In case you missed it, the guarantee of the PokerStars Sunday Million, the largest prize pool tournament offered in the world of online poker every week, skyrocketed to a whopping $1.5 million this weekend. The move brought a sigh of relief from many players in the industry who continue to deposit and play on the Net’s largest online poker room. The giant turnout in the Sunday Million highlighted the action from the virtual felts on Sunday, the busiest day of the week for online poker. Let’s take a look at who made headlines in this week’s tournament roundup.
The PokerStars Sunday Million, now boasting a $1.5 million guarantee for the first time as part of the recent move, attracted 8,431 entrants. Each coughed up a buy-in of $215 to play, which created a prize pool of nearly $1.7 million. At the end of the day, Fred_Brink took home a healthy $204,199 for first place, one of the largest first place prizes ever paid out online. He defeated betofetus heads up, leaving him with $137,425 for second. As is normally the case in this gigantic tournament, the top five finishers walked away with over $50,000. There were 1,260 players that finished in the money.
The PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, held just before the Sunday Million kicked off, saw its guarantee increase from $500,000 to $750,000, meaning that just like the Sunday Million it boasted a 50% larger guaranteed prize pool. There were 3,849 entrants, boosting the prize pool to $769,800. The top 585 players cashed, led by Gullars85, who won $100,784. Not bad for a $216 buy-in. H.O.V.E. 585 took home a $69,282 consolation prize. The top seven players banked at least five figures.
The PokerStars Second Chance is another opportunity for players to claim their share of $300,000 every Sunday, up from $200,000 in previous weeks. It’s still a $215 buy-in tournament, and mattg1983 – one of the top online poker players in the world – took home $53,330 for first. Rubadubducky finished as the runner up, cashing for $39,681. The tournament narrowly covered its guarantee, sporting a prize pool of $308,800.
Another gigantic tournament this weekend could be found on PokerRoom. The site, which does not accept U.S. players, held a $500K Guaranteed ChampionChip Final. The massive tournament drew a 1,464 player field. In one of the largest prize pools offered on a non-U.S. site, the ChampionChip Final was won by sicilian17, who pocketed $115,290 for first. The top 160 spots paid out and the top seven finishers (sicilian17, mutz3, alestapi, HANZA007, Oksen2500, croywhale, and Arcimira) each walked away with more than $10,000. The tournament had a buy-in of $375.
Finally, we’ll visit Titan Poker this week, where the $215 buy-in $250K Guarantee was a rousing success. Like PokerRoom, Titan Poker does not accept U.S. players. There were a healthy 1,194 players anyway, meaning the tournament sported a slight overlay, which was good news for its players. Titan Poker player mikeywich won the $250K Guaranteed, taking home $52,500 for his efforts. Rounding out the final table were KathiKopfgeruch, EricCantona, chris42242, DTFC, 1Shotgun, bustosoon, firsty99, OldSkoolPoka, and ThomThomGoGo1.
The increased prize pools on PokerStars come on the heels of July’s “2x” promotions. During one week last month, the online poker room doubled the guarantees of all of its major tournaments, meaning the Sunday Million boasted a $2 million guarantee. The result was that the marquee Sunday major attracted over 14,000 hungry poker players. The Sunday Million, Warm-Up, Mulligan, and other tournaments will continue to have larger guarantees every week.
