Attendance in the major Sunday tournaments was still in a slump last night, but the numbers were at least up from the previous week. Some pros who could be found at the final tables of the Sunday majors this week include Matthew "All In At 420" Stout, eisenhower1, jpmetalman, Seth "BrainGuy" Moody (a 23-year-old from Canton, Ohio, who graduated from college with a degree in neuroscience, hence the screen name), Frank "slowrollinworm" Hernandez (aka gator93), A__thekevlar__2, and SN8WMAN (aka SNo0oWMAN). The weekend also almost saw a repeat winner at the PokerStars Sunday Million, as well as a new player in the sixth-place spot in the Card Player Online Player of the Year (OPOY) race (the proud holder of those two accomplishments is, in fact, the same person).
PokerStars Sunday Million
The PokerStars Sunday Million tournament had 6,483 entrants last night, up quite a bit from last weekend's 6,031, but still low, considering the tournament had been luring around 7,000 entrants for a good portion of this year. The tournament had a prize pool of $1,296,600 and offered a first-place payday of $186,451.
The most notable player at the final table was Seth "BrainGuy" Moody, a player who had taken down this tournament relatively recently (on April 8, 2007, earning $170,302). BrainGuy eventually got down to heads-up play with stones99 and his second Sunday Million victory was in his sights. BrainGuy fell short, however, and collected $97,115 for second place. Stones99 pocketed $186,451 for winning the tournament.
The final results were:
1. stones99 – $186,451
2. Seth "BrainGuy" Moody – $97,115
3. AndersBr – $69,887
4. kingsanti – $54,457
5. tomanymucks! – $41,621
6. skrr – $29,822
7. fiveonfour – $21,394
8. falkeye – $12,966
9. KeepMcoming – $8,039
BrainGuy's finish in the event earned him 1,200 OPOY points, which, combined with the 90 points he also made last night for making the final table of the $200 rebuy event, put his total points at 3,506, just barely edging him ahead of Chad "lilholdem954" Batista (3,490 points) in the OPOY standings. BrainGuy now sits in sixth place while Batista has dropped into seventh.
Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee
Full Tilt seems to have jumped the gun with its new $750,000-guarantee event, at least as far as the tournament's attendance for the past two weekends is concerned. Last weekend, the tournament had 3,332 entrants, which meant that Full Tilt had to put up an $83,600 overlay to match the guarantee. This week the tournament was in much better shape when 3,499 entrants ponied up the buy-in, but the tournament was still far shy of covering the guarantee on buy-ins alone and required an overlay of $50,200.
When it got down to the final table, at least three notable Internet players were still alive, SN8WMAN, Matt "All In At 420" Stout, and jpmetalman. All In At 420 left the table relatively early when he busted out in seventh place, earning $17,250. SN8WMAN lasted through one more elimination hand before busting out in fifth place ($31,050). Jpmetalman almost clinched the top prize, but he eventually fizzled out in second place, for $80,250. Vieve45 collected the $132,788 first-place prize in the tournament.
The final results were:
1. vieve45 – $132,788
2.. jpmetalman – $80,250
3. ZOLTAN – $52,500
4. mrrogersguy – $41,400
5. SN8WMAN – $31,050
6. TollBoothBandit – $23,025
7. Matthew "All In At 420" Stout – $17,250
8. benta_tres – $13,500
9. thechemist83 – $10,050
Jpmetalman more than doubled his OPOY points with his second-place finish in the event. He earned 1,000 for his finish and now sits with 1,852 points, which puts him in the top 100 on the leader board.
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee
UltimateBet's $200,000-guaranteed tournament was replaced, for this week only, by a 50-seat-guaranteed Aruba Classic satellite. The Aruba Classic satellite had a $500 buy-in and guaranteed 50 $8,500 Aruba Classic prize packages, which included the $5,500 buy-in and $3,000 for travel and accommodations. The event ultimately had 818 entrants, which generated a prize pool of $409,000, meaning UltimateBet forked over a $16,000 overlay to match its guarantee.
Among those earning a seat in the Aruba Classic event were Mike "sowerss" Sowers, BadcardsAA, Chris "brsavage" Savage, Jeff "Uli Kunkel" Garza (aka ActionJeff), Steve "gboro780" Gross, and Grayson "the_Dean221" Nichols.
Bodog $100,000 Guarantee
The Bodog $100,000-guaranteed tournament had 756 entrants last night, up slightly from last Sunday's 733 entrants. The tournament required a $24,400 overlay to match its posted guarantee.
Online poker pro eisenhower1, a previous winner of this event (on Aug. 5, 2007), made the final table of the tournament again this weekend. He has been making waves on the online poker circuit this year. While his cashes have been relatively small (his biggest score was for "just" $35,448 for taking down the $100 rebuy tournament on PokerStars in June), he has proven himself a consistent winner. Eisenhower1 was joined at the final table by prominent Internet players Frank "slowrollinworm" Hernandez (aka gator93) and A__theKevlar__2.
Those three players made it to fourhanded play before A__theKevlar__2 dropped out in fourth place ($6,900). Eisenhower1 and slowrollinworm wound up heads up for the title, but eisenhower1 raked in the final pot to bag his second victory in the Bodog $100,000-guaranteed tournament in barely more than three months. He earned $25,000 for his win.
The final results were:
1. eisenhower1 – $25,000
2. Frank "slowrollinworm" Hernandez – $14,300
3. lesodk – $9,200
4. A__theKevlar__2 – $6,900
5. RollinFish – $5,500
6. yurabond – $4,500
7. jv – $3,500
8. arn888 – $2,500
9. NOXQZEZ – $1,600
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