The Sunday Briefing: Dan Smith Wins The Sunday Million
It isn't every Sunday that the best live tournament players in the game win the biggest online tournaments. However, this Sunday that's what happened. Current GPI Player of the Year leader Dan Smith took down the Sunday Million for $219,504.25. Even more impressive was that Smith, without asking for a penny more that the first-place prize of $211,800, ended up with an extra $7,704.
Many other notables had impressive showings, too. Joining Smith in the winner's circle were Zsolt "Vzsolt800" Vasvenszki, Simon "ministerborg" Ravnsbaek, and Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich.
PokerStars Sunday Million ($1M Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+$15 | 7,060 | $1,412,000 |
With five players remaining in the Sunday Million, Dan "Danny98765" Smith held just about half the chips in play when the players paused to discuss a deal. After a slight tweak to the numbers to satisfy "yurabond," a deal was agreed upon that guaranteed Smith just about $12,000 less than first-place money ($211,800) and still gave him a chance to top that with the remaining $20,000 that was left to play for.
Even with the sizable chip lead when play resumed, Smith took a back seat as the rest of the table took care of each other before he was heads-up with "yurabond." Starting the heads-up duel at a slight chip disadvantage, Smith scored a double up when his A♠J♥ held against "yurabond's" K♦Q♣. From there, though, "yurabond" staged a comeback of his own to retake the chip lead.
The key hand took place at 400,000/800,000/80,000 with Smith on the button. He min-raised to 1,600,000 (beginning the hand with 33,569,990). From the big blind, "yurabond" popped it to 4,444,444 (beginning the hand with 37,030,010). Smith called and after the flop fell K♠9♠9♣, "yurabond" fired out 4,400,000. Smith called to see the Q♣ turn and again "yurabond" bet, this time 8,800.000. Another call from Smith delivered the A♦ river. All in was "yurabond's" next move, leading to Smith calling all in for 15,845,546 with K♦J♥, besting "yurabond's" 10♣10♦. Smith closed it out a few hands later to notch the impressive victory.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| *1 | Dan "Danny98765" Smith | $219,504.25 |
| *2 | yurabond | $85,000 |
| *3 | Karger222 | $102,993.24 |
| *4 | tulipaner | $115,841.91 |
| *5 | AMELPADRINO | $89,991.04 |
| 6 | untouchable10 | $43,772 |
| 7 | sunseeker | $30,538 |
| 8 | smokey3511 | $16,944 |
| 9 | Pratyush "Shane Gamble" Buddiga | $10.943 |
*denotes five-handed deal
To read more about this week's Sunday Million, head over to PokerStarsBlog.com.
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up ($500K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+$15 | 3,449 | $689,800 |
Among those who made deep runs in the Sunday Warm-Up were Alex "Kravchenko" Kravchenko (12th - $4,138.80), Soren "Kongsgaard" Kongsgaard (17th - $2,069.40), Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (26th - $1,758.99), and Morten "-MortenVM-" Mortensen (28th - $1,552.05). Zsolt "Vzsolt800" Vasvenszki earned the outright victory and the six-figure prize — $108,299.68.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zsolt "Vzsolt800" Vasvenszki | $108,299.68 |
| 2 | !Mp!yavv | $80,706.60 |
| 3 | elmerixx | $56,908.50 |
| 4 | thopfl | $39,663.50 |
| 5 | u.RuGwaI | $29,316.50 |
| 6 | shodek | $22,418.50 |
| 7 | nikov | $15,520.50 |
| 8 | LexaLucky666 | $8,622.50 |
| 9 | AzEsmTzar | $5,518.40 |
To read about this week's Sunday Warm-Up, head over to PokerStarsBlog.com.
PokerStars Sunday 500 ($300K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $500+$30 | 838 | $419,000 |
Among the slew of notables who went deep in the Sunday 500 were Nico "PKaiser" Fierro (10th - $4,190), Engelberth "engelberth.v" Varela (13th - $3,352), Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski (14th - $3,352), Christian "el grillo" De Leon (17th - $2,514), Jonathan "MONSTER_DONG" Karamalikis (19th - $1,885.50), and Angel Guillen (21st - $1,885.50). "Sanpri" topped the talented final table for $74,000.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| *1 | sanpri | $74,000 |
| *2 | trickyone14 | $55,890 |
| 3 | Jason "jdtjpoker" Wheeler | $40,643 |
| 4 | Brandvold | $30,377.50 |
| 5 | zugzwang16 | $21,117.60 |
| 6 | Brian "brianm15" England | $16,760 |
| 7 | Julian "soydelmillo" Menendez | $12,570 |
| 8 | Matias "Festivuss" Gabrenja | $8,380 |
| 9 | Skrigepas | $5,028 |
*denotes heads-up deal
PokerStars $109 Sunday Rebuy ($225K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $100+$9 | 1,031 | $336,100 |
Notables who made a good run of it in the $109 Sunday Rebuy were Richard "nutsinho" Lyndaker (13th - $2,856.85), Lars "Dsavo" Bonding (14th - $2,856.85), and Dylan "WhiteRabbito" Honeyman (18th - $2,184.65). Taking it down outright was Simon "ministerborg" Ravnsbaek for $62,178.50.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon "ministerborg" Ravnsbaek | $62,178.50 |
| 2 | acesover333 | $45,037.40 |
| 3 | Sghango | $33,610 |
| 4 | ebej24/7 | $25,207.50 |
| 5 | NoClue222 | $17,645.25 |
| 6 | moukari6 | $14,284.25 |
| 7 | PDonfire | $10,923.25 |
| 8 | sonmonedas | $7,562.25 |
| 9 | losttoriver | $4,705.40 |
PokerStars Bigger $109 ($160K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $100+$9 | 3,078 | $307,800 |
Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (17th - $1,000.35) and Michael "PapaGreggio" Hawkins (20th - $846.45) were the notables who posted nice showings in the Bigger $109. Following a heads-up deal, "matbeich" came away with the victory for $41,000.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| *1 | matbeich | $41,000 |
| *2 | w4ldo | $43,645.33 |
| 3 | GENERRRRRAL | $25,855.20 |
| 4 | fishbizzzone | $17,698.50 |
| 5 | Maureli | $13,389.30 |
| 6 | czlol | $10,311.30 |
| 7 | N'Doye #14 | $7,233.30 |
| 8 | strflushtome | $4,161.45 |
| 9 | progarbage | $2,616.30 |
*denotes heads-up deal
PokerStars Bigger $162 ($150K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $150+$12 | 1,713 | $256,950 |
Notable finishes in the Bigger $162 include Stefan "I'am_Sound" Huber (11th - $2,029.90), Shyam "G's zee" Srinivasan (12th - $2,029.90), Russell "rdcrsn" Carson (13th - $1,593.09), Vojtech "Vojta_R" Ruzicka (17th - $1,156.27), and Stefan "random_chu" Chew (18th - $1,156.27). Following a heads-up deal, Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich took it down for just less than $34,987.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| *1 | Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich | $34,987.26 |
| *2 | IceStream | $38,000 |
| 3 | Jason "TeamWispy" Helder | $23,125.50 |
| 4 | hypnotic242 | $17,215.65 |
| 5 | log1c7 | $12,205.12 |
| 6 | HeeltydSpeel | $9,635.62 |
| 7 | Magardan | $7,066.12 |
| 8 | jokocash | $4,496.62 |
| 9 | philipoo | $2,569.50 |
*denotes heads-up deal
PokerStars Sunday 2nd Chance ($175K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+$15 | 1,394 | $278,800 |
Seth "SFisch4" Fischer (12th - $2,453.44) and Maria "Femmeonfelt" Ho (13th - $1,895.84) were among those who came up just short of the final table in the Sunday 2nd Chance. In the end, though, it was "grapedrink07" besting a final tale that included Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero and Alex "Schildy1984" Debus.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | grapedrink07 | $47,396 |
| 2 | Theodoros "teo96" Aidonopoulos | $34,850 |
| 3 | zwuerbs | $26,458.12 |
| 4 | Balazs "birs320" Botond | $18,859.40 |
| 5 | Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero | $13,800.60 |
| 6 | TheMakrill7 | $11,012.60 |
| 7 | Pollopopeye | $8,224.60 |
| 8 | THEDUTCH4141 | $5,436.60 |
| 9 | Alex "Schildy1984" Debus | $3,011.04 |
PokerStars Sunday Storm ($300K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $10+$1 | 36,004 | $360,040 |
The Sunday Storm attracted a field of 36,004, creating a prize pool of $360,400. For the second time in three weeks, no deal took place at the final final table. This week, "REALfillgood" topped the field outright for $31,305.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | REALfillgood | $31,305.85 |
| 2 | dadowiec | $22,477.29 |
| 3 | Huncsaba | $15,121.68 |
| 4 | JonnyDS | $11,521.28 |
| 5 | SHIP_IT_SOS | $7,920.88 |
| 6 | panos753 | $4,860.54 |
| 7 | muzzi87 | $3,330.37 |
| 8 | scavengerrr | $2,340.26 |
| 9 | links111 | $1,638.18 |
PokerStars Sunday Kickoff ($100K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $100+$9 | 1,592 | $152,900 |
A heads-up chop got things started this weekend in the Sunday Kickoff. "SerkanBJK" and "rofos1983" each collected $23,610 for their efforts.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| *1 | rofos1983 | $23,610.38 |
| *2 | SerkanBJK | $23,610.38 |
| 3 | Steve "BetrThanPhil" Tripp | $14,328 |
| 4 | acozubi | $10,666.40 |
| 5 | icwww | $7,562 |
| 6 | plasticard | $5,970 |
| 7 | Dan&Alisa | $4,378 |
| 8 | DarWinFil | $2,786 |
| 9 | Torhonen | $1,592 |
*denotes heads-up chop
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