The Sunday Tournament Report is back in full force. After three weeks of huge WCOOP events we return to our standard rotation of Sunday majors. It is always interesting to see how the first weekend goes after a major online tournament series. Will events see a nice bump in attendance or will they revert back to their pre WCOOP numbers? The reviews were mixed this past Sunday as some tournaments continued to grow with more players and bigger prize pools. However, events on smaller sites fell back a bit, resulting in overlay from missed guarantees.
One tournament having no such problems in the Sunday $200,000 Guaranteed on Party Poker. The biggest event of the week on the world’s 2nd largest poker site garnered more than 1,200 entrants on its way to a $241,800 prize pool. The final table pitted 10 players against one another all vying for the $50,000+ first-place prize. Unfortunately, that number was never realized as the last four participants decided to chop up the remaining $111,000 in the pot. Taking home the biggest piece of the chop pie was runner-up “GivMeDol” who earned $32,228 after the deal. Eventual winner “fukushima” actually earned just $24,000 based on his chip count at the time of the deal, putting him 4th in overall money won. This was a huge score for a player who just does not play in a lot of tournaments on Party Poker.
Party Poker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,209 Entrants; $241,800 prize pool
*4-way chop
1. fukushima $24,000
2. GivMeDol $32,228
3. Teknomaagi $30,000
4. Ghizmo78 $25,000
5. DJwalch $11,486
6. ddaylee $9,068
7. wwwsop $6,891
8. becks316 $4,594
9. dement_mori $3,506
10. ralloyd $2,418
Another tournament holding steady is the $200k on iPoker. Backed by former major online poker room Titan Poker, the iPoker Sunday $200k has been just barely surpassing its guaranteed each and every Sunday. This past weekend was no exception as just 1,045 players entered the $200+$15 event, squeezing past the guarantee by $9,000. Even with Black Friday shutting down FullTilt and costing PokerStars some players, iPoker has not been able to capitalize by gaining more players. While they are still operating due to leaving the US market back in 2006, they are nowhere near where they once were. Taking home the $200k title and a cool $43,890 payday was “woodenleg1” who had yet to earn a big cash on iPoker in the past. In fact, this was just his 2nd four-figure or higher recorded score in his career on the world’s 3rd largest poker network. Runner-up “Deiz00” might sound familiar, as he made the final table of this very event last week! He managed to finish one spot better, taking home $22,990 for his second-place finish. His 2nd and 3rd place finishes in consecutive weeks marks one of the more incredible accomplishments in major tournament history.
iPoker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,045 Entrants; $209,000 prize pool
1. woodenleg1 $43,890
2. Deiz00 $22,990
3. liketoflip $16,720
4. lauri200 $12,540
5. Megahainer $10,450
6. no1dea $8,360
7. LostMyBike7 $6,270
8. KateNash $4,180
9. Brainbug24 $2,926
10. VezetVsegda $2,090
One tournament that just cannot seem to get off the schneid is the $100,000 guaranteed on the Merge Network. What was once thought to be an up and coming online tournament has not been able to grow at all as of late. A lot of the optimism surrounding the $100k was the re-entry of American players on the Merge Network. Unfortunately, that just does not seem like it’s going to happen. With less traffic comes smaller tournaments. For what feels like the 10th week in a row, the Merge $100k came woefully short of reaching its guarantee. With 861 entrants there was nearly $14,000 in overlay. Again, for those playing in the event, this is some great added value. However, it might just be a matter of time before the tournament’s guarantee is dropped. The $20,000 first place prize went to “jadedjason” who shipped the biggest score of his short career on the Merge Network. Runner-up “petjen27” was also relatively new to the network and much like most in this event, took home the biggest cash of their career on the US friendly site.
Merge Poker Sunday $100k Guaranteed
861 Entrants; $100,000 prize pool
1. jadedjason $20,000
2. petjen27 $12,000
3. claytarget $6,500
4. tincups $5,150
5. rivermen123 $4,400
6. TonyMannoni $3,500
7. bozNrita $2,900
8. jeanckilly2 $2,475
9. a4typer $1,900
After three weeks and more than $47,000,000 in major online tournaments, PokerStars was back to its usual tricks. Their Sunday major rotation, which includes the $500k Warm-Up, Sunday Million, and $250k Sunday500, was out in full force this past weekend. Thousands of players participated in huge events with millions of dollars on the line. The day got off on the right foot as 3,249 players entered the $200+$15 Warm-Up. With nearly $650,000 in the prize pool the Warm-Up was easily the day’s second biggest event. Taking full advantage of the massive prize pool was “schweinix” who earned a $102,020 payday for his win. The six-figure score was certainly the biggest of his career on PokerStars, dwarfing a $11,031 cash back in 2008 in a $55 event. Runner-up “BoomBoomX” had a lot of solid cashes to his name, but before Sunday did not have a big score on his resume. That all changed with his $76,027 check for finishing 2nd in the Warm-Up.
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $500k Guaranteed
3,249 Entrants; $649,800 prize pool
1. schweinix $102,020
2. BoomBoomX $76,027
3. JohnyK91 $53,609
4. vincenz0 $37,364
5. SM4RTASS $27,617
6. circuslover $21,119
7. NigDawG $14,621
8. theczar19 $8,123
9. babeklu $5,198
The Sunday Million continues to inch closer to the $1,500,000 prize pool it once held pre Black Friday. The world’s largest weekly poker tournament nearly had 6,600 entrants yesterday, creating a $1,318,600 prize pool in the process. For a site that once faced extinction at the hands of the US government, having a weekly event with more than $1,000,000 in the pot is nothing to sneeze at. Furthermore, being able to reward a player with a $200,000 payday, bigger than more than 99% of the day’s tournament prize pools, is quite incredible. Taking home that top prize was “p3rc4”, a high-stakes professional who has seen plenty of success in the past. In fact, p3rc4 is fresh off winning the $2,100 WCOOP Event #59 just last week. While that tournament only paid him $61,335, it did come with a vaunted WCOOP gold bracelet as well. Another notable participant at the final table was “el_klonkador” who is a high-stakes tournament and cash game professional. His fifth place finish earning him $55,381 was probably not as life changing as it would be for most, but it is still a nice score.
PokerStars Sunday $1,000,000 Guaranteed
6,593 Entrants; $1,318,600 prize pool
1. p3rc4 $200,563
2. I7AXA $148,343
3. GlitchHopper $105,488
4. CrAcky_Marty $72,523
5. el_klonkador $55,381
6. x_cimpo_x $42,195
7. huge.fishh $29,009
8. treezer $15,823
9. lpaper $10,219
Wrapping up the day on PokerStars was the $250,000 guaranteed Sunday500. The tournament’s name comes from the fact that it opened as a $500 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed major geared towards high-stakes players. However, with fewer players on PokerStars the guarantee was brought down to just $250k. That hasn’t stopped the Sunday500 from being one of the more entertaining tournaments to watch each week. With a higher buy-in there tends to be fewer amateur players in the event. What the railbirds get is great final tables full of big name professionals. This Sunday, a lot of those professionals had early exits from the final table. David “SexSeen” Sands busted in 8th place for just $7,912. This amount must seem small for a player with approximately $3,000,000 in online tournament cashes over his career. Finishing one spot better was “TherookieQQ9”, another player with millions of dollars in tournament winnings to his name. The $11,227 he made on Sunday doesn’t even come close to cracking his top-20 online scores which include a $233,775 win in the Birthday Million on Party and a $188,919 win in the Sunday Million on PokerStars in 2008. With a lot of the good players busting early the door was wide open for “Princesa” to step in and claim the prize. The high-stakes MTT grinder won the biggest score of his/her career, besting a previous high of $51,475 back in 2009. The $64,798 is one of more than a handful of $20k+ scores on his/her resume that now boasts nearly $1,000,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone.
PokerStars Sunday500 $250k Guaranteed
716 Entrants; $358,000 prize pool
1. Princesa $64,798
2. Schildy1984 $46,540
3. cappu82 $34,905
4. inca7bar $26,134
5. J0hnny_Dr@m@ $18,437
6. Jackovich $14,857
7. TherookieQQ9 $11,277
8. SexSeen $7,912
9. marlin5555 $4,582