By Jerry Whittaker
Online poker games have always been popular in the USA, but all of this changed with the advent of Black Friday on the 15th April 2011. The US Department of Justice closed down some of the most popular and most lucrative online poker sites offering these services, and made it clear that they were illegal. One site was PokerStars, another was Full Tilt Poker and the others were less consequential.
Full Tilt and the other sites could not get their act back together again, but PokerStars barely hiccupped, pick up the piece and continued operating just as popularly in the European marketplace. They also actioned paying back what was owed to their USA members, and might even be in a good place to enter the US marketplace one day; if and when this industry ever goes legal. Right now this site is looking at gearing up for their 75 Billionth hand!
It is without a doubt that PokerStars is the largest online poker site in the world; it is often more popularly played than entire poker networks. These guys have got mahoosive liquidity, and are even a Guinness World Record Holder for hosting the most people in one online poker tournament in one day.
The 75 billionth hand comes hard on the heels of the 50th Billion which took place mere months ago, and is another stepping stone in the incredibly exciting journey – the ‘Road to 100 Billion’.
The recent reaching of an incredible milestone – PokerStars – 10th Birthday, was celebrated in fine style at this website, but beating their own Guinness World record was more than likely the Cherry on the Cake. There are always brilliant promotions, sponsorships for live poker games, and now they are ready to celebrate some more. They have completed the 70th and 72 billionth hands already and stand at more than 74,797,598,578 hands, so, the 75th is well on its way.
The more people play, the sooner it will take place, and with celebrations like this going on, it will be hard to keep players away. The big event is expected to happen within the next two weeks and the prize pool it is a staggering $1 million. The 75 billionth hand will win a minimum of $20k just for being in the right place at the right time.
In the meantime, with regards re-entry back into the US, Fair Play USA has been fairly quiet for its first six months of operation. This is the organization funded by casinos in Las Vegas for the protection of consumers and child safety for the regulation of online poker. There are feelings that they have been ineffective, considering the length of their time in office and the fact that no submissions have been made to congress as yet.