PokerStars Events Make News Around the World

PokerStars, one of the world's largest online poker sites, is making news around the world with World Series of Poker events, new international tournaments and even music videos.

Chris Levick wins
  down under
Another day another champion. So it goes somewhere in the PokerStars world, this time in Melbourne, Australia where the second leg of the new Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (www.anzpt.com) ended in success for Aussie Chris Levick who hoisted aloft the winner's trophy and a cheque for $158,050 after winning the all-Australian final table. The two event so far have been packed, with 25-year-old student Paren "Puzz" Arzoonmanian winning the first event in Sydney a few weeks ago. Next stop is the stunning New Zealand mountain town of Queenstown on July 20.

WSOP underway
A lot will have taken place before the bandwagon rolls into New Zealand. The 40th Annual World Series of Poker, the highlight of any poker players' calendar is underway in Las Vegas. The Rio Hotel and Casino plays host to the series for a fifth time which runs into July, a coliseum that last year saw the name of Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate inked into the history books. Also making its fifth appearance at the World Series will be the PokerStars blog, bringing news updates, video blogs and more until the final table in November.

Raymer finishes third in 40K
The traditional casino employee event may have kicked off the World Series but it was the massive $40,000 no-limit hold'em event got the rail birds watching. Marking the 40th anniversary of the first World Series the tournament attracted the great and good with a brilliant result for PokerStars players. In the early hours of the morning Russian player Vitaly Lunkin, who just recently won the PokerStars RPT event in Moscow, came in from the cold, getting the better of PokerStars player Isaac Haxton ($1,168,566) heads-up who in turn had eliminated Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer in third ($774,927). It was also a good start for recent Monte Carlo High Roller winner Vanessa Rousso. The Team PokerStars Pro collected $71,858 for 27th.

PokerStars champions compete in invitational event
Defeat in third place for Raymer didn't dull his appetite for competition one bit. After busting in third the Team PokerStars Pro promptly took his place in a special invitational event for former main event winners. Whilst he promptly busted the likes of Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Peter Eastgate and Tom McEvoy were each stuck into the action, although Moneymaker, who won his historic title in 2003, was soon on the rail with him. Up for grabs are an anniversary-appropriate 1970 red Corvette and the Binions Cup, named after the founder of the World Series.

PokerStars launches Italian Poker Tour
Back on the easterly side of the Atlantic PokerStars has announced the launch of the new Italian Poker Tour and if attendance at season fives San Remo leg of the European Poker tour is anything to go by it should be an immediate success. The Italian Poker Tour will start in San Remo, on the northern Italian Riviera coast, in early June before heading for other destinations across the peninsula, with Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri and Luca Pagano looking for victory on home turf.

Go to Wimbledon with Boris Becker and Pokerstars.net
Tennis and poker are games that see the individual compete for a place among the best. Few sum up this comparison better than PokerStars Ambassador Boris Becker who this summer will be part of a special promotion that will send two lucky players to Wimbledon to watch a day of championship tennis. There's also a chance to play the legendary champion for £5,000 in a battleship poker scenario. Qualifying tournaments are taking place every day over the next three weeks, details of which can be found on PokerStars.

PokerStars Music Videos
PokerStars has hit the big time with a starring role in a string of new music videos which show that just about anyone can become a star in poker - including world-famous rappers like Snoop Dogg and American pop star Katy Perry. The video for the latest Katy Perry track Waking Up In Vegas features the 24-year-old singer trying her luck at just about everything in Vegas, including going heads-up against Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu.

In the video for Groove On, Russian RnB star Timati and the inimitable Snoop has been watched over 400,000 times on YouTube and PokerStars.tv, features a substantial amount of poker, beautiful girls, luxury cars and villas and, to cap it all, a PokerStars-branded private jet.

The video for Fabolous' new single "My Time" featuring Jeremih is styled like a film trailer and shows the singer playing poker on a PokerStars table – as well as a New York street scene featuring a PokerStars billboard.

Reaction has been enthusiastic about the videos and it seems clear that the music/poker cross-over is about to take off in a big way. All three videos can be seen on pokerstars.tv