Another Sunday means another big round of tourneys on PokerStars, highlighted as always by the Sunday Million, online poker's most popular weekly tournament. There were 7,972 hopefuls gathered for today's Sunday Million, all putting up $215 with ideas of multiplying that investment by 1,000 or more. And after 11 hours and 45 minutes one of those 7,972 did just that as martyyy of Norway came away with the victory and a gigantic $239,164.05 first prize after no final table deal was made.
It took around five hours for the money bubble to burst, and shortly after it was PaDiLhA SP, Steve "BetrThanPhil" Tripp, and el diegote10 leading the counts as the only players with more than 300,000 chips.
There were a few members of Team PokerStars still in the counts then, with one -- Chris "chrisdm" de Meulder -- hitting the rail soon after in 1,056th to cash for $334.82.
As play continued a few of de Meulder's teammates fell as Vanessa "LadyMaverick" Rousso went out in 822nd ($382.65), Chris's brother Matthias "mattidm" de Meulder was sent railward in 736th ($414.54), and recent Poker Hall of Fame candidate Humberto "Humberto B." Brenes was stopped in 587th ($462.37).
That left just Team Challenger Stavros "IDOLLS" Kalfas to sport the red spade as the field was trimmed under 500 players. Kalfas would still be there as the tournament crossed the eight-hour mark, at which point 100 players remained and Grizzlypower and WaGe N Warz were in the top positions, both hovering around 2.1 million chips.
Kalfas hung on more than a half-hour longer, then a hand arose that saw simren make a 3x opening raise from the cutoff to 150,000, then IDOLLS reraise all in for 940,192 from the button. The blinds folded and simren called, turning over 6♥6♦ to Kalfas's A♥Q♣. The board then came ten-high, failing to improve Kalfas's hand and ending his Sunday Million run in 65th place for a $2,232.16 cash.
About an hour-and-a-half after that they'd reached the 10-hour mark and just 18 remained, with Bruno "bubbleboybr" Severino out in front with about 12.7 million and martyyy and DwnByDaBrdge not far behind.
It would take about 40 minutes more for the next nine to fall. jessy784 (18th), BetrThanPhil (17th), and Neyko348 (16th) each earned $4,225.16 for their finishes; x_x_AAA_x_x (15th), Francis "The Lag rat" Anderson (14th), and simren (13th) took away $6,377.60 apiece; and Sergey "SerAlGog" Gogolev (12th), wieselsen (11th), and KLUM_smoking (10th) picked up $8,530.04 cashes.
With martyyy having by then pushed out in front with more than 16 million, the final table was under way.
Seat 1: Velni@Z (Lithuania) -- 13,943,710
Seat 2: DwnByDaBrdge (Mexico) -- 9,845,397
Seat 3: Bruno "bubbleboybr" Severino (Brazil) -- 12,522,208
Seat 4: Loysh (Russia) -- 3,385,730
Seat 5: martyyy (Norway) -- 16,297,160
Seat 6: smily1208 (Switzerland) -- 2,977,825
Seat 7: dimjyri (Greece) -- 9,894,175
Seat 8: przem77 (Poland) -- 3,208,711
Seat 9: el diegote10 (Uruguay) -- 7,645,084
It took less than an orbit for the first final table elimination to occur.
With the blinds 150,000/300,000, Velni@Z opened for 601,900 from under the gun, then smily1208 reraised all in for 2,317,825 from the cutoff seat. It folded back to Velni@Z who called and turned over K♠Q♠ to the 8♣8♥ of smily1208. The flop and turn were okay for smily1208, coming 4♣T♦2♣, then 3♠. But the river was the Q♣, giving Velni@Z queens and sending smily1208 railward in ninth.
Just three hands after that, leader martyyy made a minimum-raise to 600,000 from early position, then a short-stacked przem77 shoved for 902,981 from a couple of seats over. All folded back to martyyy who called. przem77 had K♠9♥ and needed help against martyyy's A♥J♠, but the board came Q♦5♣6♦4♥Q♣, and przem77 was out in eighth.
The remaining seven played a couple of orbits more with the blinds climbing to 200,000/400,000. Then a hand arose in which Velni@Z raised to 801,900 from the button, then DwnByDaBrdge reraise-pushed for 6,342,457 from the small blind. Bruno "bubbleboybr" Severino folded the big blind, but Velni@Z called.
DwnByDaBrdge: K♥8♥
Velni@Z: A♦9♠
The community cards failed to connect with either player -- coming J♥Q♠7♠3♦4♦ -- and Velni@Z's ace-high bested DwnByDaBrdge's king-high to reduce the field to six.
A little later that level it was Bruno "bubbleboybr" Severino raising to 800,875 from the button, then Loysh was the one pushing from the small blind, this time for 5,874.657. It folded back to Severino who called with A♣J♥ while Loysh had 9♦9♠. The flop brought a jack for bubbleboybr, coming 7♣J♦8♥, and after the 5♠ turn and K♥ river, Loysh was knocked out in sixth.
They were nearing the 11-and-a-half-hour mark of the tournament when the blinds increased to 250,000/500,000, then Velni@Z open-raised all in for 6,107,168 from the cutoff. It folded to dimjyri who had but 4,992,728 left and made the call, showing 7♠7♣ while Velni@Z had A♣T♥. The board brought an ace, coming 8♥4♠A♦8♣9♦, giving Velni@Z the hand and ending dimjyri's run in fifth.
Shortly after that the remaining four paused the tournament to talk about a possible deal, with martyyy way in from with 41,953,741, Bruno "bubbleboybr" Severino next with 14,635,115, el diegote10 third with 11,881,248, and Velni@Z fourth with 11,249,896.
First "ICM" figures were produced, and then another set of proposed payouts according to the "chip chop" formula. Given martyyy's big lead, the difference between the two sets of numbers was quite significant (each leaving $20,000 aside for which to play):
"ICM"
martyyy $186,980.30
bubbleboybr $142,620.94
el diegote10 $133,592.45
Velni@Z $131,292.12
"chip chop"
martyyy $224,056.57
bubbleboybr $130,485.56
el diegote10 $121,053.09
Velni@Z $118,890.59
"I agree to the chip chop," typed martyyy. "I agree to the icm" replied bubbleboybr. Not long after that, all were typing "let's play" and cards were back in the air with no deal made.
A couple of minutes later el diegote10 min-raised to 1.2 million from the cutoff/UTG, Velni@Z reraised all in for 7,789,896 from the button, the blinds folded, and el diegote10 called. Velni@Z had A♦6♦ and was behind el diegote10's A♣K♦. The board came 8♦T♥2♠, then Q♦, then 4♥, and Velni@Z was done in fourth.
About 10 minutes after that the blinds were 400,000/800,000 when martyyy raised to 1.6 million from the small blind, el diegote10 shoved from the big blind for 19,836,852, and martyyy called.
martyyy had 9♥9♠ and el diegote10 A♠J♦, and when the flop came A♥4♦4♥, el diegote10 was quickly in front with two pair. The turn was the 3♠ and el diegote10 looked in good shape to climb back into contention versus martyyy, but the 9♦ spiked on the river, giving martyyy a full house and eliminating el diegote10 in third.
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With that knockout martyyy enjoyed a commanding lead to start heads-up play with 71,882,115 to Bruno "bubbleboybr" Severino's 7,837,845. On the first hand between them, martyyy shoved all in from the button and Severino folded. But when bubbleboybr did the same on the following hand, martyyy called and the pair showed their cards:
martyyy: K♠Q♦
bubbleboybr: Q♠7♣
martyyy had the big edge before the flop, and five cards later -- T♣9♦K♦2♥6♣ -- martyyy's hand was still best to secure the win.
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Congratulations to martyyy for topping another huge Sunday Million field and earning a $239,164.05 return on a $215 investment!
11/3/13 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Players: 7,972
Total prize pool: $1,594,400.00
Places paid: 1,170
1. martyyy (Norway) -- $239,164.05
2. bubbleboybr (Brazil) -- $175,384.00
3. el diegote10 (Uruguay) -- $119,580.00
4. Velni@Z (Lithuania) -- $80,357.76
5. dimjyri (Greece) -- $63,776.00
6. Loysh (Russia) -- $47,832.00
7. DwnByDaBrdge (Mexico) -- $31,888.00
8. przem77 (Poland) -- $18,335.60
9. smily1208 (Switzerland) -- $12,356.60
The 2013 Asia Championship of Poker has just completed while the UKIPT Isle of Man is nearing its conclusion. Click those links to read reports from each.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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