After a three-way deal with Kaitz20 from Estonia and King-2-Z from the UK which allocated an extra $5k for the winner, sokoluk1991 pocketed $40,258.83 – a solid return on his $1 investment.
Kaitz20 took home $34,000 and King-2-Z earned $25,741.17.
The $1 buy-in, $250k guaranteed tournament was set-up as part of the PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebrations.
PokerStars hoped to beat its previous record for the world’s largest poker tournament of 149,196, set on December 27, 2009.
A 200,000-player cap was set for the tournament and it was easily reached with three-and-a-half hours to spare before the start time.
A representative from the Guinness Book of World Records has already confirmed it as the largest poker tournament ever.
With 2,000=chip starting stacks, five-minute levels and antes starting just 20 minutes in, action was expected to be fast and furious and it lived up to its billing.
Over 5,000 players were gone before the first five minutes were done and 25,000 had busted before the first 20 minutes were up.
A total of 12,150 players made the money, with the money bubble bursting about 2.5 hours in.
All told the tournament took about seven hours to play out.
Team PokerStars Online pro Kevin “WizardofAhhs” Thurman was the last PokerStars rep standing. He busted in 380th-place for $27.
The top 10 finishers in the PokerStars 10th Anniversary World Record tournament are below: (*reflects three-way deal):
1st: sokoluk1991 (Russia) -- $40,258.83* 2nd: Kaitz20 (Estonia) -- $34,000* 3rd: King-2-Z (United Kingdom) -- $25,741.17* 4th: tristan2287 (Spain) -- $10,000 5th: RaZorFaZoR (Germany) -- $8,000 6th: casasola10 (Costa Rica) -- $6,500 7th: Bjoornkjaer (Denmark) -- $5,250 8th: pumata13 (Bulgaria) -- $4,000 9th: herbert68 (Germany) -- $3,000 10th: Garin4o (Ukraine) -- $2,250For a full recap of all the action incuding the final table, check the PokerStars blog.
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