PokerStars MicroMillions crowns second-time Christmas winner

(PRESS RELEASE) -- Thousands of players have been claiming early Christmas presents in the PokerStars Christmas Calendar, but for Stian 'SlemPastor' Hansen, the festive season is definitely one to remember. He celebrated the anniversary of his first big poker win of $40,000 by scooping $70,310.99 and the $22 MicroMillions Marathon Main Event title, all part of the online Christmas Festival promotion, organized by PokerStars, an Amaya brand.

The 22-year-old from Oslo, Norway, said, "My biggest win was the Supersonic last Christmas for $40,000 on PokerStars, so this was sort of my anniversary." To celebrate, he plans to travel and bring his poker skills to some live poker events in 2017.

For more than ten hours, Hansen, battling as 'SlemPastor', his PokerStars alias, beat fatigue to top the 42,036-strong field to win the Main Event, devouring a smorgasboard of players along the way such as runner-up 'Fofan10' from Russia and Estonian 'markzil' in third.
The next big tournament of the Christmas Festival promotion takes place December 26, when the festive celebrations conclude with the $2 million guaranteed Monday Million. Players can buy in for $215 directly or win their seat via satellites starting from just $1 currently running around the clock at PokerStars.com.

The MicroMillions Marathon Main Event was the culmination of 25 micro- and low-stake tournaments throughout 11 December. The lowest stake tournament on offer had a buy-in of just $0.11 but saw the winner, 'kiskutyus23', beat a field of 22,403 entries to scoop the top prize of $1,236.57, a massive return 11,000 times greater than the original stake.

The Christmas Festival continues to run online at PokerStars.com. Players can unlock a new festive offer every day as part of the Christmas Calendar in their Challenges Window on the desktop client or mobile app.