Over a week after the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, all eyes were on this weekend's major tournaments to see how the online poker market had truly been affected. From the looks of it, the repercussions for each site relate directly to how they responded to the Act. Party Poker very quickly came out with a statement after the Act was passed, saying they intended to pull out of the US market. That statement translated into a loss of almost 500 entrants in the Party Poker Sunday Million Guaranteed compared to last week. The deficit caused Party Poker to miss its guarantee, resulting in an almost $82,000 overlay for the tournament, the most it's had to pay in quite some time.
On the flip side, Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet both saw increases in attendance this weekend, corresponding to their announcements that they would both continue business as usual. Poker Stars has as of yet failed to make a clear decision on the matter of the Act. Attendance in its $1 million-guaranteed tournament reflected this by remaining relatively unchanged compared to previous tournaments, before this month's World Championship of Online Poker.
Poker Stars Sunday Million
The Poker Stars Sunday Million guaranteed tournament surpassed its guarantee again this weekend, despite the fervor over the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. With 5,501 entrants, the tournament built a prize pool of $1,100,200 and a first prize of $162,279.50 to make for the biggest payout of the weekend. Poker Stars dealt another black eye to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act by virtue of its final table participants. Of the nine players seated at the table, seven were from the United States, illustrating the continuing interest in online poker from US players.
One of the American players, Mr Neverquit, has stayed true to his name recently. Earlier this month, Mr Neverquit finished sixth in the WCOOP event No. 2, earning him almost $60,000. He finished third at this tournament, after entering the final table as the short stack, adding another $55,010 to put his monthly winnings at close to $115,000.
Fenster and zach5500 both took turns with the chip lead throughout the final table action until they were finally heads up against each other. Fenster had less than a 9-to-5 chip advantage over zach5500 entering heads-up play, but it was still only five minutes after Mr Neverquit's elimination that the tournament was over. After a limped preflop, the flop came K
10 8
. Zack5500 bet $400,000, twice the pot, and Fenster min-raised to $800,000. Zack5500 reraised the minimum to $1,200,000 and Fenster finally made the all-in push, having zack5500 covered. Zack5500 called and showed J 4 for a flush draw and Fenster flipped up K
5 for top pair. Neither the turn nor the river brought a spade for zack5500 and he was eliminated in second ($88,126.02). Fenster took down the tournament for a $162,279.50 payday.
The final standings were as follows:
1 – Fenster – $162,279.50
2 – zack5500 – $88,126.02
3 – Mr Neverquit – $55,010
4 – eisert3 – $42,907.80
5 – 98club – $34,106.20
6 – JRGBone – $27,505
7 – LeonPK – $20,903.80
8 – zaratusa – $15,402.80
[9 – Schecky – $11,002] Never technically at final table due to double-elimination hand
Party Poker Sunday Million Guaranteed
Party Poker may have missed its guarantee due to lost attendance, but it still provided the second-biggest prize pool of the weekend. However, Party Poker had to fork over almost $82,000 out of its own pocket to match the guarantee. That likely means the tournament will soon see a decreased guarantee, depending on the interest Party Poker generates from non-US customers. Considering Party Poker estimated that nearly 80 percent of its traffic came from the US, the site would either have to see an incredible growth in Europe and Asia or reconsider its US market pullout in order to profitably continue the $1 million guarantee.
This week's final table ended like many of Party Poker's final tables as of late, with a chop. After narrowing the field to the final five, the remaining players opted to enter deal-making discussions, with chip leader ringle at the helm. The five players were all fairly close in chips with the short-stacked player, dickten, being only one double-up away from the chip lead. A by-the-chips deal was rejected when dickten asked for an extra $1,000 from each player. The other four players finally agreed to dickten's custom deal and the tournament was over.
The final standings were as follows:
*1 – ringle – $97,349.74
*2 – live4music1 – $81,897.82
*3 – acerattata – $73,130.73
*4 – Sody21 – $72,554.55
*5 – dickten – $67,067.16
6 – reelsmoker1 – $28,000
7 – tayjshah – $21,500
8 – MegaB1te – $16,000
9 – Skrab89 – $11,000
10 – Teksun – $6,200
* Payouts based on a five-way deal
Full Tilt $250,000 Guaranteed
Full Tilt seemed to have reaped the most from Party Poker's announced pullout, with its highest attendance in a month, at 1,336. The number seemed to indicate that US players are, as of yet, unconcerned about the recent legislation. This is, no doubt, due to an open letter Full Tilt released stating that the Act would not affect their day-to-day business and that players and their money are 100 percent safe on the site.
Poker pro Aaron Bartley and Internet star foshio made respectable showings this week by placing 25th and 26th, respectively, both earning $948.56. BeL0WaB0Ve also made the money in the event under his Full Tilt alias GetPWN3D. He finished 39th for $721.44.
However, the real star of the tournament was online pro GBecks, who had placed third in the Party Poker Sunday Million just last weekend, earning him over $53,000. GBecks ended up heads up with tajikrose at the final table of this tournament and was only one double-up away from the chip lead. Tajikrose wasn't making the match easy for GBecks by frequently pushing all in preflop for huge overbets relative to the blinds. GBecks finally took a stand and raised all in himself. Tajikrose quickly called and showed A 6 while GBecks flipped up Q 7 and would have to improve. The flop put GBecks further behind when an ace spiked for tajikrose, and the turn and river failed to connect with GBecks' hand, to eliminate him in second. With this $37,408 payday, GBecks looked to take home more than $90,000 for his two big finishes recently. Tajikrose won the tournament and cashed out $58,784.
The final standings were as follows:
1 – tajikrose – $58,784
2 – GBecks – $37,408
3 – rimmer27 – $27,388
4 – Thebody7 – $21,710
5 – TheWacoKidd – $16,700
6 – kunkku – $12,024
7 – betnothing12 – $7,748.80
8 – Blu_Uni_Bomber – $5,611.20
9 – wrestle1234 – $4,114.88
Ultimate Bet $200,000 Guaranteed
Ultimate Bet again had to overlay its tournament after gathering only 876 players, rather than the 1,000 needed meet its guarantee. The bright side of the matter is that the 876 amounted to the most players Ultimate Bet has had in at least a month, making yet another site that has seen more success since the US legislation.
Online star MrSmokey1 graced the final table of this week's tournament. MrSmokey1 came into the table with a mid-sized stack and held his own until finally being ousted in fourth ($13,000).
The heads-up match pitted Ellen00001 against MSUsFinest, with Ellen00001 having almost twice as many chips as his opponent. MSUsFinest chipped away at Ellen00001's stack until finally forging a lead with $1,268,200 versus Ellen00001's $921,800. The lead was relatively small, but it was enough. Ellen00001 raised three times the big blind preflop and MSUsFinest pushed all in over the top for a huge, aggressive overbet. Ellen00001 called and showed K
Q, while MSUsFinest turned over pocket sixes. Ellen00001 hit a queen on the flop, but it wasn't enough as MSUsFinest also hit a 6 to give him a set. MSUsFinest eventually filled up to eliminate Ellen00001 in second ($27,000). MSUsFinest took home $45,000 for his win in the event.
The final standings were as follows:
1 – MSUsFinest – $45,000
2 – Ellen00001 – $27,000
3 – Whitesmil – $18,500
4 – MrSmokey1 – $13,000
5 – Taihuanico – $11,000
6 – Adanthar1 – $9,000
7 – geoff1299 – $7,000
8 – PrtyPfcp – $5,000
9 – papaGEORGIOOO – $3,500
10 – brain_cloud – $2,000
