PokerStars: The True King of the WSOP Main Event

Site Sends More Players to the WSOP Than Anyone Else

One turned $39 into $2.5 million. Another made $5 million from a $160 investment. Those numbers equate to a 64,000 percent and a 31,000 percent return on investment, respectively, for those lucky guys. Who were those two fortunate fellows? Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, the 2003 and 2004 World Series of Poker main-event winners. How did they do it? PokerStars.

PokerStars, far and away the world's largest online poker site, is also the indisputable king of WSOP success stories. Along with main-event champs Moneymaker and Raymer, the site has qualified thousands of players to play in the richest poker tournament in the world. In 2002, PokerStars qualified just two people for the main event. This year, 2,008 main-event seats were won on PokerStars. What a difference six years (and two phenomenally successful online-qualifiers-turned-world-champions) can make.

However, qualifying players isn't the only way that PokerStars has become the king of the main event. Joe Hachem won the main event in 2005, and while he didn't qualify online for his seat (he bought in directly for the full $10,000), he became the third main-event winner in a row to join Team PokerStars Pro. PokerStars has dominated the final tables of WSOP main events in recent years, with many or most of the finalists either having qualified on PokerStars or being sponsored by the site in other ways to wear the PokerStars logo. This year, six of the "November Nine" represent PokerStars - including six of the top seven and the two chip leaders - so it's likely that PokerStars is about to add yet another main-event winner to its list of successes.

From Two to 2,008 … and Millions Along the Way

PokerStars qualifiers have raked in tens of millions of dollars in combined winnings in less than a decade. After qualifying two players in 2002, Chris Moneymaker joined a roster of 33 players who qualified for the main event in 2003. Moneymaker, of course, went on to take down the final pot and $2.5 million, becoming the first-ever Internet qualifier to win the main event in the process.

The media frenzy and national surge in interest that ensued resulted in PokerStars qualifying 316 players for the main event the following year. PokerStars qualifiers accounted for about 12 percent of the field in 2004, and they wound up cashing for a combined $10,830,900 after Greg Raymer became the second PokerStars qualifier in a row to win the main event. That meant that 40 percent of the 2004 WSOP main-event prize pool went to PokerStars qualifiers.

Aside from a slight drop in 2007 (resulting from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act), the number of qualifiers has gone up every year, to the 2,008 seats that were qualified for this year (of which 1,063 were used to play in the event). In 2008, 130 PokerStars-affiliated players cashed, earning well over $9 million (depending on how the "PokerStars Six" do).
The point is that many players earn entry on PokerStars, and a large percentage of them do very well for themselves. From 2004 to 2008, there has been an average of about four players representing PokerStars at the final table of the main event each year.

The 'PokerStars Six'

Allow us to introduce (or, more likely, reintroduce) you to the six finalists from the "November Nine" who represent PokerStars - the "PokerStars Six" - all of whom are guaranteed at least $900,670 in prize money.

Dennis Phillips (26,295,000 in chips; chip leader)

Phillips is a 53-year-old account manager for a commercial trucking company who lives in the suburban town of Cottage Hills, Illinois, but he calls St. Louis, Missouri, his home. That, in fact, is where he won a World Series of Poker satellite at Harrah's Casino that got him into the 2008 main event. Prior to this final table, his only major-tournament cash was for $2,368. Phillips will come to the final table as the chip leader. In the four months since making the final table, Phillips has taken on the help of Roy Winston and his Oracle Consulting Firm to train him for the big day.

Ivan Demidov (24,400,000 in chips; second place)

Demidov is a 27-year-old professional poker player from Moscow, Russia. At the 2008 World Series of Poker, he made his first major-tournament cash when he finished 11th in the $1,000 no-limit hold'em rebuy event. In early October, Demidov pulled off a huge accomplishment when he made the final table of the WSOP Europe main event, meaning he had made the final table of both WSOP main events this year. He eventually finished third there, for almost $600,000.

Peter Eastgate (18,375,000 in chips; fourth place)

Eastgate is a 22-year-old professional poker player from Odense, Denmark. His previous major-tournament cashes include a final-table appearance at the 2007 Irish Poker Open, as well as a cash in the 2008 European Poker Tour Scandinavian Open main event. Since making the final table, Eastgate has played in the EPT events in Barcelona and London, cashing in the latter.

Ylon Schwartz (12,525,000 in chips; fifth place)

After giving up hustling chess games at parks in New York City, Schwartz decided to become a professional poker player. Since his first World Series of Poker cash in 2005, he has made the money in the WSOP 12 times. Schwartz has been laying low since making the final table, opting not to play too much poker. He did, however, show up to play in both the Borgata Poker Open and EPT London main events, but he cashed in neither.

Darus Suharto (12,520,000 in chips; sixth place)

Suharto was born in Indonesia, but currently resides in Toronto, Canada. After earning an MBA from Indiana University, Suharto went to work as an accountant. The 39-year-old won his way into the 2008 WSOP main event through a satellite. Prior to this final table, his only major-tournament cash came in the 2006 WSOP main event. He finished in 448th place for more than $26,000. Suharto hasn't played much poker since making the final table, but he did make an appearance at the EPT event in London, eventually busting out on day 1.

David "Chino" Rheem (10,230,000 in chips; seventh place)

Rheem hails from Los Angeles, California. He is a professional poker player and has been playing for about 10 years. His first major-tournament cash came at the 2005 World Series of Poker. That same year, he cashed in the main event, as well. Since then, he has followed the tournament circuit, cashing in WPT preliminary tournaments and more WSOP events along the way, including a near-bracelet win in the 2006 $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em rebuy event. He finished second for almost $328,000.

Moneymaker: The Ultimate Internet Qualifier

Chris Moneymaker was the first-ever Internet qualifier to win the World Series of Poker main event, and his anyone-can-do-it story prompted millions of people to try their hands at poker. The Team PokerStars Pro member's breakthrough is the largest of a few important factors that led to poker's surge in popularity among the general public. We spoke with Moneymaker about his experience, from winning his seat for $39 to clasping the bracelet around his wrist.

CP: How did you rate your chances before you started playing in the event?

CM: I figured if I didn't play any big hands, I might be able to sneak into the money. But that was just a hope and a prayer, I guess. My chance of winning, I would have put at about 0.1 percent.

CP: OK, now fast-forward to the final table itself. Your year was pretty much the last year that the final table was absolutely stacked with pros. Sam Farha, Dan Harrington, Jason Lester, Amir Vahedi, Yong Pak, David Grey, David Singer, and Tomer Benvenisti were the other finalists (and Phil Ivey bubbled the final table). How were you rating your chances now?

CM: By that time, I had 2 million in chips, and I actually rated my chances as pretty good to maybe not win, but to at least get to heads up. My plan was just to fold [laughing] throughout the tournament - just fold and move up the ladder. I told my dad the night before, "I'm going to be going heads up with whoever wins the big conflict between Amir Vahedi and Sam Farha." I knew that they would clash in a big hand for all of their chips just because of the way that they'd been playing for the last day and a half. I just knew that those would be the two to gamble on something. I said that I'd be heads up with whoever won that battle. It ended up being Sam.

CP: The atmosphere of the poker world is a lot different from what it was when you won. What major changes have you noticed?

CM: Well, basically, the whole game has changed, the whole play of the game. When I won the World Series, my entire strategy was that if someone raised and I had position, I'd call. If they then checked on the flop, I'd bet, and they'd fold. If I bet and got raised, I'd fold. If they bet and I had a decent hand, I'd raise, and they'd fold. Raises were respected a lot; if you raised, people folded. It really wasn't that complicated; if someone hit something on the flop, they'd bet, and if they didn't, they'd check. It was actually quite easy to figure out.

But now you've got floating and re-steals … Reraising with 7-4 or Q-5, which you see quite a bit now [laughing], was unheard of in 2003. It just wasn't done - by anybody. No matter how good of a poker player you were, you just didn't do it. It seems like it's common practice today.

CP: Finally, any suggestions for the thousands of players who will try to qualify in 2009?

CM: Keep trying. I never thought that I could do it. Try to do it as cheaply as possible, stay within your bankroll, and if you have the means, take the seat. If you don't, don't gamble, just take the money and put it to something more useful. If I had the option, I would not have taken the seat back in the day. But if you have the means to take the seat, take it, because it's worth the gamble.

Play Against the Million-Dollar Men, or Get a Piece of Their Action

PokerStars has kicked off several promotions surrounding the "PokerStars Six," some of which run right up to the final table.

One of the most interesting promotions is the Win a Share in the Million-Dollar Men, as the PokerStars Six are affectionately called in PokerStars promotions. In this promotion, PokerStars players are offered a chance to compete in a series of satellites with Frequent Player Point buy-ins in order to win a 0.01 percent piece of the eventual payout of a certain Million-Dollar Man. Players can qualify for a piece of a different player each week. It started with David "Chino" Rheem and the Win a Share finals end with Ivan Demidov and Dennis Phillips in November.

Other Million-Dollar Men promotions that already have run to completion include a single-table tournament in which three players qualified to play against the six for a $185,000 prize pool, a multitable tournament in which every player who outlasted all six Million-Dollar Men earned an extra prize, and a WSOP Tournament of Champions featuring the Million-Dollar Men, along with previous main-event champs Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, and Tom McEvoy.