PokerStars Sunday Million
The PokerStars Sunday Million tournament held steady in the face of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series III (FTOPS) main event that was running simultaneously. Last night's tournament had 6,637 entrants, only 149 fewer than last week. The buy-ins built a prize pool of $1,327,400, which is excellent for a weekly tournament but couldn't compete with the FTOPS main event's $1.6 million prize pool.
Poker pro Scott "emptyseat88" Fischman came within three spots of the final table when he pushed all in preflop with pocket eights and ran into pocket queens. The queens held up and Fischman ended his tournament in 12th place, earning $6,106.
When the final table began, amosa held the chip lead with $12.4 million in chips. Randar58 was in second place with $10.6 million, but he was followed closely behind by three other players who had around $9 million to $10 million in chips.
CharlieBraun, one of those three other players, took over the chip lead early on and held it until it was down to five-way play. The five remaining players opted to pause the tournament to discuss a possible deal. After some negotiations, a slightly modified by-the-chips chop, with each player giving short-stacked ISmashUrHead $500 extra, was agreed upon. They left $30,000 in the pool for the eventual winner, per the PokerStars rules. CharlieBraun guaranteed himself $106,006 from the deal as the chip leader.
Play continued until CharlieBraun was up against amosa and Randar58 (the first- and second-place stacks at the start of the table) in three-way play. CharlieBraun now sat with $27.5 million versus amosa with $26.3 million in second and Randar58 in third with $12.6 million. Seven minutes later, CharlieBraun had siphoned chips from both players, and Randar58 was left hurting with only $4.5 million. A big hand involving all three players would determine the tournament life of one of them.
CharlieBraun raised to $1.8 million preflop, with the big blind at $600,000, and Randar58 called in the small blind. Amosa reraised all in for $21.4 million and CharlieBraun called, having both players covered. Randar58 called all in and showed Q
10
and was in very bad shape against amosa's K
Q and CharlieBraun's A J. The flop came A K
2, furthering CharlieBraun's lead over both players with top pair and setting him up for a double elimination to win the tournament. The turn was the 7, opening up a flush draw for Randar58 to stay alive. The turn was, in fact, a club with the 8 to complete his flush and give him the best hand. Because Randar58 was the short stack, he tripled up and CharlieBraun took down the side pot to eliminate amosa in third place. Amosa made $82,746 for his portion of the deal.
It was now heads up between CharlieBraun with $52.9 million and Randar58 who had tripled up to $13.4 million. After losing some ground, Randar58 built his stack up to $19 million with a double-up just before the final hand 10 minutes into the heads-up match. Randar58 raised to $4 million preflop, with the big blind now at $800,000, and CharlieBraun called. The flop came A 10 7 and CharlieBraun checked. Rander58 pushed all in for $15 million and CharlieBraun called and showed J 7 for bottom pair. Randar58 held the lead with A 4 for top pair. The turn was the 9, putting the possibility of a split pot on the board with another club, but the river was the J, giving CharlieBraun two pair to take down the pot and eliminate Rander58 in second. Randar58 made $88,513, per the deal, and CharlieBraun earned the extra $30,000 for his victory in the tournament, putting his total winnings up to $136,006.
The final results were:
*1) CharlieBraun – $136,006
*2) Randar58 – $88,513
*3) amosa – $82,746
*4) ISmashUrHead – $68,510
*5) swedenyes – $84,435
6) AABenjaminAA – $30,530.20
7) drylake – $21,902.10
8) TheWeapon007 – $13,274
9) jdi23 – $8,229.88
* Payout reflects a slightly modified by-the-chips chop with $30,000 left for the eventual winner, per the PokerStars rules
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee
Attendance at the UltimateBet $200,000-guaranteed tournament was way down this week when compared to last week. The tournament had just 858 entrants last night versus an already low 924 last weekend. The numbers could have been affected by the Full Tilt Online Poker Series III main event, which ran simultaneously, although there is no way of knowing for sure. The short attendance resulted in a $28,400 overlay for the tournament.
Highroller48 sat down at the final table with a slight chip lead, $555,000 compared to Ivor Biggun's second-place stack of $511,000. While Ivor Biggun lost chips at a slow but steady rate, highroller48's stack was growing quickly. A little over an hour and 15 minutes into the final table action, with four players remaining, Ivor Biggun was sitting in third place with $280,000. Highroller48's stack was up to over $1 million and aakkjj had a second-place stack worth $618,000. Yankees31 was bringing up the rear, but he was not the next to go.
Highroller48 raised to $44,000 preflop, with the big blind at $16,000, and Ivor Biggun pushed all in. Highroller48 called and showed A 10 and was against Ivor Biggun's pocket nines. The board ran out A J 5 7 Q, giving highroller48 top pair to eliminate Ivor Biggun in fourth ($13,000).
Yankees31 hit the rail next when his set of fives went up against highroller489's 8-high straight. He pocketed $18,500 for hanging on until his third-place finish.
Highroller48 had $1.6 million in chips versus aakkjj with $550,000 at the beginning of the heads-up match. Highroller48 took almost $250,000 off aakkjj's stack before the final hand, 15 minutes into the match. Aakkjj raised to $76,000 preflop, with the big blind at $24,000, and highroller48 pushed all in over the top. Aakkjj called all in and showed A J and was dominated by highroller48's A K. The board ran out Q 7 7 8 K, unnecessarily pairing highroller48's king and giving him the pot. Aakkjj collected a $27,000 payday for his second-place finish, while highroller48 earned $45,000 for his win in the event.
The final results were:
1) highroller48 – $45,000
2) aakkjj – $27,000
3) Yankees31 – $18,500
4) Ivor Biggun – $13,000
5) gboro780 – $11,000
6) KTQ – $9,000
7) YRWTHMELTHR – $7,000
8) A_9_A_8 – $5,000
9) DrHam – $3,500
10) Big Gator – $2,000
Bodog $100,000 Guarantee
The Bodog $100,000-guaranteed tournament's attendance was so-so on Sunday when 918 players bought in to slug it out over the $100,000 prize pool. Bodog put up $8,200 out of pocket to make up the shortfall in prize money.
Murf the surf came to the final table in first place, with $431,000 in chips, and Internet pro Nick "gbmantis" Niergarth wasn't too far behind in second place, with $333,000. The chip lead traded to at least three other players at the table during the final table action, including Viahotpot, ffindonkey, and capsocool.
Capsocool ended up knocking out previous chip leader murf the surf when he pushed all in on a flop of A 9 2 after some aggressive back-and-forth betting. Murf the surf called all in and showed A 10 for top pair and was in bad shape against capsocool's flopped set of nines. Murf the surf ended the tournament in seventh ($3,400). The hand put capsocool over $1 million in chips.
By the time it was down to three-way play, capsocool still had most of those chips, and he was still in first place with $950,000. I_fluff_alot was in second place with $694,000 and and gbmantis was close behind at $651,000. It was more than 25 minutes before the next elimination hand took place, but once it had, the tournament was over less than a minute later. Gbmantis had ammassed a $1.5 million chip stack in the interim, leaving both of his oppoments with close to $400,000.
Gbmantis pushed all in preflop from the button position and capsocool called all in from the small blind. I_fluff_alot folded and gbmantis revealed just 10 4 against capsocool's A J. The board ran out K 5 5 4 2, completely missing capsocool and spiking a 4 for gbmantis on the turn to take down the pot. Capsocool received $9,000 for third place.
On the very next hand, i_fluff_alot pushed all in from the small blind and gbmantis called and showed Q 9. I_fluff_alot held A 3 and a slim lead in his quest to win the hand and double up. However, the flop came Q 6 4, giving gbmantis a pair of queens to take the lead. The turn was the 10 and the river the 8 and i_fluff_alot was eliminated in second place with ace high. He made $14,000 for his finish. Gbmantis raked in the pot and a $25,000 first-place prize for his win in the event.
The final results were:
1) Nick "gbmantis" Niergarth – $25,000
2) i_fluff_alot – $14,000
3) capsocool – $9,000
4) Viahotpot – $6,500
5) ffindonkey – $5,400
6) BPWJR – $4,400
7) murf the surf – $3,400
8) Cletus – $2,400
9) EC10 – $1,550
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