A second online poker room is laying claim to having dealt one billion hands of poker.

Absolute Poker (www.absolutepoker.com) has announced that its one billionth poker hand was dealt over the weekend.

“This is a significant milestone,” said Absolute Poker senior vie-president David Clainer in a statement.

“Not only for our players, but for the entire online poker industry as a whole,” he added.

Last month, online poker room Bodog Poker (www.bodoglife.com) announced that it had dealt its one billionth hand of poker.

To celebrate the occasion, the winner of the one billionth poker hand dealt at Absolute Poker won a $7,000 prize package that includes entries to three Absolute Poker tournaments: the $150,000 weekly guaranteed tournament, the $100,000 weekly pro bounty tournament and the $75,000 weekly guaranteed December tournament.

In addition, all the other participants in the one billionth hand received entries to Absolute Poker’s $150,000 weekly guaranteed tournament.

In announcing the one billionth hand, Absolute Poker made no mention of the current investigation into allegations that massive cheating has occurred at Absolute Poker by a current or former employee who was able to rig the software to see opponents’ hole cards.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)