Pokerstars Management 'Astonished' By Anniversary Tourney Success

WSOP entry field not in the same league as this event!

When PokerStars sweetened the pot to celebrate its one year anniversary for the regular Sunday Million tournaments it was a safe bet that the event would be exciting and the player support significant...but it soared above expectations in both departments.

Interviewed by Rolling Good Times this week, PokerStars manager Lee Jones said it took even him by surprise: "I was astonished," he told RGT. "I didn't think we'd hit 10 000 - eight or nine thousand maybe, but then again, I've been underestimating the size of fields for the last three to four years."

He was referring to a record turnout - 10 508 - of players who registered for the event, creating a giant prizepool of over $2 million - well in excess of the planned and guaranteed $1.5 million. The field significantly exceeded the WSOP Main Event entries for last year, and even this year Harrah's is planning on 10 000 for the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The Rolling Good Times interview is a fascinating review of the historical progress of online poker's currently leading website, sprinkled with management insights into how it sees future growth and the landmark events that have characterised its development.

The last Sunday Millions winner was decided in 11 hours, unlike the massive World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events that can take days or weeks to complete, Jones pointed out in the interview. Online tournaments do not have dealers or chips, thus, shuffling time and minutes spent stacking and counting are eliminated.

"I think the reduced time definitely makes people more likely to play in a large online event," Jones told RGT. "Look at the WSOP. They had 8 800 players in the Main Event and it took them 14 days to finish. We can do that with relative ease in 9-10 hours. Our players don't have to set aside two weeks of their lives. They can play in the largest tournament in history in the course of one Sunday evening."

Rolling Good Times reports that the Sunday Million launch was the third significant achievement for PokerStars when it debuted in March of 2006.

The site hit a mark of 100 000 players concurrently logged-in, an astonishing feat considering the site recorded the first 10 000 level of players on-site at the same time in November 2003.

"I remember when we hit the 10 000 player mark," Jones said. "It was a big deal at the time. Now we have 10 000 and more players competing in one tournament."

Poker Stars also reached the 5-million player benchmark that month.

Las Vegas native George Draper, a 35-year-old chef who was new to online poker, joined the poker room in early March 2006 as the record-breaking player. That made the PokerStars population larger than the 46th biggest city in the world, larger than Baghdad, Toronto and Washington D.C.

In May, June and July of 2006, PokerStars averaged around 5 200 players per Sunday Million. Those numbers created prizepools just over the $1 million guarantee, the RGT interview reveals. A record-breaking crowd of 5 921 on August 21 put PokerStars within reach of cracking the 6 000 player barrier, but it didn't break until after the site ran the record-breaking World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).

That series drew 27 399 and created an $18.5 million prize pool, including a Main Event figure of $6.2 million. Professional J.C Tran took home $670 194, the largest single-person payout in online poker history.

The largest boost of calendar 2006 came after Party Poker dropped out of the U.S. market because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement act.

PokerStars broke through the 6 000 player barrier in October, and then broke its own participation record five straight weeks consecutively starting two weeks after the UIGEA passed.

The first non-holiday event in 2007 (January 7) saw PokerStars break through the 7 000 player level.

PokerStars peaked the following week at 7 632 players. Then the Neteller arrests, coupled with the NFL Playoff schedule, slowed growth once again, bringing the poker room back under the new benchmark.

Overall, the Sunday Million has stood the test of time. PokerStars has experienced only two-overlays in the history of their Sunday Million – Father's Day and Christmas Eve (Both 2006).

"Breaking records is not something we planned," Jones said.

"When bad things happen you deal with them, you put your head down and go on running a poker site. Our job is deliver a fair and honest poker game and give players promotions that will keep them happy and keep them playing at PokerStars."

Lee added, "You can't control things that happen outside. You can only hope that the players can respond to adverse situations. And they have in spades."

Lee told RGT there are no plans to increase the Sunday tournament guarantee. He believes player participation drives the process.

PokerStars will increase their guarantee when player demand warrants the jump, Lee said. He doesn't believe the site will make incremental raises like a $1.2 million guarantee, choosing instead to wait for a significant increase like $1.5 or $2 million.

"I don't see much point of increasing until there is another big threshold. $1 million brings them in," Lee said. "If it seems likely that we can reach $1.5 million every week, we might guarantee that and put another stake in the ground, but personally, I appreciate the ad hoc nature in the growth. We don't decide the levels, the players do."

Posted: March 21, 2007