PokerStars Online Conducts Largest Poker Tournament in History; 1,500 Players Compete in Massive Online Event

Business Wire, Nov 21, 2002

Business/Entertainment Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2002

PokerStars, the world's largest poker tournament destination, has hosted the largest poker tournament of any kind in history. The tournament attracted a record-shattering 1,500 players competing for $10,000 in prize money.

"PokerStars has earned a reputation for conducting the largest and best tournaments online," said Steve Morrow, Card Room Manager for PokerStars. "Our players expect big things from us, and the turnout for Tournament 5000 reinforces their confidence in our producing major high-quality online events."

Tournament 5000, conducted on November 2, was a No Limit Hold 'em event with a $3 buy-in and $5,500 in added money provided by PokerStars. The tournament was the latest in a series of PokerStars low buy-in events designed to encourage new players to try online tournament poker. The landmark event included players from more than 30 countries.

"PokerStars has clearly emerged as the number one place to play online tournament poker," said Dennis Boyko, founder of PokerPulse, an online tracking service that measures traffic at online poker sites. "PokerStars has consistently led the field in both the magnitude and the quality of their online poker tournaments, and their latest record-setting event reinforces that position."

PokerStars has a well-earned reputation for conducting landmark online events. In July 2002, the company hosted the first annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), in which over 2,800 poker players from around the world competed for more than $800,000 in prize money. The winner of the main event in the WCOOP collected over $65,000 in prize money.

PokerStars (www.pokerstars.com) rocketed to the top tier of online poker sites in its first nine months of operation, largely as a result of the company's innovative multi-table tournaments, fast-action live games (including limit, no-limit and pot-limit games of Texas Hold 'em, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High/Low, Omaha and Omaha High/Low), outstanding customer service and Frequent Player Points rewards for regular players.

PokerStars, Frequent Player Points and "The World Championship of Online Poker" are trademarks of Rational Enterprises, Ltd. PokerPulse is a trademark of Dennis Boyko. All rights reserved.