Once again the Sunday Tournament Report is a bit shortened this week as the 2011 WCOOP was coming to an end. Be sure to check out the FTR News Section for updates on all the tournaments including the $5,000 Main Event. With the WCOOP finally over, it will be interesting to see how both PokerStars’ and every other online sites’ tournament attendance is affected. Typically, PokerStars will maintain some momentum coming out of the WCOOP, but with Black Friday shocking the online poker world who knows what might happen the rest of the year.
Even with three big events running on Sunday, there was still plenty of other action on sites like Party, iPoker, and Merge. These tournaments have been holding steady lately, even gaining a few entrants here and there. A perfect example of this in the Party $200k Guaranteed. For some time after Black Friday the tournament was struggling to hit its guarantee. However, after their no-fee promotion during the summer, and an added influx of FullTilt players, their biggest weekly event is very healthy. This past Sunday more than 1,250 players entered the $200+$15 buy-in event, moving the prize pool past the quarter-million dollar mark.
The final table hosted 10 players looking to collect a $50k+ first place prize. Some solid players were on hand including Guy “outragous76” Johnson who busted in 9th place for just $3,631. Johnson has a bunch of close calls on his resume including a 9th place finish in the Warm-Up and a 7th in the Second Chance on PokerStars. Finishing a few spots better was Sergey “Kokethka888” Kovalev who earned $14,398 for his 4th place finish. The five-figure score was one of the bigger on a resume that includes multiple wins in the $90k Guaranteed on PokerStars for $18,208 and $17,769 respectively. With Kovalev out of the way in 4th place, the final three players were left to battle it out for the $52,584 first-place check. Taking home the title was “mf8480” who earned the biggest payday of his career on Party. The win bested a previous high score of $26,500 back in 2009 in the Monthly Million.
Party Poker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,252 Entrants; $250,400 prize pool
1. mf8480 $52,584
2. tolA_ffulB_I $30,048
3. toonbongo $18,154
4. Koketka888 $14,398
5. xxstackyouxx $11,894
6. just22dk $9,390
7. l_gravas $7,136
8. Formaatio $4,758
9. outragous76 $3,631
10. GIANNI617 $2,504
The iPoker Network, home to rooms such as Titan and Bet365, was recently replaced by Party as the 2nd largest online poker network in the world. Still, as part of the big 3, the iPoker Network has plenty of action in all their games. This was obvious on Sunday as more than 1,000 players ponied up the $200+$15 entry fee to play in iPoker’s biggest weekly event. With $210,400 in the middle and more than $44,000 on the line for the winner, it was a race to the finish. The final table hosted many good players including eventual winner “DontChallengeMe” who just earlier this year won the WP Friday $60k Guaranteed for $16,050. Just last week he final tables the $60k again, this time taking 4th place for just $5,176. Those two scores, while strong, were dwarfed by the massive $44,184 he won yesterday. With 1,052 players in the field, it appears the iPoker $200k might again be on the upswing. Let’s hope this is a trend and not just a blip on the radar.
iPoker Sunday $200k Guaranteed
1,052 Entrants; $210,400 prize pool
1. DontChallengeMe $44,184
2. profesoru71 $23,144
3. Deiz00 $16,832
4. WajCraj $12,624
5. MWUHAHA $10,520
6. Claytov $8,416
7. Mrgrapejuice $6,312
8. deadprez22 $4,208
9. Zehosent $2,946
10. TOUCHEamore $2,104
One tournament not really trending at all is the $100,000 guaranteed on the Merge Network. Once the home to many sites and skins accepting American players, the Merge Network has slowly but surely been turning Americans away lately. It’s tough to fault any room for not wanting to operate in the murky waters created by the US Government, but such is life in today’s American online poker landscape. The $100k on Merge just cannot seem to get enough traction to hit its guarantee. Lately the tournament has been falling anywhere from 100 to 150 players short, forcing the Merge Network to pay in excess of $15,000 in overlay at times. This past weekend was no exception, as $15,300 in overlay was forced as just 847 players signed up. For those in the tournament, this is quite the deal, as it handed each player nearly $20 in added value. The tournament came down to “DOUGHRAYME” and “iwantmymommy” with $8,000 on the line. The tournament would go Doug’s way, earning him a $20,000 first-place check. This was easily the biggest score of his career on Carbon Poker, besting a $500 cash for finishing in 731st place in this very event a few months ago. For runner-up iwantmymommy, it was much of the same. Just like his competitor, he appears to be fairly new to the Merge Network, and as such has not made a huge score on the site yet. That changed on Sunday as he took home $12,000 for his second-place finish.
Merge Poker Network Sunday $100k Guaranteed
847 Entrants; $100,000 prize pool
1. DOUGHRAYME $20,000
2. iwantmymommy $12,000
3. JohnFR2 $6,500
4. TEECRAMES $5,150
5. Cry4Vision $4,400
6. Dominique1134 $3,500
7. norcal83 $2,900
8. shorpy $2,475
9. pleasecallimbroke $1,900
There was one big event on PokerStars that was not part of the WCOOP, the $109 re-buy. The $200,000 guaranteed event saw 1,250 players re-buy and add-on enough times to create a $416,900 prize pool. With such a large prize pool for the small number of entrants, there was plenty of money on the line at the final table. The biggest name at the final table had to be “Skämmes”, a European poker professional who has won huge amounts of money playing online tournaments. On PokerStars, Skämmes nearly won the Sunday Million back in 2009, finished 2nd in the $1,500 PLO Re-buy SCOOP last year, and finished 2nd in the Sunday500 earlier this year. Overall, he has nearly $2,000,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone. Skämmes made it through 1,248 other players but still had to defeat “djalminha” for the title. While he was more experienced, djalminha was certainly no slouch. A high-stakes pro himself, djalminha had finished 2nd in WCOOP $500 re-buy in 2009 for $58,618, 2nd in the Super Tuesday in 2008 for $47,565, and final tabled the Sunday Million earlier this year for $34,708. Still, he was up against an online legend for this title, one many have fallen to in the past. That apparently didn’t phase djlaminha who took down Skämmes and the $109r title for a cool $76,084 payday. The $76k+ score was the biggest of his career on PokerStars and left Skämmes “settling” for a $55,406 2nd-place check.
PokerStars $109r $200k Guaranteed
1,250 Entrants; $416,900 prize pool
1. djalminha $76,084
2. Skämmes $55,406
3. Visionary129 $41,690
4. El_Canonero $31,268
5. LammingerFlo $21,887
6. gkap13 $17,718
7. MarkusG91 $13,549
8. tommos $9,380
9. maxxx147 $5,837
Next week the STR will be back to its normal self with reports on the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, Million, Sunday500, and other events from around the online poker world.