November 04 2011, Josh Bell

Download PokerStars for a once in a lifetime chance at sharing in a gigantic $10 million prize pool!

Next month will mark 10 years since PokerStars opened its doors to poker enthusiasts all around the world and the online poker giant is planning on celebrating in style, with millions of dollars in cash and added value up for grabs over the coming weeks.

Celebrating 10 Years of Action

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, PokerStars is offering a huge range of different promotions, more of which will be added over the next couple of weeks.

So far a gargantuan $10 million guarantee has been put in place for the Sunday Million, and a big PokerStars Caribbean Adventure giveaway is also in the books.

10th Anniversary Sunday Million

It’s the biggest Sunday Million to ever be offered and the huge $10 million guarantee is sure to draw a huge field of players with one goal in mind.

Some players might assume that PokerStars would have to increase the buy-in if it’s offering such a massive guarantee, but that’s not the case. The buy-in will still be the trademark $215 that players are accustomed to.

The first Sunday Million was played on March 5, 2006, and ever since then, it has become the premier weekly tournament in the world and is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments for a player to have on their resumes.

Be sure to mark Dec. 18 on your calendar. The 10th Anniversary $10 Million Sunday Million is not to be missed as a life changing $2 million is guaranteed for the eventual winner.

• Date: Dec. 18
• Time: 1430 EST (1830 GMT)
• Buy-in: $215
• Guaranteed Prize Pool: $10,000,000
• Top Prize: $2,000,000 guaranteed 1st place prize

There will be hundreds of satellites running in the days leading up to the $10 Million Sunday Million, so be sure to check in the PokerStars client and you could win millions of dollars by satelliting from as little as $1.

10th Anniversary PCA Giveaway

Over the years, PokerStars has established itself as not only the biggest and most popular online poker site, but has also continued to offer some of the best live tournaments in the world.

One of the most popular live events on the yearly tournament calendar is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and in celebration of its 10th anniversary, PokerStars will be giving away 100 PCA prize packages.

Each prize package is worth $15,000 and offers a $10,000 buy-in to the Main Event, a luxury hotel package plus expenses.

The best part of the PCA giveaway is the fact that players can win themselves a package for absolutely no outlay.

PokerStars is running free-to-play qualifiers every ten minutes and the top 10 players in each of these qualifiers will win a seat in the PCA Weekly Finals. Players are only eligible to play one of these freerolls each day but there are also FPP buy-in satellites and cheap-rolls on offer as alternatives to win PCA Weekly Finals seats.

The weekly finals run every Sunday from Nov. 13 through to Dec. 11 and along with offering the PCA packages also offer cash prizes to the top 1,000 finishers.

To further celebrate, PokerStars is offering a free PCA weekly final ticket to any player who makes a deposit. First time depositors should use the bonus code ”FIRSTPCA,” and existing players should use the bonus code ”PCA100” when reloading.

If you don’t have an account, make sure you sign up for a PokerStars account through PokerNews and don’t miss out on helping celebrate the 10th anniversary of PokerStars! Don’t forget to utilize our 100% up to $600 first-deposit bonus by using the marketing code “POKERNEWS.COM” and the bonus code “STARS600.”

If you experience any problems with this or any of our promotions, please contact our Ticketed Promo Support System.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

November 03 2011, Brett Collson, Chad Holloway

Is this year’s November Nine going to be the last? One WSOP organizer recently hinted at that possibility. In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we bring you ESPN’s response to November Nine rumors, a list of the hottest guys in poker, and more.

In Case You Missed It

Are you excited about the 2011 WSOP Main Event Final Table? Get the inside scoop from Las Vegas with the help of our November Nine Social Media Guide.

UFC personality and poker enthusiast Bruce Buffer will have a special role at the November Nine festivities. Buffer talked about that and Full Tilt Poker in an exclusive interview with PokerNews.

The days until the 2011 World Series of Poker November Nine are dwindling, and we’re always curious to find out how the members of the prestigious Final Table are spending their time. We recently talked to Ben Lamb to find out how he’s been preparing for poker’s biggest stage.

The Global Poker Index released its rankings as of Oct. 31. Erik Seidel is still on top, and a familiar face climbed back into the top 10.

Andrew “Balugawhale” Seidman just released a new edition of his book, Easy Game. Seidman discussed several topics from the book in the latest Strategy with Kristy podcast.

Day 1b of the 2011 World Poker Tour event in Amneville wrapped up on Wednesday. Get all the details in our daily WPT recap.

Last Year of the November Nine?

ESPN’s near-live coverage of the World Series of Poker this summer was a major success with avid poker fans, and there is speculation building around the potential expiration of the November Nine. The buildup of the Main Event final table has increased considerably with the advent of more than 45 hours of live coverage in July, and WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky suggested this week that there may be changes made to the layout of the Main Event schedule as a result.

However, during Wednesday’s WSOP conference call with the media, ESPN’s Doug White addressed a question regarding this year’s November Nine being the last: “We’ve not had any discussions with Caesars (about November Nine changes), so I’ve not heard anything related to that.”

Since it was introduced in 2008, the November Nine has been very effective in branding both the WSOP Main Event and its final table members. Reaching the final table had the added value of getting sponsorship deals with major online poker sites. However, those sponsors have vanished in the wake of Black Friday, and the four months of waiting for the final table could be unnecessary now that ESPN is providing same-day coverage of the event.

PokerNews will be providing live coverage of the WSOP Main Event final table this week, so be sure to check in when the cards go in the air Sunday at 1230 PST.

Hot or Not?

In Wednesday’s Nightly Turbo, we brought you the “10 hottest female poker players” ranked by Woman Poker Player magazine. Well, poker player Katie Stone feels it’s time for the boys of poker to be judged. On Thursday, Stone created a thread at TwoPlusTwo titled, “Top 10 Hottest Guys In Poker.”

Here’s what her list looks like, in no particular order:

Patrik Antonius
Shane Schleger
Nick Schulman
Miika Anttonen
Ronnie Bardah
Eugene Katchalov
Erick Lindgren
David Williams
Byron Kaverman
Brandon Adams

Okay, not bad. We don’t claim to be experts on this sort of thing. However, any “hottest male poker player” list is completely invalid without the Poker Brat:

Eat your heart out, Patrik.

Read the full thread at TwoPlusTwo.com.

Own a Piece of WSOP History

In the past couple of years, we’ve seen several poker memorabilia items hit the auction block on eBay. T.J. Cloutier and Brad Daugherty each put their bracelets, won in World Series of Poker preliminary events up for sale, (Cloutier’s was bought by Cake Poker and returned to him. Daugherty’s didn’t sell). Peter Eastgate sold his WSOP Main Event bracelet for more than $147,000, all of which went to charity.

Now another unique piece of WSOP history has hit eBay. A seller has put up the complete deck of cards used during heads-up play between Chris Moneymaker and Sam Farha at the 2003 Main Event, including each of their hole cards and the five boards cards from the final hand.

Here’s what the seller says:

I was there when it all happened, working behind the scenes at Binion’s Horseshoe. I obtained permission to keep the deck, so right after Chris had posed for those famous photos where he was holding wads of cash high in the air, I carefully placed all of the cards from that final hand on top of the rest of the deck, kept in sequence, along with the dealer’s cut card, and put the complete deck back into the double Kem box along with the unused deck.

Also included is a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by tournament director Matt Savage and Chris Moneymaker. The starting asking price of $7,500 hadn’t received a bid at the time of this writing, but the auction will be open until Monday night.

Take a look at the full listing at eBay.com.

Is The GBT-DOJ Deal For Real?

The big story this week has been the principle agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the Department of Justice in regards to Full Tilt Poker. The deal, first reported by Subject:Poker on Tuesday, was confirmed Wednesday by Laurent Tapie, who told iGamingFrance that a purchase of Full Tilt Poker could be finalized in the next 15 days.

Still, there are some cynics out there. According to PocketFives.com, a source close situation said Tuesday that the deal isn’t set in stone, and could take another week to finalize.

PokerNews contacted the Department of Justice Thursday to get an official statement about the deal. Their response: “That’s definitely something we would not be commenting on.”

Okay then. Let the waiting game continue.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the alleged agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the Department of Justice, read the story here at PokerNews.com.

ESPN Inside Deal

This week’s edition of ESPN’s Inside Deal was released on Thursday. Hosts Bernard Lee and Andrew Feldman discussed the upcoming final table of the WSOP Main Event and gave their predictions.

Are you following PokerNews on Twitter? Like us on Facebook while you’re at it, and sign up for the newsletter. You know you want to.

Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson

Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway