What happens when you offer a $1.5 Million Guaranteed Pot on a Sunday tournament online? If the PokerStars Sunday Million is any indication, you’ll find yourself with 8,431 entrants and a massive $1,686,200.00 total prize pool. This ensured a cool $204,198.82 to the winner and with that kind of prize money, you can be certain this tournament is taken seriously.

With such a monstrous field, did the online poker wizards stand a chance? Once again proving that poker is a game of skill, online phenoms Andy McLEOD and Zach “nofingclue11” Clark emerged as chip leaders going into the final table despite the sheer number of poker wannabes in their midst. Unfortunately for both, despite their strong showings, Andy McLEOD and nofingclue11 ended up in 4th and 5th place respectively. Hey, don’t feel too bad for them. That was $75,879.00 for 4th place and a very respectable $59,017.00 for 5th.

The final three saw RProps, betofetus and Fred_Brink battling for glory with Fred_Brink dead last with only 13,553 in chips. The three discussed a possible deal and luckily for Fred_Brink, the deal was never agreed upon.

Read more on Fred_Brink Wins PokerStars Sunday Tournament w/ 1.5 Million Guarantee

Poker room giant PokerStars seem to be determined to put its competitors away. Starting August 3, PokerStars’ extremely popular Sunday Million will now feature a $1.5 million weekly guarantee. To sweeten the deal more, the Sunday Warm-Up (that occurs just a few hours before the Sunday Million) will now have a $750,000 guarantee.

PokerStars is the very first poker site to offer a $1 Milliom Guarantee in a No Limit Hold ‘em tournament every week. For a measly $215 buy-in, poker players can expect a first prize that is more than $100,000. Can you imagine the sheer number of poker players that are drawn to this kind of deal every week?

The Sunday Million poker tournament occurs weekly at 4:30pm EST. The Sunday Warm-Up (which also has a $215 buy-in) starts at 12:45pm EST. PokerStars has also increased its guarantee on the Super Tuesday poker tournament to $300,000 from its former $250,000. The buy-in for the Super Tuesday tournament is $1,050.

Read more on Poker News: PokerStars Increases Sunday Million Guarantee to $1.5 Million

Who’s your favorite poker player? If your answer is Daniel Negreanu, read on. Particularly if you want a chance to get personal tips and get coached by one of the world’s most popular and most skilled poker professionals. How the heck is that going to happen? With Pokerstars $17,000 Weekend with Daniel Negreanu Freeroll, of course.

Scheduled this Saturday on July 12 at 14:30 EST, Daniel Negreanu fans can win an exclusive weekend with their idol valued at $15,000 plus $2,000 in cash for travel expenses to Las Vegas. Pretty sweet deal especially since winners will be living in style at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and will even be invited to a private party or rather, barbecue, at Negreanu’s Vegas residence.

So aside from being wined and dined, what exactly do you get? Let’s just say you get a crash course on how to vastly improve your game. The package includes a 2-day seminar led by Negreanu himself on various poker topics including pot odds, implied odds, bluffing opponents and tournament strategy. Winners will also work with Negreanu in live workshops at the poker tables.

PokerStars to Hosts $17,000 Weekend with Daniel Negreanu Freeroll

PokerStars officially launched an interactive video portal this week, the PokerStars.tv that features leading edge video-based poker clips and instructional offerings.

PokerStars.tv already boasts numerous clips from several Team PokerStars Pro members, who share their expertise in specific poker hand or poker scenario situations and possible poker strategies.

Now available on the site is an introductory video on the four World Series of Poker bracelet holder and two World Poker Tour Championship titles, Daniel Negreanu, with feature videos on some Team PokerStars Pro members, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, Bill Chen and Dario Minieri.

The site has an extensive search function, which allow users to focus in on such topics as specific hand holdings, to better understand situational plays.

Read more on PokerStars interactive video portal, PokerStars.tv, officially launched this week

William Thorson’s total live tournament winnings as of 2008 is over $1,800,000. He made a name for himself by appearing in two final tables at the European Poker Tour. He has also cashed four times at the World Series of Poker. Now, Swedish poker star has joined poker notables Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Barry Greenstein at Team PokerStars.

Not bad for someone who started playing online poker at the play money tables. Thorson has been playing at PokerStars since 2002 using his screen name “William.” When he started playing with real money, his first deposit was a measly $50. He’s gone a long way considering that he can now afford to shell out $10,000 to join World Series of Poker main events.

Considered by many as the number one player on the Swedish poker scene, Thorson humbly admitted in interviews that despite his many accomplishments, he still considers being chosen for Team PokerStars Pro an honor. “It’s a great team with many of the world’s greatest players and I’m honored to be included in such company. I’m proud to have my skills recognized in this way. It’s a great opportunity for me and I hope to achieve big results,” said Thorson.

Read more on PokerStars Signs Swedish Sensation William Thorson

Poker player Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo is no stranger to controversy. After building a fierce reputation as an online poker player and winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, he found himself being caught and publicly humiliated for “cheating” by using multiple accounts in major online poker tournaments. Around $100,000 were confiscated from his account and he was banned from playing on two of the largest poker sites on the Internet—Party Poker and Poker Stars. Justin Bonomo made several attempts at a public apology but was shunned by several stalwarts of the online poker community.

A few years later, Justin Bonomo has not only rebounded but has flourished having made a successful transition from online poker to live poker tournament play. At the age of 19, Justin Bonomo became the youngest-ever player to make a European televised poker table in 2005. Today, at the age of 22, Justin Bonomo has made over a million dollars in live tournaments. He cashed three times at last year’s World Series of Poker and almost won in the World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Las Vegas Main Event. He also final-tabled four of eight tournaments at the 2006 World Poker Tour Five Diamonds WPT Classic and bubbled out of the televised final table in the main event making over $260,000.

Read more on Poker Player of the Month – Justin Bonomo

Day 1B of the Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final drew an even larger field than day 1A, and by the end of registration, 450 entrants had taken a seat at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino Resort. This massive field, combined with the 392 players from yesterday, made history. The 2008 Grand Final is the largest poker tournament to ever take place in Europe.

In Day 1A of PokerStars.com EPT the players were greeted in the tournament room like rock stars. Blaring rock music and lights accompanied a short video of EPT poker action from previous events. It all culminated in a shot of last year’s Grand Final winner, Gavin Griffin, holding up his Grand Final glass trophy as this year’s trophy was lit up by a spotlight at center stage.

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, today announced the launch of Latin America’s first major poker tour, the LAPT. With stops in Brazil, Costa Rica and Uruguay, the tour is set to bring world-class poker action to some of the most beautiful destinations in the world.

The Latin American Poker Tour kicks off in the beautiful beach city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from May 3-5, 2008. This three-day, $2,500 tournament will be the largest poker tournament ever held in Brazil, with players competing for a total prize pool of over $600,000. Among the players will be Team PokerStars Pros and international poker stars Andre Akkari from Brazil and Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica.

The tour continues with the LAPT San Jose in Costa Rica from May 22-24, and then moves on to Uruguay for the LAPT Punta del Este from August 7-9.

LAPT President Glenn Cademartori said, “Poker is exploding in Latin America and the game is more than ready for its own major poker tour. It’s one of the fastest-growing poker regions and there are thousands upon thousands of players in countries like Brazil and Argentina who will love the chance to take part in events of this kind. In every regard, the LAPT is going to put Latin America on the map as the newest hotspot to play high-stakes international poker.”

PokerStar online poker room, has announced a Super Satellite poker tournament that will be held on January 19.

The winners of the super satellite poker tournament will receive on of 16 EPT Gand Final at Monte Carlo price packages that include all inclusive poker tournament buy in, expenses and travel to the EPT Grand Final poker tournament event.

The EPT Poker Stars Monte Carlo Grand Final event takes place this April from the 12th to the 17th, and is expected to draw huge crowds and millions of dollars in prize money.

Poker players can choose to buy in directly to this event, or more savvy online poker players may choose to play in a feeder satellite tournaments. PokerStars is offering those tournaments starting at $5.50. Qualifiers to the event kick off today on PokerStars.com

Online poker leader PokerStars.com has announced the release of the Apple version of their online poker software.

The Apple beta version of PokerStars’ online poker software is expected to attract millions of Macintosh users.

Months of testing has been going on and the feedback has been positive from many Mac users. The testing was being done with play money.

The version will be similar to the current Windows users. The only difference will be the new Preferred Seat, feature and Layout Manager [...]