I am probably one of the biggest fans of Al Alvarez on the planet. His book, "The Biggest Game in Town" is living history and written expertly. That said, it may be time for him to write a sequel, or at least a postscript.

See, as much as we've always believed that size doesn't matter, we've just been handed video proof of the biggest poker game ever played. It's a heads-up match between two members of the England Rugby Team.

There aren't many punches pulled during the match. My favorite moment is when one looks across the pitch/baize/whatver and says, "You're a child."

Here, just have a look for yourself.

With degenerates like these among us, it's hard to tell what they will come up with next (I'm formally putting in a suggestion for putting numbers and suits on their fellow players jerseys--make your best five card hand out of the first five guys you can incapacitate).

In any case, you'd best keep up with it all over at the PokerStars UK You Tube channel.

This week, the world is celebrating its women. While International Women's Day is relegated to one Monday in March, is really more of a year-long celebration around these parts. Nonetheless, it's a fine time to announce the Ladies Luxury Poker Club's next ladies-only poker vacation.

The PokerStars Luxury Ladies Poker Club is a signature series of poker events designed for and open solely to female poker players. It's already staged events at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and 2009 EPT London poker festivals.

April 27 - May 2, the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo will host poker-playing women from around the globe in some of the planet's most luxurious surroundings. The ladies will be staying at the chic Columbus Monaco hotel, home of some of the world's best treatments at the prestigious Les Thermes Marins Spa.

Outside they club members will get a chance to see the city's historic marina, casino, and Monaco Gran Prix. Inside, they'll have a world-class poker experience. They'll receive the best in poker training at Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso's Ladies Bootcamp.

Then it's on to the European Poker Tour grand Final where the participants will get automatic entry into the €1,100 Ladies Tournament.

With travel expenses and a goodie bag added to the mix, the total value of this unique vacation and poker experience amounts to €3,500.

Sure, it's a hefty price. But, as always, PokerStars is giving the ladies a chance to win the full prize for nothing.

Online qualifiers are running daily through April 18. You can find the tournaments in the PokerStars lobby by clicking the 'Events' and 'EPT' tabs.

Good luck, ladies. We'll see you in Monte Carlo.

It was one of those weekends in which deal-making was in the air. Of the 18 final table players in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Million, ten of them walked away having chopped part of the pot.

The Sunday Million saw a four-way chop that still resulted in a $260,000 won for MAE9690. Jen Newell has all the details in our 3-7-10 Sunday Million final table report.

As if the four-way chop wasn't enough, this weekend's Sunday Warm-Up enjoyed a six-way deal. Take a peek at John Hartness' 3-7-10 Sunday Warm-Up final table report for a full rundown of the chop and Ramux's $139,163 win.

For a complete look at the final tables of all the big events this past weekend, be sure to check out the 3-7-10 PokerStars Sunday tournament results.

Congratulations to all of last week's winners, and good to luck to everybody playing this week.

Having recently returned from the North American Poker Tour event at the Venetian, we feel like we've been sort of spoiled. The Venetian treated us very well and was just about as accommodating as we ever could have hoped.

But, some people just get treated better than others, don't they?

It's one thing to be a very well-treated regular guest at The Venetian. It's another thing to be a high-roller. That's what we learned after watching this week's Inside Deal.

Have a look at the show below (and be careful because you might see this blogger in a state of exceptional fatigue asking Daniel Negreanu how to cook vegan meals).

I've finally woken up after what was a very long and exciting week on the North American Poker Tour. Upon waking, I discovered I am a bit like the Rip Van WInkle of poker. I thought I'd just taken a brief nap, but in the meantime, a PokerStars Sunday passed and a whole bunch of big stuff happened.

Fortunately, I have some great colleagues who chronicled it all, starting with last night's Sunday Million which saw orionrg win more than a quarter million bucks.

This was the last Sunday of the month. Of course, that means there was a lot more to report:

Sunday Warm-Up: atcasanova lets cards do the talking in $146K win

Turbo Takedown: Super1337 gets super charged car in Turbo Takedown win.

Battle of the Planets: jeanette_33 knocks down final table in $12K win.

For everything big that happened over the past couple of days, check out the 2-28-10 PokerStars Sunday tournament results.

Now it's time to turn our attention to EPT Berlin. That begins in about 21 hours. Keep it right here for live coverage of Germany's biggest-ever poker event.

If like us you're still trying to get your head around the enormity of 40,000,000,000, then perhaps this number will be digested more easily: player Senecady just won $24,000 for scooping this Mega Milestone hand.

You probably heard that PokerStars has been running a special promotion to celebrate the arrival of its 40 billionth hand. The F40 has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to all players dealt in to milestone hands, which happened at the rate of one every million in the lead up to the grand climax.

Everyone wanted to be seated at the 'big one', but only six made it. As soon as the news was announced on the PokerStars client that the hand was about to be dealt on table Naef III, thousands of railbirds rushed to watch the action as online poker history was made... the 40 billionth hand to be dealt on the world's largest and best poker site.

But they had to wait. HostJeff paused the action on $2-4 NL Hold'em game to explain to each player what was about to happen - they would get $400 (yes, $400) for each VPP they had collected at that table over the last 40 hands. The winner would get double that. Once that was all understood, the hand was run.

In the event, Senecady, from Stockholm, Sweden, won the hand with a full house, holding [kc][10s] and with the board running out [7s][qh][7d][10c][7c] *. The pot was worth $350 to him.... but the $24,000 for being the winner of the 40 billionth hand was just that little bit nicer! Every other player at the table will also collect a bumper bonus depending on the number of VPPs they had collected over the previous 40 hands:

13_Xerxes_13, France, $1,500
jeckjeck, Sweden, $12,400.80
Joe Hahn, Holland, $1,500
Senecady, Sweden, $24,000
thecooler992, US, $15,590.20
zawaaa, US, $15,590.20

Once HostJeff had completed the formalities, the railbirds were allowed their say in the chat box. It went insane as hundreds piled in at once.

The build up to the Mega Milestone Hand was incredible, with 280,000 players on PokerStars at once, with an amazing 41,000 tables in play.

Congratulations to everyone who won free bucks in the F40 promotion.

Most of all, thanks to all of you for playing on PokerStars and helping us reach this tremendous 40,000,000,000 figure.

* Here's the 40 billionth hand in full:

PokerStars Game #40000000000: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4 USD) - 2010/02/19 12:43:11 ET
Table 'Naef III' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Senecady ($117 in chips)
Seat 2: Joe Hahn ($412 in chips)
Seat 3: zawaaa ($266.45 in chips)
Seat 4: 13_Xerxes_13 ($400 in chips)
Seat 5: thecooler992 ($142.55 in chips)
Seat 6: jeckjeck ($515.40 in chips)
13_Xerxes_13: posts small blind $2
thecooler992: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
jeckjeck: folds
Senecady: raises $113 to $117 and is all-in
Joe Hahn: raises $295 to $412 and is all-in
zawaaa: folds
13_Xerxes_13: folds
thecooler992: calls $138.55 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($269.45) returned to Joe Hahn
*** FLOP *** [7s][Qh][7d]
*** TURN *** [7s][Qh][7d][Tc]
*** RIVER *** [7s][Qh][7d][Tc][7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
thecooler992: shows [5d][Kh] (three of a kind, Sevens)
Joe Hahn: shows [Jd][Kd] (three of a kind, Sevens)
thecooler992 collected $25.55 from side pot
Joe Hahn collected $25.55 from side pot
Senecady: shows [Kc][Ts] (a full house, Sevens full of Tens)
Senecady collected $350 from main pot

When you donated to the PokerStars Haiti earthquake appeal, you no doubt did it for the right reasons. You did it because you cared and you wanted to give something back.

Today, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies sent a letter of thanks to PokerStars and its players for the Haiti fundraising efforts.

We have been provided a copy of the letter and have reproduced it here so everyone can see their money has gone to a worthy cause.

If you would like to continue to contribute, please visit IFRC.org.

Thanks again.

Dear PokerStars and PokerStars players,

On behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, I would like to extend profound gratitude to the PokerStars players and PokerStars Company for their generous contribution to the International Federation in support of the people affected by the earthquake in Haiti. We are extremely grateful for this expression of solidarity with Haiti and the Red Cross Red Crescent work. Together with the matching gift of your company, this donation amounted to USD 1,492,780.52.

Today, Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from around the world are bringing essential support to hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti, delivering food, clean water, healthcare, and psychological support to those in need. Your contribution will allow us to continue to help people rebuild their lives in the coming years, with rehabilitation and construction programmes as well as disasater preparedness measures to protect Haitian communities.

For further information on our continuing work, please visit our website at www.ifrc.org.

Thank you again on behalf of all of those who will benefit from your generosity,

To see the letter in its entirety, click on the image below.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

We're not saying you should just start playing on PokerStars right now and not stop until the 40 billionth hand hits. We're not, because you probably have a lot of important things to do. You probably need to get a haircut or meet with the landscapers or take your kid to swimming lessons. However, if none of the above apply to you and you have some hours to kill, our math wizards suggest that PokerStars 40 billionth hand will probably be dealt sometime in the next 24 hours.

Hundreds upon hundreds of people have already cashed in on the PokerStars F40 celebration (see almost 2,000 of them on our PokerStars 40 billionth hand milestone winners page). Your time to get in on the milestone hands is growing short.

If you've not heard, everybody who is dealt into PokerStars 40 billionth hand will earn $400 for every VIP Player Point they earned in the past 40 hands at that table. The winner of the hand will have that amount doubled. That could end up being one nice hunk of change.

We've tracked down a few more of our milestone hand winners. The player known as CalvinJohnsn told us, "I was pretty excited to see that I had been dealt into a milestone hand...I figured it would be worth at least $2,000. After my opponent and I both finished with the same hand, I was a little nervous that it would not count as 'winning' the hand and it would not be doubled, but PokerStars paid us both as winners. Winning the $4,957 was a nice boost for February."

Supernova Elite hopeful niwin has been playing a lot this year in an attempt to reach the pinnacle of the VIP Club. He ended up winning nearly $1,900 for hitting the milestone. "It was my lucky day to get dealt one of these milestone hands," he told us. I was only playing about 7 or 8 tables at the same time, and all the sudden there was a pop-up window appeared on one of my tables. I couldn't believe what I saw. I was about to get dealt a milestone hand!"

Sisi Capwell already hit a milestone hand earlier in the promotion, but didn't managed to win it. That changed a few days later. "This time I had top pair and successfully won a big pot at showdown and a big prize for the milestone hand," he said.

Not only did PokerStars player redargoe hit two milestone hands during the promotion, he won both of them. He told us the story like this:

"In my first hand I had KQ vs three unpaired undercards which I ended up making a straight." he said. "Then in my second I had AQ again vs three unpaired undercards, which I flopped a queen. The first bonus was for approximately $150 because it was my seventh hand at the table. However the second was for $1950! So, if you included winning the actual hands, I made $2,750 during the F40 hand celebration. Gotta love the Pokerstars promotional periods!"

You still have...well, let's call it less than a day...before the milestone hands lead up the PokerStars 40 billionth hand. That doesn't mean the promotion will end, however.

This Sunday, PokerStars will host a monster $4 million guaranteed Sunday Million with a $1 million guaranteed first prize. Talk about a way to finish off the party.

In the meantime, start drinking the Red Bull and get ready for the biggest milestone hand of the year.

It will be here before you know it.

If you're like me, you look at those sweepstakes announcements on the back of your morning cereal box and think, "Nobody ever wins those things! It's all fake! If only they would publish the photos of the winners!"

Well, if you're like that, you might also wonder the same thing about this monstrous F40 promotion going on at PokerStars right now.

As PokerStars gives out hundred of thousands of dollars in the run-up to its 40 billionth deal hand, we've been reaching out to the people who have been winning big cash in the milestone hands.

Take, for instance, Deborah Mitchell, aka Riptidebsi. She was playing a ton of tables of $1/$2 PLO six-max when something surprised her.

"I wanted to have more shots at the milestone hands. I won one the last promotion they had for over $1,400 and wanted some more of that!" she said. "I actually didn't know I won until a pop-up message came on the screen that said I won about $1,430! Thank you PokerStars for your innovative promotions, superb VIP club, outstanding customer service and variety of games. You are truly the best online and live poker experience on the planet!"

Then there have been people like GaBlieu who saw the milestone hand pop-up and figured he stood a good chance of getting some good money if he just shoved.

"I think I did the best decision by going all-in with a hundred bucks, vs tomtomtom26 who only had 25$," he said. "I was sure winning much more than my stack, at first, and If he called and won I would've lost only $25 but it was worth it obviously, as he folded!"

The man known as Netcash was one of those people who thinks they never win anything. And then he won something.

"I had read about the promotion but really did not expect to receive any prize," he said. "I was playing six tables when suddenly jumped up the milestone hand. With pocket sevens, I went all-in pre-flop and won the hand. In all the F40 prize promotion was about $1,300."

Finally, there was dickkemp who got paid to do what he would be doing otherwise.

"Being dealt into the hand was really amazing," he said. "It's free money basically for playing when I normally play anyways. Once dealt the hand you have an option to double your money by winning the hand. So naturally I went all in with three other players thinking the same thing. It was fun and I really like how PokerStars is giving money back to the community that supports them. It keeps the games going and I really think PokerStars has managed to make something for everyone."

Those are just a few of the hundreds of people who have already won money in the F40 celebration. For a big list of winners, check out our PokerStars 40 billionth hand milestone winners.

The big 40 billionth hand is still to come. Keep an eye on the milestone hands. The 40 billionth will be here before you know it.

Valentines Day...Hallmark holiday or occasion to celebrate your love for the significant man, woman, or household appliance in your life?

That was the big question for legions of people who settled into their chairs yesterday and ignored it all in an attempt to win some big money on a Valentines Sunday.

More than 8,300 people showed up for the Sunday Million this weekend, no small number for a day when most folks were awash with greeting card-inspired love. One person who now has enough money to buy Godiva chocolates for the rest of his career is the PokerStars player known as Blompf. He won more than $225,000 in in the Sunday Million. Read all about it in Jen Newell's final table report on the 2-14-10 Sunday Million.

A little bit earlier in the night, the Sunday Warm-Up was easy to love. PokerStars player smacl02 won more than $142,000 after winning the Warm-Up outright. David Aydt has the story in the 2-14-10 Sunday Warm-Up report.

For all the people who spent more time winning money than being all lovey-dovey, see our full list of 2-14-10 PokerStars Sunday tournament results.

Next week we'll return to our regularly scheduled, non-love-related poker. Until then, good luck!