Whether you’re currently in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, or at home keeping it up with the ongoing results, one thing is for certain: this is the most exciting time of the year for any poker player, anywhere. This is the time of year that novice and pro alike have to take notice to the biggest spectacle in poker. However, quite a few tournaments experienced a dropoff in numbers of some sort. This of course didn’t change the fact that there were millions to win online yesterday, just like are millions to win in Vegas right now.
As usual, let’s kick it off with the Sunday Million on Poker Stars. Before the tournament even got close to the final table, there was a great deal of commotion over the payouts. While in the past the Sunday Million has paid upwards of $200k, sometimes more, this week it paid just $158,555 for first, while having a flatter payout scale. This week, 1,143 players got paid, out of the 6,747 players that showed up. Whether this stays permanent, or is just a temporary thing, is unknown. However, this didn’t stop many players from coming out, with a well-decorated tournament player taking it down, unchopped. Soren Kongsgaard has been on an amazing tear in the past year or so, as this wasn’t the first huge cash he’s taken away from a tournament. He took 3rd in the 2007 EPT Main Event in Monte Carlo for $814,306, and took 2nd in the $2.5k event during FTOPS VI, for $261,750. Clearly Kongsgaard has cemented his place in the poker world.
1. Kongsgaard: $158,555
2. swishes2000: $105,928
3. flylice: $74,217
4. Terken89: $60,723
5. zman2224: $47,229
6. gyndok: $33,735
7. Wizard0f0dd5: $23,615
8. farquad72: $15,518
9. Djorgo: $10,525
The Sunday Warm-up on Poker Stars was another tournament that suffered from the new payouts. 2,816 players showed up, at $200 a piece, inflating the $500k guaranteed prize pool up to $563k, with only $83k going to the winner, rather than the $100k or so in the recent past. This didn’t stop a serious influx of real talent at the final table, with players like Bushman, looshle, PlzBelieveMe, and Shane “shaniac” Schleger hitting nice scores yesterday. None of these players were able to finish it off, with targhan outlasting all these pros en route to the big win.
1. targhan: $83,072
2. Akademnuk: $59,136
3. Bushman: $41,677
4. MANinTHEmQQN: $30,976
5. looshle: $25,344
6. belly420: $19,712
7. PlzBelieveMe: $14,080
8. H_mailman: $9,011
9. shaniac: $5,463
The Sunday Second Chance on Poker Stars saw about 1,300 players show up, and mirrored the Warm-up final table, as there were some tough customers present. Team Poker Stars Pro André “aakkari” Akkari and Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh were present at the final table, coming in as the favorites to take it all down. However, another solid tournament player in his own right, WiCane, was able to finish them all off, overcoming a solid chip deficit heads-up, and took the money and the glory.
1. WiCane: $45,700
2. gravesen11: $33,852
3. aakkari: $26,040
4. chubb10: $19,530
5. MIB727: $13,671
6. thugmoneymkr: $11,067
7. ScrewPool: $8,463
8. spectrefax: $5,859
9. barbar31: $3,645
The $5k freezeout had perhaps the most obvious drop off in numbers, as it only attracted 10 high rollers this week. The eventual winner – Boykee, outlasted some amazing players, as he beat out Rami “arbianight” Boukai, Barry “barryg1” Greenstein, and Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron. Boykee took away $50k for the win.
The Full Tilt $750k did nothing to buck the trend of tough Sunday final tables, as SirWatts, JCarver, JohnnyGstaks, and MarkFSU1 all made the final table. JCarver had the best showing of all the pros, falling just short heads-up, busting 2nd for $80,250.
1. th_IN_kB4Urail: $132,788
2. JCarver: $80,250
3. Bucovinas: $52,500
4. Anna Rexic: $41,400
5. JohnnyGstaks: $31,050
6. SirWatts: $23,025
7. billytk01: $17,250
8. DeuceBuster: $13,500
9. MarkFSU1: $10.050
The trend continued further with The Sunday Brawl on Full Tilt Poker. This $240 tournament saw a nice turnout of 1,458, as the creative knockout tournament continues to bring in enough players to bring it over its $250k guarantee every week. OnlyPlayRagz took it down for $62,694, and in doing so outlasted one of the hottest players of 2008 – TopTizzlePizzle.
1. OnlyPlayRagz: $62,694
2. JCMags: $39,658
3. blizair: $29,452
4. PeelaHundo: $23,328
5. ryan1087: $17,496
6. TopTizzlePizzle: $12,539
7. BarFine600: $8,165
8. begynderheld: $5,832
9. Sumpas: $4,082
Perhaps the toughest final table of the week was found at the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt. Jalla81 not only can say they won the Sunday Mulligan for $45,770, but also say they outlasted Ben “bonafidedonkey” Palmer (better known as shankingyou), CrazyZachary, David “Bussa Buss” Baker, DuckU, and TheMiltMan on the way to the win. That’s quite the tall order for any player.
1. jalla81: $45,770
2. bonafidedonkey: $28,855
3. grtwhitehoop: $21,393
4. CrazyZachary: $16,418
5. Bussa Buss: $12,438
6. garmenbozia: $8,955
7. DuckU: $5,970
8. werpennstate23: $4,657
9. TheMiltMan – $3,383
Rounding out FTR’s coverage of the Sunday majors is the Bodog $100k. The tournament is well-known as having one of the best values on the internet, as there was another massive overlay this week — $29,800 to be exact, as only 702 players showed up. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t take away from rmobley65’s win, as he took down the massive $23,600 first place prize by outlasting 701 other players, including another player who’s been hot this year – BKiCe.
1. rmobley65: $23,600
2. big benton: $13,600
3. alykat: $9,100
4. GreedyGDK: $7,000
5. El Savaje: $5,700
6. BKiCe: $4,500
7. PhxG: $3,300
8. dwtreman74: $2,200
9. hammy85: $1,300
Despite the World Series of Poker being in full swing, it’s clear that it hasn’t taken away from the talent present at these final tables, as they were incredibly stacked and ripe with talent.
That’s it for this week, be sure to keep posted to FTR Blogs as we continue to cover the 2008 World Series of Poker!