Another weekend of big online tournaments is in the books. With FullTilt still shut down, the WCOOP on the horizon, and no other major series running, it was up to the standard Sunday events to steal the show. Party Poker was one site looking to do just that as they upped the ante of their Sunday $200k five-fold. The “Summer Million”, a $600 buy-in major event, was a roaring success as it nearly surpassed the PokerStars Sunday Million for the biggest event of the day.
With more than 1,700 players paying the $600 entry fee, the prize pool swelled to $1,042,800. There was over $203,000 slated for whoever could survive a strong 10-person final table full of strong players. Finishing in 9th place was “souchyj” who earned $13,556 for a long day’s work. The five-figure score was one of a handful on a resume that includes a $40,012 cash for winning the $55 DNG Sunday Special on PokerStars. Just two plays later “brendon1717” was eliminated for $26,591. The high-stakes professional is no stranger to major success having won both an FTOPS Event and the $1k Monday on FullTilt for over $91,000 apiece on FullTilt in the past. In fact, he is so decorated that this $26k scores fails to even crack his top-10 list.
With some of the better players at the final table out of the way early, there were plenty of chances for a lesser-known competitor to hit a six-figure score. Taking full advantage of this opportunity was “glennpoker89″ who defeated “Domcee” heads-up for the title. The $203,346 score was easily the biggest cash of his career on Party Poker. The same could be said for Domcee who earned $112,101 for finishing 2nd, well above a $33,000 score in the Sunday $300k all the way back in 2007.
Party Poker Summer Million $1M Guaranteed
1,738 Entrants; $1,042,800 prize pool
1. glennpoker89 $203,346
2. Domcee $112,101
3. DutchRudd3r $70,910
4. Per_Mutation $55,268
5. nnozimaa $44,840
6. Bjorse $34,412
7. brendon1717 $26,591
8. DinRin $18,249
9. soucyj $13,556
10. vogelom $8,864
It seems it is becoming increasingly difficult for iPoker to keep up with Party Poker when it comes to weekend tournaments. What’s interesting is iPoker is currently the 2nd largest poker network in the world behind PokerStars. While they haven’t been able to keep up, they are growing themselves. Their Sunday $200k had been averaging under 1,000 entrants for a while, but lately the event has been surging well past its guarantee. This past weekend was no exception as more than 1,100 players paid the $200+$15 entry fee creating a $222,600 prize pool. Taking home the title was “Zurumbuque” who shipped the $46,746 first place prize for beating “emissarie” during heads-up play. The high-stakes heads-up SNG grinder must have felt quite at home during one-on-one play as he routinely competes in $2,000 heads-up SNGs on the iPoker Network. His opponent, emissarie, was a fellow high-stakes grinder who plays a decent amount of $50/$100 PLO on iPoker.
Titan Poker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,113 Entrants; $222,600 prize pool
1. Zurumbuque $46,746
2. emissarie $24,486
3. hardphil $17,808
4. BROOKS74 $13,356
5. sys252 $11,130
6. sklych $8,904
7. LiLLGiLLL $6,678
8. zsc1qw $4,452
9. TrojanWhores $3,116
10. Dejay86 $2,226
For most people a $100,000 guaranteed event is a big deal. Unfortunately, as far as things go on Sunday, the Merge $100k is one of the smaller major events. Their biggest weekly event continues to grow; however, it still cannot hit 1,000 entrants to pass its guarantee. Yesterday, more than 900 players entered but the Merge Network was still left footing a bill over more than $8,500. With approximately $9 in added-value for each entrant there were plenty of happy players once registration closed. The $20,000 first-place check came down to “PreetBarbera” and “Xx0STR8FLUSH0xX”, two players with somewhat underwhelming resumes on the Merge Network. Neither player had hit a five-figure score in the past and both were guaranteed such after making it to heads-up play. In the end only one could win the top prize, and that went to PreetBarbera who earned an even $20k for the win.
Merge Poker Sunday $100k Guaranteed
914 Entrants; $100,000 prize pool
1. PreetBarbera $20,000
2. Xx0STR8FLUSH0xX $12,000
3. zdejpazares $6,500
4. xxRGR40xx $5,000
5. claytonhamm $4,250
6. AllNite247 $3,500
7. daveybabey86 $2,750
8. aztecnoob $2,250
9. omfgDiEahhh $1,750
10. butchster $1,500
With sites like Party Poker and Titan upping the ante lately, it would have been easy for PokerStars to take a back seat on Sundays. However, the opposite has been the case as their major events are thriving like never before. With the 2011 WCOOP slated for next month, it seems the world’s largest online poker site is showing no signs of slowing down. Their first major event of the day, the $500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up, is approaching pre-Black Friday levels. More than 3,300 players entered the $200+$15 event yesterday sending the prize pool over the $670,000 mark. The event still needs another $80,000 to hit its old $750,000 guarantee, but it would not surprise this journalist were that to happen before and/or after the WCOOP.
The Warm-Up came to an abrupt end yesterday as the final two players decided on chip-chop leaving just $10,000 on the table. Taking home the biggest piece of the pie was “mr.salgado30” who earned $98,200 for his victory. This was easily the biggest score of his career, surpassing a $25,868 cash in the Sunday $55 DNG last year. Runner-up “el canbass” also set a career-high mark with his $85,994 post-chop score.
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $500k Guaranteed
3,363 Entrants; $672,600 prize pool
*2-way chop
1. mr.salgado30 $98,299
2. el canbass $85,994
3. itsourekas $55,490
4. rivgold $38,675
5. StrungOut1 $28,856
6. winiels $21,860
7. cep27 $15,134
8. NhPokah $8,408
9. ch0ppy $5,381
Even with the bulked-up Summer Million on Party Poker, it was the Sunday Million on PokerStars that ruled the day. The tournament had nearly double the entrants of any other major and about $270,000 more in its prize than the Summer Million. There was more than $650,000 up for grabs at a strong final table full of solid players. Unfortunately for those on the rail, the last three players decided upon a chip-chop leaving just $20,000 on the table. With “LeKnave” guaranteed $105,040 and his two competitors “KevinV” and “TY4Stack2” set with at least $162,000, there wasn’t a whole lot of suspense in crowning a champion. Still, $20,000 is nothing to sneeze at, and it went to eventual winner “TY4Stack2” who earned by far and away the biggest cash of his short career on PokerStars.
PokerStars Sunday $1,000,000 Guaranteed
6,565 Entrants; $1,313,000 prize pool
*3-way chop
1. TY4Stacks2 $185,384
2. KevinV $162,036
3. LeKnave $105,040
4. PDJ4ck $72,215
5. tony2pairsAK $55,146
6. untouchable10 $42,016
7. vasil1976197 $28,886
8. 26071985 $15,756
9. eljanich $10,176
For once the Sunday500 on PokerStars was not the highest buy-in event on the STR. That honor went to the $600+$40 Summer Million on Party. Still, the day’s most exclusive event had another strong showing as 732 players ponied up the $500+$30 entry fee. As always there were plenty of strong players on hand including 9th place finisher “YrrsiNN”, 4th place finisher ‘MrGORK”, and the eventual champion Cezarescu “rrobert333” Robert. The highly-ranked Robert is no stranger to success in this very event, taking 6th place back in 2008 for more than $21,000. He also has a win in the $109 re-buy to his name, but the $66,246 score he earned yesterday topped them all.
PokerStars Sunday500 $250k Guaranteed
732 Entrants; $366,000 prize pool
1. rrobert333 $66,246
2. caipsa $47,580
3. Rob!n2805 $35,685
4. MrGORK $26,718
5. Python817 $18,849
6. csacsi111 $15,189
7. ALIN76poker $11,529
8 .OMGitshunt $8,089
9. YrrsiNN $4,685