The Sunday majors provided huge payoffs to some of the online world’s best players this weekend, and even managed a small shakeup in Card Player’s Online Player of the Year race.
Over at PokerStars, Jonas "Tulkaz" Klausen won the $100 rebuy for $75,182 and moved himself into 25th place overall in the rankings. Alex "AK87" Kim took down the $200 heads-up event, and Ken "Kenny Rap" Weinstein won the Sunday 500 for $93,614.
Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul (pictured left) had a good day, pocketing $54,661 for a win in the Sunday Second Chance, and PeachyMer stood alone at the top of the $200
rebuy, winning $42,783. Dan "Wretchy" Martin finished runner-up to Belabacsi in the second $100 rebuy of the night and the points he earned were enough to move him into seventh place in the rankings.
Over at Full Tilt, Mike "GoLeafsGoEh" Leah (pictured right) banked $42,550 for winning the $85,000 guarantee with rebuys. Rayan "rkruok" Nathan and Marco "Crazy Marco" Johnson went 1-2 in the $200,000 guarantee with rebuys event for $74,325 and $46,081, respectively. Michiel "utreg" Brummelhuis took down the Sunday Brawl for just over $100,000.
Read the recaps for Sunday’s flagship events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, UltimateBet, Cake, and Bodog below:
PokerStars Sunday Million
The Sunday Million drew in 8,664 entrants this week, which was down 136 players from the week before. The $1,732,800 prize pool was still the largest of the weekend and was divided accordingly among the 1,260 players fortunate enough to cash.
Among the notables to finish deep in the money were Nick "FU_15" Maimone (113th), James "Andy McLEOD" Obst (112th), Grayson "graybone" Nichols (73rd), Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby (69th, pictured right), Jonas "Tulkaz" Klausen (65th), and Dave "doubledave22" D’Alessandro (39th).
Mike "wywrotx" Wywrot, who finished 16th in the Sunday Million last November, improved on that run by making the final table this time around. Wyrot was part of a four-way chop, based on the chip counts at the time and leaving an extra $30,000 to the eventual winner.
Wywrot was the short stack, and he was eliminated shortly thereafter when his dominated hand failed to catch up against jbrown04.
It was jbrown04 who held nearly a 2-1 chip lead on StefanProdan going into heads-up play, but a quick double-up change everything. On the final hand, jbrown04 was all in holding K-J against StefanProdan’s 9-8. It looked like another double-up was coming, but a 9 on the river gave the pot and the tournament win to American StefanProdan.
Here were the final table results:
- StefanProdan — $168,296*
- jbrown04 — $152,046*
- Bob Vitis — $104,868*
- Mike "wywrotx" Wywrot — $100,000*
- WlkRambo — $60,648
- IRENE666 — $43,320
- Princess480 — $30,324
- G6Dragon — $19,927
- Vincent Eley — $12,129
*Based on a four-way deal made at the final table.
Watch Online Poker Show P1: Sunday Million – Mar 1, 2009 on PokerStars.tv
Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guarantee
Full Tilt was up this week, moving from 4,048 to 4,188 entrants. The increase in players brought the total prize pool to $837,600.
Those who made the money included Randy "Randers" Haddox (81st), Hans "miAmihAns" Winzeler (75th), Full Tilt pro Ram Vaswani (65th), Brian "ZBTHorton" Horton (60th), Scott "SCTrojans08" Freeman (59th), xx BabyGrand xx (58th), Justin "robert07" Young (19th, pictured right), and Charlie "CHOOK2120" Hook (15th).
The eventual winner of the tournament was none other than Jay "THE_GOLDMINE" Kinkade, who earned $147,912 for his first-place finish. Thanks to two other final tables this year, Kinkade is now in 21st place in the OPOY rankings.
Here are the final table results:
- Jay "THE_GOLDMINE" Kinkade aka Seabeast — $147,912
- daPHUNNIEman — $89,539
- Fetus — $58,632
- Shakunimama8 — $46,068
- larry2225 — $34,593
- DeuceBuster — $25,631
- Kiv56 — $19,265
- draq — $15,077
- iamthematador — $11,224
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee
For the fourth week in a row, UltimateBet avoided an overlay with its $200,000-guaranteed tournament. This week, the field was 1,045 players strong, creating a total prize pool of $209,000.
The final 11 tables-worth of players were paid, including Phil "USCphildo" Collins (89th), Shaun "TedsFishFry" Deeb (84th), UltimateBet pro Mike "WiscoMurray" Murray (82nd), Tony "muckthenuts" Dunst (77th), UB pro James "P0KERPR033" Campbell (66th), Jon "PearlJammed" Turner (39th), Adam "ATXGeyer" Geyer (33rd), Mike "1GoLeafsGoEh1" Leah (29th), _BabyGrand_ (21st) and Todd "KoolKeith13" Lewis (19th).
The final table featured Hafiz "Yungmoney209" Khan (fourth) and Nick "Baxaments15" Maimone (third, pictured at left). RJMGRACE took down the tournament for $46,669.
Here are the final table results:
- RJMGRACE — $46,669
- Billiam_cdn — $27,901
- Nick "Baxaments15" Maimone aka FU_15 — $18,914
- Hafiz "Yungmoney209" Khan aka hafizzle — $13,480
- Matsuhisa — $11,390
- TBAG1985 — $9,300
- William "Hickman123" Hickey — $7,210
- Whitehead88 — $5,120
- Supergood1 — $2,552
Bodog $100,000 Guarantee
Bodog reached 665 players this weekend, creating an overlay of $33,500.
Ninty places were paid out to the likes of Matthias "goodvibe" Neu (76th), Ari "BodogAri" Engel (64th), AndyVanSlyke (48th), Bryan "squirrelz" Sapp (32nd), and Justin "ponyneck" Thomas (16th).
The final table featured Nick "BlueFlare" Saxon (third), who earned $9,100. Saxon won this same tournament back in late October of 2007 for $25,000. KrazyKiddo took down last night’s event when he defeated quanberg heads up. KrazyKiddo pocketed $25,000 for his accomplishment.
Here were the final table results:
- KrazyKiddo — $23,600
- quanberg — $13,600
- Nick "BlueFlare" Saxon — $9,100
- Megaladon101 — $7,000
- docbox3 — $5,700
- maberle — $4,500
- fishtrapper — $3,300
- LukeStarbucker — $2,200
- cusee — $1,300
Cake Poker $100,000 Guarantee
Cake Poker attracted 927 entrants to its $150 buy-in Sunday major tournament. The $139,050 prize pool was an increase from last week’s $102,900.
Not only did Mike "wywrot" Wywrot finish fourth in the Sunday Million on PokerStars, but he also took fourth in this tournament, for an additional $9,900.
Lars "RedShark1" Hougaard took second place, earning $19,801, and MEXICAN DAD outlasted the field to take first place and the $28,088 prize.
Here are the final table results:
- MEXICAN DAD — $28,088
- Lars "RedShark1" Hougaard aka MrRenniW — $19,801
- 10legparlay — $13,307
- Mike "wywrot" Wywrot — $9,900
- kovytheman — $6,730
- 420NL — $5,117
- BullDogL — $3,768
- thermorex21 — $2,837
- Ando! — $2,392
Card Player is working with several sites that continue to serve U.S. players to provide deposit bonuses to our readers. Click on the following names to receive bonuses: UltimateBet, Bodog, Absolute, Cake and Full Tilt Poker.
