Sunday saw a lot of action from the diehards of the poker community, grinding out tournament after tournament in an effort to collect that elusive big-figure score. None did that better than Danny "THE__D__RY" Ryan, who not only took down the PokerStars Sunday Million, but also made a deep run in the Full Tilt $750,000 guarantee.
Read the recaps for Sunday’s flagship events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, UltimateBet, and Bodog below:
PokerStars Sunday Million
The player count at the PokerStars Sunday Million was down a bit from the week before, but that didn’t stop the tournament from making its $1.5 million guarantee and awarding the top prize of the weekend. In total, 7,755 players put up the $200 to create a prize pool of $1,551,000, $189,997 of which was reserved for the eventual winner.
Nearly 1,200 places were paid, and among the more recognizable names to make it deep were Bryan "micon" Micon (90th), David "WhooooKidd" Baker (76th), Serge "adanthar" Ravitch (41st), Halfrek (20th), and Tim "timkrank" Miles (12th).
Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen was able to make the final table, but fell just a bit short in sixth place. He earned nearly $40,000 for his deep run.
Most of the attention from the rail was given to eventual winner, Danny "THE__D__RY" Ryan (pictured at right), who was gunning for final tables on both PokerStars and Full Tilt’s respective Sunday majors. Playing three-handed, Ryan doubled up through chip leader, parachuting, when his A-K held against A-7. Parachuting was busted on the next hand when his paired king ran into Ryan’s paired ace. Sitting with a 6-1 chip lead, Ryan made quick work of xfadomas666, turning a 10-high straight against second pair to win outright.
Here are the final table results:
- Danny "THE__D__RY" Ryan — $189,997
- xfadomas666 — $128,112
- parachuting — $86,856
- Major_BomB — $70,570
- Verichip — $55,060
- Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen — $39,550
- thebosshead — $27,142
- A_Ivanovich — $17,836
- Bjorn-Erik "Hikkespett" Glenne — $10,857
Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee
A week after the FTOPS X wrapped up, the biggest tournament of the week at Full Tilt took a hit when the field wasn’t large enough for the tourney to make its guarantee. The entrant count of 3,644 only generated a prize pool of $728,800, meaning the site had to pony up the $21,200 overlay. The players were grateful for the chance at free money, especially the first-place finisher who would add $132,787 to his bankroll.
The men in red did their best to represent their site with a number of cashes, including Jordan Morgan, Berry Johnston, Nikolay Evdakov, Svetlana Gromenkova, and Esther Rossi. Other notables to make it deep included Daniel "Kochan" Kochan (67th), Rami "Arbianight" Boukai (58th), KipsterDK (37th), Mark "scrubbyz" Zajdner (33rd), Matthew "ionlyplayAA" Hilger (16th), and David "Davidp18" Peters (fifth, pictured at right).
As play reached the final three tables, the rail chatter grew fierce as players realized that Danny "THE__D__RY" Ryan was deep in both major Sunday tournaments. Ultimately, the mounting blinds and antes proved to be too much for Ryan’s short-stack to overcome, and he busted in 23rd place.
The final two were MicoTX and Wasaki coke. After a brief heads-up battle, MicoTX came out on top to take home the lion’s share of the prize pool.
Here are the final table results:
- MicoTX — $132,787
- Wasaki coke — $80,250
- spandit — $52,500
- SPIN101 — $41,400
- David "Davidp18" Peters — $31,050
- Embetant — $23,025
- PXFACTOR — $17,250
- DNA2RNA — $13,500
- PeppermintHippo — $10,050
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee
Another week, another overlay over at UltimateBet, where the site shelled out $25,400 as a thank you to its loyal players. The total field came to 873, a decrease of nearly 80 entrants from last week.
Taking advantage of the smaller field, UltimateBet pro Mark "P0kerH0" Kroon was able to sneak into the money, busting in 77th place and doubling his buy-in. Other notables to make the money included Mike "1GoLeafsGoEh1" Leah (89th), Brian "dubbeemin" Mintz (53rd), Justin "looshle" Pechie (37th), Jason "jaspuduf" Lee (29th), Andy "potroast00" Larson (28th), Mike "bonzo9876" Katz (24th), jblaze20 (21st), and Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin (13th).
High volume player Andy "BKiCe" Seth made a run at the win, but ultimately fell short in seventh place. When it was all over, irishgirl08 held all of the chips and the top prize of $45,000.
Here are the final table results:
- irishgirl08 — $45,000
- Gabriel "yellowhat" Nassif — $27,000
- widebody — $18,500
- MFSOYUY1 — $13,000
- Manstheman — $11,000
- grumpysmurf23 – $9,000
- Andy "BKiCe" Seth — $7,000
- UltimateKaos — $5,000
- geobayboy — $3,500
- broms23 — $2,000
Bodog $100,000 Guarantee
It was another down week at Bodog, where just 711 players paid the $100 entry fee, 54 fewer than the week prior. As a result, more than a quarter of the total prize pool was paid by the site.
Among those to cash included perhaps the most well known player on the site, Ari "BodogAri" Engel. He finished in 22nd place. The final match up saw IGotAPair take out Mortadelo for the win.
Here are the final table results:
- IGotAPair — $23,600
- Mortadelo — $13,600
- rjrat84 — $9,100
- andyvanslyke — $7,000
- RedItUP — $5,700
- hodgeman — $4,500
- AKFLUSH23 — $3,300
- atakdog — $2,200
- flipper — $1,300
Also, Card Player readers should be sure to check out the Card Player-exclusive Pro Bowl in Paradise promotion on Bodog, which will send one lucky player and a friend to watch football’s Pro Bowl live in Hawaii.
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