Poker Stars’ Red Spade Open destroys its Guarantee

Poker Stars’ Red Spade Open destroys its Guarantee; Scott “BigRiskky” Clements hits a 3fer Online while playing live in Canada; WSOP.com Online Championship Concludes

On the heels of the 800 millionth tournament just a short time ago, PokerStars again brought amazing value to a million dollar guarantee tournament with it’s $55 buy in “Red Spade Open” this weekend on PokerStars.  Meanwhile, “BigRiskky” took multi-tabling to a new level as, while playing WSOP-C events in Vancouver, Canada, he took down the Sunday 500 and the Hotter 55 on PokerStars.  (Not to mention, taking down a $100 rebuy the day before.)  Finally, while last week saw a dip in total prize pools, this week saw an increase in all but one reported tournament.  Was it because PokerStars offered some extra value to the smaller bankrolls to drive participation?  I have no proof, but I’m starting to build a pretty persuasive sample of big weeks that happen around value added tournaments.  (Take the hint, oh ye masters of the online poker rooms.)  Anyway – here are the results and highlights, biggest to smallest:

Red Spade Open ($1,000,000 GTD) – PokerStars

Buy in: $50+5   Entrants: 32,558  Prize Pool: $1,627,900

For just $55, over 32,500 runners got to take a swing at a prize pool that edged out this weekend’s Sunday Million prize pool by $33,500.  Maybe it was the “instant double up” allure of knocking out a red pro to win a $100 bounty, or the fact that if you could pull it off twice, you would win a $15k PCA package, but in the end the poker public responded, building the biggest tournament of the weekend.   No word from PS if anyone won a package, but we do know there was a five way deal in the end.  The title went to Poland’s “bartasPL” (along with $163,933) but the real money winner was “Agrobot_388Z” who came in second. 

Sunday Million ($1,000,000 GTD) – PokerStars

Buy in:  $200+15     Entrants:  7,972  Prize Pool: $1,594,400

With blood in the water from the Red Spade’s big splash, the Sunday Million hit new heights yet again.  Up $94,600 from an additional 473 runners, the Sunday “Big Show” did not disappoint as the final table battled it out for the nearly $240k first prize.   “martyyy” would take it home, edging out “bubbleboybr” who did not, in fact, bubble anything but the win.  No big names made the final table this week, but there were some deep finishes, including Steve “BetrThanPhil” Tripp (17th – $4,225) and Stavros “IDOLLS” Kalfas (65th – $2,232.) 

Sunday Warm-Up ($500,000 GTD) – PokerStars

Buy in:  $200+15  Entrants: 3,278  Prize Pool:  $655,600

The “Warm Up” broke its two week slump to rebound with a big uptick.  400 runners (on the nose) decided they needed the practice and added $80,000 to the prize pool.  The last two tables had some serious talent at them as well and when the last hand was dealt, it was Jon “LUFCBas” Spinks who took down the six-figure win.   High Roller Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein blew out an Achilles to finish in fifth (taking home $31,263 to recoup,) Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso was the bubble girl (10^th $4,413) and David “Betudontbet” Emmons slid out in 14^th for $3,310. 

Sunday 500 ($300,000 GTD) – PokerStars

Buy in: $500+30 Entrants:  831   Prize Pool: $415,500

The Big Buy-In of Funday Sunday is on the rise again as the $500 buy in took on 66 more runners than last week adding $33,000 to the prize pool.  The improvement is in no way the big story here though, as the eventual all out winner Scott “BigRiskky” Clements happened to be playing the Vancouver leg of the WSOP Circuit main event that Sunday when he was in the process of doing it.   Only in online poker friendly (and apparently mobile-device-in-the-card-room friendly) Canada, could a player hope to have enough action to put themselves in the Sunday Majors, win the biggest buy in event, bink a $55 side tournament to boot, all after winning a $100 rebuy the day before while playing a live PLO Circuit event.   It was no easy ride as Clements  saw fellow MTT laureate Nick “FU_15” Maimone make the final table and finish in 5^th, Joel “Odonkor1” Nordkvist finish in 11^th for $4,155, Dani “supernova9” Stern take 14^th for $3,324 and Kevin “ImaLucSack” MacPhee making another big Sunday run to finish in 29^th ($1,662.)

$250,000 Guarantee – FullTilt Poker

Buy in: $200+15 Entrants: 1,519   Prize Pool:  $303,800

Needing the rebound and getting it, was the big guarantee on FTP.  And rebound it did, up 137 runners from last week stacking $27,400 more in the prize pool than last week and jumping up a few spots on our Funday countdown list.  It was a list of new names at the final table, with the only known name making a deep run stone bubbling in tenth for $3,038 – Sebastian “p00cket00” Sikorski.  It did not stop things from going all the way to heads up where “no not baxter” got a slightly better cash deal and the win over “WALTER1952.”

$109 Sunday Rebuy ($225,000 GTD) – PokerStars

Buy in: $100+9 (RB) Entries:  965 Prize Pool:  $297,500

The Sunday Rebuy got over the little sniffle that saw it down a hair last week to come up big this week.  168 more entries (and their rebuys) hit the prize pool driving it up $58,300!  In the end, an unknown “Alemeo1073” would take the first prize all out, leaving known players Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus (2^nd – $47,379) and Matt “seymouraces” Healey (3^rd – $35,490) behind.  Here is how the rest rolled out:

Bigger $162 ($150,000 GTD) – PokerStars

Buy in: $150+12   Entrants: 1,898    Prize Pool: $284,700

Overtaking the Supersonic on our weekly list and adding a new step to “The Big” series on PokerStars, “Bigger” certainly got what it was after.  The $150k guarantee was nearly doubled and almost 1900 punters took a shot at it.  It was, in a word, BIGGER than the Supersonic, if a hair slower to finish.   The lower buy in (and Big step series) led to a lot of new faces at the final table, but when the final three handed deal was made, “fviana” got the title and the lion’s share of $36,698 but third place finisher “DYBYDX” got a bit of a cash advantage over “milanissimo8” when everything wrapped up.

Sunday 2^nd Chance – Poker Stars

Buy in:  $200+15  Entrants: 1,386  Prize Pool:  $277,200

Our one downturn this week was the Sunday 2^nd Chance.  I guess so many people fired up a first chance this week with the new tournaments that it cost the “last call” Sunday Major 26 players and $5200 in the prize pool over last week.  But, it did not stop some of pokers best from outlasting the field in the daily grind and in the race to the final table.  Ben “KidCardiff” Warrington got into a three-way deal with “Valuelol” and “DBerglin”, but it was “Valuelol” laughing all the way to the bank with the top spot.  Top players Andre “aakkari” Akkari and Karolis “g.karolis” Grybauskas grabbed a seat at the final table as well, finishing 4^th and 5^th.  Also going deep were Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan (26^th – $1,108) and Jason “jadedjason” James (27^th – $1,108.) 

Sunday Brawl ($200,000 GTD) – FullTilt Poker

Buy in:  $240+15 Entries:  1,159 Prize Pool:  $231,800

The Brawl bounced back in a very big way, following suit with the $250,000 Guarantee on FTP.  152 more runners showed up this week, putting $36,480 worth of additional cabbage in the salad over last week.  In the end “O Shark Eater O” feasted on the competition and swallowed the first prize whole for $52,440. 

$200,000 GTD Sunday – PartyPoker

Buy in: $200+15 Entries:  1,197  Prize Pool:  $239,400

It was a new lineup of Sunday tournaments on Party Poker this week and it made a little bit of an improvement in their turnout.  Sadly, nothing bigger than the increases seen across the board.  Hopefully the old mainstay of online poker will see some real improvement in its numbers as the changes take hold, but the test of time is the only true test.  Anyway, while I sat here waxing sophomoric, “fitz88” took home a BMW sedan sized $46,683 score while running hot in an all-out win.  Here is how the rest finished out:

Online Championships Main Event ($75,000 Added) – WSOP.com

Buy in: $200+15 Entries:  466 Prize Pool:  $168,000

The Nevada-only site managed to put together 466 runners on this super Sunday and almost had a total prize pool the size of 2^nd place in the Sunday Million at the website named after poker’s biggest live series.  We don’t know who half of anyone is on the site yet, but this time “l4mmervinn20” managed to take it down straight for $41,209.  Well, we do know ONE of the runners – poker media maven Donnie “Brasco” Peters – but since he bubbled the final table  (11^th — $1,850) we’ll forget him like he knows we all do when you don’t get the gold.  (j/k Donnie!)  Here is how it rolled out in our last tournament on the list.

About Matt Waldron:  Matt Waldron is an international journalist, writer, home brewer, poker player, and (when he’s not busy with all that) a professional in the product and brand development world.  “Waldo” has covered the WPT, WSOP, EPT/NAPT and online poker since 2006 in some form or another and well – he hasn’t gotten tired of it yet.