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25 Billion Bash
Thanks to you, the 25 Billion Bash was PokerStars most successful Milestone event ever. Staggering numbers of players were involved in the celebrations as we gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars across Milestone Hands, the increased guarantee Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Million, Reload Bonus and First Depositor Freerolls.
It took just four days and 20 minutes to deal the 150 Milestone Hands, one for each millionth hand dealt, and the total prizes totalled to $381,900 - more than $2,500 per hand. For the Mega Milestone, PokerStars record-breaking 25 billionth hand, the prize total was a massive $300,000, split between five players. During that final hand, over 100,000 ring game seats were filled across PokerStars tables.
History was made a little after 05:00 ET on Monday February 16. The lucky table was Susilva, a $1/$2 limit Omaha Hi-Lo table, and two players NeonFrost and tupapi777 split the pot and the $100,000 cash prize. In addition, the winner of the Mega Milestone Hand was to receive event packages for the EPT Grand Final, PCA, WSOP*, and WCOOP Main Event. But because this was Omaha Hi-Lo, the pot was split, so in true PokerStars style, both players received all of the packages. The three other players in the hand, FrtSpkndMn, n47j25s and chris12080 shared $100,000.
NeonFrost is 27 year-old Mike Soroka from California, and he was more than prepared for the 25 Billion Bash. "I talked about the 25 billion bash promotion to my friends the entire week”, he told the PokerStars Blog. “I could not stop thinking about how incredible it would be to win the kind of money that was up for grabs." As the alert for the 25 billionth hand popped up, Mike was multi-tabling 15 tables. "Right away I looked down at the 15 tabs that were open and noticed Susilva was one of them," Soroka said later. "When I clicked on the table and saw myself sitting there, I lost it."
For tupapi777 aka Julio Lau, who describes himself as a struggling poker player, the hand was a surreal moment, "I was very excited," he said. "I couldn't believe it was happening”. Mike will be paying off his truck and credit cards with his winnings, and both players are now dreaming of further glory, as they start making arrangements to play in the world’s biggest live tournaments, starting in Monte Carlo and the EPT Grand Final.
Prior to the Mega Milestone, Sunday February 15 saw some incredible action at PokerStars. The Sunday Warm-Up featured an increased guarantee of $1,250,000, while the Sunday Million guarantee was boosted to $2,500,000. With this much prize money on offer, the Sunday Warm-Up drew 6,241 runners and was won by Mug1515 who pocketed $143,000 for the win. For the Sunday Million, a mind-blowing 13,267 players assembled at the virtual felt, busting the guarantee to create a prize pool of $2,653,400, with 2,025 places paid. Ferl0k took it down, securing a huge payday of $229,686.
Watch highlights from the $2,500,000 guaranteed Sunday Million final table.
Congratulations to all of our players who made the celebrations so memorable, and won big during the 25 Billion Bash. For full coverage, including details of every milestone hand winner and table prizes, check out the PokerStars Blog.
* WORLD SERIES OF POKER and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC ("Harrah's"). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerStars.com or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.
