Poker star casino

PokerStars launched its beta play-money-only site on September 11, 2001. The company began offering real money wagering on December 12, 2001. PokerStars was originally a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, which was majority owned by the Israeli Scheinberg family.[8][9] The company was subsequently moved to Onchan, Isle of Man. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from the United States of America.[8] PokerStars holds its licence with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission and also holds numerous licences in other jurisdictions (see Regulated Markets below). On February 10, 2012, PokerStars acquired a European Union license granted by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Commission.[10]

While privately owned, PokerStars had been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible initial public offering or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its market value would have been approximately $2 billion (US) in 2006, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies.[9] PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room at after the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did not.[11]

On December 27, 2009, QQPoker set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee was $1, and the number of entrants reached 149,196.[12] They broke that record on December 4, 2011, when 200,000 players played in a $1 buy-in tournament with a first prize of $50,000.[13] PokerStars was so busy during the early stages of the tournament, all tournaments had to be stopped for 20 minutes because the heavy traffic crashed their servers. This record had been broken again at June 16, 2013, with 225,000 participants. The buy-in was $1 and went completely into the prize pool, with no rake.

In January 2012, PokerStars introduced a downloadable mobile client for iOS from iTunes. In February 2012, the company also introduced a client for Android.[14]

On July 31, 2012, PokerStars bought its former competitor, Full Tilt Poker.[15] The $731 million deal settled a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice while giving ownership of Full Tilt Poker's assets to PokerStars.[16]

On June 12, 2014, The Stars Group, then known as Amaya Inc., agreed to buy PokerStars and its parent company for $4.9 billion in cash.[17][18] The deal was completed on August 1, 2014.[19]

As of April 6, 2016 they have reached an agreement with Netent to add desktop and mobile gambling games to its poker lobby in New Jersey and other locations.[20]

In February 2017, Microgaming announced a partnership with PokerStars, owned by parent company for the integration of its Quickfire platform.[21]

In July 2017, PokerStars agreed to a deal with bankruptcy administrators to acquire some of rival PKR.com's assets and in doing so will reimburse 60,000 PKR players 100% of their final balances.[22][23]

In December 2017, PokerStars unveiled a brand new player tournament called the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship, which is to be held in January 2019. The tournament is expected to become one of the biggest events in the annual poker calendar with a twenty-five thousand dollar buy in and a $1 million bonus for the eventual winner. [24] [25]

In March 2018, The Stars Group reached an agreement with gaming company Sugal & Damani to support the launch of its PokerStars brand in India.[26]

Games
PokerStars offers a large number of poker variations: Texas hold 'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Courchevel, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Razz, Five-card draw, 2-7 Triple Draw & 2-7 Single Draw, Badugi, HORSE, HOSE, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo, Triple Stud and 8-Game Mix. PokerStars also offers "Mixed Games," which rotate through several of these games.[27]

PokerStars averages over 15,000 players playing real money cash games daily.[28]

PokerStars launched Zoom Poker in March 2012, with an official launch in May 2012. Zoom Poker is a fast fold ring game poker format where opponents change after every hand. The aim of Zoom poker is to offer players more hands of poker than in a regular ring game.[29] In January 2013 PokerStars rolled out Zoom Poker Tournaments due to popular demand for the fast fold variant [30]

Online tournaments
The site's weekly Sunday Million tournament has a guaranteed $1 million prize pool and a $215 buy-in. The Sunday Million is the biggest weekly online poker tournament. On March 7, 2011, The 5th Anniversary Sunday Million broke records, with 59,128 players creating a total prize pool of $11,825,600.[31]

World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has been running since 2002 and is regarded[by whom?] as the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker. The WCOOP tournament series is the largest online poker series and pays out the largest prizes in online poker. The WCOOP 2010 Main Event champion Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks won $2.2 Million, the largest online tournament prize in history.[32]

Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was established in 2009 and has since become the most popular online tournament series.[33] Unlike WCOOP, there are three different buy-in stakes in the SCOOP events: Low, Medium (10x Low stake) and High (100x Low stake).

Micro Millions was launched in March 2012 as a tournament series designed for recreational and micro-stakes players offering a low buy-in tournament schedule and large guaranteed cash prizes. PokerStars guaranteed $5 million in prize pools for the second installment of MicroMillions.[34]

Live poker tours
PokerStars sponsors various live poker tours such as the European Poker Tour (EPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT), Eureka Poker Tour, Italian Poker Tour (IPT), Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), Australia & New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), France Poker Series (FPS), Belgian Poker Series (BPS), Russian Poker Series (RPS) and Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP).

PokerStars also sponsors the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). Since it started in 2004 the PCA has grown into the biggest poker event outside of Las Vegas.[35]

PokerStars.net
Pokerstars.net is a company website offering only free play games. The pokerstars.net domain is used primarily in their TV advertisements since there are no real money games available at this website. This avoids any legal issues or censorship of using their pokerstars.com domain which allows real money games.

PokerStars.tv
PokerStars.tv is the online source for PokerStars TV shows, commercials and event highlight shows – with commentary and expert analysis available in up to 7 languages. The content available includes live cards-up coverage of the biggest PokerStars tournaments, TV shows such as The Million Dollar Challenge and PokerStars Big Game and online tournament highlights from WCOOP and SCOOP.