The largest online poker tournament in history was held Sunday at British online poker room Poker Stars (www.pokerstars.com).

According to the room, the record-setting tourney drew a whopping 149,196 participants.

Each entrant paid one U.S. dollar to participate in the event, which was a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament.

The tourney had a guaranteed total prize pool of $300,000, despite only $149,196 being taken in in entry fees.

The event took six hours and the winner, who was not identified by the room other than by his online playing handle, earned $50,000.

So why put on a tournament that LOST money?

P.R., of course.

Ever publicity-conscious Party Poker officially applied to the Guiness Book of World Records to have the event included as the largest online poker tournament in history and the venerable British achievement-recorders accepted the feat.

Plus every poker news media outlet in the world reported on the record-shattering tourney, which truly was a remarkable event.

The previous record for largest online poker tourney was also held by Party Poker.

That tourney was about six months ago and drew about half as many as Sunday’s record-setting competition.

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