Another Sunday is in the books, and with a full compliment of huge-guaranteed high-stakes buy-in MTTs on the schedule, there was plenty of action for anyone willing to gamble. There were a lot of big names that made some nice runs yesterday, and a few online MTT Pros took down some of the biggest tournaments on the internet.
Getting the day going, as always, is the Sunday Warm-up on PokerStars. Coming into the final table, one player, ael1979, stood above the rest, holding an enormous chip lead. They had nearly four times as many chips as the player in 2nd position, mozitas. The tournament would come down to Pokky Star, wdrzich, and ael1979. The three would decide upon a 3-way chop leaving $10,000 on the table. Here are what the chop numbers looked like:
ael1979: 8,172,416
wdrzich: 14,688,663
Pokky Star: 13,308,921
ael1979: $65,005
wrdzich: $74,649
Pokky Star: $71,595
As you can see, wdrzich had a slim chip lead over Pokky Star and was guaranteed a little over $3,000 more than Pokky Star was. First to go was ael1979 when he ran into Pokky Star holding JJ. Ael1979 had a strong hand himself, holding 99, but it was not enough to overtake the big pair and he would go out in 3rd, earning jut over $65,000. Pokky would start heads-up play with nearly a 3-1 chip advantage, and the tournament would soon be over. Wdrzich open-shoved the button with 75s and was called by Pokky Star’s AJs. The flop came Ah9h4d and Wdrzich was practically drawing dead. He would finish in 2nd earning nearly $75,000 for a long days work while Pokky Star took home first and nearly $82,000 in prize money.
PokerStars Sunday Warm-up $750,000 Guaranteed
3617 Entrants
1. Pokky Star $81,595.00
2. wdrzich $74,649.00
3. ael1979 $65,005.00
4. mozitas $38,625.00
5. wildman22222 $30,750
6. Pappe_Ruk $23,250.00
7. Puniponken $15,750.00
8. bot432931 $9,750.00
9. IBLUFFULOL $6,750.00
PokerStars continues to run its new tournaments, most notably the “Sunday 500”, a $500+$30 buy-in $500,000 Guarantee Tournament. This week there were many big names making deep runs, including the eventual winner, David “Bakes” Baker, known as the “WhooooKidd” on PokerStars. Baker is a top-50 ranked online MTT-Pro and has a lot of 5-figure cashes to his name. He’s won more than $20,000 6 times, not including this victory. He has a win in the Stars Super Tuesday $1,050 event and a 2nd place finish in the Warm-up this past May. All of these are dwarfed by his win yesterday in the 500 which earned him $91,500 for his efforts. Another notable pro, Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, who has a 4th place finish in a $10,000 WPT Tournament, made a nice run and finished 12th for $5,000. Once again this tournament failed to reach it’s guarantee, this time by nearly $30,000.
PokerStars Sunday 500 $500,000 Guaranteed
942 Entrants
1. WhooooKidd – $91,500
2. holdplz – $66,500
3. Try__An__Hit – $50,000
4. Inf3rnal – $37,500
5. Aboubacar – $26,250
6. rrobert333 – $21,250
7. DA DONG – $16,250
8. august35 – $11,250
9. hoodini10 – $7,000
As always the Sunday Million headlines a day of huge MTTs, and this week was no exception. Over 7,300 players lined up for their shot at the $1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Participation has been a bit lacking lately. This week was slightly better than last, but still forced PokerStars to shell out nearly $39,000 in overlay. Hopefully tournaments like this can get back to their old way with bigger player pools and $200,000 first-place checks.
Coming into the final table, govshark2 had a nice chop lead, holding just over 19,000,000 in tournament chips, about 8,000,000 more than his nearest competitor, BOKINHA. Here is how the seat assignment and chip counts looked:
Seat 1: BOKINHA (11027452 in chips)
Seat 2: DeuceBuster (4059150 in chips)
Seat 3: trangers15 (9872014 in chips)
Seat 4: Y2JKID (3877876 in chips)
Seat 5: princio (6606879 in chips)
Seat 6: Br0ke24/7 (6377874 in chips)
Seat 7: Jazz604 (3235053 in chips)
Seat 8: govshark2 (19040496 in chips)
Seat 9: MyGambit (8973206 in chips)
First to be eliminated was Jazz604 when he ran AJ into the AQ of DeuceBuster. The flop would come AdTcTh, meaning Jazz604 would need a Jack to win and a King, Ace, or Ten to chop the pot. The turn and river came 3h, 5c and he was eliminated in 9th place, taking home over $10,000 for a long days work.
MyGambit would be the next to go. He had entered the final table 4th in chips and was doing quite well until this hand occurred:
PokerStars Game #21152969932: Tournament #112105962, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXIII (125000/250000) – 2008/10/13 1:32:43 ET
Table ‘112105962 884′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: BOKINHA (7792452 in chips)
Seat 2: DeuceBuster (3039150 in chips)
Seat 3: trangers15 (8132014 in chips)
Seat 4: Y2JKID (2462876 in chips)
Seat 5: princio (6148879 in chips)
Seat 6: Br0ke24/7 (6242874 in chips)
Seat 7: Jazz604 (2290106 in chips)
Seat 8: govshark2 (21948443 in chips)
Seat 9: MyGambit (15013206 in chips)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Jazz604: folds
govshark2: raises 375000 to 625000
MyGambit: calls 625000
BOKINHA: folds
DeuceBuster: folds
trangers15: raises 2625000 to 3250000
Y2JKID: folds
princio: folds
Br0ke24/7: folds
govshark2: folds
MyGambit: raises 5250000 to 8500000
trangers15: calls 4857014 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (392986) returned to MyGambit
*** FLOP *** [8d Jd 4d]
*** TURN *** [8d Jd 4d] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [8d Jd 4d 6s] [6h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MyGambit: shows [Kh Kd] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
trangers15: shows [Jh Jc] (a full house, Jacks full of Sixes)
trangers15 collected 17439028 from pot
A nasty beat leaving him with only about 6,000,000 in tournament chips. He would find AJs and go all-in, only to be called by the pocket 7s of the chipleader govshark2. The board ran out Qs8d8c6d5h and MyGambit would lose the race, eliminating him in 8th place for $17,250.
Y2JKID had entered the final table as one of the shortstacks and he would finally leave in 7th place. With only 2million in tournament chips remaining he would find KQo and move all-in:
PokerStars Game #21153169132: Tournament #112105962, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXIV (150000/300000) – 2008/10/13 1:47:46 ET
Table ‘112105962 884′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: BOKINHA (8227452 in chips)
Seat 2: DeuceBuster (3424256 in chips)
Seat 3: trangers15 (18609028 in chips)
Seat 4: Y2JKID (2063628 in chips)
Seat 5: princio (7581003 in chips)
Seat 6: Br0ke24/7 (5072874 in chips)
Seat 8: govshark2 (28091759 in chips)
Y2JKID: posts small blind 150000
princio: posts big blind 300000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Br0ke24/7: folds
govshark2: folds
BOKINHA: folds
DeuceBuster: folds
trangers15: folds
Y2JKID: raises 1733628 to 2033628 and is all-in
princio: calls 1733628
*** FLOP *** [Kc Jh 6s]
*** TURN *** [Kc Jh 6s] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Kc Jh 6s Ad] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Y2JKID: shows [Qh Kd] (a pair of Kings)
princio: shows [As Jd] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
princio collected 4277256 from pot
Another soul-crushing beat would send Y2JKID on his way, leaving him with a “paltry” $26,250 for a long days work.
Princio would soon send another player home, this time when his AKo would hold up against the A5s from BOKINHA. The board would run out 8h8s3dThQh and would eliminate BOKINHA in 6th place, earning him a nice $39,000 payday.
Another monster suck-out would occur just hands later as govshark2 would claim another victim:
PokerStars Game #21153453206: Tournament #112105962, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXVI (250000/500000) – 2008/10/13 2:11:08 ET
Table ‘112105962 884′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: DeuceBuster (2188512 in chips)
Seat 3: trangers15 (13544075 in chips)
Seat 5: princio (20879906 in chips)
Seat 6: Br0ke24/7 (3872748 in chips)
Seat 8: govshark2 (32584759 in chips)
princio: posts small blind 250000
Br0ke24/7: posts big blind 500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
govshark2: raises 750000 to 1250000
DeuceBuster: raises 888512 to 2138512 and is all-in
trangers15: folds
princio: folds
Br0ke24/7: folds
govshark2: calls 888512
*** FLOP *** [2h 6s Th]
*** TURN *** [2h 6s Th] [As]
*** RIVER *** [2h 6s Th As] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
govshark2: shows [5d Ac] (two pair, Aces and Fives)
DeuceBuster: shows [7d Ad] (a pair of Aces)
govshark2 collected 5277024 from pot
DeuceBuster only had to avoid a 5 on the river to stay alive, and unfortunately for him he couldn’t. This brutal beat eliminated him in 5th place, with $54,000 to help ease the pain.
Broke24/7 would be the next to go. With just under 3,000,000 left he would find himself all in with K2s, only to run into the K9o of govshark2. This time there would be no expert suck-out and Broke24/7 would be eliminated in fourth place, taking home a large check worth $69,000.
Once play became three-handed, chips would start to fly around. Trangers15 would lose some ground and eventually get his money in against govshark2:
PokerStars Game #21153779784: Tournament #112105962, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXVII (300000/600000) – 2008/10/13 2:41:41 ET
Table ‘112105962 884′ 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: trangers15 (9846300 in chips)
Seat 5: princio (14101756 in chips)
Seat 8: govshark2 (49121944 in chips)
trangers15: posts small blind 300000
princio: posts big blind 600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
govshark2: raises 820000 to 1420000
trangers15: raises 8366300 to 9786300 and is all-in
princio: folds
govshark2: calls 8366300
*** FLOP *** [Qs 5h 8d]
*** TURN *** [Qs 5h 8d] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 5h 8d 6s] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trangers15: shows [2c 2h] (a pair of Deuces)
govshark2: shows [Ks Kh] (a pair of Kings)
govshark2 collected 20352600 from pot
A nasty cooler left trangers15 out in 3rd place, netting him $84,000 for over 10 hours of play. Here were the chip counts for Heads-Up play:
Princio: 13,411,756
Govshark2: 59,628,244
Govshark had a better than 4:1 chiplead and would never relinquish his lead. Here’s this final hand:
PokerStars Game #21153858569: Tournament #112105962, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXVIII (400000/800000) – 2008/10/13 2:49:32 ET
Table ‘112105962 884’ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 5: princio (20463977 in chips)
Seat 8: govshark2 (52606023 in chips)
princio: posts the ante 80000
govshark2: posts the ante 80000
princio: posts small blind 400000
govshark2: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
princio: raises 3200000 to 4000000
govshark2: raises 6400000 to 10400000
princio: raises 9983977 to 20383977 and is all-in
govshark2: calls 9983977
*** FLOP *** [5s Qd Kd]
*** TURN *** [5s Qd Kd] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [5s Qd Kd 6h] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
govshark2: shows [Ah Kh] (a pair of Kings)
princio: shows [Td Ks] (a pair of Kings – lower kicker)
govshark2 collected 40927954 from pot
Govshark2 had a knack for having hands hold at the final table, and that is pretty much what it takes to win a big Sunday major. Princio earned $124,950 for his second place finish while govshark2 took home $184,500 for the victory.
PokerStars Sunday Million $1,500,000 Guaranteed
7307 entrants
1. govshark2 $184,500
2. princio $124,950
3. trangers15 $84,000
4. Br0ke24/7 $69,000
5. DeuceBuster $54,000
6. BOKINHA $39,000
7. Y2JKID $26,250
8. MyGambit $17,250
9. Jazz604 $10,500
The biggest rebuy event on Sunday is typically the $215r on PokerStars. This week 297 high-stakes gamblers took part in the tournament, but still did not create enough action to reach the $250,000 guarantee. By my calculations there was almost $60,000 in overlay, meaning nearly 25% of the prize pool. As always there were plenty of big names making deep runs and the final table. Eventual champion thorladen is a high-stakes MTT and cash-game player. Interestingly enough, this was not his biggest cash, nor was this his biggest cash in this event! He has won the $215r once before, netting $55,650 for his victory in December, 2007. He also has five other $20,000+ cashes, including a win in the nightly 100k and a win in the $75k guaranteed on UB. Andy McLeod, who seems to make a ton of final tables, once again had a deep run, finishing 8th for $6,250.
PokerStars $215r $250k Guaranteed
297 entrants
1. thorladen – $51,250
2. koolkeith13 – $37,500
3. BB_ShiNing – $28,250
4. IgorFederal – $21,250
5. backmanslivs – $14,750
6. TwinMSU – $11,250
7. Cre8ive – $8,750
8. Andy McLEOD – $6,250
9. malicous222 – $4,375
Last but certainly not least on Stars is the “Second Chance” $300,000 Guarantee, $200+$15 buy-in tournament. This is the latest starting of the majors and always gives everyone one last shot at a big cash. Eventual champion, ozenc, had quite a resume even before this win. He is quite the jack-of-all-trades, having won a $500 buy-in HORSE tournament on FullTilt earlier this year for just over $70,000. He tends to play big buy-in mixed game events, having also made a deep run in WCOOP event 32 this past month, which was the $10,000 buy-in HORSE Championship.
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $300k Guaranteed
1293 entrants
1. ozenc – $54,750
2. Gvillebill – $39,870
3. pocktnizzles – $30,000
4. xxjondxx – $22,500
5. LexLuthor85 – $15,750
6. P0ker D0h – $12,750
7. makavelyces – $9,750
8. Topvorm – $6,750
9. yrcanos – $4,200
FullTilt once again ran their 3 big Sunday majors, the $750k, Brawl, and Mulligan. Boasting some of the biggest names in poker as their “red pros”, these fields never disappoint the railbirds.
The “Sunday Brawl” is a $240+$16 knock-out tournament where players earn money, $40 to be exact, for each person they bust. The tournament boasts a $350,000 guarantee and typically attracts a tough field. Three FullTilt Red Pro’s made the money. Stuart Paterson finished 129th, Nikolay Evdakov finished 55th, and Josh Arieh, known for his WSOP fame, made the final table only to go out in 8th, earning nearly $6,200. Other pros participating were one-time WSOP POTY Allen Cunningham, well-known online MTT Pro Pearljammer, and famous tourney pro Scott Fischman.
FullTilt Sunday Brawl $350,000 Guaranteed
1811 entrants
1. SoxWinSeries009 – $74,613
2. ep1 – $49,259
3. UCFJuggernaut – $36,582
4. Domce – $28,614
5. Labsen – $21,370
6. Reddeevil – $14,850
7. prebzman – $9,055
8. Josh Arieh – $6,157
9. bkvt17 – $4,346
Next in line is FullTilt’s biggest Sunday tournament, the $200+$15 buy-in $750,000 Guarantee. Even more big names turned out for FullTilt’s biggest tournament of the week. Unlike the Brawl, no Red Pros made a deep run, however, three did make the money. Adam Noone, Toto Leonidas, and David Pham all cashed, yet none of them finished in the top 100. Taking home the title and over $132,000 was DahJinerat. He has quite the resume on FullTilt, having won the Sunday Mulligan earlier this year for nearly $38,000. This win, however, was his first 6-figure score. Matt “Ch0ppy” Kay, known as “NoBadBeatsPlz” on FullTilt has many wins in online MTTs, including two victories in the 100r on Stars and a win in the 100k on AbsolutePoker.
FullTilt $750k Guarantee
3450 entrants
1. DahJinerat – $132,788
2. Wasaki coke – $80,250
3. NoBadBeatsPlz – $52,500
4. mordi20 – $41,400
5. maxflicks – $31,050
6. sccowboy – $23,025
7. rokhead – $17,250
8. Sir_winalot9 – $13,500
9. SomethingDank – $10,050
Rounding out the trio of events on FullTilt is their “Sunday Mulligan” tournament. The $200,000 Guarantee $200+$16 buy-in event typically attracts players hoping to score one last big cash. More than 15 Red Pro’s played in the event, however, not a single one cashed. Among them were 2-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen and WSOP Champion Huck Seed. Mark “TheOmaholic” Roland would make a nice Final Table run, eventually busting in 3rd for $21,500. He has one big tourney win to his name, a victory in the PokerStars Super Tuesday this past February for $78,100. In the end is was Wasaki coke who would take down the title and $45,000. A final note, once again there was overlay in this event, this time to the tune of $6,000.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
970 entrants
1. Wasaki coke – $45,000
2. JUMP PUTT – $29,000
3. The Omaholic – $21,500
4. CNT_CRUSHER – $16,500
5. blizair – $12,500
6. DumbHick – $9,000
7. mostlynutz – $6,000
8. TYEESLAYER – $4,500
9. drjdmd – $3,200
The Bodog $100k Guarantee was back up and running this week, and once again, there was just about $38,000 in overlay. Only 621 entrants showed up for the $100 buy-in tournament. Taking down the title and $23,600 was nutzkrackr. There typically aren’t too many big names playing on Bodog, but I will keep this tournament on our rotation. The STR and FTR will not support other sites which are currently involved in cheating scandals.
Bodog Sunday $100k Guaranteed
621 entrants
1. nutzkrackr – $23,600
2. links1136 – $13,600
3. ponyneck – $9,100
4. TheGlazeman – $7,000
5. poker1945 – $5,700
6. Rugster – $4,500
7. LuckyLukeKK – $3,300
8. WitchfinderG – $2,200
9. DannyAIC – $1,300