Another weekend of major poker tournaments is in the books, and once again, it seems tournament attendance and prize pools are on the rise. This past weekend there were two super-sized events, as Bwin bolstered their Sunday championship from $250k to $500k, and PokerStars upped the ante in their Red Spade Open to a $1,000,000 guarantee. Both events had strong showings, as the Red Spade open took the spot as the second biggest event of the day. Only the Sunday Million on Stars was able to surpass the Red Spade Open’s $1.23M prize pool, as it hit the $1.5M mark itself. The was one of the first normal weekends that saw the Million back above the $1,500,000 mark since Black Friday last April.
The rest of the tournaments on our list all saw solid attendance bumps. Many events on PokerStars continue to benefit from the raise in guarantees made last week. One of those tournaments, the $500+$30 buy-in Sunday500, cruised past its $300,000 guarantee on its way to more than $428,000 in the pot. The Sunday Warm-Up on Stars and the $200k on Party also had strong showings, easily besting their $500,000 and $200,000 guarantees respectively. Overall, it seems 2012 is being much more kind to online poker than 2011. With sites like Party, iPoker, and Bwin picking up the slack left by FullTilt, it seems online poker tournaments are back and better than ever.
Party Poker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,345 Entrants; $269,000 prize pool
1. firaldo87 $56,490)
2. Konsumon $32,280
3. zakatAAAA $19,502
4. ItalSconto $15,467
5. HESSEL111595 $12,777
6. purpleman $10,087
7. anguz $7,666
8. izotope777 $5,111
9. Podelak $3,900
10. rl1965 $2,690
iPoker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,053 Entrants; $210,600 prize pool
1. ravenjetbyrne $35,802
2. Sitoutpre $26,325
3. eduardoda11 $19,985
4. Vimsig $14,320
5. MonnemaBuu $10,424
6. skinging $8,318
7. edmundo21 $6,212
8. BoskoRock $4,106
9. poqwaslk $2,274
BWin $500k Guaranteed Championship
2,419 Entrants; $500,000 prize pool
1. pasikko $78,213
2. mar1ach1 $49,049
3. men at work $35,131
4. MartinMFF $25,522
5. richard5174 $18,510
6. ssc1102 $13,468
7. chiips111 $10,541
8. rojostarss $8,011
9. WHITEWISDOW $6,031
10. Robinwin1 $4,610
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $500k Guaranteed
3,688 Entrants; $733,600 prize pool
*3-way chop
1. TheJunobv $93,052
2. Zackattak13 $95,000
3. ZERGA_77 $73,476
4. Danneville $42,182
5. pyszalek $31,178
6. donnanelly $23,842
7. TerranUser $16,506
8. bigchampnr.1 $9,170
9. elmerixx $5,868
PokerStars Sunday Red Spade Open $1M Guaranteed
24,736 Entrants; $1,236,800 prize pool
1. crackin_ty $247,378
2. rosekqq $137,284
3. Dw4ine $95,233
4. Forest Will $68,024
5. litofcas11 $46,998
6. nathwest $33,393
7. digiturk55 $25,972
8. Groei-lekker $18,552
9. RiverMegl $13,666
PokerStars Sunday Million Guaranteed
7,768 Entrants; $1,553,600 prize pool
*2-way chop
1. Gorby3975 $208,783
2. puicachamp $195,156
3. Leanod $116,520
4. tatwaffe19 $78,301
5. jhwang21 $62,144
6. lynnstrait $46,608
7. matate $31,072
8. Ond keso $17,866
9. Jorj95 $12,040
PokerStars Sunday500 $300k Guaranteed
857 Entrants; $428,500 prize pool
*2-way chop
1. gangst3rn1 $70,294
2. uwintakeit $62,540
3. salfshb $41,564
4. TryToExploit $31,066
5. mtvdeuem $21,596
6. elde30cm $17,140
7. ramondemon77 $12,855
8. roman 66664 $8,570
9. pitaoufmg $5,142