PokerStars

PokerStars is the largest online poker cardroom in the world. It has held this title since 2007.

PokerStars' satellite tournaments produced the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, Chris Moneymaker, as well as the 2004 champion, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer. Those two now act as spokespeople for the cardroom, as does 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem, also a regular player on the site. In March 2007, poker room manager Lee Jones announced his retirement, effective April 1. His successor has yet to be named.

Ownership
Launched in September 2001, PokerStars was once owned by a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises. With its company headquarters on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. Later, this company was sold to Amaya Gaming, under the direction of billionaire David Baazov, who later resigned in disgrace.

PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room at around the time the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did not. On May 19, 2007, PokerStars dealt their 10,000,000,000th hand.

PokerStars is the headline sponsor of the European Poker Tour. PokerStars sponsored an event on the World Poker Tour called the PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure. The World Poker Tour no longer stages this event, so it is now a stop on the European Poker Tour. In 2005, eGaming Review named PokerStars.com the "Best Poker Operator of the Year".

Games Varieties Spread
PokerStars offers eight varieties of poker games: Texas Hold 'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Stud, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Razz, five-card draw, and deuce to seven triple draw. HORSE and HOSE, "mixed games" that rotate through several of the above, are also offered. Players can participate in real money games ranging from $.01/$.02 (micro limits) up to $1000/$2000.

Pokerstars offers hand history files for analysis, discussion and conversion using a poker hand converter.

The home of the World Championship of Online Poker, the largest online poker tournament series in the world, PokerStars has over 20,000 players playing real money ring games daily, plus thousands more playing real money tournaments or free-play games. During peak operating times, this often adds up to over 130,000 players online simultaneously. PokerStars.com's play money players mix with those logging in from PokerStars.net, a free play-only site without real money games. The site also hosts the Sunday Million, a weekly tournament (generally with a $215 buy-in) with a guaranteed million dollar prize pool. On July 8, 2007, PokerStars debuted a new weekly event, the $11 buy-in Sunday Hundred Grand, which regularly attracts the tournament maximum 20,000 players, making it the largest participated-in real-money poker tournament ever. This total surpassed the previous record of 10,894 players who participated in the May 20, 2007 Sunday Million tournament.

PokerStars in America
On Black Friday 2011, PokerStars left the American markets for what would turn out to be more than half a decade before finally being given a license to offer games in the state of New Jersey. Subsequently PokerStars obtained licenses to operate in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Team PokerStars
PokerStars sponsors several professional players including Raymer, Hachem, Bertrand Grospellier, Isabelle Mercier, John Duthie, Lee Nelson, Luca Pagano, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, Noah Boeken, Andre Akkari, Hevad Khan, Dario Minieri, Raymond Rahme, Tuan Lam, as well as WSOP bracelet winners Barry Greenstein, Humberto Brenes, Bill Chen, 1983 WSOP champion Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, and Katja Thater.

In the year 2020, after over a decade of being a Poker Stars Team Pro, the legend Chris Moneymaker left the company. In early 2021 he became a Team pro for America's Cardroom.