PokerStars makes 6 more millionaires

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.