PokerStars – 70 billionth hand milestone

One more record for Pokerstars

What should have been a celebratory milestone for PokerStars and the players involved in the 70 Billionth poker hand being dealt at the world’s largest online poker room, sadly brought nothing but controversy for all those involved.

The $70,000 bonus that was paid out for the milestone hand went to a player who was playing a $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Holdem Heads Up battle.

If the accusations of cheating, fast folding and collusion are to be believed during what should have been a momentous occasion, then a harsh punishment should, and no doubt would, have been dished out by the online giant.

The accusation centred around the fact that the two players involved in the winning hand, “Koenigskebab” and “DodgeUrOut”, both from Germany, had been fast folding their short blind hands during the previous fifteen minutes and thus allowing the player sitting in the big blind to take the hand as quickly as possible in an attempt to be the lucky ones to hit the jackpot on offer.

A somehow tarnished record

The idea was that by fast folding at heads-up tables, while multi-tabling betweem the two of them, these players did not pay any rake. But they gave themselves a better chance to win the promotion by playing hands very fast.

Based on an estimate that the two players may have been seeing a new hand every three seconds, this would equate to a possible 300 hands having been fast folded during the 15 minute period the accusations surround.

Now that figure in itself doesn’t exactly sound like conclusive proof, especially when you consider that there were tens of thousands of players online at the time, and that thousands of hands were also being dealt every minute or so.

Let’s look at another side of the argument though, and consider that if they had been playing 24 tables at that time, and playing each hand on every one of those tables in the same way, then they could well have played 7,200 hands during that same 15 minute period.

Suddenly, we have statistics that make the accusations more likely, but only of course, if the two players were indeed playing each other heads up on multiple tables at the same time.

As is usual in matters of this sort, with such accusations flying around and such a large chunk of cash up for grabs, there were calls for the prize to be stripped from those involved and redistributed amongst other prize winners.

Pokerstars makes a decision

Rules and regulations were being quoted from all angles it seems, including of course PokerStars themselves, who, after a multitude of complaints, one apparently from YouTube user “evhero” who had made a video of the table, held an investigation of their own into the afore mentioned accusations.

PokerStars eventually issued the following statement.

“We have reviewed the circumstances around the winning hand and have determined that, while this practice of ‘fast-folding’ may not be in the spirit of the promotion, it does not violate the rules and regulations of the promotion. As such, we have honoured our promotional award. Please note, we are reviewing the format of the promotion to try to minimize this kind of activity in future milestone hand promotions. We’ll provide more information on this in the near future.”

Part of PokerStars rules and regulations for the promotion stated the following.

“During the Promotion, strict rules regarding player behaviour will be enforced. PokerStars reserves the right to take action against any player found to be abusing any aspect of the Promotion. Such action includes, but is not limited to, exclusion or suspension from the Promotion or from the Client, and the confiscation of rewards earned as a result of the abuse. The decision on what activity constitutes abuse of the Promotion lies with PokerStars management in its sole discretion”.

Of course, it goes without saying that we will all draw our very own conclusions as to whether the two players are guilty or innocent of the accusations.

As a final word, are we really to believe that this giant of online poker, with all the software, player and hand records at their disposal, would risk their name and reputation for two players who mean nothing at all to them? Should we question whether they had much to gain and save by backing the players and letting the prize stand?

Let's not be too dark about the whole thing, after all this is an incredible record to reach their seventy billionth hand, and no other room comes close.

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