PokerStars weekly news digest for this week

Here's PokerStars.com's weekly news digest for the week of Aug. 21:

$1,000,000
Amount of money up for grabs in PokerStars’ brand new promotion ‘The PokerStars Dream Team Collection’ that started on Tuesday, Aug. 17 and will run until Thursday, Sept. 17. The promotion revolves around completing challenges and collecting puzzle pieces. Random prizes are awarded for each puzzle piece collected, ranging from a minimum of a $20,000 All-in Shootout Ticket up to a maximum of $7,911 in cash plus a Golden Ticket. The Golden Ticket will grant players access to an exclusive All-in Shootout tournament where one player will win a $1 million first prize.

483,203
Amount of hands played on the first day of Full Tilt’s new mini-game called ‘The Deal.’ The jackpot rose to $110,000 on the first day of the new rewards program, ‘Players Club.’

$175,514.78
First prize won by the latest PokerStars Sunday Million champion ‘Keiruja’ from the U.K. The player topped a field of 5,611 to claim $175,514.78 in prize money from the $1,122,200 total prize pool.

$100,000
Amount won by ‘bigmike298’ from Canada and ‘RolfO’ from Norway in the PokerStars Mega Bonus Rewards. Throughout August, PokerStars has been offering a free Mega Bonus reward when a player makes a deposit of $25 (£15/€22/ CAD $30) or more into their account. The rewards vary from a $100,000 All-in Shootout ticket to $100,000 in cash. The promotion ends on Aug. 23.

$31,570
First prize won by the first ever winner of PokerStars’ new weekly two-day tournament, ‘The Weekender.’ ‘HealTheWorld’ from Austria topped a field of 328 players over the two-day tournament claiming the $31,570 in prize money from a total prize pool of $164,000. The tournament runs every Saturday at 10.30 ET with a buy-in of $530.

€9,950
Amount donated to the Neymar Jr Project Institute following the charity tournament held on the opening evening of the EPT Barcelona Poker Festival. Former EPT Grand Final Champion, Steve O’Dwyer, topped the field of 59, winning an EPT Barcelona Main Event Seat. The runner-up was PokerStars employee Thomas Udness, who won an Estrellas Main Event seat, the cash value of which was added to the donation pool.

1,714
Combined number of players that entered Day 1a and Day 1b of the €1,100 Estrellas Barcelona Main Event. With Day 1c beginning today, the field will almost definitely eclipse last year’s record-breaking Estrellas Barcelona field, which was 2,560. More than 500 players have also qualified for the €5,300 EPT Main Event which begins on Monday. The festival features 71 tournaments and ends Aug. 30.

$250
Buy-in for the Full Tilt International Poker Open (IPO) Tour Main Event. IPO Newcastle kicks off tonight at the Aspers Casino, followed by IPO London on August 28-30.