Legal online poker site PurePlay is proving a success in the US market, as it just announced its player base has reached 1.5 million players. Pure Poker has doled out over $4 million in cash prices to date.
PurePlay bills itself as “the largest legal U.S. play-for-cash online poker destination,” and it apparently has the figures to prove it, as a press release today announced the landmark 1.5 millionth player to register in the site.
San Francisco-based PurePlay follows a patented business model that allows US players to legally partake of online poker tournaments and win big cash prizes without risking any of their money. PurePlay CEO Jason Kellerman says of the success of their venture:
We are committed to staying at the forefront of legal online poker, and that means pulling out the stops in giving our members the excitement of competitive play and generous cash prizes without exposing them to the risk of losing their own money. No other poker site has implemented this approach as successfully as we have in attracting players at all levels and delivering an online gaming experience that keeps them coming back.
One of the reasons for PurePlay’s popularity is their range of tournaments, which are essentially freerolls with prize pools ranging from $10 to $10,000. Paying players also have a choice of daily freerolls called the Daily Cash and High Roller tournaments, which award daily prizes between $20 and $1,000. Other prizes include seats into the WSOP Main Event. According to their site, “This year, no other U.S.-based poker site sent more contenders to the Main Event than PurePlay.”
Another reason for PurePlay’s popularity may be its sheer ease of use and accessibility – the no-download software is immediately available for new players or those who want to dip a toe, and since June 2008 the site has also been open to Mac users.
So how does PurePlay work? PurePlay has two membership levels, PurePlay Basic and the PurePlay Player’s Club. Basic membership is completely free (no deposit, no membership fee, no buy-ins, nothing) and allows players access to a limited number of daily cash tournaments and to a $10,000 qualifier-based tournament once every 3 or 4 months. Players willing to fork out a monthly fee of $19.99 become members of the PurePlay Player’s Club, which gives them access to over $150,000 in prizes every month in the form of daily and weekly freerolls.
According to its press release, PurePlay “was founded in November 2004 by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with venture capital financial backing. The poker site, which launched in November 2005, has awarded over $3.5 million and is the fastest growing legal online cash poker destination with over 1,000,000 players.”
1.5 million players and they only give out a 100,000 in cash???? 20 buck a month per player sounds like there is only 1 winner here Pureplay!!!!!!!!!
That number includes mostly free players like myself who are not part of the paid membership. I’m sure that group is much, much smaller.