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On December 12^th the world’s largest online poker room, PokerStars, will turn 10 years old, and the site has announced a number of promotions for the special celebration including two very special tournaments, both of which have their sights set on setting poker records.

The first tournament Pokerstars announced was a special running of the $215 Sunday Million on December 4^th, where the site is guaranteeing a massive $10 million prize-pool, including $2 million to the winner alone. The sheer size of the prize-pool will seem like very lofty expectations to many, especially considering that US players have been barred from the site Since Black Friday –but as PokerStars has proven time-and-time again, they usually come through on their guarantees.

The second tournament PokerStars announced for their 10^th Anniversary celebration will be an attempt to reset a record the site already hold: For the largest online poker tournament in the history of the game. In order to set the record, PokerStars will need to attract nearly 150,000 players willing to part with the $1 entry fee the tournament will boast. Players will find the $250k guarantee very enticing, with $50k guaranteed to the winner, considering it will likely be at least a $100k overlay.

The current record –held by PokerStars—was set in 2009, with a similar $1 tournament attracting over 149,000 entrants –the tournament was hastily thrown together when PokerStars caught wind of Full Tilt Poker’s decision to challenge for the same record. It will be interesting to see if the added promotional time will be enough to overcome the lack of US players at the site.

After three days of action, Jerry Monroe emerged victorious from a field of 337 runners on Monday to win the World Series of Poker Circuit Biloxi Main Event. He made good on his $1,600 buy-in by winning the gold championship ring along with nearly $113k.

Day 3 began with 12 competitors vying to make the nine-handed final table. The first two eliminations came quickly before John Holley pushed all-in with A-4 suited against the pocket jacks of Michael Nasserazad. The flop came down 4-J-A, helping both players, but the board failed to improve Holley’s hand from there, and he ended in the dreaded bubble boy position.

The next player to go was David E. Williams, who ended up drawing dead with A-10 offsuit against the A-J suited of “Wild” Bill Phillips. Russel Ivy busted next when his pocket sevens failed to improve against the pocket tens of Jacob Naquin. Nasserazad and Ronnie Sewell then hit the rail in 7th and 6th places, respectively.

Jeremy Drewery entered with the chip lead on Day 3, but the cards weren’t falling his way. His stack dwindled until his A-8 offsuit met the A-K offsuit of Monroe. Drewery won over $28k for finishing in fifth.

The chip stack of Phillips was thinning out as well until he doubled up against Chris Parsons thanks to a nut flush. A few hands later, the crippled Parsons went all-in with pocket nines only to have Monroe score a pair of jacks on the flop, allowing three-handed play to begin.

Monroe was directly responsible for the next elimination as well, tabling 8-7 suited to score a straight on the 5-4-5-6-3 board and sending Naquin and his pocket nines to the rail for $51k.

Heads-up action was fast and furious, with both players pushing all of their chips into the pot on just the third hand of heads-up play. The two were evenly matched with Monroe holding 9-9 against he A-Q offsuit of Phillips. The board offered no help to either player, leaving Phillips with second place and $70k.

When the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine played down to just three runners on Sunday, American poker fans were hoping that Ben Lamb, a Las Vegas native, would emerge victorious and take the title for himself and the United States. Instead, Pius Heinz, a native of Germany and just 22 years of age, has been crowned the WSOP Main Event champion for 2011. Along with the title and bracelet, Heinz received over $8.7 million in cold hard cash.

Going into the final day of action, Heinz held a dominant 2:1 chip lead over both Ben Lamb and Martin Staszko. That basic chip structure didn’t even last past the first hand, as Lamb pushed all-in with K-J offsuit against the 7-7 of Staszko. The board was garbage for both players, silencing the crowd at the Rio Casino and leaving Lamb with only 20% of the chips he held just moments before.

Lamb pushed all-in again just three hands later, pitting Q-6 offsuit against the pocket jacks of Staszko. The board ran out 5-5-2-2-7, ending Lamb’s championship hopes and sending him to the rail with a not-too-shabby $4 million.

Despite the initially blazing pace of play, heads-up action turned into a slug fest. Over the course of nearly 120 grueling hands, Heinz and Staszko traded the chip lead multiple times, with Staszko eventually regaining a 3:1 lead late in the action.

Heinz caught up once more though, eventually pushing all-in with A-Q suited against Staszko’s Q-9 suited. The board offered to help to Staszko, boosting Heinz to a 4:1 lead.

Just eight hands later, Staszko pushed the remainder of his stack into the middle with 10-7 suited. Heinz held A-K offsuit. The crowd remained silent as the flop came down 5-2-9. Staszko’s rail hoped for a straight draw upon seeing a jack on the turn, but a 4 came on the river and the tournament was over. Staszko received an incredible $5.4 million for taking second place.

As part of their 10^th Anniversary celebration PokerStars has decided to attempt something many of us feel is a bit unrealistic in the current poker climate –breaking the record for the largest online poker tournament in the history of the game. On their blog yesterday, PokerStars announced their intentions to run a $1 buy-in tournament with the hopes of surpassing the 149,196 players that registered for their last such effort in 2009.

However, the prospect of attracting 150,000 players with US players barred from the site seems like a bit of a long-shot –although I’m sure PokerStars has done the research and feels the goal is achievable. As part of the enticement for players to take part in the momentous event, PokerStars is offering a $250,000 guarantee, which if they do manage to attract 150,000 players means that each player will be getting a 60% overlay in the tournament.

Back in 2009, PokerStars hastily threw together a $1 buy-in tournament in order to thwart Full Tilt Poker’s efforts of setting the same record (the tournaments occurred on the same day and both sites managed to break the record, first Full Tilt and then PokerStars) and easily surpassed the old record. The 2009 tournament was won by a German poker player using the screen-name “Oskar69” who took home a very nice payday of $50,000 on his $1 buy-in.

Once again the winner of the tournament is guaranteed at least a $50,000 payday.

It must feel pretty good to be Kevin “kevsteele” Steele right now. Back in July of this year, Steele took down over 6,000 players in the PokerStars Sunday Million, the largest regularly scheduled online poker tournament in the world, to win almost $129k. This past Sunday, lightning struck twice when Steele managed to win the Sunday Million again, this time for $169k.

The field was considerably bigger this time, with 6,967 players paying $215 buy-ins to generate a prize pool of over $1.39 million. The final table was stacked, with professional poker players Cesar Garcia and Grayson Ramage trailing “V1rtuozzzzzz” who held 15.8 million chips initially.

Ramage busted early in 8th place when his A-8 failed to improve against the A-K offsuit of “ShipTheFliip.” Garcia hit the virtual rail in sixth place when A-9 suited topped his K-2 offsuit.

When four-handed play began, the remaining runners decided to split the pot and leave $20k in reserve for the winner. Steele went on a major heater at this point, busting “Sir_Ellwood” and “ShipTheFliip” in 3rd and 4th places, respectively. Heads-up play began between Steele and “V1rtuozzzzzz.”

Amazingly, Steele won on the strength of 7-2 offsuit. “V1rtuozzzzzz” held A-10 suited, but a garbage flop and a 2 on the turn secured the $169k for Steele. All of the top four finishers received six-figure scores.

The only other $100k+ score this past Sunday went to flexaccou, who won the Sunday Warm-Up. A total of 3,664 players paid buy-ins of $215 each for a $733k prize pool. No deal was struck at the final table, awarding $115k to flexaccou and $86k to runner-up Steve Paul-Ambrose.

The Sunday Storm, an excellent barometer of online tournament interest week-to-week, was up in attendance by over 1,000 runners this past Sunday. Over 33k players paid $11 buy-ins. A six-handed deal was struck, awarding lia007 $20.5k for the eventual win.