Visit Poker Stars

As the world’s largest online poker room in regards to player traffic, it was only a matter of time before PokerStars.com left the virtual industry to establish its very own live poker room. What came as a surprise to many, however, was the location of the first PokerStars live card room. Instead of the analytically expected Las Vegas scene, PokerStars chose the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino in Macau, practically on the opposite side of the globe.

What makes PokerStars choice of local interesting is that, while Macau is considered the “Las Vegas of the East”, drawing millions of gambling enthusiasts every single year, the majority of gamblers in the region are attracted to horse race betting and casino slots; not poker tables. This pioneering maneuver is a risk, but not without purpose. Last year, PokerStars.net brought the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) to Macau, resulting in a phenomenal success in the region. The establishment of a PokerStars live poker room in the area makes for an ideal location for the next APPT Macau, scheduled for September of 2008.

In addition, Macau continues to reveal unsurpassed revenue from its gambling industry. Las Vegas, on the other hand, has seen a steady decline.

PokerStars will be hosting a diverse selection of tournaments on a weekly basis at the live poker room, featuring 160 card tables and an array of satellite competitions to the upcoming APPT. To kick-off the grand opening of the PokerStars live poker room last weekend, a charity tournament was held, with all proceeds going to the victims of the recent earthquake in China, which devastated the country.

Weekly scheduled tournament buy-ins at the new PokerStars card room range from $500 to $10,000 HKD, (Hong Kong Dollar approximated at 1:8 of U.S. Dollar).

The world’s largest online poker room, PokerStars.com, has a long history of donating to relief funds when the regions of the world find themselves in a disastrous situations. On May 18th, PokerStars announced that it will match every dollar donated to the China Earthquake Relief Fund by its members through their PokerStars account.

Players at PokerStars will find a new link in their account pages allowing them to directly donate to the China Earthquake Relief Fund, via the Red Cross. Another option is to head over to the “Tourney/Special” tab in the PokerStars Lobby and sign up for “Quake Relief”, choosing any amount between $1 and $100. Note that no tournament will be played; this special tournament tab is provided simply for the purpose of easily donating to the cause.

For every dollar that a player donates, using either method, PokerStars will match it before it is sent to the Red Cross.

The devastating earthquake in China has already revealed in excess of 32,000 deaths caused by this tragic event. According to reports, the country expects that number to rise as high as 50,000 in the coming weeks.

In the past, PokerStars has held similar campaigns to aid in raising funds for such disasters as the tsunami in Indonesia and Hurricane Katrina. PokerStars and PokerStars.net have also helped raise funding for Lifeball AIDS research and efforts to put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.