The world’s largest online poker room is coming up on a huge milestone as PokerStars’ continued countdown to 100 billion hands dealt continues. The next benchmark for the site will be the 95 billionth hand dealt on the site, which should happen in the very near future, and as usual PokerStars is running a special promotion for the lucky players who are part of the 95 billionth hand on the site.

PokerStars will be giving away up to $1 million during the run-up to the 95 billionth hand, with 300 chances to win; in fact every millionth hand from here on out will receive a milestone bonus with the biggest prize waiting for the winner of the 95 billionth hand itself, who is set to receive a minimum of $20,000 –the last big milestone, the 90 billionth hand, was won by a player using the screen-name “m1sspiggy” who walked away with a cool $66,000.

According to the PokerStars blog:

“There will be 300 regular milestone hands, and a final Mega Milestone in this, the final stop before we reach 100 Billion. For the 95 Billion celebration, it’s hand #94,700,000,000 to #95,000,000,000. Next up after that will be the big 100,000,000,000, so keep checking back to find out more.”

Of course the big to-do will be in the very near future (PokerStars estimates that hand number 100,000,000,000 will hit some time in 2013)when the site finally deals its 100 billionth hand, and you can expect the promotions and giveaways to be superior to any others along the way.

The celebration on the Road to 100 Billion did have one minor hiccup along the way when in November of 2011, during the 70 Billionth Hand celebration two players were found to be soft-colluding in order to try to win the jackpot. Here is our report from the time:

It seems like online poker simply cannot catch a break, even when a site is offering thousands of dollars in cash and prizes for a milestone promotion. The latest allegations of nefarious behavior occurred during PokerStars’ 70 Billionth hand celebration.

Almost immediately after the 70 Billionth hand was dealt on PokerStars, ostensibly taking place at a heads-up table where “koenigskebab” and “DodgeUrOuts” were playing in one of their 24 heads-up matches –which is precisely what caused the initial speculation that the two were not partaking in the promotion in an entirely ethical manner.

In a video posted on YouTube by “evhero” another PokerStars player uncovered that the two players (who both hailed from Germany) had been playing at 24 separate tables and had folded every single pre-flop in an effort to give themselves the best overall chance to be part of the milestone hand –which PokerStars rewarded the two with $73,380 and $1,690 respectively.

Not only would this allow the duo to partake in the absolute maximum # of hands, but it would also keep them from paying any rake while trying to basically hit the lottery.

Because of the uproar surrounding the methods employed by the winners of the 70 Billionth Hand, PoekrStars has yet to make an announcement on the winner of the promotion, nor have they issued a statement on whether or not they are looking into the allegations of “evhero”.

You can check out “evhero’s” YouTube video here

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2013 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Poker Promotions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.