Poker Stars hits its 10 billionth hand

Over 100 000 pokerheads were on the Poker Stars.com tables this weekend, hoping they would be at the right time and in the right seat for the 10 billionth hand of online poker, imminent at the world's biggest online poker venue

The march up to the big hand was impressive from the 9 billionth hand onward, with a series of rewards building excitement and interest at the tables, but the ultimate winner of the $100 000 set aside to mark the occasion turned out to be a nineteen year old Canadian student using the handle Justine0003...and she didn't immediately realise that she was the luckiest player in cyberspace!

Playing six handed one cent/two cent Justine and her five fellow players must have caught their collective breath when their screens popped the message "Welcome to the biggest hand of 1¢/2¢ ever!" Four of the six went for it, the board ran out Ac-Kc-Td-9c-8h, and the lucky Canadian tabled 3c-8c for the flush and the $100 000 win.

The win didn't immediately register with Justine0003. "It was a total fluke," she said. "I didn't even realize that it was the major big hand right away. I thought it was just another one leading up to it! I'm just really thankful and feel extremely lucky," she said in the understatement of the day.

Justine, a social poker player for the last four years plans to spend the money on her education but will be blowing some of it on shopping, too.

The other players at the table, Rechargeable, inwooke, The_Moog, XTedForrestX and Ferius may have just missed the big one, but there was a hefty consolation prize of $10 000 for each to soften the disappointment.