Online Tournament Results

Even with the World Series of Poker rolling on from Las Vegas online poker events continued their strong summer push this past weekend.  Sunday events were up across the board with FullTilt running a $1,000,000 guarantee highlighting the day’s schedule.  Those who enjoy grinding Sundays just got some good news this past week as PokerStars announced their Saturday Line-Up which is a series of seven small to mid stakes tournaments running every weekend.  Each tournament has at least $20,000 in guaranteed money and the $2 re-buy and $33 turbo are both $50,000 guaranteed events.  For the first running of the new series PokerStars will be giving players a tournament ticket if they play in an event but do not cash.  This nice little perk will allow players to participate in the same event at a later time if they fail to make the money.

The big money events from Sunday may not come with a fallback plan like the Saturday Line-Up but they do offer big prize pools and huge first place prizes.  The day started off strong as the $200,000 guaranteed on Party Poker attracted 1,088 players for a solid $217,600 prize pool.  With nearly $50,000 on the line for the winner it was no surprise when the final two players decided upon a chip-chop.  The chop takes a lot of the risk out of the heads-up match and awards prize money based on chip counts at the time of the deal. The chop happened after “ZeKick” busted in 3rd place for $15,776. This five-figure score was just one of many for the highly-ranked professional who has had many close calls throughout his career.  Besides this 3rd place finish ZeKick has also finished 2nd in the Sunday Mulligan on FullTilt and the  Second Chance on PokerStars.

Taking the biggest piece of the pie was “wntwthmyread” who earned $40,427 after the deal.  The $40k score was easily the biggest of his career. The same could be said for runner-up “jamestct” who took home $31,381 after chop discussions.

Party Poker $200k Guaranteed
1,088 Entrants; $217,600 prize pool
*2-way chop

1. wntwthmyread $40,427
2. jamestct $31,381
3. ZeKick $15,776
4. senchilko $12,512
5. Vitalik777 $10,336
6. KAYDEN_KROSS $8,160
7. koolhwip $6,202
8. Konsumon $4,134
9. bob2829 $3,155
10. papakettles $2,176

The new starting times for the PokerStars Warm-Up, Million, and Sunday500 have been able to boost their attendance with an influx of European and Australian players. Even better news was PokerStars squashing rumors that the Australian government was coming after their players due to illegal gambling advertising in the continent.  The world’s largest poker site continues to thrive everywhere but in the United States where they are no longer allowed to operate. However, with two new poker bills being presented in Washington this week that could all soon change.

The day at PokerStars got started on the right foot as more than 3,100 players entered the $200+$15 Sunday Warm-Up. With $636,000 in the prize pool and more than $100,000 slated for the winner it was a frantic fight to the finish in the day’s first major tournament.  Busting in 5th place was top-100 ranked “flashdisastr” who earned $27,030 for a hard day’s work.  The five-figure score barely cracked his top-10 all-time cashes and comes in well behind wins in both SCOOP and WCOOP events over the past year.  He also won the Second Chance earlier this year for $52,640 and nearly won the Sunday500 last October.  Once heads-up play began a frustrating chip-chop trend continued as “samb4″ and “febalinha” decided to divide the remaining $174,000 in the pot based on chip counts.  With PokerStars rules saying $10,000 has to be left in play it was febalinha who took advantage and earned himself the biggest payday of his career.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $500k Guaranteed
3,180 Entrants; $636,000 prize poo
*2-way chop

1. febalinha $94,975
2. samb4 $79,289
3. eBashKak9I $52,470
4. Der Besen $36,570
5. flashdisastr $27,030
6. 2fingerz 2u $20,670
7. playboy99999 $14,310
8. piet33 $7,950
9. PATschUEL $5,088

The Sunday Million is typically the weekend’s biggest event but had some good competition on Sunday as FullTilt was also running a $1,000,000 guarantee.  However, the Million remained the largest $215 tournament as 5,731 players created a $1,146,200 prize pool.  Unfortunately, as one will see for the majority of the big events on Sunday, the Million fell victim to the chip-chop bug that was going around.  After “flyinsquizz” busted in 4th place for $64,359 the final three players decided to leave $20,000 on the table and chop up the rest evenly  Busting first after the chop was “D3Yt00kRj3rB” who earned more than $127,000 and the biggest score of his career.  Finishing one spot better and missing out on the extra $20,000 was “pcportuga” who was another player to take down a career-changing score. However, it was “gunderstedif” who earned an additional $20,000 for winning the three-handed battle and took home a $147,400 first-place check.  Just like his opponents gunderstedif was quite inexperienced and had actually failed to record a four-figure score on PokerStars in the past.  Overall there was more than $400,000 divided between the final three players, all of whom had not won a major on PokerStars in the past.

PokerStars Sunday Million $1M Guaranteed
5,731 Entrants; $1,146,200 prize pool
*3-way chop

1. gunderstedif $147,440
2. pcportuga $127,440
3. D3Yt00kRj3rB $127,440
4. flyinsquizz $64,359
5. VitinhO Dzi $48,140
6. halchi $36,678
7. Sniperace84 $25,216
8. ocropTi $14,328
9. ToroGr $8,940

Wrapping up another strong day on Stars was the Sunday500 which now carries a $250,000 guarantee.  The day’s largest buy-in tournament is typically reserved for seasoned professionals from both the live and online tournament scenes. With a lot of these players grinding away at the WSOP in Las Vegas it was quite a surprise that more than 600 players still signed up for the Sunday500.  There were plenty of strong players at the final table but one who stood out above the rest was runner-up “copi” who fell during heads-up play to “bartels30″.  Copi’s $40,905 score is just one of more than a handful of $40k+ cashes to his name including a win in the 2007 WCOOP for $103,804.  He also nearly won the Sunday Million back in 2006 but took second place for $91,500. His lost to bartels30 during heads-up play was a bit of a shocker as bartels30 did not have a five-figure score to his name on PokerStars before his win on Sunday.  The $56,813 cash was actually just about as much as all of his previous scores combined over more than 2,500 events.  It seems this past Sunday was quite good to all sorts of small and mid-stakes players.

PokerStars Sunday500 $250k Guaranteed
606 Entrants; $303,000 prize pool

1. bartels30 $56,813
2. copi $40,905
3. BackDoorovic $30,300
4. Stubakuula $22,725
5. abelissimo $15,908
6. K0VAK $12,878
7. bestbil $9,848
8. pan uchitel’ $6,818
9. flashdisastr $4,272

With PokerStars continuing to thrive despite the US government’s crackdown on American Online Poker it has put a lot of pressure on FullTilt to do the same.  As the world’s second largest poker site it is imperative for rooms like FullTilt and Party Poker to continue to push PokerStars.  This competition will lead to better promotions, VIP support, and software upgrades for all sites.  The second biggest event of the day on FullTilt was the $240+$16 Sunday Brawl. This specialty event is a Knock-Out style tournament that pays $40 to a player every time he/she eliminates a fellow opponent.  This can lead to some nice value for players who fail to make the money but play aggressively in the earlier levels.

Those who eventually make the final table will have typically eliminated anywhere from 5-10 other players throughout the event earning themselves an additional $200-$400 along the way.  The final table had some strong players on hand including Nicky “nickyluvshu” Tao Jin who finished in 3rd place for $25,232 and “Nemoqwe2″ who finished in one spot worse for $20,248.  Both players have cashed for around $1,000,000 during the online tournament careers but could not put that experience to work against the final two players, “deturn7″ and “GOODLUCKYOU”. Just like in practically every other major on Sunday the two final competitors decided to end the drama early and take a chop based on chip counts.   Also like every other event was the fact that neither player had seen much success in major tournaments in the past but rode their luck to a big cash.  It seems this past Sunday was a great day for the amateur tournament grinder.

FullTilt Sunday Brawl $200k Guaranteed
1,246 Entrants; $249,200 prize pool
*2-way chop

1. deturn7 $46,999
2. GOODLUCKYOU $42,713
3. nickyluvshu $25,232
4. Nemoqwe2 $20,248
5. dageask $15,276
6. dontmezzwithme $11,214
7. Dichiarato $7,227
8. levwinston $5,233
9. MegaOlegator $3,738

The souped up FullTilt Sunday $750k became the $1,000,000 guaranteed yesterday as FullTilt pushed the buy-in from $216 to $640.  with nearly 1,900 entrants the tournament came just $8,000 shy of supplanting the Sunday Million on PokerStars as the day’s largest online poker tournament.  Still, a prize pool of more than $1,138,000 is nothing to sneeze at and left more than $200,000 for the winner.  However, as one might be able to infer at this point, that final number was not realized as the last three competitors again decided upon a chop based on chip counts.  It seems these deals have become much more commonplace lately without Americans on FullTilt or PokerStars. Perhaps it is just a coincidence but it does seem like there have been way more chops the past two months than in the first four in 2011.

However, unlike other events from this past weekend the final few players had plenty of experience in bigger events.  Third-place finisher “ttlncprn2205″ won the $250k on Titan Poker back in 2009 and has finished 4th in the Sunday Warm-Up on PokerStars twice over the past year.  Eventual winner “Asido” is no slouch himself havhing nearly final-tabled the FTOPS Main Event just a few moths ago for $58,204 and also making appearances at the final tables of the Super Tuesday, Party $250k, FTOPS Event #42, and many other big time tournaments.  His $154,024 score here ranks as the biggest cash of his career.

FullTilt Sunday $1M Guaranteed
1,897 Entrants; $1,138,200
*3-way chop

1. Asido $154,024
2. SmurfeHits $149,597
3. ttlncprn2205 $122,066
4. _Noooooo___oo $68,292
5. zi86 $52,357
6. muzl27 $37,561
7. gherkan $27,317
8. derdings $21,284
9. BuckStabue $16,390

One event that cannot quite seem to get going is the $100,000 guaranteed on the Merge Network. The $100+$9 buy-in event is one everyone expected to explode as Merge kept their doors open to American players after April 15th. Unfortunately the tournament had just not taken off as week after week Merge is forced to dig deep into their pockets and pay out tens of thousands of dollars in overlay.  This past Sunday only 731 players signed up making the Merge Network payout nearly $27,000 in overlay.  This nice bonus gave all of those involved more than $37 extra dollars in equity in the $100k.  Eventual winner “flashbadger” had previously won the $10k Turbo on Bwin all the way back in 2007 and got back in the winner’s circle this week with his heads-up victory over “akashm12370″.  Again, as the Merge Network continues to grow the STR should be able to give more background on the $100k’s winners but until that time there just is not a lot of information on these new players.

Merge Poker Sunday $100k Guaranteed
731 Entrants; $100,000 prize pool

1. flashbadger $20,000
2. akashm12370 $12,000
3. LasVegasAddict $6,500
4. Oisterll $5,000
5. NORCALNUTZO $3,500
6. Tcrowley1 $2,750
7. MrRightone $2,250
8. ttonker1aces $1,750
9. p00cket00 $1,500