PokerStars‘ attempt to break its own Guinness World Record for the ‘largest poker tournament’ didn’t go down as planned as the previous record of 225,000 players fell short by around 14000. February 23rd, 2014 was a much awaited day for all PokerStars players who were participating in the $1 buy-in ‘Guinness World Record Attempt’, $300K Guaranteed Event; all of whom were looking to get a piece of history. Though the entries were capped at 230,000 the tournament drew huge enthusiasm but the final number of entrants were 211,619; surprisingly short of the previous record set in June 2013.
Last year in June Russian poker player ‘Mr.SlavaPro’ had beaten a field of 225,000 players and etched his name in poker history. A ‘Guinness World Record’ for the largest poker tournament was set and the Russian had bagged the cherry on the cake. With yesterday’s event, PokerStars was looking to out-do itself by 5000 players and set a new record. Though the buy-in was very low, suited to attract micro-stakes players but still the tourney didn’t attract the traffic the online poker giant expected. The top prize guarantee of $25K was also big enough to attract the usual tournament regs and was won by ‘Dal2009’ of Germany. To top it all, PokerStars was also throwing in an offer to all participating players who wished to pay a GBP 20 postage fee to receive an official certificate from Guinness World Records to commemorate being part of the record-breaking tournament. This was the sixth record attempt by PokerStars but the only time that they didn’t break their own record.
A Lowdown on the Previous record:
| Sr No | Year | No of Players | Feature |
| 1 | Dec 2008 | 35,000 | $10+1 buy-in event with a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 |
| 2 | July 2009 | 65,000 | $1 buy-in event |
| 3 | Dec 2009 | 149,196 | $1 buy-in with $50K for first place |
| 4 | Dec 2011 | 200,000 | $1 buy-in with $250k guaranteed prize pool |
| 5 | June 2013 | 250,000 | $1 buy-in with $300K guaranteed prize pool |
Though this attempt failed at PokerStars but the party at this poker room never ends. To commemorate the 8th anniversary of the Showcase Tourney at Pokerstars, the $215 Sunday Millions, a massive bash is being thrown on March 2, 2014. The $1 Million prize pool is upped by 8 times with a first prize guarantee of $650,000. If you don’t have the buy-in for this ‘tourney of the year’ then you can participate in satellites for as low as $1. For more details on this Mega event click here.