(PRESS RELEASE) -- Six more millionaire winners have been created in the past week by playing online at
PokerStars.com, an Amaya Inc. brand, and in
PokerStars-sponsored live events.
On Sunday, two players, including a small-stakes player from Bulgaria, earned $1 million each on PokerStars after besting competitors in free-to-enter online tournaments. They won their way to the ‘Millionaire Finals’ for free through Challenges and
All-in Shootout tournaments that were set up to celebrate the ‘PokerStars Makes Millionaires’ campaign.
The ‘Millionaires’ campaign promised to award at least $1 million to a minimum of five players during the two-month promotion. Already eight players have taken in $1 million, with four coming in online tournaments and four in live tournaments. The promotion concludes at the end of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (
SCOOP), which is a festival of online tournaments, including one in which a $1 million top prize is guaranteed.
The ‘Millionaires’ campaign is reminiscent of the feat accomplished by Chris Moneymaker, an American accountant and casual poker player, who rose to fame in 2003 when he won $2.5 million at the World Series of Poker after qualifying via a
low-stakes satellite tournament on PokerStars.
Yesterday’s $1 million winners were ‘JUANYI828’ from Taiwan and ‘citoject’ from Bulgaria, who hit the seven-figure wins after two hard-fought six-handed Millionaire Final tournaments that took place at 13.30 ET on PokerStars and were watched by thousands. A further $150,000 and 2 million FPPs were shared out among the other five players in each tournament. The two tournaments can be viewed as a replay in the client by going to the Main Lobby > Tournaments and then searching for 'Replay' or 'Millionaire'.
Other players who found out they had won a ticket to the $1m finals included ‘tickitmaster’ from Hungary, who said his “legs started to tremble”, and 25-year-old Russian web programmer, ‘Galonder’, who came second and won $50,000.
For 51-year-old Canadian player Dwayne ‘Dewmister’ Mattice, the dream was simple: “One thing I will do should I win is go to Las Vegas and play in the 2015
WSOP Main Event.” Well, he didn’t quite win, but the $20k he pocketed is easily enough for that holiday of a lifetime and entry into the WSOP Main Event. And who knows, he may well just go on to do a ‘Moneymaker’ himself and win it.
EPT GRAND FINALMeanwhile, in the live arena, the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final saw four players become millionaire winners in three separate poker tournaments – the €100,000 Super High Roller, €25,000 High Roller and €10,000 Main Event.
First was the €100k SHR, which was taken down by well known US pro Erik Seidel for €2,015,000, with Dzmitry Urbanovich from Poland also winning €1,446,600 for second place. Subsequently, 21-year-old British player Charlie Carrel won the €25k HR for €1,114,000, before Adrian Mateos became Spain’s first ever EPT Main Event winner on Saturday, winning the first prize of €1,082,000 at just 20 years of age. Check out the Blog report here: http://psta.rs/1GYDeLh.
POKERSTARS MAKES MILLIONAIRESEight players have now become millionaires through the PokerStars Makes Millionaires promotion (two $1m Spin & Go’s, two Millionaire Finals and four EPT winners) with at least one more to come in the Spring Championship of Online Poker Main Event High tournament on May 24.
Players can win a seat in the SCOOP Main Event High tournament for free via a SCOOP All-in Shootout Deposit Raffle on May 22. The qualifying period is currently under way with players simply needing to make a deposit to receive a raffle ticket.
In the All-in Shootout there are 16 free SCOOP High Main Event entries – each worth $10,300 – up for grabs, plus over 2,000 free entries to the SCOOP Low and Medium Main Events.
In addition, the $1 Million Spin & Go tournaments, featuring a $5
buy-in, are still running until later in the month.
