There is much to be optimistic about lately when it comes to online poker tournaments. Coming off a successful WCOOP run by PokerStars, it seems other sites are now keen on getting a piece of the tournament series action. Currently, the world’s 2nd largest online site Party Poker, is busy with their 2011 Poker Fest. The multi-week MTT series ran a handful of events this past weekend, including some high-roller tournaments. Their biggest buy-in event was #26, a $1000+$60 entry fee tournament. Carrying a $300,000 guarantee, Event 26 easily flew through the 300 needed players on its way to a near half-million dollar prize pool.  With the bigger buy-in came a stronger field, including a star-studded final table. With more than $116,000 on the line for the winner it was going to be a fight to the finish for all involved.

One of the more successful players on hand was Richard “ciudad101” Fohrenbach who made a deep run before busting in 3rd place for $38,409.  This score marked another near-miss in a major tournament on a resume that includes a pair of 4th place finishes in the PokerStars Sunday Million, as well as a 3rd place finish in the Sunday500 just two months ago.  Once Fohrenbach busted in 3rd it was up to “raidalot” and “jeff710” to battle it out for more than a $51,000 difference between first and second place.  The experience edge appeared to be with “raidalot” who won the $30k Guarantee High Roller back in 2008 for $22,275 and nearly won the $100k Guaranteed last year for $17,604. Unfortunately for him, all of that experience failed to pay off as Jeff710 was able to take down the title, earning himself $116,250 in the process. The six-figure score appears to be easily the biggest cash of his career on Party Poker.

Party Poker Poker Fest Event #26 $300k Guaranteed
465 Entrants; $465,000 prize pool

1. jeff710 $116,250
2. raidalot $65,100
3. ciudad101 $38,409
4. casinoice $29,527
5. WA_THO_HUCK $24,645
6. motionlessme $19,762
7. venced0r86 $15,112
8. RasA86 $10,462
9. B00m3RxXx $7,905
10. Cocomangos $6,045

Hoping to keep up with Party during their Poker Fest, the iPoker Network appears to have figured out their Sunday $200k issues. For the longest time the tournament was struggling to reach its guarantee; however, yesterday more than 1,000 players signed up creating a nice $209,600 prize pool.  This is a great sign of things to come, because as the third largest poker network it is imperative that iPoker can continue to grow as players return to the game.  The tournament itself came down to a couple relatively unknown players in “lkmlkm” and “MassEffect2” who were set to compete for more than $20,000 in difference between first and second place.  When the dust settled it was lkmlkm who was left standing with all the chips and a $44,016 first-place check.

iPoker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,048 Entrants; $209,600 prize pool

1. lkmlkm $44,016
2. MassEffect2 $23,056
3. frostize1989 $16,768
4. VitasVjik $12,576
5. FrenchNightmare $10,480
6. OnionsNdragons $8,384
7. leblondie $6,288
8. hillwillwin $4,192
9. Peepmytablebro $2,934
10. batra $2,096

Making its first appearance on the Sunday tournament report is the Bwin Poker Sunday $200,000 guaranteed event. Much like the other European majors, this event carries a $200+$15 buy-in and needs 1,000 entrants to reach its guarantee. That number was easily bested yesterday as 1,337 “elite” players joined the fray to compete for a $39,846 first-place prize.  That prize went to “Tony Almedia” who earned the biggest score of his short career on the OnGame network.  Runner-up “nitforlife” might have been the more experienced player, having nearly won a GSOP Event last year, but was unable to take down his amateur opponent and had to settle for a $27,186 payday.

Bwin Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,337 Entrants; $254,030 prize pool

1. Tony Almedia $39,846
2. nitforlife $27,186
3. AlexZander2 $19,715
4. Creeperz $14,527
5. Dom_Twan $10,739
6. dollarek $7,969
7. Oksen2500 $6,433
8. Sorry for u $5,022
9. 17trasch17 $3,911
10. Paolo D $3,071

With a lot of attention diverted away from PokerStars due to the Poker Fest, it might be easy to assume traffic on the world’s largest poker site would be down. However, as we have seen in the past, when sites like FullTilt or Party run series, it tends to actually help PokerStars tournament attendance.  That was clear as the first tournament of the day, the $500k Sunday Warm-Up, got off to a great start.  The $200+$15 buy-in event attracted 3,267 players, creating a $653,400 prize pool. Even with the Poker Fest running the Warm-Up was still able to maintain it’s place as the second biggest weekly event in the online poker world.  For one of the first times we actually saw a displaced American grinder make a deep run in a PokerStars major. Player  “akb1”, from the US, made it all the way down to heads-up play before losing to “Pokerfred99”.  The $76,447 score probably made him quite happy that he decided to move after Black Friday killed American online poker on April 15th. Pokerfred99, having not won a five-figure score on PokerStars in the past, was probably not the favorite as the final table started. However, the mid-stakes grinder was able to take down a strong field and walked away with a $102,584 payday for shipping the Sunday Warm-Up.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $500k Guaranteed
3,267 Entrants; $653,400 prize pool

1. Pokerfred99 $102,584
2. akb1 $76,447
3. MikeCzechl $53,905
4. stormi22 $37,570
5. BrightStripe $27,769
6. totaloser $21,235
7. freshleo111 $14,701
8. Pimola $8,167
9. tvasimf $5,227

One tournament that has hardly skipped a beat since Black Friday is the PokerStars Sunday Million. The $200+$15 buy-in major received more than 7,000 entries yesterday on it was to an impressive $1,412,600 prize pool.  While the prize pool was huge, it did unfortunately lead to a four-way chop amongst “Kipu”, Zikar “vonBaranow” Baranow, “EireAbu”, and “Thostyle”.  Baranow, a highly-ranked online MTT pro, is no stranger to success on PokerStars.  Along with the $149,679 he earned yesterday, Baranow also won a SCOOP event earlier this year for $201,727.   Per PokerStars rules, there was still $20,000 left on the table for the winner. Taking that honor was Kipu who secured a $190,000 payday with his victory. The six-figure sum was easily the biggest score of his career on Stars, besting a couple low five-figure cashes earlier this year.

PokerStars Sunday Million Guaranteed
7,063 Entrants; $1,412,600
*4-way deal

1. Kipu $190,000
2. vonBaranow $149,679
3. EireAbu $130,000
4. Thostyle $86,000
5. MarkusG91 $57,916
6. rastafari898 $43,790
7. PHANTER8 $30,370
8. el_Hufter $16,951
9. mensi124 $10,947

Finishing off another strong day of online MTTs at PokerStars was the quarter-million dollar guaranteed Sunday500.  The higher buy-in tournament tends to bring out a lot of professionals and keeps out most of the amateur players. That was apparent at the final table as a handful of well known players made appearances in hopes of winning the $75,330 first-place prize.  Among those well known professionals was “d-mon-d”, a high-stakes pro who won the Sunday Brawl on FTP last year and has made numerous final tables on Stars in the past.  After 835 players busted he found himself heads-up with “shuriken555” for the title.  His opponent was also quite experienced, having won the Million last year for $205,000.  In the end it was shuriken555 who took home the title and a nice $75,330 payday.

PokerStars Sunday500 $250k Guaranteed
837 Entrants; $418,500 prize pool

1. shuriken555 $75,330
2. d-mon-d $54,405
3. Palau777 $40,594
4. zugzwang16 $30,341
5. delegator $21,092
6. Naza114 $16,740
7. shevliak $12,555
8. 7tHEcROw7 $8,370
9. skatpelz $5,022