By
Dan |
Published
Dec 29 2008, 04:12 PM
A total of 35,000 players hit the felts of PokerStars on Sunday for the online poker site’s successful attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for largest online poker tournament ever. Unofficially, the mark to beat was 26,517, which is the number of players who turned out last year for an $11 buy-in $100,000 guaranteed tournament. This time around, the prize pool was quintupled to a half-million dollars and emerging at the head of the pack after the nine hour marathon was PocketFiver Stan Mpowa Chevallier, a Frenchman who took home $30,000.
Chevallier hails from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. The tournament began in the afternoon and wrapped up after 1:00am Eastern Time, making for a very late night in Europe. Chevallier commented, “When I saw that this tournament had 35,000 players, I had to sign up for it. I thought that I would lose in the first coin flip like I usually do, but that didn’t happen this time.” Instead, he defeated 34,999 other players, the tournament’s maximum capacity.
In the record-setting event, the top 8,750 players (or 25% of the field) finished in the money, which meant that Chevallier’s payday was less than it would have been under a more traditional structure. In essence, the PocketFiver took home about 6% of the prize pool in the tournament, which had a six-figure overlay due to the capped field at 35,000. Chevallier discussed the difference in payout amounts: “I think PokerStars made the payout structure like that because it wanted to have a lot of people finish in the money, even if it was just a small amount. I’m sure that 6% of the prize pool for a win isn’t much, but when we began the tournament, we all knew that.”
Nevertheless, the $30,000 payday was more than double his previous best mark for a multi-table tournament and will provide him with a healthy bankroll going forward. Additionally, his success on the world’s largest online poker room may prompt him to head to PokerStars more often: “I play on other poker rooms, but now I think I will play more on PokerStars.” You can find this up and coming PocketFiver on PokerStars under the name stan34powa.
The poker industry is at different stages around the world. In some locales, the game is just catching on. In other countries, it has already matured. Chevallier described the online poker scene in his native France: “In France, there are many people who play poker. In the last few years, the game has become very popular, especially when the World Poker Tour began airing on television. Many people here play poker, both for fun and for recreation.”
Several high-profile poker players have emerged from the French poker market, including Team PokerStars Pro member and PocketFiver Bertrand Elky Grospellier. He is one of just three people ever to win WPT and European Poker Tour titles, having taken down the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January and the Festal al Lago in October. By the way, the other two players are Gavin Griffin and Roland de Wolfe. Other notable French players include World Series of Poker bracelet holders David Benyamine and Patrick Bruel.
Chevallier is currently a student and plays online poker after classes when he can squeeze in a few minutes. On his future professional goals, he revealed, “I don't play just for fun and I don’t want to be professional. Instead, I want to earn the maximum amount of money that I can, but I don’t want poker to be my main source of income.” His plan is to assess his career path upon graduation.
He was joined at the final table of the World Record tournament by fellow PocketFivers ONE_TIMEE (who finished in ninth place for $2,000) and FuFish (who captured tenth for $1,500). The top four players took home at least five-figures. When the event kicked off, PokerStars played host to a quarter of a million players in total, the highest tally ever for an online poker room, breaking the old mark of 213,000 set by Stars on Sunday, November 30th, when 213,000 players turned out. The Sunday Million and Warm-Up had their guarantees increased, adding to the player traffic to close out the 2008 calendar year.
Congratulations from all of us here at PocketFives.com to Stan Mpowa Chevallier, the winner of the largest online poker tournament ever held.