'Welcome to the biggest hand of 1¢/2¢ ever'

Her balance before: $12. Her balance after: $100,012. Which does in fact, by MOST definitions, make it a pretty sweet hand of 1¢/2¢, as Justine0003, a 19-year-old university student from Canada, took the lucrative 10 billionth hand at PokerStars.com

The trail to 10 billion at PokerStars.com has been paved with payouts, with hands being singled out regularly from nine billion on to award lucky players with cash prizes.

But all eyes had settled on 10 billion as the big one, and over 100,000 players were on the tables hoping to hit the magic number.

The luckiest: Rechargeable, inwooke, The_Moog, XTedForrestX, Ferius, and justine0003, who were playing a little six-handed 1¢/2¢ when the commentator popped on the screen with a message for them:

"Welcome to the biggest hand of 1¢/2¢ ever."

Four of the six players got their money in, the board ran out Ac-Kc-Td-9c-8h, and Justine0003 tabled 3c-8c for the flush and the $100,000 win.

And she didn't even know it.

"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."

The 19-year-old student, who has been playing poker for about four years, says she plans to use the money to pay for her education, and fit in a bit of extra shopping.

All the players at the table walked away with at least $10,000.

For the details and a list of all the magic hand winners, visit PokerStars.

courtesy of Christopher Hunt

News Added: 20 May, 2007

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