Online tournaments were back in full swing this weekend as the major events on PokerStars and FullTilt kept building off recent successes. With FTOPS XI in the books and SCOOP looming next month, tournaments could have seen a lull in participation. However, this weekend saw a nice boost in attendance as every major easily surpassed their guarantees.
Starting Sunday off, as usual, was the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up. The $750,000 guarantee tournament features some of the best players from around the globe. The only player with any sort of recent success making the final table was 9th place finisher “00psiedaisy.” He has 5 wins on PokerStars, including two victories in the $55r and $109 freezeouts. Eventual champion, “viksha,” appears to be new to the site. He has only played a mere 173 tournaments on PokerStars, cashing in five of them. He picked the right one to win, as the $108,953 first place check is by far and away his biggest cash. His previous best score was a $215 ticket he won in a satellite event.
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $750k Guaranteed
4223 Entrants; $844,600 prize pool
1. viksha $108,953.40
2. grebnrets86 $76,014.00
3. Brughtality $50,676.00
4. flex212derde $42,230.00
5. miw700 $33,784.00
6. cobusie $25,338.00
7. homner $16,892.00
8. LunchTime645 $10,557.50
9. 00psiedaisy $6,841.26
The Sunday Million saw a familiar face making the final table as “apestyles,” one of the best online tournament players of the past few years, entered as the short stack. Apestyles worked his short stack all the way to a 5th place finish, good for $57,637. After he busted the final four agreed upon a chop, setting aside $30,000 for the eventual champion. In the end it was “TheGoingRate” who won the $30,000 four-man SNG. While he won the tournament, “Kruschner” wins the prize of making the best deal, as he still won the most money despite busting in 3rd place.
PokerStars Sunday Million $1.5M Guaranteed
8118 Entrants; $1,623,600 prize pool
1. TheGoingRate $132,081.79
2. steakstud $127,661.43
3. Kurschner $132,955.39
4. kuzman89 $105,097.14
5, apestyles $57,637.80
6. ferminaitor $41,401.80
7. George2Loose $28,413.00
8. 1stAir $18,671.40
9. Confused1 $11,365.20
The $200 re-buy had some recognizable players reach the final table yesterday. PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson and STR frequenter “govshark2” both reached the final 9. Unfortunately, neither player fared well and busted in 7th and 5th respectively. The title, and nearly $43,000, came down to “Glorfindel” and “Believer82.” Glorfindel has had some success in re-buy tournaments, although on a much smaller scale. He won the PokerStars $11r only two days ago for just over $13,000. His challenger has had a lot more success across multiple sites. Believer82 is a bit of a tournament grinder, having played over 3600 tournaments in his career on PokerStars alone. Before yesterday his best score was a 7th place finish last month for $9,185 in the Wedness Quarter Million. When push came to shove it was Glorfindel who took home the title and nearly $43,000.
PokerStars Sunday $200r $200k Guaranteed
333 Entrants; $220,400 prize pool
1. Glorfindel $42,978
2. Believer82 $32,509
3. scarface_79 $24,244
4. VuaXi To $18,513.60
5. govshark2 $12,673
6. Comandr_Cool $9,918
7. LeeNelsonP $7,714
8. mossified84 $5,510
9. Taknapotin $3,857
The Sunday500 had an incredible final table yesterday. With so many big names, picking the champion was a complete toss-up. 9th place finisher “dankness3” is a top mid-stakes cash game player. Finishing in 8th was “ckingusc” who won $1,775,312 for his victory in the WCOOP Main Event this past September. “Ender555,” ranked 6th in online tournaments, ironically finished in 6th place. He finished 2nd in this event last August and has won 3 majors on UltimateBet and AbsolutePoker. “BogodAri,” the 5th place finisher, nearly won the Sunday Million last month, finishing in 3rd place for over $84,000. David “Bakes” Baker, known as the “WhooooKidd” on PokerStars is ranked inside the top 70. He won this event last October and has also shipped the $109r on PokerStars twice. Unfortunately, none of these players won the event! The title came down to “jdepa01fcp” and Bakes, with jdepa01fcp taking home the crown and just over $91,000 in prize money. This score trumps his previous best, a $42,150 cash back in 2007 in a $1k buy-in event.
PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1004 Entrants; $502,000 prize pool
1. jdepa01fcp $91,615
2. WhooooKidd $66,715.80
3. rkruok $50,200
4. VuaXi To $37,650
5. BodogAri $26,355
6. ender555 $21,335
7. SixthSenSe19 $16,315
8. ckingusc $11,295
9. dankness3 $7,028
The final event of the day on PokerStars is the Second Chance. Appropriately named, this tournament gives everyone a final shot at a big score on Sunday. “xthesteinx,” the biggest name entering the final table, has won both the $215r and $109r twice on PokerStars. With over $400,000 in profit on PokerStars alone, he is certainly one of the best tournament players in the world. Heads-Up play came down to “Sagittus” and “scorpionfish” with Sagittus coming out on top, taking home the title and over $53,000. This was his biggest score by far, easily beating a $9,600 cash two months ago. The same could be said for scorpionfish, as the $38,471 cash was his first five-figure score as well.
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $250k Guaranteed
1474 Entrants; 294,800 prize pool
1. Sagittus $53,181.92
2. scorpionfish $38,471.40
3. brainwash $29,480
4. xthesteinx $22,110
5. p W i $15,477
6. HEMlpowerSWT $12,529
7. Princesa $9,581
8. holly17 $6,633
9. JT3013 $4,127.20
FullTilt ran their typical Sunday majors yesterday, including the $350k Brawl, $750k Guarantee, and the $200k Mulligan. The site seems to be easily reaching their guarantees, which has to be a great sign for future tournaments. First up, as always, was the Sunday Brawl. The $350,000 guaranteed “KO” Event pays $40 to a player for every competitor he/she knocks out during the tournament. 20 FullTilt sponsored-professionals entered the event including Isaac “Menlo” Baron, widely considered one of the best online tournament players, as well as Scott Fischman who holds multiple WSOP bracelets.
Making the final table was a top-100 ranked professional, “Hixx.” Hixx is no stranger to success on FullTilt, having won the Second Chance last June for nearly $50,000 and a second place finish in the $1k Monday in Decemeber for $55,000. He’s had mild success on PokerStars as well, winning the $109r last March. Joining Hixx was Josh “professor plum” Prager who finished fourth in the Brawl last November for over $30,000. Both players battled down to heads-up, giving the fans quite show. Eventually it was Hixx who took down the title and over $85,000 in first place money.
FullTilt Sunday Brawl $350k Guaranteed
2,096 Entrants; $419,200 prize pool
1. Hixx $85,495.84
2. professor plum $55,334.40
3. DeMaci $41,081.60
4. Sternbfree $31,020.80
5. noitall611 $21,798.40
6. zerocashout $14,252.80
7. Kuntreezer $9,641.60
8. kingofthetable9 $6,707.20
9. Kariboo86 $5,030.40
The $750k Guarantee saw a bit of a drop-off in attendance this week. However, the tournament still easily eclipsed its guarantee with nearly 4,000 entrants. 29 FullTilt “Red Pros” played this week with Nordberg, Krist Gazes, Joao Barbosa, dmmikkel, Chris Ferguson, and Allen Cunningham all making the money. Without checking, this certainly might be a record for FullTilt’s pros making the money in a Sunday Major. Unfortunately, not one of these professionals got close to the final table, or even the final 100.
The biggest name making the final table was top-50 ranked Jonathan “xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis. Karamalikis has some huge scores on both FullTilt and PokerStars including a $157,000 score in November’s FTOPS Event #16 and a second place finish in the Sunday500 on PokerStars this past September. “SteveyMoney,” a player with mild success on FullTilt, eventually took home the title and over $140,000 in first place money.
FullTilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed
3,966 Entrants; $793,200 prize pool
1. SteveyMoney $140,436.06
2. dilling89 $84,872.40
3. Bbuddy4brkfst $55,524
4. Dahladino $43,784.64
5. Jims619 $32,838.48
6. benvo123 $24,351.24
7. xMONSTERxDONGx $18,243.60
8. MISSTILT1 $14,277.60
9. 8SR8 $10,628.88
The final event of the day belonged to the Sunday Mulligan on FullTilt. This week nearly 1,400 competitors created a $276,400 prize pool with $60,808 going to eventual champion “Yeshaya.” This was his biggest score, narrowly beating a $55,000 score from the $2500 two-day FTOPS event last August. Yeshaya also has a third place finish in the Second Chance on Stars for $26,000.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,382 Entrants; $276,400
1. Yeshaya $60,808
2. asbolutD37 $38,696
3. Bsawc1 $28,331
4. krazylouie $22,457.50
5. AlCarmoo $17,275
6. amak316 $12,438
7. gott ist stumm $8,015.60
8. assenvernichter $5,804.40
9. bgfd $4,256.56