and North American Poker Tour, it is sponsored by PokerStars. The tour was created by President Jeffrey Haas and Director of...
(APPT), Latin American Poker Tour
Latin American Poker Tour
The Latin American Poker Tour started in May 2008, is a major poker tour in Latin America. The LAPT is sponsored by PokerStars, like its counterparts, the European Poker Tour , Asia Pacific Poker Tour , and North American Poker Tour ....
(LAPT), Australia & New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Italian Poker Tour (IPT), Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), and North American Poker Tour (NAPT). PokerStars also sponsors the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), a stop on the European, Latin American and North American Poker Tours. In 2005, eGaming Review
Egaming Review
eGaming Review Magazine and EGRmagazine.com are related online gambling publishing brands covering online gambling industry news and regulation topics....
named PokerStars.com the "Best Poker Operator of the Year". PokerStars offers a downloadable poker client for both Windows and Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
operating systems, offering the same features to users of each client. The Windows client has been reported to work on Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems using the Wine emulator.
History
PokerStars launched its beta play money only site on September 11, 2001, and later began real money wagering on December 12, 2001. PokerStars was originally a Costa RicaCosta Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
n company, Rational Enterprises, majority owned by the Scheinberg family of Israel. The company was subsequently moved to the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
, a British Crown dependency
Crown dependency
The Crown Dependencies are British possessions of the Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the United Kingdom. They comprise the Channel Island Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea....
. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from America. PokerStars holds its license with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission
Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission
The Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission is the Gaming Control Board of the Isle of Man...
, and is also licensed in Italy by the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS).
Since relocating, PokerStars has been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible initial public offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its market value would have been approximately $2 billion (US) in 2004, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies. Now, in 2009 and into 2010 PokerStars earns approximately $1.4 billion per year, and nets $1.34 million per day. PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room at around the time the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act which otherwise regulated port security...
. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did not.
On December 27, 2009, Pokerstars set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee was $1, and the record number of people reached was 149,196.
The site dealt its 60 billionth hand on March 31, 2011. Pogo650 won the milestone hand winning $102,090.
Games offered
PokerStars offers ten varieties of poker games: Texas hold 'emTexas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better)
Omaha hold 'em
Omaha hold 'em is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards...
, Stud
Stud poker
Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round...
, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Razz
Razz (poker)
Razz is a form of stud poker that is normally played for ace-to-five low . The object of Razz is to make the lowest possible five-card hand from the seven cards you are dealt. In Razz, straights and flushes do not count against the player for low, and the ace usually plays low...
, Five-card draw
Five-card draw
Five-card draw is a poker variant that is the simplest and often the first variant learned by most players. It is common in home games but rare in casino and tournament play...
, Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, Deuce to Seven Single Draw and Badugi
Badugi
Badugi is a draw poker variant similar to triple draw, but with hand values not dissimilar to lowball...
. HORSE, HOSE
HOSE
HOSE is a term used for playing a mixed game of poker consisting of four different poker games.* H stands for Hold'em* O for Omaha Eight or Better* S for 7 Card Stud* E for 7 Card Stud Eight or Better...
, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo, Triple Stud and 8-Game, "mixed games" that rotate through several of the above, are also offered. Players can participate in real money games ranging from $.01/$.02 up to $1,000/$2,000. The home of the World Championship of Online Poker
World Championship of Online Poker
The World Championship of Online Poker is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars. It is played on the PokerStars site in September....
, the largest online poker tournament series in the world, PokerStars has over 20,000 players playing real money ring game
Ring game
Ring game may refer to:*Ring game , a general class of multi-player pocket billiards gambling games*Ring game, a.k.a. cash game, a poker game played with "real" chips and each player's own money at stake, as opposed to a poker tournament with a prize money pool...
s daily, plus thousands more playing real money tournaments or free-play games. During peak operating times, this often adds up to over 300,000 players online simultaneously. PokerStars.com's play money players mix with those logging in from PokerStars.net, a free play-only site without real money games. In October 2008, PokerStars launched PokerStars.it, exclusively for Italian players, which will offer real money tournaments in Euro currency in addition to the usual play money games. PokerStars now offers some ring games and tournaments on its main PokerStars.com site in euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
. In March 2010, the site began allowing users to keep their real-money accounts in British pounds
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
and Canadian dollar
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
s as well as U.S. dollars and euro.
The site's flagship weekly event is the Sunday Million, a weekly tournament with a guaranteed $1 million prize pool with a buy-in of $215 and is the biggest weekly online poker tournament in the world. On March 7, 2011, The 5th Anniversary Sunday Million broke records, with 59,128 players creating a total prize pool of $11,825,600.
Team PokerStars
PokerStars sponsors many professional poker players under the designation, Team PokerStars Pro"Team PokerStars Pro" members include Bertrand 'Elky' Grospellier
Bertrand Grospellier
Bertrand Grospellier , also known as ElkY is a poker player and former pro gamer from France who has won a World Poker Tour , a World Series of Poker bracelet and a European Poker Tour title...
, Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein is a professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his profit from tournament winnings to charities, primarily Children, Incorporated, earning him the nickname "the...
, John Duthie
John Duthie
John Duthie is a London-based English television director and creator of the European Poker Tour.-Film and television:...
, Lee Nelson, Luca Pagano
Luca Pagano
Luca Pagano is an Italian-born poker player who finished third place in the Barcelona Open, a European Poker Tour event, in 2004. He has placed in the money in multiple EPT events since then...
, Liv Boeree
Liv Boeree
Olivia “Liv” Boeree is a poker player, TV presenter and model from England who won the 2010 European Poker Tour in San Remo for €1,250,000...
, Vanessa Rousso
Vanessa Rousso
Vanessa Ashley Rousso is a French American law student at the University of Miami and a professional poker player. She is also known by her Pokerstars online screen name Lady Maverick. Born in , Rousso has dual citizenships with the United States and France. Rousso is a member of Team PokerStars,...
, Victor Ramdin, Noah Boeken
Noah Boeken
Noah Boeken is a Dutch professional poker and Magic: The Gathering player.-Magic:In the 1997 Pro Tour Chicago, Boeken finished in 15th place, and later 32nd at Pro Tour Mainz...
, Andre Akkari
André Akkari
André Akkari is a Brazilian professional poker player. He is a member of Team PokerStars Pro Brazil and is the winner of the 2011 World Series of Poker $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event....
, Humberto Brenes
Humberto Brenes
Humberto Brenes is a professional poker player. Brenes currently resides in Miami Lakes, Florida with his wife and three children ....
, Chad Brown
Chad Brown (poker player)
Chad Lewis Brown is an American actor, poker player and color commentator, based in Los Angeles, California.-Early life & acting career:...
, Angel Guillen, Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren
Victoria Elizabeth Coren is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect....
, Marcin Horecki, Dennis Phillips
Dennis Phillips (poker player)
Dennis N. Phillips is a poker player and an account manager for Broadway Trucks, a commercial trucking company in St Louis, Missouri. Phillips qualified for the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event through a $200 satellite tournament at Harrah's St. Louis, his local Harrah's casino...
, Johnny Lodden
Johnny Lodden
Johnny Lodden is a Norwegian professional poker player prominently known for his online success and is sponsored by PokerStars...
, Leo Fernandez
Leo Fernandez
Leo Fernandez is a current amateur and former professional snooker player born in Limerick, Ireland and living in London, England. He is currently competing on the Pontins International Tour , attempting to gain promotion to the Main Tour to regain professional status...
, Ivan Demidov
Ivan Demidov
Ivan Demidov is a professional poker player from Moscow, Russia.Demidov is one of the original 'November Nine', having made the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2008. He reached the heads-up stage along with Peter Eastgate, and took second place for $5,809,595...
, Juan Maceiras, Marcel Luske
Marcel Lüske
Marcel Lüske is a Dutch professional poker player. He finished 10th in the 2004 WSOP main event and as of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,700,000 USD...
, Arnaud Mattern, Dario Minieri
Dario Minieri
Dario Minieri is an Italian professional poker player from Rome, Italy who won a bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker at the age of 23, is a member of team PokerStars, is an online poker player who was the first person to collect enough Frequent Player Points to buy an automobile with them,...
, Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...
, Alex Kravchenko
Alex Kravchenko
Alexander Kravchenko is a professional poker player based in Moscow, Russia. He started playing poker in 1997. In the 2007 World Series of Poker, he cashed six times, including finishing fourth at the Main Event and the $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event where he won a WSOP bracelet...
, Alexandre Gomes
Alexandre Gomes
Alexandre Gomes is a Brazilian professional poker player born on July 24, 1982 in Curitiba. He is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner, a World Poker Tour champion and a Team PokerStars Pro.- World Series of Poker :...
, Katja Thater
Katja Thater
Katja Thater is a professional poker player and horse breeder. She is married to another poker professional, Jan von Halle.Her popularity in Germany comes from the wide coverage on local television of her participation in the Poker Nations Cup and Women's Poker Open.Before becoming a professional...
, Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier is an American professional poker player from Hollywood, Florida. He has won two World Series of Poker bracelets and one European Poker Tour title...
, Angel Guillen, Jude Ainsworth, Luca Pagano
Luca Pagano
Luca Pagano is an Italian-born poker player who finished third place in the Barcelona Open, a European Poker Tour event, in 2004. He has placed in the money in multiple EPT events since then...
as well as WSOP
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...
main event champions Chris Moneymaker
Chris Moneymaker
Christopher Bryan Moneymaker is an American poker player who won the main event at the 2003 World Series of Poker . His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a world champion by qualifying at an online poker site...
, Joe Hachem
Joe Hachem
Joseph Hachem is a Lebanese-Australian professional poker player known for winning the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker. He was the first Australian to win the main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for all-time biggest tournament prize.The next year, Hachem won his...
, 2009 WSOP
2009 World Series of Poker
The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker . It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 27 to July 15. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event...
champion Joe Cada
Joe Cada
Joseph "Joe" Cada is an American professional poker player from Shelby Charter Township, Michigan, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker ....
, 2010 WSOP
2010 World Series of Poker
The 2010 World Series of Poker was the 41st annual World Series of Poker , held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ran from May 28 to July 17. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship that began on July 5...
champion Jonathan Duhamel
Jonathan Duhamel
Jonathan Duhamel is a Canadian poker professional from Boucherville, Quebec, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2010 World Series of Poker . He is the first Canadian player to capture the Main Event bracelet....
and 1983 WSOP
1983 World Series of Poker
The 1983 World Series of Poker was held May 9th to May 12th, 1983 at Binion's Horseshoe.-Preliminary events:-Main Event:There were 108 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter the tournament. Doyle Brunson fell just short in his attempt to win the main event for a third time when he...
champion Tom McEvoy
Tom McEvoy
Thomas K. McEvoy is a professional poker player and author. He is best known for his win in the 1983 World Series of Poker main event.-Early life:...
.
PokerStars also have a Celebrity team and a Sports team, called respectively "Friends of PokerStars" and "SportStars". These count Actor Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
; quantitative analyst and author of the 'Chen Formula' for Texas Hold'em Bill Chen as and Brazilian auto racer and race team owner Gualter Salles
Gualter Salles
Gualter Salles , is an open wheel racecar driver. He raced in the 1997-2000 and 2003 CART seasons, with 49 career starts. His best finish came in his last race, the Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise in Australia, where he finished 6th. Salles also raced one competition in the Indy Racing...
, French rugby union international
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
Sébastien Chabal
Sebastien Chabal
Sébastien Chabal, born 8 December 1977 in Valence, Drôme, is a French rugby union rugby player. He has played number eight and lock professionally for the French team Bourgoin ; the English team Sale Sharks ; the French team Racing Métro 92 Paris ; and the French national side. He earned his first...
and former tennis champion Boris Becker
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17...
as SportStars.
United States criminal charges
On April 15, 2011, along with similar competitors' sites, Pokerstars.com was seized and shut down by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which alleged it was in violation of federal bank fraud and money launderingMoney laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
laws. The company subsequently stopped allowing players from the United States to play real money games and temporarily moved the main company website to Pokerstars.eu.
On April 20, 2011, control of the Pokerstars.com domain name was returned to the company from the US Attorney's office, "to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. players’ funds held in account with the companies."