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PokerStars is getting ready for their Americas Cup of Poker tournament which will see different countries in the Americas vying for the top spot in the tournament. online qualifiers will begin on March 15th and continue until April 14th for players to earn their spot alongside PokerStars Pros to compete for their country.

Nine individual countries will be represented in the PokerStars American Cup of Poker in the live final. The countries are: USA, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela. A tenth group will represent the Latin American countries that are not listed above and this group will be called Rest of LATAM.

The countries will then compete in three tiers of matches beginning with a free roll, a $0.11 and then a $1.10 buy-in competition. The top one hundred finishers of each poker tournament will earn points. The country that earns the most points in each match will then secure their place in the final. Each country will be represented in the final by the top four point earners from their country.

Once the online portion of the competition is completed the top six countries will automatically make the live final in Iguazu Falls. An online playoff will take place between the final four countries on April 16th to the 18th and the top two teams will take the final two positions.

Eight countries will compete in the live Americas Cup at Iguazu Falls and each team will have four players representing their country as well as a Team PokerStars.net Pro as the team captain. The payout structure for the live final is:

1st - $50,000

2nd - $35,000

3rd - $20,000

4th - $15,000

5th - $10,000

6th - $10,000

7th - $5,000

8th - $5,000

PokerStars has just announced they have cancelled the Latin American Poker Toru Vina Del Mar stop. The event was cancelled just days after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile. The tournament series was set to take place on March 19th through the 23rd at the Vina Del Mar Casino and Resort.

The earthquake hit just 200 miles south of Vina Del Mar and it has strongly affected the country. Most of Chile is still undergoing rescue efforts and emergency services are still needed. PokerStars has assured their players that if they qualified or bought in to the event that they will be refunded their buy-ins and any out of pocket expenses.

Poker Stars.com has expressed that their thoughts are with their friends in Chile and they look forward to the time when they can visit the beautiful country. The PokerStars blog released the official statement from PokerStars on the cancellation. It read:

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The PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) regrets to announce that the 2010 LAPT Viña del Mar, Chile poker festival has been cancelled. The festival was scheduled to be held at the Enjoy Viña del Mar Casino and Resort from March 19-23, 2010.

All players who have qualified or bought-in to the event will be fully refunded their buy-ins and any out-of-pocket expenses*.

This cancellation follows a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile approximately 175 miles south of Viña del Mar on February 27, 2010. The cancellation of the festival has been forced by the effects of the earthquake and in light of the rescue and recovery efforts now taking place throughout Chile.

Everyone at PokerStars.net and the LAPT offers their thoughts and condolences to all of those affected by this tragic natural disaster.

The LAPT sincerely apologizes for this cancellation to the players that had planned to attend the festival.

*Players should contact lapt@pokerstars.com with any queries

Poker players will be excited to hear that top online poker room Poker Stars if offering their players a chance to become a pro poker player for one year. Poker Stars is offering a poker playing job on the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour for one year.

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Poker Stars has stared the Dream Job Australia this month and players can play their choice of the stops on the ANZPT. The player will be sponsored by PokerStars on the tour and this offering is worth $100,000. $40,000 will be applied to tournament entry fees and a monthly salary of $5,000 will be given to the winning player.

Beginning on March 1st, daily free rolls will take place and run from Saturday through Thursday. The tournaments will continue until the 25th. On Fridays the site will be hosting weekly finals. The top eighteen players from the finals will earn a seat to the grand final which will take place on Saturday march 27th.

The grand final will determine the top ten finalists. The finalists of the Dream Job Australia competition will have to take a quiz of their knowledge of the game of poker. they will also be introduced to the Team Poker Stars Australia in Sydney during a tour stop. The players will then spend the next six weeks trying to get support from the poker community to earn votes. The top ten players can blog, tweet and post on facebook to earn votes.

Poker Stars members will then be voting on the winner of the Dream Job Australia contest. Players can vote for their favorite finalist and dedicated tournaments will be held for each finalist. Registration numbers count as a vote so the player who has the most registrations will win the twelve month Poker Stars contract.

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Last week we brought you the news that online poker giant PokerStars was anticipating their 40 billionth hand to be dealt. This is a major milestone and the hand was finally dealt on February 19th. The poker room was holding several events and giving away cash to celebrate the upcoming milestone.

It was around lunchtime on the 19th that the 40 billionth hand was dealt. Four hundred hands were dealt since last Wednesday when the site began the celebration to see when the special hand would be dealt. Those involved in every millionth hand would earn a cash prize for being involved on the way to the 40 billionth hand.

Players who were lucky enough to be involved in the 40 billionth hand earned $400 for each VIP Player Point they earned at the table over the previous 40 hands. The winner of the poker hand earned twice what the position originally gave.

The winning hand was dealt to table Naef III and the game was won by Senecady. The game was $2/$4 No Limit Texas Hold’em and the board showed 7-Q-7-10-7 and Senecady was holding K-10 which gave him a sevens over tens full house. Senecady earned a prize of $24,000 along with the $350 pot.

There were five other players involved in the hand. 13_Xerxes_13 and Joe Hahn earned $1,500 while jeckjeck earned $12,400.80. thecooler992 and zawaaa both earned a large prize of $15,590.20. This is an amazing accomplishment and strongly shows why PokerStars.com is the number one poker room available online today. The site began in 2000 and the 25 billionth hand was dealt just one year ago so they have come a long way in a short amount of time!

Online poker rooms celebrate for many reasons and when an online poker room reaches a milestone the room will hold a special celebration. PokerStars recently announced they are about to reach a major milestone, the 40 billionth hand dealt. To celebrate this major milestone, the online poker room will be offering hand rewards, special sit and go’s and VIP offers.

For every millionth hand dealt players will earn a cash prize based on the number of points they have earned at the poker tables. PokerStars stated that staring with the 39, 601, 00 the site will be giving away more than one million dollars with $40 offered up for every point a player earned on their 40 previous visits to that table.

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A statement from PokerStars read: “PokerStars calculates that in the last 40 hands at that table you have earned 31 VPPs. Add that to the extra VPP that all players dealt in are awarded and you have a total of 32 VPPs. This means you’ll win $1,280 (32x$40). Go on to win the hand and this will be double to $2,560.”

Players that participate in the 40 billionth hand will earn $400 for every point they have earned over the previous 40 hands. The winner of the special event will have their cash prize doubled. Eight special tournaments will also take place during the celebration with a $40,000 prize pool up for grabs. A special Sunday Million fourth Anniversary Edition game will take place on February 21st and will feature an amazing prize pool that is guaranteed at $4 million.

PokerStars is also offering a one per customer $40 in instant cash credit for players who have VIP status. Players can purchase the $40 instant cash credit for just 2,500 FPPs from now until the 21st.

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It was recently announced that TSN, a leader in sports in Canada, has teamed up with online poker giant, PokerStars. The two will be working together to create a custom built poker environment called The TSN Poker Club.

The new poker club launched just a few days ago and new members will find they can participate in a series of free to enter tournaments which feature prizes. Members will also have access to a skill building poker school and news provided by the site on the largest live and online tournaments available.

Geoff Fardy the Canada Country manager for PokerStars commented: “poker’s popularity in Canada continues to grow and the TSN Poker Club gives poker players of all levels a chance to get into the action and win exclusive prize. Every team wants to partner with the best and no one in Canada knows sports like TSN. Together we offer unprecedented access to the sport of poker on television and now online.”

Players can visit The TSN Poker Club site and quickly download the software to begin playing. The site is hosting special online tournaments from now until July 31st three times a day and players who do well will qualify for the weekly finals and the monthly main tournaments. If you are new to the game of poker then you can take advantage of the free poker school to learn the game before you begin to compete in the tournaments.

Shawn Redmond the Vice President of Marketing at TSN commented: “Poker on TSN has always attracted a loyal and dedicated audience of fans who love the thrill of high stakes competition. The TSN Poker Club gives our fans the opportunity to get in the game with PokerStars industry leading software, the best game selection and access to exclusive tournaments and prizing.”

Sundays at PokerStars are always exciting with the various guaranteed tournaments the site has to offer but this past weekend the online poker room was offering a $2 million guaranteed prize pool for their Sunday Million and the players came out in droves. So many players showed up that the tournament set a new record.

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19,000 players took part in the tournament which created a prize pool of over $3.8 million and more than half a million would go to first place. The tournament field, first place prize and prize pool amount all broke records which had held strong since last November’s $2.5 million guarantee.

So the weekend was definitely a interesting one especially for those competing at Poker Stars, though not surprising. PokerStars is known for breaking records so it was only a matter of time before the record would be broke yet again. The prize pool was so enormous that the top five players would earn six figure payday with third taking home cash in the two hundred thousand range while second and first would earn three hundred thousand + and five hundred thousand + respectively.

The Sunday Million saw OX45AL and celofyz33 make it to heads up play and the two would discuss making a deal but only briefly. OX45AL would not cut a deal so the two would begin to play. In the end OX45AL would be in the chip lead and the cards were in his favor. Both would go all in but it would be OX45AL who would emerge the victor.

Final Results:

1st: OX45AL ($550,011.29)

2nd: celofyz33 ($332,540.00)

3rd: eMarkM ($244,616.42)

4th: OBVAMENTS ($166,270.00)

5th: S. Takmaziyan ($133,016.00)

6th: Kostya 77777 ($99,762.00)

7th: Gmelkonyan ($66,508.00)

8th: austinlewis ($44,227.82)

9th: hunter10999 ($29,928.60)

Notable finishes: Damien “FibSensei” Griffin (15th), Tyler “brainwash” Cornell (37th) and Jason “Taknapotin” Somerville (69th)

Online poker rooms have been feverishly working to help raise money to help the relief efforts in earthquake stricken Haiti. Tens of thousands have perished and hundreds of thousands are in need of food, medical care and places to live. One of the poker rooms working in the relief effort is PokerStars. Last week PokerStars set up a relief fund to bring aid to Haiti and now they have raised almost half a million dollars.

PokerStars set up the relief fund and they announced they would be matching every dollar donated by their players. The money would then be given to the Red Cross. As of the 19th of January the number one online poker room had seen $474,638 donated by the people who play poker at PokerStars. And of course the poker room will be matching every dime.

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PokerStars is continuing their efforts to raise money for Haiti by accepting donations until January 31st. players will need to have an account at PokerStars and go to the lobby. Players go to Tourney and then Special. Players must then enter one of the dummy tournaments there called Haiti Earthquake Relief.

Buy-ins range from $1,000 down to $1. Players will not need to play in an actual tournament they are just paying an entry fee, which will go straight to the donation fund. Players can also make a private player transfer if they so choose.

To make a private player transfer a player goes to the account Haiti Fund. Then click on Requests in the client top menu and select Transfer funds. Players can then choose the amount they would like to donate. Hopefully poker players will continue to give and PokerStars will be sending over $1 million dollars to those in need in Haiti.

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This past weekend was a busy one at PokerStars as thousands of players registered to compete in the Sunday Warm-Up and the Sunday Million. Quite a large number of players competed in each event and it created a large increase in both prize pools.

The Sunday Warm-up is a $750,000 guaranteed tournament and it has a buy-in of $200 plus 15. With 4,967 players competing the tournament had a prize pool increase of $243,400 which paid out to 720 spots. The prize pool was at $993,400 which is pretty close to $1 million dollars!

Both first and second place finishers would earn a six figure pay day so both would earn a nice prize. When it came down to heads up play it was insanocut and Patokaka2007 who were left to compete. Both players wanted the first place finish but of course there can only be one winner. In the end it was insanocut who was in the chip lead when the final hand went down. Patokaka2007 would go all in as well but it was not in the cards and he would be out in second place.

Final Results:

insanocut - $155,399

Patokaka2007 - $115,731

AmarulaBr - $81,955

jordyporr - $56,127

polpolpol - $42,219

Hood_Ace - $32,285

ramondemon77 - $22,351

Civell - $12,417

Lahni86 - $7,947

The Sunday Million was a success as well with 8,885 players competing. This tournament has a buy-in of $200 plus 15 and has a $1.5 million guarantee. The guarantee was surpassed as so many players competed that the prize pool ended up being $1,777,000 which paid out to 1,350.

In this tournament, when it got down to four way play, the players decided to cut a deal. This would give each player a six figure pay day with a little left for first place. In the end, the third place finisher would take home the highest prize of $182,291 while first place would be the second highest at $179,446.

Final Results:

AceQuad - $179,446

yurabond - $173,166

IveGotToeJam - $182,291

DRKP - $126,583

bullyon - $71,080

s8kipper - $53,310

jayjayme - $35,540

iChipd - $19,547

Nezzareth - $12,439

PokerStars has created numerous poker tours that travel all over the world yet the top online poker room did not have a tour in the United States, until now. PokerStars recently announced their newest poker tour which is called the North American Poker Tour.

The new poker tour will begin its first season at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event will begin on February 20th and continue until the 24th and have a $5k buy-in event which will take place after the Deep Stack Extravaganza Series which takes place at the casino.

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Only one more event has been announced for the new tour and it will take place in April. The Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut will host the event on the 7th and it will continue until the 11th. Jeffrey Haas the Head of PokerStars Live announced that other dates will be announced in the near future. The events will take place in the US as well as Canada.

Haas commented: “We’re going to be going to some beautiful places, putting on some exciting poker tournaments and hopefully having some fun non-poker events as well.”

The new tour will be filmed by ESPN WSOP produces 441 productions. Joanna Krupa will be hosting the televised events, yet a television air deal has not been confirmed. Haas also commented that there is room for competition in the North American poker scene. He commented: “I think there is so much demand for poker in North America today that there’s room for a number of different operators who are all promoting wonderful poker events.”

Daniel Negreanu commented on the new tour by stating: “one thing for sure, PokerStars know how to do it right. I’m very excited to play. Being a part of PokerStars we travel all over the world, but it’s going to be nice to have some events at home in Las Vegas and at home in Canada. I think you are going to see a lot of pros there.”