Early Monday morning, the battle in the Fifth Anniversary PokerStars Sunday Million came to a close, setting records for both its prize pool and player count.
Last week, when PokerStars announced that the guaranteed prize of the fifth anniversary of its Sunday Million would be $5 million, it was safe to assume that it would draw huge numbers. When the site added on a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 as another reward for the victor, it added fuel to an already sizzling fire.
By the time late registration had ended in the early rounds of the tournament, an astounding 59,128 players had coughed up the $200 buy-in to participate in the event. The prize pool – $11,825,600 – was the second largest in online poker history, eclipsed only by last year’s World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event. Adding in the cost of the car, the Fifth Anniversary PokerStars Sunday Million featured a prize pool that bested $12 million.
Even though the tournament was one of the largest online events ever, the pace of play was rapid. It took slightly less than five hours to get to the 7,450th place player, who would earn a minimum cashout of $354.76. The main goal, of course, was the top prize of over $1 million and that Italian sports car.
Seven hours into the tournament, players continued to drop by the wayside as the event reached the 1,000-player mark. Although the elimination of 58,000 players came quickly, the final 1,000 battled it out for the next five hours to determine the final table. Once “pbrsquad” was vanquished in tenth place, the final table was set.
According to the PokerStars Blog, this is where the tournament became more interesting. With “Syndrome1977” holding the chip lead with 107.7 million over “Bdbeatslayer” (92.6 million), the final table players took some shots at thinning the herd. After a few hands in which “Syndrome1977” gave up the chip lead to “wrzr123,’ the table was paused and discussion of a chop began.
After almost an hour of chatter, the players were able to divvy up the roughly $4.7 million remaining in the prize pool. Taking the lion’s share was the chip leader, “wrzr123,” who walked off with over $844,000, but every player came away from the deal with at least $263,000. Set aside as the remaining prize was the Lamborghini.
Over the span of the next hour-and-a-half, the combatants for the Lamborghini came down to two players. “Bdbeatslayer” went on a massive run after the deal was struck and came into heads-up play holding a 4-1 lead over “sheppyshape.” The duo battled for roughly another half-hour before “sheppyshape,” holding pocket sevens, committed his stack to the center of the table. Unfortunately for him, “Bdbeatslayer” held a dominating pair of nines. After an uneventful board, “Bdbeatslayer” was the victor of the largest PokerStars Sunday Million in history.
1. Bdbeatslayer – $671,093.81 and a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4
2. sheppyshape – $465,647.02
3. wrzr123 – $844,209.87
4. guccyka – $411,090.13
5. Syndrome1977 – $799,842.09
6. zeurrr – $518,402.33
7. nhar818 – $441,541.06
8. Jan10004 – $311,023.33
9. Battmeister – $263,888.06
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