Online Poker — The $1K Roundup Week of Jan. 18

The $1,000 buy-in tournaments across PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were filled with big payouts, notable winners, and even a little controversy. Read the recaps for the $1K events on Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker below.

Full Tilt — $1K Monday

The biggest weekly buy-in on Full Tilt drew an impressive 412 entrants, creating a total prize pool of $412,000. That meant that, barring unforseen circumstances, the eventual winner would take home over six figures in winnings.

A total of 45 players made the money, including man in red David Pham (26th). Other notables to make the money included Alexander “derdings” Jung (41st), Jonathan “BlackJackLeak” Paul (37th), Jason “icudonk” Smith (33rd), mrvogt (32nd), Andy “potroast” Larsen (31st), Mike “ChI01” Chiappetta (27th), Ken “Kenny Rap” Weinstein (22nd), govshark2 (20th), Paul “uclabruinz” Smith (17th), Jamie “JROBB” Robbins (14th), Jonathan “shipitobv” Delong (11th), and Ryan “toetagu” Fair (10th).

Some of the players who made the final table were Billy “billywestom” Westom (fifth) and Benjamin “TheStein” Zumani (fourth). After about eight hours of play, the heads-up match between martand and Justin “WPThero” Rollo (pictured at right) began. Rollo had martand at a severe chip disadvantage and was close to taking down the outright win when he was disconnected. Martand slowly but surely chipped his way back up until it was Rollo on the short stack. At this point, the site was notified, and the tournament was cancelled.

Based on Full Tilt rules, both players were then given second place money, refunded their tournament fees, and split the difference in first-place prize money according to their chip counts when the cancelation occured.

Rollo has publicly disputed the end result on his personal blog, which you can read here on CardPlayer.com.

Here were the final table results:

1. martand — $88,403*
2. Justin “WPThero” Rollo aka Jurollo — $78,577*
3. paigowpro — $47,380
4. Benjamin “TheStein” Zumani — $37,080
5. Billy “Billywestom” Westom — $27,810
6. 21boo21 — $20,600
7. Anthonyyy_Kimmm — $13,390
8. BWDav — $10,300
9. Grippolio — $8,240

* Based on a stoppage during heads-up play.

PokerStars — Super Tuesday

Moving over to PokerStars, the Super Tuesday tournament attracted 433 players and generated a total prize pool of $433,000.

The final 54 players made the money, including a slew of online professionals, such as Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (53rd), Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki (49th), David “WhooooKidd” Baker (38th), Adam “akat11” Katz (35th), Matt “All_in_at420” Stout (31st), Dan “Wretchy” Martin (26th), Chris “Bushman” Bush (25th), JTD DOG (21st), Ozenc “ozenc” Demir (19th),  Brent “usourcek” Hanks (18th), Rob “Ditri” DiTrapani (17th), Barry “barryg1” Greenstein (16th), Ceasar “makavelyces” Fuentes (13th), Jason “JasonGray” Gray (12th), and Theo “pittrounder” Tran (11th).

The final table was loaded, as well, with Connor “blanconegro” Drinan (seventh) Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe (sixth), Daniel “dw2006” Woolson (fourth), and BadcardsAA (third). The heads-up match was between two well-known players in Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen and Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (pictured at right). Rasmussen fell just a bit short, and Crowe claimed the win and the top prize of $83,353.

Here were the final table results:

1. Owen “ocrowe” Crowe — $83,353
2. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen — $61,919
3. BadcardsAA — $45,465
4. Daniel “dw2006” Woolson — $34,640
5. JohnStockton — $24,248
6. Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe — $18,836
7. Connor “blanconegro” Drinan — $14,506
8. Chebik — $10,176
9. Lofgren — $7,361

Absolute Poker — $100K Guarantee

The $100,000 guarantee on Absolute Poker drew 159 entrants this week, making the prize pool $159,000.

The smaller field meant that only two tables would get paid, and among those to make the money were Keven “STAMDOGG3” Stammen (17th) and Aditya “INTERVENTION” Agarwal (12th). Those who made the final table were Justin “JUSTIN SCOTT” Scott (ninth), Blake “BALLA-B13” Cahail (fifth), and Dovid “THE_YID” Yisrael (fourth).

The heads-up match came down to surging online pro Matt “CWP394” Ross and legendary grinder Johan “JOHNNY2912” Van Til (pictured at right). Van Til got the best of Ross and pocketed the first-place prize of $42,135. As a result of his second-place finish, Ross is now the leader in Card Player’s Online Player of the Year race.

Here were the final table results:

1. Johan “JOHNNY2912” Van Til aka busto_soon — $42,135
2. Matt “CWP394” Ross — $25,440
3. ROBOT PIRMEL — $18,682
4. Dovid “THE_YID” Yisrael aka BodogMaven — $15,105
5. Blake “BALLA-B13” Cahail — $11,527
6. TWOLIP69 — $9,540
7. WEGONNARIDE — $7,552
8. Jared “BEARBUCK” Ingles — $5,565
9. Justin “JUSTIN SCOTT” Scott — $3,975