With FTOPS XVI finishing last weekend and the Spring Championship of Online Poker in full swing there was supposed to be a large boost in tournament attendance across the board this weekend. Unfortunately a few of the Sunday majors failed to get the memo as even the most popular of events struggled to beat their respective guarantees. While SCOOP 2010 on PokerStars took the place of the Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Million with events 19 and 20 there were still plenty of Sunday majors up for grabs including the $500k and Second Chance on Stars as well as the Brawl, $750k, and Mulligan on FullTilt.

One of the better final tables of 2010 took place during the Sunday $215 rebuy yesterday as a bunch of big names in online poker were on hand in the days largest rebuy event. Finishing in 8th place was Benny “toweliestar” Spindler who was busy making his third major final table of the day including the $215r, Sunday500, and SCOOP Event #19-M. Spindler is no stranger to major success having won the SCOOP $25k Heads-Up Championship last year for more than $300,000. This was the worst of his final table showings yesterday as he took 8th place for just over $5,000 in earnings.

Finishing one spot worse than Spindler was Dante “DCJ311” Jones who is another highly regarded tournament player with nearly $1,500,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone over the past few years. He has won the $109r numerous times and has come up just short in this very event on multiple occasions including both a 2nd and 3rd place finish with in the past 12 months. Jones was the first to bust at the final table early this morning taking just $3,647 for his efforts. Sixth-place finisher Chris “brsavage” Savage is no stranger to the Sunday Tournament Report having made a recent appearance for finishing 2nd in the $750k on FullTilt in March for $109,018. Finishing one spot ahead of Savage was another STR regular Greg “DuckU” Hobson who is a top-100 ranked MTT professional with numerous huge scores to his name. Hobson has shipped the $150k Guaranteed on UB twice and but is most well known for winning the $750k and $400k on FullTilt on back-to-back weekends in 2007. His biggest score came in the $10,300 buy-in WCOOP Event #5 in 2008 where he took 2nd place for more than $459,000!

David “bakes” Baker was next in line finishing in 4th place for $17,714. Baker (playing under “WhooooKidd” on Stars) is one of the best tournament players in the world and has the hardware to back that up. He took down a strong final table in WCOOP Event #19 last year for $215,000 and nearly won the FTOPS $2,100 two-day event last weekend taking 5th for $125,000. He also won the Sunday500 in 2008 for $91,500 as well as the Wednesday Quarter Million for $74,360. He is quickly approaching the $3,000,000 mark in cashes between FullTilt and PokerStars.

Rounding out this epic final table was the eventual winner Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek who took home more than $38,000 after chopping with “respect82”. Jarzabek might just be the most frequent player on the Sunday Tournament Report as it seems he reaches a major final table every other week. The top-10 ranked MTT professional has been crushing the games for some time now including victories in the $109r, Sunday Second Chance, $200k, Sunday Mulligan, and two FTOPS events. Just like Baker Jarzabek is quickly approaching $3,000,000 in cashes between the world’s two biggest poker sites and should get there sooner than later.

Seat 5: bigdogpckt5s (1144011 in chips)
Seat 9: respect82 (538989 in chips)
bigdogpckt5s: posts small blind 10000
respect82: posts big blind 20000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
bigdogpckt5s: raises 20000 to 40000
respect82: calls 20000
*** FLOP *** [5h 7h Jc]
respect82: checks
bigdogpckt5s: bets 50000
respect82: raises 90000 to 140000
bigdogpckt5s: raises 962011 to 1102011 and is all-in
respect82: calls 356989 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (605022) returned to bigdogpckt5s
*** TURN *** [5h 7h Jc] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [5h 7h Jc 3s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
respect82: shows [Qh 2h] (high card King)
bigdogpckt5s: shows [Jd Qs] (a pair of Jacks)
bigdogpckt5s collected 1077978 from pot

PokerStars $215r $150k Guaranteed
294 Entrants; $208,400 prize pool
*2-way chop

1. bigdogpckt5s $38,356.67
2. respect82 $35,625.43
3. PrinceAndrew $23,549.20
4. WhooooKidd $17,714
5. DucKU $12,295.60
6. brsavage $9,378
7. G8vMyLfeAway $7,294
8. toweliestar $5,210
9. DCJ311 $3,647

It was going to be tough for the Sunday $500k to compete with the star power of the $215r’s final table but some big names did manage to navigate their way to end. Sixth-place finisher “snake8484” is a name that has been around high-stakes online poker for a long time. He has a solid tournament resume including a 2nd place in FTOPS Event #23 last November for nearly $60,000. Benny Spindler was making his 2nd of three major final tables and fared a bit better than he did during the $215 rebuy. His 3rd place finish here netted him $48,592.50 and prompted a chip-chop between the final two competitors “SchneidsFish” and “adametes”. SchneidsFish is more well known as a heads-up cash game professional but was not against taking a guaranteed $73,000 and playing for what was effectively a $6,000 heads-up SNG. In the end is was adametes who was able to fade a lot of outs on his way to taking down the Sunday500 title and more than $79,000.

Seat 8: SchneidsFish (841602 in chips)
Seat 9: adametes (9388398 in chips)
SchneidsFish: posts the ante 10000
adametes: posts the ante 10000
adametes: posts small blind 50000
SchneidsFish: posts big blind 100000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
adametes: raises 9278398 to 9378398 and is all-in
SchneidsFish: calls 731602 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (8546796) returned to adametes
*** FLOP *** [8s Jc 6s]
*** TURN *** [8s Jc 6s] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [8s Jc 6s Ad] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SchneidsFish: shows [Td 9d] (a pair of Aces)
adametes: shows [Kh 8c] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
adametes collected 1683204 from pot

PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1,023 Entrants; $511,500 prize pool
*2-way chop

1. adametes $79,070.40
2. SchneidsFish $73,000
3. toweliestar $48,592.50
4. J_HasTheNuts $35,600.40
5. Zackattak13 $25,319.25
6. snake8484 $20,204.25
7. cmontopdeck $15,089.25
8. IgorFederal $9,974.25
9. Danny98765 $5,626.50

The last major to start on PokerStars was the appropriately named Sunday Second Chance which finally saw its guarantee upped to $250,000 from $200,000. The player base at PokerStars responded positively to this change as just over 1,500 players entered the $200+$15 event creating a $301,600 prize pool. One of the biggest names in online poker made a deep run but fell just short of the title. James “Andy McLEOD” Obst took 6th place in the Second Chance yesterday for $12,818. Obst has crushed online tournament the past 2-3 years including numerous huge scores on PokerStars. His win in the $3,150 SCOOP Mixed Hold’em Championship last year netted him $184,000. He has a few other six-figure scores on his resume including a 5th place finish in the FTOPS Main Event last August for $127,211 where he plays under “TheFatFISH”.

Heads-up play came down to “JeankeNissan” and “TT_TheDuke” who were both looking for the biggest scores of their career. With more than $54,000 up for grabs the two battled back in forth before JeankeNissan made a full house with the worst starting hand in poker, seven-deuce. Unfortunately for TT_TheDuke he made a flush at the same time and ended up having to settle for second place and a little more than $39,000.

Seat 6: JeankeNissan (2523417 in chips)
Seat 8: TT_TheDuke (2000583 in chips)
TT_TheDuke: posts small blind 25000
JeankeNissan: posts big blind 50000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
TT_TheDuke: calls 25000
JeankeNissan: checks
*** FLOP *** [2d 2h 8h]
JeankeNissan: checks
TT_TheDuke: checks
*** TURN *** [2d 2h 8h] [7d]
JeankeNissan: checks
TT_TheDuke: checks
*** RIVER *** [2d 2h 8h 7d] [5h]
JeankeNissan: bets 68275
TT_TheDuke: raises 181725 to 250000
JeankeNissan: raises 2218417 to 2468417 and is all-in
TT_TheDuke: calls 1695583 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (522834) returned to JeankeNissan
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JeankeNissan: shows [7c 2c] (a full house, Deuces full of Sevens)
TT_TheDuke: shows [Kh 9h] (a flush, King high)
JeankeNissan collected 4001166 from pot

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $250k Guaranteed
1,508 Entrants; $301,600 prize pool

1. JeankeNissan $54,408.64
2. TT_TheDuke $39,358.80
3. cbsplash $30,160
4. Sasuke234 $22,620
5. TiltinDetail $15,834
6. Andy McLEOD $12,818
7. JShark4 $9,802
8. McMang $6,786
9. 23noraB $4,222.40

FullTilt, fresh off another success FTOPS, was back to its normal tricks yesterday running the $400k Brawl, $750k Guaranteed, and $200k Mulligan. The Sunday Brawl is a special “Knock-Out” style tournament that awards players $40 every time they eliminate a fellow competitor. This can usually add up nicely ($400-$600) for those making the final table. More than 25 FullTilt sponsored professional took part in the day’s first major and one made a whole lot of noise. Ali Sarheshik turned up at the final table and ended up in 5th place earning more than $25,000. Other big names who were not quite as successful included Ram Vaswani, David Pham, Erica Schoenberg, and Isaac “Menlo” Baron. Joao Barbosa joined Sarheshik in the money finishing in 130th place. Eventual winner “shamdonk” was a virtual unknown at the final table having made his mark in small-stakes cash games compared to tournaments. This $102,677 cash might mean we’ll be seeing more of him in FullTilt high-stakes cash games in the near future. Runner-up “Bhanks11” had the experience edge but could not hold off shamdonk during heads-up play. Bhanks11 took home $66,259 for his 2nd place finish which fell just short of his career-best cash for winning the $200k rebuy last November.

FullTilt Sunday Brawl $400k Guaranteed
2,529 Entrants; $505,800 prize pool

1. shamdonk $102,677.40
2. Bhanks11 $66,259.80
3. PokerDevL $49,062.60
4. 123macnutz $36,923.40
5. Ali Sarkeshik $25,795.80
6. potsey2 $17,197.20
7. gaffel5 $11,633.40
8. GS_LT $8,092.80
9. Sailor XXX $6,069.60

For one reason or another the Sunday $750k fell short of its guarantee yesterday. This is quite alarming as PokerStars had little trouble garnering attendants for their events and FullTilt is coming off the heels of FTOPS XVI. For once it seems FullTilt was not able to sustain the momentum from their tournament series. More than 40 FullTilt “red pros” played in the $750k including two who found their way into the top-20. Caio Pimenta and Mandy B both made deep runs but fell just short of the final table in 20th and 11th place respectively. Joining them in the $750k were other big name professionals including Adam Schoenfeld, Carlos Mortensen, David Pham, Lee Watkinson, Gavin Smith, and Scott Clements.

One of the bigger names at the final table was also one of the first to go. Finishing in 8th place was PLO savant “iggymcfly” who is making quite a name for himself on the tournament scene lately. This is his 2nd major final table of 2010 and falls short of his 3rd place finish in the Mulligan in April for $25,515. Once heads-up play began “kate_sexy” and “andressoprano” took quite some time before finally settling on a chip-chop which left a few thousand on the table. Depending on the way you look at it andressoprano has the (mis)fortune of finishing 2nd in the $750k for the second time in his career netting more than $105,000 for his efforts yesterday. He appeared to be the more experienced of the two heads-up players but got his money in well behind as shown below.

FullTilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed
3,414 Entrants; $750,000 prize pool
*2-way chop

1. kate_sexy $107,500
2. andressoprano $105,537.50
3. OJ Limpsin $52,500
4. McNallyville $41,400
5. Mrs ProJ3cT $31,050
6. pmshoww $23,025
7. BummBummAllin $17,250
8. iggymcfly $13,500
9. kikko67 $10,050

Finishing off another big day of online tournaments was the Sunday Mulligan. The $200k guaranteed event had no problems breaking through its guarantee on the way to a $251,000 prize pool. Twenty of the 1,255 on hand were members of team FullTilt including 28th place finisher Michael Tureniec. Others on hand including Stuart Paterson, Damian Salas, and Jeff Madsen. Perhaps the best player at the final table was also the first to go as “pokerskibum” busted in 9th place for just $3,765. This was his second Sunday major final table on FullTilt in the past six weeks as he finished 3rd in the Brawl for $56,279 in March. Taking down the title and more than $55,000 was a solid high-stakes grinder “Lilla82”. This was his/her biggest win on a resume that includes more than a dozen five-figure scores including three wins in the $109r on FullTilt alone. Runner-up “SCNoodle” won the $750k last April for more than $137,000 and is quickly approaching the $1,000,000 mark in career cashes on FullTilt.

FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,255 Entrants; $251,000 prize pool

1. Lilla82 $55,220
2. SCNoodle $35,140
3. BILLDEAL $25,413.75
4. boodeca $20,393.75
5. PLUSizeHoneY $15,386.30
6. shhhookem $11,295
7. Jymaster11 $7,279
8. izik_74 $5,271
9. pokerskibum $3,765