A big day in tournament poker is over, and with even bigger prizepools and large fields, this past Sunday was one to remember.  FullTilt upped their $215 buy-in $750k Guaranteed Tournament to a $535 buyin $1,000,000 Guarantee.  PokerStars’ new tournaments are starting to gain some more traction and are finally reaching their guarantees.

As always,  the Sunday Warm-up starts the day off strong.  This week 3,645 players woke up bright and early hoping to get their hands on the $750,000 guaranteed prize pool.  This week there would be no chop and the winner would take home over $100,000 for their efforts.  Taking home the title was Djelly who outlasted TribunCaesar in what effectively came a $30,000 Heads-Up battle.  Unfortunately for TribunCaesar, Djelly took an enormous chip lead into heads up play and was forced to get his money in quickly.  He found a decent hand for heads-up play, J7s, and moved in.  However, luck was not on his side as Djelly woke up with a monster, AT, and when the board ran out Qd4d5dTdQh the tournament was over and Djelly was left standing alone.  This was by far and away Djelly’s biggest cash.  Winning the award for the coolest name at the final table was “+ to the EV!”who took home 7th and $15,750.  This was his second best cash of all time having won the PokerStars nightly Hundred Grand this past February for over $32,000. One final note, once again the Warm-up had some overlay, $21,000 to be exact.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $750k Guaranteed
3645 Entrants

1. Djelly – $101,250
2. TribunCaesar – $71,250
3. cpfz55555 – $48,750
4. Bajasen – $38,625
5. wasylaa – $30,750
6. caiimeron – $23,250
7. + to the EV! – $15,750
8. willcutyou – $9,750
9. LoboTommi – $6,750

The Sunday500 finally found enough entrants to not have to pay out any overlay. 1,005 entrants created a prize pool over $502,500, barely eclipsing the $500,000 guarantee.  One player at the final table needs no introduction; she is widely considered the best female poker player in the world and perhaps the best MTT-Player male or female.  Annette_15 has won numerous tournament titles, including the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event.  She made a deep run, falling just short when her 99 could not improve against an opponent’s JJ at the final table, eliminating her in 4th place for $37,687.  Another big name MTT-Pro made a deep run, a name most of us are familiar with.  Johan “busto_soon” Van Til is a long time member of www.flopturnriver.com and is one of the biggest names in online poker.  His run would end at the final two tables, busting 15th for a respectable cash of $4,020.  Taking home the title was PokerNoob999 who is no slouch either.  While this $91k+ cash was his biggest ever, he has six other 5 digit scores, including a win in the Stars $109r this past April for a whopping $63,450.  He made a deep run in the WCOOP last month, finishing 58th for $17,480. Winning this title certainly wasn’t easy as he had to defeat another top-MTT Pro, SHIPP ITT, currently ranked in the top 20 in online MTT rankings.  He has some huge wins including a victory in the $750k on FullTilt this past July for nearly $150,000.

PokerStars Sunday500 $500k Guaranteed
1005 Entrants

1. PokerNoob999 – $91,706
2. SHIPP ITT – $66,782
3. Skammes – $50,250
4. Annette_15 – $37,688
5. thedresser – $26,381
6. Bdbeatslayer – $21,356
7. Comandr_Cool – $16,331
8. o_omx – $11,306
9. Michnak – $7,035

The biggest tournament of the weekend is, as always, the PokerStars Sunday Million.  This week’s event attracted 7446 players, forcing PokerStars into paying nearly $11,000 in overlay.  The final table was a wild one, with crazy suckouts and multiple chip chop talks it certainly took a while to finish. It was also one of the few times that the player who won did not earn the most money because of the chip chop deal. That honor went to 3rd place finisher anetas1, who you can bet is extremely pleased he took the deal once play became four-handed. Someone not as please would be eventual winner doula12, who was the short-stack four-handed but went on an incredible run to win. The deal cost him $60,000.

This is how the chip stacks looked heading into the Final Table:

Seat 1: DragonBenoni (6744473 in chips)
Seat 2: doulas12 (7553190 in chips)
Seat 3: petit ponche (6805854 in chips)
Seat 4: xannax20 (3688092 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (10284269 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (8532971 in chips)
Seat 7: slumpee (9868507 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (14427676 in chips)
Seat 9: rimmer27 (6554968 in chips)

First to go was xannax20 who, in late position, found king-high and was forced to shove:

Seat 1: DragonBenoni (8734473 in chips)
Seat 2: doulas12 (8383190 in chips)
Seat 3: petit ponche (6035854 in chips)
Seat 4: xannax20 (2918092 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (3682596 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (17275942 in chips)
Seat 7: slumpee (7987209 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (13057676 in chips)
Seat 9: rimmer27 (6384968 in chips)
anetas1: posts small blind 250000
slumpee: posts big blind 500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
joncheng: folds
rimmer27: folds
DragonBenoni: folds
doulas12: folds
petit ponche: folds
xannax20: raises 2368092 to 2868092 and is all-in
Crackpfeife: raises 764504 to 3632596 and is all-in
anetas1: folds
slumpee: folds
Uncalled bet (764504) returned to Crackpfeife
*** FLOP *** [Qd 6c 3s]
*** TURN *** [Qd 6c 3s] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Qd 6c 3s 8d] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
xannax20: shows [Kd 4h] (high card King)
Crackpfeife: shows [Kc As] (high card Ace)
Crackpfeife collected 6936184 from pot

Unfortunately for xannax20 he would run into a dominating hand, the AK of Crackpfeife, and once the board bricked he was out in 9th, earning $10,500 a long days work.

Next on the chopping block was final table short stack petit ponche. This time the all-in player would have the dominating hand, but the suck-outs were coming, and this was just the tip of the iceberg:

Seat 1: DragonBenoni (10369423 in chips)
Seat 2: doulas12 (8483190 in chips)
Seat 3: petit ponche (4085854 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (15265738 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (15255942 in chips)
Seat 7: slumpee (5787209 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (11027676 in chips)
Seat 9: rimmer27 (4184968 in chips)
petit ponche: posts small blind 250000
Crackpfeife: posts big blind 500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
anetas1: folds
slumpee: raises 900000 to 1400000
joncheng: folds
rimmer27: folds
DragonBenoni: folds
doulas12: folds
Crackpfeife said, “yeah”
petit ponche: raises 2635854 to 4035854 and is all-in
Crackpfeife: folds
slumpee: calls 2635854
*** FLOP *** [7c 6s 7s]
*** TURN *** [7c 6s 7s] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [7c 6s 7s Kd] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
petit ponche: shows [Jh Ah] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
slumpee: shows [Kc Js] (a full house, Kings full of Sevens)
slumpee collected 8971708 from pot

Once the King fell on the turn petit ponche was drawing very thin, needing an Ace to take down the pot. Another King sealed the deal and he was out in 8th place, earning $17,250 for his efforts.

Going out in 7th place was slumpee who might have taken the sickest beat in recent Sunday Million history:

Seat 1: DragonBenoni (10319423 in chips)
Seat 2: doulas12 (8433190 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (14715738 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (15205942 in chips)
Seat 7: slumpee (10673063 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (10977676 in chips)
Seat 9: rimmer27 (4134968 in chips)
anetas1: posts small blind 250000
slumpee: posts big blind 500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
joncheng: raises 1000000 to 1500000
rimmer27: folds
DragonBenoni: folds
doulas12: folds
Crackpfeife: folds
DragonBenoni said, “gg”
anetas1: folds
slumpee: raises 3000000 to 4500000
joncheng: raises 6427676 to 10927676 and is all-in
slumpee: calls 6123063 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (304613) returned to joncheng
*** FLOP *** [Qc 7s Jh]
*** TURN *** [Qc 7s Jh] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 7s Jh 3s] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
slumpee: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
joncheng: shows [As Qs] (a flush, Ace high)
joncheng collected 21846126 from pot
DragonBenoni said, “ouch”

“Ouch” is right as slumpee was a 88-12 favorite PreFlop against joncheng and a 86-14 favorite after the flop.  A sick way to lose what would have been the final table chip lead and quite possibly over $100,000 in equity.  Slumpee would have to settle for $26,250 for 7th which, I’m sure, is hardly any consolation.

After he busted chip chop talks began but players soon realized chopping 6-handed would get no one what they wanted.  Play would resume and it was DragonBenoni who would be the first to go:

Seat 1: DragonBenoni (5812489 in chips)
Seat 2: doulas12 (5973190 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (10051604 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (22665942 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (21666326 in chips)
Seat 9: rimmer27 (8290449 in chips)
Crackpfeife: posts small blind 300000
anetas1: posts big blind 600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
joncheng: folds
rimmer27: folds
DragonBenoni: raises 5152489 to 5752489 and is all-in
doulas12: folds
Crackpfeife: raises 4239115 to 9991604 and is all-in
anetas1: folds
Uncalled bet (4239115) returned to Crackpfeife
*** FLOP *** [Ah 3c 7s]
*** TURN *** [Ah 3c 7s] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 3c 7s 5s] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Crackpfeife: shows [As Td] (a pair of Aces)
DragonBenoni: shows [Qs 4c] (high card Ace)
Crackpfeife collected 12464978 from pot

Another play which might look bad to someone not used to playing tournaments. However, one-off the button with Queen high and less than 10BBs it is certainly acceptable to shove any two cards there.  Unfortunately for DragonBenoni he ran into the ATo of Crackpfeife and when the flop came ace-high it was done, finishing in 6th for $39,000.

Once again chip chop talks began, this time, the biggest name at the Final Table, rimmer27 put an end to them, saying he and doulas12 were getting “short-stacked screwage”.  Play resumed, and unfortunately for rimmer27 he was the next to go:

Seat 2: doulas12 (10706380 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (18304093 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (22005942 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (18413136 in chips)
Seat 9: rimmer27 (5030449 in chips)
anetas1: posts small blind 400000
joncheng: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
rimmer27: raises 4150449 to 4950449 and is all-in
doulas12: folds
Crackpfeife: folds
anetas1: calls 4550449
joncheng: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ks Qh 2d]
*** TURN *** [Ks Qh 2d] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Qh 2d 7d] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
anetas1: shows [8d 8c] (two pair, Eights and Sevens)
rimmer27: shows [As Jh] (a pair of Sevens)
anetas1 collected 11100898 from pot
Crackpfeife said, “deal?”

As you can see from the chat, Crackpfeife was eager to get a deal done, as he had been asking constantly once play became 6-handed.  He could at least wait for me to say that rimmer27 was eliminated in 5th, earning $54,000 for his deep run.  Rimmer had four other 5-figure scores before the Million including a win for $17,475 in the FTP $50k guarantee.

A chip-chop deal was finalized and the four remaining players decided to leave only $30,000 on the  table for first place. Chip-leader anetas1 would actually disconnect for some time during negotiations but would still end up on top, guaranteeing him/herself $125,824 no matter their finish.  After the chop, action was furious as always, and joncheng was the first to be thankful he chopped:

Seat 2: doulas12 (10626380 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (18224093 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (28076391 in chips)
Seat 8: joncheng (17533136 in chips)
joncheng: posts small blind 400000
doulas12: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Crackpfeife: raises 1321212 to 2121212
anetas1 has timed out
anetas1: folds
anetas1 is sitting out
anetas1 has returned
joncheng: raises 4278788 to 6400000
doulas12: folds
joncheng said, “gamble?”
Crackpfeife: raises 11744093 to 18144093 and is all-in
joncheng: calls 11053136 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (690957) returned to Crackpfeife
*** FLOP *** [Qh 6s 6h]
*** TURN *** [Qh 6s 6h] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Qh 6s 6h Qc] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
joncheng: shows [3d 3s] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
Crackpfeife: shows [Jc Ah] (two pair, Queens and Sixes – Ace kicker)
Crackpfeife collected 36026272 from pot

In another sick turn of events, the board would make two higher pair than his 33 and he would bust out in 4th, taking home $106,024 after the chop.   Putting that in perspective that’s $37,000 more than what he would have earned in 4th.

Next to go was Final Table chipleader Anetas1 who would keep disconnecting after the chop and would eventually get his money in a race:

Seat 2: doulas12 (38653520 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (17177068 in chips)
Seat 6: anetas1 (18629412 in chips)
doulas12: posts small blind 600000
Crackpfeife: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
anetas1: raises 1800000 to 3000000
doulas12: raises 35533520 to 38533520 and is all-in
Crackpfeife: folds
anetas1: calls 15509412 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (20024108) returned to doulas12
*** FLOP *** [5s 4h Jc]
*** TURN *** [5s 4h Jc] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [5s 4h Jc Kc] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
doulas12: shows [Ac Qc] (a flush, Ace high)
anetas1: shows [8s 8d] (a pair of Eights)
doulas12 collected 38578824 from pot

Anetas1 could not win the race and would bust in 3rd, taking home just over $125,000, more than $40,000 more than 3rd normally wins. Doulas12 was now on a sick heater and when he back-doored a flush he took a commanding chiplead into heads-up play, and it only took one hand for him to take home the title:

Seat 2: doulas12 (58602932 in chips)
Seat 5: Crackpfeife (15857068 in chips)
doulas12: posts small blind 600000
Crackpfeife: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
doulas12: raises 57282932 to 58482932 and is all-in
Crackpfeife: calls 14537068 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (42745864) returned to doulas12
*** FLOP *** [6d 4d 9h]
*** TURN *** [6d 4d 9h] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [6d 4d 9h Jh] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Crackpfeife: shows [Ah Tc] (a pair of Nines)
doulas12: shows [Ac 6s] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
doulas12 collected 31714136 from pot

Another example of Doulas12 running like God as he would win the 30/70 and take home first place and just over $124,000.  Crackpfeife would finish in 2nd and actually cost himself a bit of money as well, about $19,000 for taking the chop.

PokerStars Sunday Million $1,500,000 Guaranteed
7446 Entrants

1. doulas12 – $125,478
2. Crackpfeife – $105,123
3. anetas1 – $125,824
4. joncheng – $106,024
5. rimmer27 – $54,000
6. DragonBenoni – $39,000
7. slumpee – $26,250
8. petit ponche – $17,250
9. xannax20 – $10,500

Next on the tourney list is the $200-rebuy, won this week by JohnnyBelow for nearly $50,000.  The $250,000 Guarantee event always attracts a tough field, and this week was no exception.  Making the final two tables were so many huge names, however, most of them could not find their way to the final table.  Bakes (WhooooKidd on Stars), Pwnasaurus, Cre8ive, and Kongsgaard finished 16th, 15th, 14th, 13th respectively each taking home somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000. This victory is not even in the top-2 on JohnnyBelow’s all time cashes, having won the FullTilt Sunday Brawl in July for $61,533 and having a runner-up finish in the $1k Monday on Fulltilt for $53,440.  Making an earlier exit at the final table was TravestyFund, a top-100 ranked MTT-Professional.  While he only took home $6,250 for his deep run, he has a total of 18 five-figure cashes to fall back on including a win in the $100r on PokerStars earlier this year.  A final note, after 334 entries, 529 rebuys, and 215 add-ons PokerStars was forced to add over $34,000 to the prize pool to make its guarantee.

PokerStars $215rebuy $250k Guaranteed
 334 entrants

1. JohnnyBelow – $48,750
2. gillete – $36,875
3. skjetten – $27,500
4. BobbyFi – $21,000
5. Brasstal – $14,375
6. Ranko 53 – $11,250
7. Smokersen – $8,750
8. TravestyFund – $6,250
9. Grecojr – $4,375

Finishing up a day of huge tournaments at PokerStars was, as always, the Second Chance.  This $300,000 guaranteed,$200+$15 buy-in tournament gives everyone one last chance at a big score on Sunday. PokerStars was forced to pay out over $18,000 in overlay as only 1,409 late-night gamblers showed up for the event.  Taking home the title and $54,240 was YanniYankiev, a player who has five other five-figure scores including a 2nd place finish last month in WCOOP Event-17 for $60,000.  Fnishing in 3rd and earning $30,000 was LockdownTex, a player who has six other five-figure scores including a win in the $100r on PokerStars in August.

PokerStars Second Chance $300k Guaranteed
1409 Entrants

1. YanniYankiev – $54,240
2. averill8910 – $39,300
3. LockdownTex – $30,000
4. MxdMeta4 – $22,500
5. PlmPShand – $15,750
6. DCMARF – $12,750
7. weeminer – $9,750
8. mc_palermo – $6,750
9. Bumbo88 – $4,200

Kicking off FullTilt’s 3 Sunday Majors is the Sunday Brawl.  This $240+$16 is a “knockout” tournament in which every time a player knocks another out the winner of the pot receives $40.  It is an interesting structure that causes players to gamble a bit more than normal.  1,887 players paid the $256 entry fee for their chance at the $350,000 guaranteed prize pool.  There were 11 FullTilt Red Pro’s playing in the event, including big names such as David “the dragon” Pham and former WSOP ME Champion Huck Seed.  Only two pros would make the money, young online-pro Jordan Morgan and Lee Watkinson would both cash, but would not make it inside the top 100 finishing 163rd and 135th respectively.  Taking home the title and $77,744 in prize money was Bowie 1963 as he outlasted ronniehood for the victory. This was a huge cash for ronniehood whose previous biggest score was a $5,625 cash for a 3rd place finish in a $55 buyin event.

FullTilt Sunday Brawl $350k Guaranteed
1887 Entrants

1. Bowie 1963 – $77,744
2. ronniehood – $51,326
3. kettukele – $38,117
4. PLUSizeHoneY – $29,815
5. PuddlePirate – $22,267
6. ryanwelch – $15,473
7. gonna_bust_u – $9,435
8. Obabynow – $6,416
9. Cushmaster – $4,529

This Sunday, FullTilt upped its $750k Guarantee to a $1,000,000 guarantee.  However, to do so, it also increased the buy-in from $216 to $535.  1,943 players came to vie for the top prize which forced FullTilt to pay out $28,500 in overlay.  A funny thing happened on the way to the final table, a Red Pro actually made it there! Leandro Brasa, a fairly new Red Pro, would actually go on to win the event and $184,000.  He is no stranger to online-MTT success having won the PokerStars $100r this past July and has two other big cashes in a WCOOP second-chance event and the nightly $50k on PartyPoker.  306 players made the money, which included three other FullTilt Pros: pearljammer, S. Gromenkova, and Aaron Bartley.  Finishing in 4th was HateItorLoveIt better known as Shane “shaniac” Schleger, a live and online MTT Pro who has many big scores to his name including a win in the PokerStars $200r in August.

FullTilt Million Guarantee
1943 Entrants

1. Leandro Brasa – $184,000
2. I CaioPimenta I – $113,000
3. DeMaci – $74,000
4. HateItOrLoveIt – $59,000
5. bballer88 – $45,000
6. Pippi78 – $32,200
7. Spuch – $23,500
8. DeuceBuster – $18,500
9. ninivan – $14,000

Finishing off FullTilt’s trio of Sunday Major’s is the appropriately-named “Sunday Mulligan”  This $200+$16 buy-in $200,000 guaranteed tournament gives players one final shot at making a big score.  While this tournament typically takes a back-seat to the other majors it attracted a nice field of 1,096 entrants and had a bunch of big names at the final table.  Craig “ELMO_MASK” Boyd is better known as craigthedeac in the online poker world took fourth place.  This isn’t his first success in a late-night Sunday major, having won the Sunday Second Chance on PokerStars earlier this year for $63,622.  Finishing in second was phat_cat1 who is a huge winner in online MTTs.  He has six other cashes over $20,000 in tournaments including a win in the Bodog BPO Main Event for nearly $77,000 this past March.  All of these players fell short to orangeman88, a player with many five-figure scores including a win the in the $100r on FullTilt in March for nearly $19,000.  With only 99 spots being paid it was tough for many red pros to make the money, however two did: Kristy Gazes and S. Gromenkova.

FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1906 Entrants

1. orangeman88 – $49,320
2. phat_cat1 – $31,784
3. moonraaker – $23,564
4. ELMO_MASK – $18,084
5. yanjiegou2007 – $13,700
6. wacksauce3000 – $9,864
7. bef99hwk – $6,576
8. Elias-Genoa – $4,932
9. garage13 – $3,507

As always the Bodog $100k finishes our report off.  This week a few known players actually made the final table.   Finishing in 7th place and earning $3,300 was cusee.  He has the majority of his cashes on Bodog, including some nice finishes in their DoubleStack $25,000 guarantee series.  Fourth place finisher TheBratKid is no stranger to big wins as he has 17 five-figure cashes across multiple sites including a win in the AbsolutePoker $100k guarantee for over $40,000. Third place finisher BeaverFever also has had some nice online-MTT success, having finished second in the PokerStars $100r for nearly $19,000 and cashing in the WCOOP ME this past September.  638 players would fall short of the win, giving way to aviv who took home the title and $23,600 in first-place money.  Aviv appears to be relatively new to big-time MTTs, however, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from him soon after this cash.  Once again this tournament had enormous overlay, $36,100 to be exact.

Bodog Sunday $100k
639 Entrants

1. aviv – $23,600
2. hiccup – $13,600
3. BeaverFever – $9,100
4. TheBratKid – $7,000
5. Yanni – $5,700
6. Higgy1020 – $4,500
7. cusee – $3,300
8. markit8dude – $2,200
9. rated23 – $1,300