Another Sunday, another big day in online tournament poker.  Once again, PokerStars dominated the tournament scene, hosting numerous tournaments with large prize pools.  With Stars keeping their Sunday 500 running in full force, it seems they are determined to separate themselves from their competition

As always, the PokerStars Sunday Warm-up gets the day going for the high-stakes MTT grinders.   It is usually dominated by the Europeans, who are already hitting afternoon stride as the tourney starts at 12:45 PokerStars time.  This week was no exception, as a large portion of the top finishers hail from the other side of the the Atlantic. As you can see below, more than half of the final table were non-Americans. and even the eventual winner, “Weekender74”, calls the UK home.  Weekender74 would start heads-up play with a 2:1 chip lead and would soon find himself all-in holding K9s versus the A5o of “bfinemn”.  The flop would come king-high and Weekender74 would take home the title and a very nice pay day of $105,000.

PokerStars Sunday Warmup 750k Guaranteed
3264 entrants

1. Weekender74 (United Kingdom) $105,000.00
2. bfinemn (Uninted States) $75,000.00
3. royalfishfly (Russian Federation) $52,500.00
4. renq87 (Finland) $39,375.00
5. CHINESE30 (Denmark) $31,500.00
6. EAZY DZ (Uninted States) $24,000.00
7. Huskyfan98 (Uninted States) $16,500.00
8. niccc (Lebanon) $10,500.00
9. N!CKELZ (Uninted States) $7,050.00

The Sunday Million, a $1.5million guarantee tournament, is one every poker player would love to win. Lately, however, it has been failing to meet it’s guarantee, and with only 7245 entrants this week, PokerStars was once again forced to provide overlay, $51,000 in overlay to be exact.

Entering the final table, “forza-guti” had a large chip lead, holding nearly double the chips of his nearest competitor, insanocut. If that name sounds familiar, it is because he was just on our STR last August, after winning the Sunday Brawl on FullTilt Poker.  Here is how the chip stacks looked going into the final table.

Seat 1: Allanon85 (4,027,610 in chips)
Seat 2: forza-guti (20,452,649 in chips)
Seat 3: aty79 (5,746,206 in chips)
Seat 4: tnapoleao (5,747,738 in chips)
Seat 5: cdbr3799 (7,555,840 in chips)
Seat 6: Tyler9897 (2,881,305 in chips)
Seat 7: insanocut (11,732,370 in chips)
Seat 8: sjco22 (3,823,426 in chips)
Seat 9: Kongsgaard (10,482,856 in chips)

First to go was “sjco22” whose KTo failed to improve against the AJo of “Allanon85”.  Sjco22 earned $10,500 for a long days work.  He was soon followed by “Tyler9897” who found AJo to not be as lucky when it ran into the pocket Queens of Kongsgaard, leaving him out of chips and done in 8th place, earning $17,250.

A huge hand would soon follow, crippling insanocut and eliminating “tnapoleao”.  Tnapoleao’s KK would not be good enough against the AA of aty79.  Insanocut was also involved, losing the majority of his chips with AK.  tnapoleao would finish 7th and earn just over $26,000 for his efforts.  After being left with few chips from the previous hand, insanocut would soon find himself all-in, and once again AK would prove to be costly as the AKs of Kongsgaard took care of the K6o from insanocut, eliminating him in 6th place for $39,000.

A brutal hand for forza-guti forced the Final Table chipleader outin 5th place when his AJ lost a race to Allanon85’s 33.  The flop came down QcJd8d but the river fell the 3d, giving Allanon85 a set and ending forza-guti’s day with a $54,000 cash.

A player who had done very little would soon become extremely active, “cdbr3799” would get involved in numerous pots including winning a big pot when his 66 beat aty79’s pocket Kings when a 6 rolled off on the river. He would then get involved in an even bigger pot against Allanon85’s AJ, cdbr3799 appeared to be in good shape, holding AQ, but when a Jack fell on the turn, it was Allanon85 who would assume a big lead.

After all of this action Kongsgaard was left as the short stack and was forced to move his last 10million chips in with 22, only to run into the JJ of Allanon85.  There was no saving deuce on the river this time, as the board ran out Js6c4dAsTs, and Kongsgaard was eliminated in 4th place, earning $69,000.

After his elimination chip-chops were discussed, with the players agreeing to leave $30,000 on the table.  The guaranteed numbers looked like this:

Allanon85 = $147,450.00
aty79 = $109,000.00
cdbr3799 = $107,000.00

All of the players would agree and with only $30,000 to play for all involved started getting much more aggressive.  First to go was cdbr3799 when his Q5o fell to Allanon85’s K7s.  The final hand would actually see some postflop play, after a Pre-Flop raise and a flop bet, the players would get all of their money in on the turn.  The board would read Kh6c2d5s, and Allanon85’s KJs was way ahead of the K8s held by aty79.  The 2c on the end was no help, and left Allanon85 alone as the champion.

PokerStars Sunday Million $1.5Million Guaranteed
7245 entrants

1. Allanon85 $177,450.00
2. aty79 $109,000.00
3. cdbr3799 $107,000.00
4. Kongsgaard $69,000.00
5. forza-guti $54,000.00
6. insanocut $39,000.00
7. tnapoleao $26,250.00
8. Tyler9897 $17,250.00
9. sjco22 $10,500.00

Once again the Sunday500 failed to reach it’s guarantee with only 951 participant paying the $500+$30 buy-in fee. PokerStars Pro Andre “aakkari” Akkari would make the final table, but would bow out in 7th place, earning $16,250. “Titantom32”, who has been in out STR numerous times, actually earned the most money despite finishing in 3rd place.  A chip-chop guaranteed him $76,236 and he would unfortunately be unable to maintain his chip lead.  He finished 2nd in the Sunday Brawl just two Sundays ago.  In the end it was “twirlpro” who would take home the victory and a nice 1st place check of $66,876.

PokerStars Sunday500 $500k Guaranteed
951 entrants

1. twirlpro $66,876.77
2. hervios $64,559.67
3. Titantom32  $76,263.56
4. RifePot $37,500.00
5. StanTerakom $26,250.00
6. PMJackson21 $21,250.00
7. aakkari  $16,250.00
8. mss73 $11,250.00
9. vietcong01 $7,000.00

The $200 rebuy once again was full of big names, as “aakari” made another final table, this time busting 9thfor $4,375. In case you’ve been under a rock and haven’t heard of him,”AJKHoosier1″ has steadily become one of, if not the best MTT player on the planet.  He has had numerous deep runs including a 3rd place finish in September’s WCOOP Main Event.  As if this wasn’t enough, he made sure to win the $200 rebuy this past weekend, netting him just over $51,000. He was able to win some remarkable races down the stretch which must have left some of his opponent’s scratching their heads.  However, when you’re hot, you’re hot, and he has shown no signs of slowing down.

PokerStars Sunday $200 rebuy
309 entrants

1. AJKHoosier1 $51,250.00
2. rkruok $37,500.00
3. Anbessa9 $28,250.00
4. lil riffy $21,250.00
5. Acejuan  $14,750.00
6. liberace $11,250.00
7. DaMurdera3 $8,750.00
8. thewh00sel  $6,250.00
9. aakkari  $4,375.00

The last big event on PokerStars is always the appropriately-named “Second Chance” tournament.  The $300k guarantee event attracted nearly 1300 entrants this week, leaving over $40,000 in overlay.  A big name in the online poker world, “nanonoko” reached the final table and finished 2nd.  He is known for his ability to play 24 tables at once, generally 400nl 6max.  Although he might have been bored focusing on this one, it was not done in vain, as he took home $39,600 for his efforts. Another player from the UK would make a big score as riverman1 would take home the title and nearly $55,000 in prize money.  Not a bad way to spend the morning if you ask me!

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $300k Guaranteed
1297 entrants

1. riverman1 $54,480.00
2. nanonoko $39,600.00
3. KARANEN  $30,000.00
4. Big Slim 33  $22,500.00
5. BabyGrand $15,750.00
6. XTraCey $12,750.00
7. groverpika $9,750.00
8. PreshaDrop $6,750.00
9. VuaXi`Tô’ (Uninted States) $4,200.00

FullTilt’s “Big 3” were once again in full force yesterday as the “Brawl”, “750k” and “Mulligan” all had nice turn-outs.  The Sunday Brawl had a very familiar face reach the final table. Red Pro Huck Seed, who has a WSOP Championship Title to his name, can now say he’s final table’d the Brawl.  His experience, however, was short lived as he would bust in 7th place, earning just over $9,000 for his effots.  Huck must have soaked up all of the famous Red Pro luck, as he was the only Full Tilt Pro to cash, out of an impressive group including Allen Cunningham, David Pham, and online sensation Isaac “Menlo” Baron.  Battling through the field of over 1800 was “idi0”, who took home the title and a big check worth nearly $75,000.

FullTilt Sunday Brawl $350k Guaranteed
1806 entrants

1. idi0 $74,407
2. BROKE-C $49,123
3. oh i win yay $36,481
4. clampsch $28,534
5. sbw34723 $21,310
6. Negreanders $14,809
7. HuckleberrySeed $9030
8. 747wd $6140
9. CNT_CRUSHER $4334

FullTilt’s Headliner event, the $750k, failed to reach it’s guarantee again.  With only 3572 entrants buying in for $200 a piece, FullTilt was forced to pay out $35,600 in overlay.  Per usual, there were many big name Red Pro’s on hand, however, just like the Brawl, only one would make the money.  Relatively unknown Diego Cordovez would earn a small cash, finishing in 390th.  Brad Booth, Chip Jett, and Jeff Madsen also were on hand, but failed to make the money.  The table was absent of a huge name, however, a few succesful MTT’ers were on hand.  In the end it was “FadinAway” that would take home the title and a nice chunk of change, about $132,000.  He would outlast “TheDirrty” who would have to “settle” for 2nd and a paltry $80,250.

FullTilt $750k Guaranteed
3572 entrants

1. FadinAway $132,878
2. TheDirrty $80,250
3. Dstemrich $52,500
4. TheAsianVampire $41,400
5. Kisso $31,050
6. Corporations $23,025
7. crazychicken $17,250
8. Matteo02 $13,500
9. MarvinGarden $10,050

FullTilt’s last tournament of the day, the Sunday Mulligan, is a $200 buy-in event that gives everyone a last chance at a big time score.   Just over 1000 players were on hand, which was enough to exceed the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.  The theme of the day so far has been one Red Pro cashing in each big event, and the Mulligan added it.  Dave Colclough would be the sole representative to cash, finshing 29th for just under $700. There were plenty of big names on hand, including WSOPE Final Table participant Scott Fischman and notable online pro PearlJammer.  Once all the dust settled, it was miw210 who was able to defeat hattrick8810 heads-up for the tile and $45,675 in first place money.

FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1015 entrants

1. miw210 $45,675
2. hattrick8810 $29,435
3. negroblanco $21,822
4. KingFish83 $16,747
5. benba $12,687
6. bossmanisme $9135
7. JCarver $6090
8. Usuk2 $4567
9. game153 $3248

It is becoming increasingly harder to find information on the results of the Bodog $100k.  The site did run a $200 buy-in $25k guarantee this week, however, I am having trouble finding the $100k.  If this persists, I will find another tournament to take its’ place.