People often ask me why it is that PokerStars is the world leader in online poker. There are many factors, of course: best customer service, superior product and innovation spring to mind. I'd also add one more... PokerStars has the best players. By that I mean they are the most loyal and most educated bunch anywhere on the planet. We are very grateful for that, and we don't take it for granted; it's why we strive constantly to create exciting offers and promotions.

Sometimes, it's as simple as just give money away. Lots of it.

The Road to 100 Billion is a case in point. As you'll probably know by now, as that landmark approaches, we hand over significant piles of cash along the way. As every 5 billionth hand ticks around on the servers, hundreds of our players get free money in their accounts. One player, the one who wins the actual milestone 5 billionth hand dealt at PokerStars, wins an awful lot of free money.

Just now we dealt our 75 billionth hand. Two players split the pot with a seven-high straight. edroqui07, who started the hand with $35.92, ended it with $42,810 more, while acer2831, who started the hand with just $22.36 at the table, finished up with $34,600. Everyone else at the six-handed $1-$2 limit hold'em table won at least $16,970.

"A nice morning's work, and not bad for a 1-2 limit table," remarked HostBob.

As usual, the excitement leading up to the 75 Billionth hand had been enormous. By now most of your know the score: when a Mega Milestone Hand approaches, you simply have to be playing on PokerStars for a chance to win it. When offered free money, it's probably best to take it, right? It's why, on a Saturday lunchtime, European time, just under 200,000 people were playing on PokerStars across nearly 30,000 tables.

But although so many of you were playing, only one table could have the 75 Billionth hand dealt. The PokerStars lobby sprung to life. "The milestone hand 75,000,000,000 is being at table Stroobantia V," a banner read. There, the game had been halted while the rail gathered and HostBob explained to the players at the table what was about to happen. It was a moment of pure excitement, an adrenaline rush for the players.

"That is shock," said i-268, before adding, "OK, guys. I have A-A so just fold."

ant_poker was a little slower on the uptake. "This is a milestone hand?" he asked.
"This is THE milestone hand," explained HostBob

"Vamos Colombiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa," added edroqui07, a man from Colombia who was clearly a little pleased.

Then Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden popped up in the chat box. "GL boys," he said. "Must be nice."

Once HostBob was sure everyone understood what was about to happen, and once the rail had gathered, play re-started and the cards were dealt.

Now, as most of you know, to be in with a chance of winning a milestone hand, you have to win the hand. Folding is no option. This is why players will abandon normal sensible strategy and shove all-in pre-flop in no-limit or cap out in limit, regardless of what cards they hold.

Here's what happened:

As expected, all players raised merry hell out of the [5s][3s][7s] flop, and the [6h] turn and [10c] river. In fact, it was pretty much capped out down every street. At the end of it, acer2831 showed [3h][4h] for a straight, while edroqui07 had [5d][4d] for the same straight.

And then they all waited with baited breath to find out what they had won. Each were already guaranteed $10,000 just for being in the 75 Billionth hand, then they got an extra $1,000 for every VPP they had earmed at the table in the previous 50 hands. The hand winners would get their prize doubled.

HostBob asked everyone to wait while he got out his famous calculator. After a few moments, he came back with these numbers, getting some nice reactions:

edroqui07: $42,810... "yeeeaaaaaaaaaa"
acer2831: $34,600
i-268: $19,450... "awesome, ty"
ant_poker: $19,010... "ooooh"
Sebastfrz: $16,970
pavl007: $16,970... "enough for a sandwich" (but presumably a very big one)

And then, as is the tradition, play was allowed to continue and the rail allowed to comment in the chat box at last. It exploded in the usual fashion, with messages of congratulations flooding in.

Congratulations to all our 75 Billionth hand winners, and to all who won on the previous hands leading up to the milestone.

If you'd like to learn more about our current promotions and offers, please visit the PokerStars promotions page.

The are rules of etiquette when it comes to things like this. If a ball is about to hit you in the face, I'm supposed to immediately yell, "Heads up!" If your mother-in-law is on her way to your house, I'm supposed to call you ten minutes in advance so you can hide in the garage. If PokerStars' is about to deal it's 75 billionth hand, I have to give you enough advance notice that you have a chance to be part of the fun.

So, this is it.

The person on whom I count to give me the warning just checked in to say that the big hand is coming. When? Well, I can't tell you exactly when, because that would just ruin all the fun. But suffice it to say, you won't sleep twice between the time you read this and the time someone wins at least $20,000 for taking down the 75 billionth hand (unless you suffer from narcolepsy, and in that case, your results may vary).

If you have no idea what this is about, you obviously don't spend much time reading this blog. Here. This is the PokerStars Road to 100 Billion page. It explains how people getting dealt into big milestone hands are winning lots of extra cash (around $750,000 so far). It also explains how you'll want to be around for the 75 billionth.

Now, if you're like me, you always see these sweepstakes things and think, "Nobody ever wins any of those things." In this case, however, they do. I have some proof.

Check out this list of PokerStars 75 billionth milestone hand winners. Go ask the people on the list. They'll tell you. It's for real.

So, this is your last warning. The next time we write on this subject, we'll be telling you who won all the money.

Will it be you?

(Oh, and your mother-in-law is on her way to your house. Heads up.)

As a guy who recently had a brief vision scare, I can attest that it's a bit off-putting when your eyesight goes all wonky out of the blue. You can find yourself stumbling around, running into walls, and wondering what disgusting thing you did to deserve such divine punishment. However, I can also attest that things can improve without warning and you probably shouldn't worry too much. And in the case of the upcoming PokerStars Double Vision promotion, you should probably be excited.

On Sunday February 12th, some of your favorite Sunday majors are going to run not just once but twice in the same day.

Double Vision Sunday will feature the following double events.

Do yourself a favor and just look at this list. Take some time. Enjoy yourself. Roll around in the excitement that comes with PokerStars giving away a bunch of money in a short period of time.

As you're probably aware, the PokerStars 75 billionth hand is coming soon. How soon? Well, figure 48-hours-ish, depending on how many of you decide to start going crazy with 24-tabe action in an effort to hit the big hand. Why would you do such a thing? Well, that big hand is worth a minimum of $20,000 to the winner.

Leading up to that point, PokerStars is awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars to people for getting dealt into special milestone hands. Yeah, click that link above to get a feel for it. The total amount right now is right around a quarter-million and climbing. It's the kind of experience that makes one want to just get the big red spade tattooed on their chest.

It's all part of the Road to 100 Billion promotion as PokerStars prepares to hit triple-digit-blllions of hands dealt.

In the meantime, our focus must remain on that 75 billionth hand. It will be here sooner than you think.

Want to see that list one more time? Yeah, me too. Hereyago: PokerStars 75 Billionth hand milestone winners.

Just sexy isn't it?

If that doesn't get you itching to 24-table for the next few days, I don't know what will.

Over the course of the past few years, we have come to wonder when Danny McDonagh slept. When we arrived at any tournament venue, he was there and looked like he'd just come in from a week's rest at a luxury spa. When we left 14 hours later, McDonagh was still running full steam. And if we managed to find a watering hole at the end of the night, McDonagh seemed to always arrive just as we were ready to go to sleep. Again, he looked as fresh as a daisy. What's more, if we're to believe the rumors, McDonagh also finds time to get in regular workouts and runs. It's amazing, but it simply doesn't seem to leave time for sleep.

Though we've not fully solved the mystery, we're happy to report that the Australia Poker Hall of Fame has finally given McDonagh his due. The current Regional Director for Asia and head of PokerStars Macau recently accepted his induction to the Hall of Fame. It's the first time an inductee received the honor for efforts outside of normal poker play.

McDonagh is synonymous with poker in the region. From the very moment the Crown Casino Poker Room opened, McDonagh was there running events and growing the game. He did it there until 2007 when he started branching out across the region as APPT tournament director, and now in his role with PokerStars.

Congratulations, Danny. The honor is much-deserved. Now, if you'd just be kind enough to let us know when you sleep...

Just before the PCA, we unveiled the all-new PokerStars television campaign, We Are Poker. Featuring highly-charged, atmospheric scenes, these ads went down well and will be coming to a television screen near you some time soon.

Now PokerStars has released a third advert in the series. Watch out for appearances from Team PokerStars Pros including ElkY, Sandra Naujoks, Sebastian Ruthenburg and Liv Boeree.

Although we've been brought up to believe Boeree is an angel, see if you can spot her inner demon coming out in the ad. Enjoy...

Slow. Motion. That's. What. This. Monday. Is.

It's not only that I had a really long weekend or that I'm out of coffee. It's that after a week and half of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, I'm really used to everything moving very, very fast. TCOOP ended last night, and now I feel like everything is moving with the energy and verve of a Morissey song.

If you're moving as slow as everything else, you might be able to use some handy bullet points to summarize what happened over the last couple of days. Fortunately, bullet points I have:

For a full rundown of all the big winners from January's last weekend, check out our 1-29-12 PokerStars weekend majors results page.

Now, let's get ready for February. Anyone have Red Bull?

So, you're walking down the street. You've got your earbuds in, maybe grooving to a little Sly and the Family Stone and thinking about how you wished you had chosen a different pair of underwear to wear that day. Without warning, you trip over a plain brown envelope and fall flat on your face. After the requisite amount of obscenity and personal inventory for injury, you grab the envelope and prepare to throw it in a nearby river. But, first, you think, let's just check and see what's inside. Oh, look there. It's $4,273.60.

What do you do? Do you stuff it in the pocket of your peacoat? Throw it in the river anyway? Seek out the rightful owner? Or do you just consider it The Day I Ran Good, and head on home to put it in the pile with the rest of your money?

Let's be honest. This is probably not going to happen to you on your way to the deli. However, if you're like PokerStars' sipinho13, it might just happen to you while you're playing on PokerStars this week, and you won't have to worry about injury or finding someone to whom you should give it back.

Over the last day or so, the PokerStars 75 Billionth Hand promotion has kicked off again with milestone hands raining down on people like sipinho13.

As we mentioned a few days back, people are going to be winning money all this week in the promotion. Get dealt into a milestone hand, you'll win extra money based on the number of VPPs you've recently earned. Win the hand, you'll win more. Win the 75 billionth hand, and you'll rake in at least $20,000.

So, it's all the found money joy, without any of the guilt of wondering if you should give it back to somebody.

To get a look at who is already winning money, check out our PokerStars 75 billionth hand winners page.

Now, get out there, adjust your pants, turn on your iPod, and find you some money.

If you're not a former winner of PokerStars' Tournament Leader Board, you may not even know this event exists, much less what's happening with it. However, it's become so interesting that we have to pay it some attention. It's history-making, after all.

Every week for as long as I can remember, the weekly winner of the TLB has gotten to play a heads-up match against one of PokerStars' pro or celebrity players. The prize pool always starts at $1,000. If the TLB winner is the victor, he or she scoops the dime and everything starts over the next week. If the Team Pro wins, the $1,000 stays in the prize pool and the next week's winner gets a shot at $2,000.

Well, let's just say the TLB winners have not been faring very well in recent weeks, and for the first time in the history of the weekly TLB match, the prize pool has swollen to $9,000. It's sort of like the lottery when nobody wins for several weeks. It's gotta crack before long, and when it does, somebody is getting paid, yo.

So, this Sunday, January 29th, at 14:00 ET, PokerStars player 88Xin88 will be going up against PokerStars Sports Star Fatima Moreira de Melo for an historic $9,000 match.

While the prize may not be as much as the $67,903 he won in TCOOP Event #1, it will still be quite an event to watch. If he wins, he will pocket a history-making prize. If he loses, next week's winner will be playing for a cool $10,000.

If you'd like to handicap the match, you can get some idea for how 88xin88 plays by clicking the link above. For a little more on De Melo, you can check out her PokerStars Sports Stars bio.

For more on the TLB, visit the PokerStars Tournament Leader Board home page.

The Road to 100 Billion is not a short one, but there are fortunately a lot more stops along the way there these days. They are rest stops where we can take a break, consider the trip ahead, and, indeed, win a lot of money.

PokerStars announced this morning that, just a couple of months after awarding big money for the 72 billionth hand, it will once again hand out milestone prizes during the celebration of its 75 billionth hand.

Sometime within the next couple of weeks, the 75 billionth poker hand will come out of PokerStars virtual dealer. PokerStars has set aside a million bucks as part of the promotion. Every millionth hand between 74,700,000,000 and 75,000,000,000, someone will walk away with some extra cash. Whoever wins the 75 billionth hand will pick up at least $20,000.

This is, of course, not the first time something like this has happened. After realizing how much fun it players were having in the big promotions, PokerStars started throwing regular parties for the big hands. The winner of the 70 billionth hand took home more than $70,000. Just a couple of months ago during the 10th Anniversary celebration, the winner picked up $24,300 just for being in the right place with the right hand at the right time.

The 75 billion celebration milestone hands should start hitting within just a few days. Keep a close eye on the PokerStars lobby to see how close the next big hand is.

In the meantime, check out the Road to 100 Billion page for full details on how the promotion works and how you can win big money.

See you at the next rest stop on the Road to 100 Billion!