It was a big weekend for FullTilt as their “Doubles Week” was supposed to boost the guarantee of their major events two-fold. Instead, FullTilt decided to go bigger and better, making each major tournament a multi-entry event which allows players to buy-in up to six times! If you are unfamiliar with the multi-entry structure be sure to visit FullTilt to find out more about this exciting new brand of tournament poker. With FullTilt garnering most of the attention on Sunday it was reasonable to see PokerStars take a bit of a hit in their majors’ attendances.
All of their prize pools were slightly down from peaks seen in March but with the 2011 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on the horizon, do not be surprised if you see a sudden surge in player pools over the next month. As always the day kicked off with the $215 Sunday Warm-Up, a $750,000 guaranteed event. The day’s first major tournament got close to the $1,000,000 prize pool mark but fell short as 4,629 players entered the Warm-Up. With more than $140,000 on the line for the winner it was a fight to the finish for a six-figure score.
One of the bigger names at the final table was Peter “twirlpro” Turmezy who won the Sunday Million back in 2008 for $196,025. The high stakes tournament pro also won the Sunday500 the same year and has won the $109r and $55r on multiple occasions. His 5th place finish here earned him more than $39,000 but still didn’t crack his top-5 scores on PokerStars alone. Eventual winner “MatchBalla” was able to take down “JayP-AA” for the title and a huge payday. The $145k score was easily the best of his career for a competitors who plays sparingly online. JayP-AA was also quite new to high-stakes online tournaments and earned himself a six-figure sum for 2nd place when he made a re-shove with 57s, but was called quickly by Ace-Nine off suit.
Seat 2: JayP-AA (7308192 in chips)
Seat 6: MatchBalla (38981808 in chips)
MatchBalla: posts small blind 250000
JayP-AA: posts big blind 500000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
MatchBalla: raises 500000 to 1000000
JayP-AA: raises 6258192 to 7258192 and is all-in
MatchBalla: calls 6258192
*** FLOP *** [9c 5s 2h]
*** TURN *** [9c 5s 2h] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [9c 5s 2h Jh] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JayP-AA: shows [5d 7d] (a pair of Fives)
MatchBalla: shows [As 9h] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
MatchBalla collected 14616384 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $750k Guaranteed
4,629 Entrants; $925,800 prize pool
1. MatchBalla $145,241
2. JayP-AA $107,855
3. jvbizz $76,378
4. cardlo69 $52,307
5. twirlpro $39,346
6. benchballa17 $30,088
7. EZz_GAME $20,830
8. elchwarrior $11,572
9. lynum $7,406
The Sunday Million took quite a step back this weekend as the tournament did not come to close to the $2,000,000 prize pool mark it had often been hitting lately. Still, there was more than $1,700,000 in the middle and more than 8,600 players hoping to hit a life changing score. The tournament worked into the wee hours, eventually finishing early Monday morning as the final table battled through bad beats, chip chop talks, and some great player to wind its way down to a heads-up battle between “Rens02” and “ZAGABOY”. Neither player could be described as a dominant online professional but it did appear that Rens02 had quite the advantage in higher takes tournaments. He was able to put past success in the $109r, $55r, and Wednesday Quarter Million to good use as he took down ZAGABOY for the title and earned more than a quarter-million dollars in the process. Below are some of the major hands from the final table as well as the Sunday Million pay-outs.
Seat 1: ZAGABOY (21132024 in chips)
Seat 2: marcosretard (14831012 in chips)
Seat 3: ShipThisPLZ (12020845 in chips)
Seat 5: JohnFR (5800875 in chips)
Seat 6: Rens02 (10298337 in chips)
Seat 7: PRIVATEPILE (7371145 in chips)
Seat 9: plaque20 (14675762 in chips)
plaque20: posts small blind 300000
ZAGABOY: posts big blind 600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
marcosretard: folds
ShipThisPLZ: folds
JohnFR: raises 5140875 to 5740875 and is all-in
Rens02: raises 4497462 to 10238337 and is all-in
PRIVATEPILE: folds
plaque20: folds
ZAGABOY: folds
Uncalled bet (4497462) returned to Rens02
*** FLOP *** [As 9c Ts]
*** TURN *** [As 9c Ts] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [As 9c Ts 6h] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JohnFR: shows [Kc Kd] (a pair of Kings)
Rens02: shows [9s 9d] (three of a kind, Nines)
Rens02 collected 12801750 from pot
Seat 1: ZAGABOY (12085794 in chips)
Seat 2: marcosretard (13611012 in chips)
Seat 3: ShipThisPLZ (10380845 in chips)
Seat 6: Rens02 (29745442 in chips)
Seat 7: PRIVATEPILE (4571145 in chips)
Seat 9: plaque20 (15735762 in chips)
PRIVATEPILE: posts small blind 400000
plaque20: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ZAGABOY: folds
marcosretard: folds
ShipThisPLZ: folds
Rens02: raises 812345 to 1612345
PRIVATEPILE: raises 2878800 to 4491145 and is all-in
plaque20: folds
Rens02: calls 2878800
*** FLOP *** [8d 9h 9s]
*** TURN *** [8d 9h 9s] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [8d 9h 9s 6s] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PRIVATEPILE: shows [As Qh] (a pair of Nines)
Rens02: shows [6d Kd] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
Rens02 collected 10262290 from pot
Seat 1: ZAGABOY (12965794 in chips)
Seat 2: marcosretard (10491012 in chips)
Seat 3: ShipThisPLZ (8860845 in chips)
Seat 6: Rens02 (40796587 in chips)
Seat 9: plaque20 (13015762 in chips)
Rens02: posts small blind 400000
plaque20: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ZAGABOY: folds
marcosretard: raises 800000 to 1600000
ShipThisPLZ: folds
Rens02: raises 39116587 to 40716587 and is all-in
plaque20: folds
marcosretard: calls 8811012 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (30305575) returned to Rens02
*** FLOP *** [6d 7h 2s]
*** TURN *** [6d 7h 2s] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [6d 7h 2s 8c] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rens02: shows [Ad 7d] (a pair of Sevens)
marcosretard: shows [Ac Ks] (high card Ace)
Rens02 collected 22022024 from pot
Seat 1: ZAGABOY (21931588 in chips)
Seat 3: ShipThisPLZ (14761690 in chips)
Seat 6: Rens02 (45133509 in chips)
Seat 9: plaque20 (4303213 in chips)
ShipThisPLZ: posts small blind 400000
Rens02: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
plaque20: raises 3423213 to 4223213 and is all-in
ZAGABOY: folds
ShipThisPLZ: folds
Rens02: calls 3423213
*** FLOP *** [9c Qs 2s]
*** TURN *** [9c Qs 2s] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [9c Qs 2s Td] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rens02: shows [Ks Qd] (a pair of Queens)
plaque20: shows [Ac 4d] (high card Ace)
Rens02 collected 9166426 from pot
Seat 1: ZAGABOY (24870573 in chips)
Seat 3: ShipThisPLZ (12841690 in chips)
Seat 6: Rens02 (48417737 in chips)
Rens02: posts small blind 400000
ZAGABOY: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ShipThisPLZ: raises 800000 to 1600000
Rens02: raises 2045654 to 3645654
ZAGABOY: folds
ShipThisPLZ: raises 9116036 to 12761690 and is all-in
Rens02: calls 9116036
*** FLOP *** [7d 9c 9d]
*** TURN *** [7d 9c 9d] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [7d 9c 9d Qh] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rens02: shows [5d 5s] (two pair, Nines and Fives)
ShipThisPLZ: shows [Ac Td] (a pair of Nines)
Rens02 collected 26563380 from pot
Seat 1: ZAGABOY (27541370 in chips)
Seat 6: Rens02 (58588630 in chips)
ZAGABOY: posts small blind 600000
Rens02: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ZAGABOY: raises 1200000 to 2400000
Rens02: raises 3174568 to 5574568
ZAGABOY: raises 21846802 to 27421370 and is all-in
Rens02: calls 21846802
*** FLOP *** [Tc 8s 4c]
*** TURN *** [Tc 8s 4c] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 8s 4c Ah] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rens02: shows [Ts Ad] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
ZAGABOY: shows [Jh Jd] (a pair of Jacks)
Rens02 collected 55082740 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Million $1.5M Guaranteed
8,613 Entrants; $1,722,600 prize pool
1. Rens02 $253,399
2. ZAGABOY $185,179
3. ShipThisPLZ $129,195
4. plaque20 $86,130
5. marcosretard $68,904
6. PRIVATEPILE $51,678
7. JohnFR $34,452
8. otolas $18,948
9. GALLOWAY55 $13,350
The Sunday500 continues to creep dangerously close to its $500,00 guarantee. This past weekend only 1,040 of the world’s best online poker players showed up creating a $520,000 prize pool. The $500k is always good for a strong final table and yesterday was no exception as a handful of big name professionals were competing for the $89,752 first place prize. Finishing in 8th place was Daniel “amichiKK” Makowsky who has been crushing high stakes online tournaments for years. His $10,140 score in the $500k was paltry by his standards but would be a big score for most. Alex “BoyArgentina” Queen finished a few spots better in 5th place earning $25,740 in the process. This was just one of many $25k+ scores for Queen who won this very event back in 2009 for more than $92,000.
Heads-up play came down to “68ioweyou1” and “Gambit360” who competed for nearly a $25,000 difference between first and second place. It was a spirited heads-up match which eventually went 68ioweyou1’s way when his Pocket Nines won a race against Ace-Jack off-suit.
Seat 1: Gambit360 (2098952 in chips)
Seat 6: 68ioweyou1 (8301048 in chips)
Gambit360: posts the ante 8000
68ioweyou1: posts the ante 8000
Gambit360: posts small blind 40000
68ioweyou1: posts big blind 80000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Gambit360: raises 80000 to 160000
68ioweyou1: raises 240000 to 400000
Gambit360: raises 1690952 to 2090952 and is all-in
68ioweyou1: calls 1690952
*** FLOP *** [Qd 3s 6c]
*** TURN *** [Qd 3s 6c] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Qd 3s 6c 2c] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
68ioweyou1: shows [9s 9d] (a pair of Nines)
Gambit360: shows [Jd Ah] (high card Ace)
68ioweyou1 collected 4197904 from pot
PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1,040 Entrants; $520,000 prize pool
1. 68loweyou1 $89,752
2. Gambit360 $65,000
3. gedhanna $49,400
4. CPT CRUX $36,192
5. BoyArgentina $25,740
6. Finnspring $20,540
7. Claudinho_JF $15,340
8. amichiKK $10,140
9. fkasbergen $5,720
Much like the $500k the $215r also took a big step in the wrong direction yesterday as the weekend’s biggest re-buy event failed to reach its guarantee for the first time in a while. With under 200 players in the event there just weren’t enough re-buys and add-ons to go around to surpass the $150,000 guarantee. Still, there were plenty of great players on hand which provided for some final table fireworks. Coming in 7th place was “aaajack”, a high stakes professional who has won the $150k on Stars as well as the Friday Fight Night on FullTilt. He nearly made the final table of the $10k High Roller Championship in the 2009 WCOOP but fell in 18th place for $32,890. Finishing in 3rd place was Kevin “stammdogg” Stammen, another high-stakes online MTT Pro who now has more than $2.5M in career cashes on PokerStars alone. What’s more impressive about that is he doesn’t have any “huge” scores to his name, just a bunch in the $20-$60k range including a 3rd place finish in the $500k and a 5th in the Sunday Million, each for around $55,000.
Taking home the $215r title was “Glenmorangie”, another high-stakes player who now has a second Sunday major crown to go along with a win in the Warm-Up back in 2007 for $92,502. Glenmorangie was able to outlast “t 54 T 97s” for the win when his Ace-Ten suited made a pair against King-Nine off suit.
Seat 1: Glenmorangie (985920 in chips)
Seat 2: T 54 T 97s (551080 in chips)
T 54 T 97s: posts small blind 8000
Glenmorangie: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
T 54 T 97s: raises 16800 to 32800
Glenmorangie: raises 47200 to 80000
T 54 T 97s: raises 469480 to 549480 and is all-in
Glenmorangie: calls 469480
*** FLOP *** [8h 4s 5d]
*** TURN *** [8h 4s 5d] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [8h 4s 5d Qd] [Tc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Glenmorangie: shows [Ad Td] (a pair of Tens)
T 54 T 97s: shows [9s Kh] (high card King)
Glenmorangie collected 1102160 from pot
PokerStars Sunday $215r $150k Guaranteed
195 Entrants; $150,000 prize pool
1. Glenmorangie $32,250
2. T 54 T 97s $23,250
3. Stammdogg $17,625
4. nitbuster $13,125
5. siola $9,000
6. F.Briatore $7,500
7. aaajack $6,000
8. micide $4,500
9. PureProfitFo $3,000
Capping off a subdued day at PokerStars was the ever popular Sunday Second Chance. The day’s latest starting major typically finishes well ahead of the Million, $500k, and $215r because of its structure. With shorter stacks and faster moving blinds the field shrinks at a much more rapid rate which tends to help out the amateurs more than the professionals. One professional on hand at the final table, Mario “Pokercinni” Puccini, took full advantage of his second chance as he worked his way through a field of more than 1,400 players to secure a 4th place finish and $21,435. This was just one of a large amount of $20k cashes on a resume that includes wins in the Wednesday Quarter Million, Super Tuesday, and other high stakes events. Joining him at the final table was another well known professional, “stevemruk”, who went onto win the Second Chance earning $51,672 for his efforts. The mid-stakes MTT pro nearly won the Sunday Million earlier this year before falling in 2nd place for nearly $200,000! He needed a bit of fortune at the final table eventually winning with KQ suited vs. his opponent’s AJ offsuit.
Seat 7: Coilmaster85 (711908 in chips)
Seat 9: stevemruk (3575092 in chips)
stevemruk: posts small blind 25000
Coilmaster85: posts big blind 50000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
stevemruk: raises 70000 to 120000
Coilmaster85: raises 586908 to 706908 and is all-in
stevemruk: calls 586908
*** FLOP *** [Th Kd Jc]
*** TURN *** [Th Kd Jc] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Th Kd Jc 3h] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Coilmaster85: shows [Ad Js] (a pair of Jacks)
stevemruk: shows [Qh Kh] (a flush, King high)
stevemruk collected 1423816 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $250k Guaranteed
1,429 Entrants; $285,800 prize pool
1. stevemruk $51,672
2. Coilmaster85 $37,439
3. mistyM99 $28,580
4. Pokerccini $21,435
5. naznarez2002 $15,004
6. drew5927 $12,146
7. Elysium27 $9,288
8. Bananazoo $6,430
9. szusza84 $4,001
FullTilt really went all out for Doubles Week, in fact naming this past Sunday “Triples Guarantees Sunday” which turned the $400k Brawl into a $1,200,000 event. The buy-in stayed the same at $240+$16 but players were now able to enter the tournament up to six times. Most online professionals took full advantage of this knowing their ROI is the same whether they enter once or sixth. With a large amount of players ponying up more than $1,500 to enter the tournament six times the prize pool exploded to nearly $2,000,000. For once, the Brawl was bigger than the Warm-Up and even the Sunday Million on PokerStars! A large amount of FullTilt sponsored professionals entered the Brawl including Allen Cunningham, David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren, Isaac Baaron, and Peter “Apathy” Jetten who had the best finish at 119th place.
The final table was, in one word, stacked. There were all sorts of big names on hand which inevitably led to a five-way deal guaranteeing everyone at least $165,000. It was interesting to see all of these high stakes professionals jump on the deal but with so much money involved one cannot fault them for taking some variance out of the end of the game. Finishing in 8th place was Yevgeniy “bballer88” Timoshenko who most know as “Jovial Gent”. Once the top-ranked online MTT pro in the world, Timoshenko has fallen back a bit lately. However, with millions of dollars in cashes he is still considered one of the giants in online poker. One member of the chop group was Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek who earned another massive score on a resume that already included a $277k win in FTOPS Event #9 in 2008 and a $78k score for winning the $109r last year. Third place finisher “Kroko-dill” won the $215 PLO/8b re-buy WCOOP event last September for $63,080 as well as the $129 FTOPS KO Event #24 back in 2008 for $113,692. Runner-up “gregior” is in another online stalwart, having won the Super Tuesday, $1k Monday, and $200k throughout his career. Finally, the title went to “SOLID_FUNDS” despite earning the 2nd most behind 5th place finisher “Popp1987”. This win was the biggest of his career for a player who has done well in all games, not just Texas Hold’em.
FullTilt Sunday Brawl $1.2M Guaranteed
9.974 Entrants; $1,994,800 prize pool
*5-way chop
1. SOLID_FUNDS $211,500
2. gregior $216,418
3. Kroko-dill $170,692
4. bigdogpckt5s $165,337
5. Popp1987 $227,845
6. cityboy8 $57,849
7. dontfeedplz $39,896
8. bballer88 $27,927
9. weygang $19,948
Much like the Brawl, the multi-entry format really caused the Sunday $2.25M to explode! After all of the entries there were more than 14,000 competitors in the field, growing the prize pool to more than $2,800,000. Again there were a large amount of FTP Red Pros playing but none could make a deep run as the best finish went to Pass Lefrancois in 53rd place. Another similarity to the Brawl was the appearance of a final table chip-chop which took some of the excitement out of what was meant to be a $428,307 first place prize. Previously mentioned Mario “Pokerccini” Puccini was busy at his second major final table of the night and this one went even better than the first. After the chop deal took place he earned himself a huge $239,966 payday for his 3rd place finish. Finishing one spot better was Alex “Alex_Striker” Scheurell who earned slightly more than Puccini with a $247,513 check. Taking home the title and by far and away the biggest piece of the chop pie was “happymon32”, a mid to high stakes grinder who easily earned the biggest score of his career at more than $353,000.
FullTilt Sunday $2.25M Guaranteed
14,030 Entrants; $2,806,000 prize pool
*4-way chop
1. happymon32 $353,769
2. Alex_Striker $247,513
3. Pokerccini $239,966
4. thed3ntist $224,020
5. P1NkUn1C0rN $103,822
6. iuliani $74,359
7. yadio1111 $53,314
8. AJSuited16 $39,284
9. TmprTrp $27,779
Finally, the normally $200,000 guaranteed Sunday Mulligan also reaped the benefits of the Triple Guarantees Sunday with more than 3,300 players entering the $216 event. A familiar face found himself heads-up for the title but could not close the door as David Chiu lost to “dartz222” in what was a battle for nearly $50,000. Another FullTilt professional, Scott Clements, made the final table but fell much earlier in 8th place for slightly less than $10,000. Other FTP Pros in the event included Brandon Adams, Damian Salas, former WSOP ME Champion Huck Seed, and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger who finished in 46th place. Chiu is a well known live tournament professional but has been flexing his online muscle a bit more lately. Still, he was unable to take down Mike Dietrich, known as “pipedream17” to most of the online poker world. This was one of a handful of big scores for Dietrich on a resume that includes wins in the Sunday $500k, $200k re-buy, $125k re-buy, and the Nightly $100k on PokerStars.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $600k Guaranteed
3,325 Entrants; $665,000 prize pool
1. dartz222 $133,000
2. David Chiu $85,120
3. khunglongvoi $63,175
4. kynok88 $47,215
5. LuvYouLongTime $33,250
6. DAVIDAMENT $21,945
7. nineteen19 $14,630
8. Scott Clements $9,975
9. bparis $7,315