Much like the WSOP in the summer seems to ebb and flow between the “Year of the Pros” and “Year of the Joes”, the Sunday Majors seem to fluxuate between the known pros and the unknown aliases scoring wins and redonkulous amounts of cash. Well this week, it looks like a “Week of the Pros” as big names won big tournaments, with one in particular winning the Sunday Million for a second time. All down the list, online’s best grinders went deep, live pros crossed (or re-crossed) over to grab the championship strap and the “almost rans” were little with familiar faces. Here’s how it broke down, largest to smallest last weekend:
Sunday Million (Special $1,000,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $200+15 Entrants: 8,316 Prize Pool: $1,663,200
While the numbers could in no way match last week’s 5 Million Guarantee, entries were up by a couple hundred over the average for Sunday’s biggest show. With a prize pool eclipsing the $1.6 million dollar mark, there was a lot on the line. When it came down to it, even with a deal made before the title was awarded, experience won out. Peter “twirlpro” Turmezey won his second Sunday Million title just a couple weeks after the 5 year aniversary of his 2008 victory. In 2008 (in the shadow of the 60 minute story on “Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker” cheating scandals), first prize was worth $196,024. To show how much healthier the online world has gotten since then, the title was worth $213,479 even with a deal cut all the way back for the 5th place finisher. Aleksandras “VyruAlus” Rusinovas managed to grab 8th ($18,295) while Joni “bustoville” Jouhkimainen (12th – $8,814), Russell “rdcrsn” Carson (23rd – $3,659), Patrick “Bandano” Renkers (25th – $3,659) and Joe “ender555” Ebanks (27th – $3,659) also made deep runs but missed the final table. Here is how the Sunday Million Final Table paid out:
1 177% up to 5BTC + 77 Free Spins! New players only. Exclusive Welcome Bonus of 177% + 77 Free Spins | Peter “twirlpro” Turmezey | $213,479* |
2 | AAKaliber1 177% up to 5BTC + 77 Free Spins! New players only. Exclusive Welcome Bonus of 177% + 77 Free Spins | $103,085* |
3 | BEGEMOT13 | $166,342* |
4 | SAS6677 177% up to 5BTC + 77 Free Spins! New players only. Exclusive Welcome Bonus of 177% + 77 Free Spins | $110,992* |
5 | SamTeymour | $103,982* |
6 | GoodStoryBro | $49,896 |
7 | Peaksone | $33,264 |
8 | Aleksandras “VyruAlus” Rusinovas | $18,295 |
9 | chokdee1980 | $12,889 |
Sunday Warm-Up (Special $500,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $200+15 Entrants: 3,481 Prize Pool: $696,200
“The Joes” got a bit of revenge on the pros in this weekend’s Sunday Warm up. After the final table got rid of its last two pros (Brian England, 5th and Algirdas Karalius, 6th), the final four made a deal that made sure they at least took home a bit more than $57k. While 4th place got the 3rd biggest payout, everything else went according to plan for the group’s chop calculations and “IAmLegend11” took home the title and $87,845. Easily enough to get the super-delux, platinum, collector’s edition version of the movie on DVD…probably hosted by Will Smith himself if he has the time. Here’s there full results:
1 | I AmLegend11 | $87,845* |
2 | mayer1648 | $78,811* |
3 | graebsch | $57,811* |
4 | -AAAABJAAAA- | $63,759* |
5 | Brian “brianm15” England | $29,588 |
6 | Algirdas “AlGiNho” Karalius | $22,626 |
7 | 1st call3r | $15,664 |
8 | Az@ze11o | $8,702 |
9 | tkcasino007 | $5,569 |
Sunday 500 ($1,000,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $500+30 Entrants: 2,254 Prize Pool: $1,127,000
The Sunday 500 stepped up to the plate this week and finally offered a million dollar guarantee for PokerStars’ biggest buy in major of the weekend. The result? Entries more than doubled and the prize pool beat the million dollar mark by over $125k. The big prize attracted the big sharks as well with Nick “PuraeCash35” Rampone coming in 4th and Josh “JBT449” Bergman coming in 9th on the final table. They made the final table were many of poker’s best fell short this week including Richard “schennie” van Schendel (11th – $7,663), Nicholas “Frenzuh” Immekus (13th – $5,973), Rafael “zugzwang16” Porzecanski (14th – $5,973), Jon “LUFCBas” Spinks (15th – $5,973), Paul “paulgees81” Volpe (18th – $4,282) and Nick “FU_15” Mamoine (27th – $3,606.) (Note: I can’t remember the last recap I wrote without Mamoine’s name in there somewhere.) Taking home the title after a 3 way deal, was “WTFOMFGOAO” who banked $164,544 in the win. Three six figure scores piled up in the deal with the rest of the final table shaking out like this:
1 | WTFOMFGOAO | $164,544* |
2 | Politonic | $118,430* |
3 | jpsoeira | $128,097* |
4 | Nick “PuraeCash25” Rampone | $67,200 |
5 | Sasuke234 | $50,715 |
6 | koshmaar | $38,881 |
7 | “bigoots” | $27,611 |
8 | Josh “JBT449” Bergman | $16,341 |
9 | hUeLeSaBuStO | $10,143 |
$109 Sunday Rebuy ($225,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $100+9 Entries: 1,039 Prize Pool: $318,000
The Rebuy could not maintain the volume of action it saw last week with the $5 million guarantee on, but it still crushed its guarantee and paid out over $58k for first. While the champ this week, Sebastian “Bassysaffari” Saffari was the only known name at the final table, several pro-level grinders made it close. Those names include: Martin “Skrigepas” Hansen (10th – $3,339), Edison “V_RouNder” Nguyen (11th – $3,339), Matias “Festivuss” Gabrenja (12th – $3,339), Anthony “holdplz” Spinella (15th – $2,703), Jeremy “00psiedaisy” Fitzpatrick (16th – $2,703) and Randal “RandALLin” Flowers (17th – $2,067.)
Here is how things paid out:
1 | Sebastian “Bassysaffari” Saffari | $58,830 |
2 | Magerkwark | $42,612 |
3 | jungaye1 | $31,800 |
4 | po77a | $23,850 |
5 | Bluf_To_Much | $16,695 |
6 | T-Macha | $13,515 |
7 | marlin5555 | $10,335 |
8 | Mihai Nutt | $7,155 |
9 | PokerSavage1 | $4,452 |
Sunday Supersonic ($125k Guaranteed)
Buy in: $210.80+4.20 Entries: 1,501 Prize Pool: $316,410
The Supersonic again went well past doubling its guarantee, making it the most under-valued guarantee of the weekend. It also turned into “one for the Pros” this week as David “MastAAce08” took home the title and $56,100. While there were not a lot of known names on the final table, a few did make deep runs, including: Joao “joaobarb” Barbosa (11th – $3,005), Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart (13th – $2,373), Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (18th – $1,740)
1 | David “MastAAce08” Goodman | $56,100 |
2 | Cobus83 | $41,133 |
3 | febalinha | $31,641 |
4 | seymouraces | $23,730 |
5 | bluet0m89 | $16,611 |
6 | Ab0vE ThE D | $13,447 |
7 | AnyBJBuyins | $10,283 |
8 | pk420 | $7,119 |
9 | Pablo “garompon” Zarnicki | $4,429 |
$250k GTD Sunday – FullTilt Poker
Buy in: $200+15 Entries: 1,467 Prize Pool: $293,400
FullTilt Poker was not basking in the glow of PokerStars’ promotions this weekend. While their big Sunday Major was not really down, it was only holding even while Stars saw their big events draw excellent numbers for having the typically guarantees. Maybe that is why this final table was one for the “Joes” as the closest we got to known names at the final table were James “croll103” Carroll (23rd – $1,173) and Ben Jenkins (24th – $1,173.) The group did play it out pretty hard, only stopping at heads up to cut a deal. When the deal was done “acccuss1ty” took home the title and $56k with the strap. Here is how the rest went:
1 | acccuss1ty | $56,000* |
2 | Gl4diat0r | $41,702* |
3 | tilt thisAA | $27,873 |
4 | MantaRays | $20,831 |
5 | Tacuara7 | $15,550 |
6 | mizimizimizi | $11,442 |
7 | CzarKassim | $8,508 |
8 | OMG U R HOT | $6,161 |
9 | usury_tiger | $4,371 |
$200,000 GTD Sunday – PartyPoker
Buy in: $200+15 Entries: 1,086 Prize Pool: $217,200
This week, the PokerStars magic did not extend to other sites. PartyPoker found it’s big guarantee down a hair, a trend that is starting to get a bit more serious with every passing week. However, that does NOT mean there was not some serious money to be won – and by a serious player. November Niner Michiel “beterpeter” Brummelhuis took down first prize after a 3 way deal, netting himself a WSOP 2014 bankroll starter of $37,031 along with the win. Here is how the rest worked out:
1 | Michiel “beterpeter” Brummelhuis | $37,032* |
2 | jackal.bull | $21,053* |
3 | W-R-X | $20,974* |
4 | xKobra15 | $12,054 |
5 | guth888 | $9,882 |
6 | agromonkey | $7,710 |
7 | I_go_crazy | $5,538 |
8 | actyper | $3,583 |
9 | fellatiado | $2,497 |
10 | stillesom1ninja | $1,954 |