When the BIGGEST Compete!
Friendly competition is what makes this world the most enjoyable. When two friends get together on the golf course, or an ice rink, or especially at the card table, nothing ignites the spirit and soul like a friendly battle of skill and determination between the two equally qualified and skilled players. And its normally a great time by all who participate. Same can be said for the two largest poker sites, PokerStars and FullTilt, when they competed against each other this past weekend in trying to set a new record for the largest online tournament ever held.
PokerStars had set the bar ealier this year when they hosted an $11 tournament that drew a record of 35,000 players. FullTilt decided to go for the record and organized a $5 buyin event that 50,000 players! In addition to that prize pool, FullTilt added an additional $250,000 in overlay, bringing the total prize pool to half a million dollars! However, PokerStars is not one to take the threat lightly, and decided to host a $1 event that capped at 65,000 players as well as additional overlays to boost the pot.
Both sites hit their target seating numbers, blowing away the previous record, however it was PokerStars who came out on top and retained the title of hosting the largest online poker tournament in history. You can be sure FullTilt is already planning another assault on this title in the near future.
Each site had their fair share of issues though. It took FullTilt over 15 minutes alone to get all their players seated for the tournament, and both sites had issues with numerous timeouts having to be declared as well as complaints about slow running software. I’m sure the recent changes FullTilt installed were a direct result of some of these issues, and you will see big improvements in the next round when these two titans of the online poker industry declare war again.
I’m sure there are a hundred thousand reasons why either site wanted to host such an event, and every one of those reasons would be preceeded with a $ sign, but that aside, I think its great to see the two largest organizations trying to one up the other by hosting such events. Not only does it increase traffic to their site, but it also is a great way to highlight areas to improve their service and offerings in the future. Hopefully, both sites learned valuable information on how they can improve to draw more players in the future, and this is good business management.
So who won anyway? Well, the FullTilt winner was ‘breo40‘ who pocketed over $45,000 US for his victory over the 50,000 player field, while ‘ 004′ over at the PokerStars game won $13,000 US for his domination of the 65,000 player field. Both have earned the right to declare they participated and won the largest online tournaments in history, and thats quite the accomplishment.
Expect to see more huge online tournaments in the months and years ahead.
Andrew said
am July 21 2009 @ 10:29 pm
Yep I played in Guiness Pokerstars MTT – just for interest. It was like freeroll LOL – full of donks.
Pokerstars Breaks Own World Record said
am December 28 2009 @ 8:56 am
[...] in July of 2009 Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker were battling back and forth to be home to the Guinness Record for largest player field in an online poker tournament. [...]