Online Poker Tournament Recap – June 23, 2008
With 40 events completed at the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the Rio has become the center of the poker universe. This is the one time during the year when online tournaments seem to take a back seat. However, while I may be painting a grim picture, every online guaranteed tournament is offering excellent value right now. Just because the fields have shrunk doesn’t mean the guarantees have. Because of the dearth of players, several of the major tournaments have sported an overlay in recent weeks, which means that the actual prize pool is smaller than the guarantee. With that definition in mind, let’s take a look at the results from this weekend’s major online tournaments.
The Bodog $100K Guaranteed features a $20,000 to $30,000 overlay every single week. I can’t recall the last time that this tournament exceeded its guarantee, making it a juicy proposition for many poker players. This week, 711 players entered, meaning the overlay in the $109 buy-in tournament was just shy of $30,000. In the end, NATCH defeated gfunkera to take home the $23,600 first place prize. The runner up cashed for $13,600. SpauldingSmails, CobaltBlue, and ChicagoBulls finished third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, each pocketing over $5,000. If you’ve never played in the Bodog $100K, give it a shot and take advantage of its weekly overlay.
In the $215 buy-in Party Poker $300K Guaranteed, mattidm raced through a field of 1,408 entrants en route to a $60,000 payday. This week, the Party Poker $300K Guaranteed featured a $20,000 overlay, meaning the second place finisher, robotbrain, took home a healthy $33,000. Others cashing for at least five figures included pokerotto888 (third for $20,700), bigdogpckt5s (fourth for $16,350), rdcrsn (fifth for $13,800), and dntpssm30off (sixth for $10,350). The top 150 finishers took home money. Remember, Party Poker does not accept U.S. players, so this is a predominantly European and Asian field.
Full Tilt Poker runs three major tournaments every Sunday, each offering up high-dollar guarantees and attracting a throng of poker pros and novices, each looking for their slice of life-changing money. The featured tournament on the site every Sunday is the $750K Guaranteed, which saw a massive $60,000 overlay this weekend. IzabelG made the most of the truncated field, pocketing $132,788 for first place. The top three spots paid more than $50,000, a solid return on a $215 investment. The $250K Guaranteed Sunday Brawl was won by StevoL_7, who took home $64,543. Finally, my favorite weekly Full Tilt Tournament, the Sunday Mulligan, was won by Avril Sharapova, who pocketed $45,540. Both the Sunday Brawl and Sunday Mulligan exceeded their guarantees, which is a common occurrence in these two extremely popular Sunday tournaments.
The richest weekly online poker tournament on the planet, the PokerStars Sunday Million, attracted 6,382 entrants this weekend, generating a $1.27 million prize pool. This $215 buy-in tournament dishes out an enormous first prize week in and week out. This past Sunday, it went to tEh_R3aLde4L. The winner pocketed $158,657 for his efforts. The runner up, Bolikk, raked in over $100,000 as well. The $500K Guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up was won by ellgringo, who took home $80,476. The $200K Guaranteed Second Chance was taken down by lollasen, who won $43,956. The Sunday Warm-Up and Second Chance each surpassed their guaranteed prize pools. Each is offered every week along with the Sunday Million.
Finally, the UltimateBet $200K Guaranteed sported another overlay this week, this time nearly $30,000. The $215 buy-in tournament attracted 861 entrants, which made for a nice payday for GOGATORS86, who won $45,000. Finishing in second was nobadbeatsplz, who won $27,000. AJKHoosier1, Tigger2, and upayformynugs finished third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. Each won over $10,000. The top 90 slots paid out.
There you have it. Tournaments next Sunday should also feature smaller fields, as the Main Event begins on July 3rd. Good luck to all Poker Source readers out there!
