PokerStars Doubles their Guarantee for the 800 Million Celebration

Sunday Majors Continue Their Upward Trend, PokerStars Doubles their Guarantee for the 800 Million Celebration, “tupac_sje” Takes It Outright.

A special tournament unseated the Sunday Million this week for the top spot on the Funday Majors.  One of the largest non-series Main Event prize pools in recent history, the PokerStars 800 Million Celebration took a buy in of just $100+9, ran it through nearly 22,000 players and more than doubled its million dollar guarantee.  At the same time, with the biggest and the best of the poker world in online-friendly Europe, it (seems to have) netted us some big names in the top spots.

Sunday tournaments are still trending up for the most part and almost held their order from last week.  Good news for all us fans of the virtual felt.  Let’s see how they all rolled out, top to bottom.

800 Million Celebration ($1,000,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $100+9      Entrants: 21,635  Prize Pool:  $2,163,500

At half the starting price of the Sunday Million, this “one time special” event pulled in nearly three times as many runners.  Why not?  Same guarantee, half the price.  The only question in my mind would be – why don’t they do it more often?  Well, that’s above my pay grade, so let’s just look at the winners. 

We had an all out winner with “tupac_sjr” who took home the whole $216,358 in a ballsy all out win.  The only known notable at the final table was Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins who took 9^th.  Waaaaay back in the pack was seasoned grinder Jordan “Jymaster11” Young who still managed to get 30x his buy in with a 42^nd place finish for $3,028. 

Sunday Million ($1,000,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in:  $200+15     Entrants:  7,464  Prize Pool: $1,492,800

The Sunday Million is usually the big show – and again, it was nothing to sneeze at.  Hell, it even pulled in 221 more runners for nearly a $1.5 million prize pool.  However, it could not eclipse the drawing power and top prize of the ‘800’ above.  The tournament ended with a four way chop and “semaj2” taking home the lion’s share and Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka pulling in 4^th place money, but a second place finish in an impressive rally that saw ManiacRazor and jonna10 finish 3^rd and 4^th.  Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet finished in 35^th for #3,105. 

Sunday Warm-Up ($500,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in:  $200+15  Entrants: 3,510 Prize Pool:  $702,000

The Warm-Up tweaked a hammy and came up five runners and a thousand dollars shorter than last week, but in larger scheme of things it’s about even.  Speaking of even, there was a three-way chop at the top with oddly named “likely2cash” doing more than cashing and taking it all.  The chop gave 2^nd place money to the 3^rd place finisher “P0kerBrain” and 3^rd place money to the 2^nd place finisher “luckysir.”  Live and online savant, David “DonkCommited” Miscikowski pulled in at 5^th for nearly $30,000, but the rest of the final table was fairly new to the big major finishes.  Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee hit up another big Sunday run (13th – $3,159), and WSOP deep-run specialist Scott “BigRiskky” Clements snapped off a virtual deep run this week (14th – $3,159.) 

Sunday 500 ($300,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $500+30 Entrants:  801 Prize Pool: $400,500

An additional 29 players added $14,500 to the “500” compared to last week, marking another consecutive week on the rise.    The biggest regular buy in on Sunday netted a first prize of $72,090 for “de bluffer,” who had to have the best hand at least once taking out “kukuchanel” for the all out win.  Coming in 3^rd was 2 time WPT champion Jonathan Little, who headlined the final table along with Tom MacDonald who finished out in 5^th.  Also running deep were fellow live laureates Matt “ch0ppy” Kay (17th – $2,603,) Joe “floes” Serock (22nd – $1,842) and Matt “ADZ124” Marafioti (24th – $1,842) 

$109 Sunday Rebuy ($225,000 GTD) – PokerStars
Buy in: $100+9 (RB) Entries:  1053 Prize Pool:  $324,700

The Sunday Rebuy saw an increase of 48 entries and adding $12,200 to the prize pool.  The prize pool again jumped past FTP and Party Poker’s big Sunday guarantees and paid off $60,069 to “M3RCURY” for the straight up win.  With no big names at the final table or running deep, it was all about the money this week with new names being forged in the rebuy arena.  Here they are: 

$250,000 Guarantee – FullTilt Poker
Buy in: $200+15 Entrants: 1,427 Prize Pool:  $285,400

There was another small uptick in FTP’s big guarantee this week – $1600 more in the prize pool thanks to 8 more players – but an increase is an increase.   While “WMACHINE” saw the winners share of a two way deal with Ondrej “Vinkyy” Vinklarek, they both cleared a pretty difficult final table that included Maria “Femmeonfelt” Ho in 3^rd, Robery “bobby kraut” Deppe in 5^th and Ruben “rubenrtv” Visser in 6^th.  The big names did not stop there either as other notables made deep runs but fell short of the final table including: Andras Nemeth (10th – $2,854,) Steve “stevie444” Chidwick (18th – $1,569) and Clark “snake8484” Hamagami (25th – $1,141) 

Sunday Brawl ($200,000 GTD) – FullTilt Poker
Buy in:  $240+15 Entries:  1,427 Prize Pool:  $243,800

A big jump of 208 players put and extra $41,800 in the prize pool and vaulted the FTP Sunday Brawl ahead of the Party Poker $200,000 GTD this week.  While FullTilt’s big guarantee saw only a fractional increase, something had contenders ready to Brawl late this Sunday.  In the end “56vn11” would edge out Jude Ainsworth for the top prize on an active final table.  David Bach, who binked a $215 Stud/8 and $215 HORSE tournament on Stars last week, pulled up at a major final table this week but fell well short of the win, taking down 9^th instead.   Other luminaries also made deep runs but missed the big money, including Mike McDonald (22nd – $1,071) and Andras Nemeth (23rd – $1,071.)  Andras had two deep finishes in the in FTP majors this past Sunday, but failed to crack a final table. 

$200,000 GTD Sunday – PartyPoker
Buy in: $200+15 Entries:  1,169  Prize Pool:  $233,800

PartyPoker saw an increase in its big Sunday guaranteed tournament with 9 more runners showing up creating a $1,800 bump in the total prize pool.  Hope_U-DIE_69 (stay classy, player) got his wish when he took home the big money and the win in a two way deal with “crazycottage.”    It may have been the smallest of increases on the week, but with only one minor slip in the schedule – and one huge tournament added – I’d have to say we’re still on a solid upward path.  

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.