Anthony "GrindHeaps" Aston Becomes the 13th $1 Million Spin & Go Winner at PokerStars This Year
The world's largest real-money online poker room, PokerStars, recently rewarded its 13th $1 million prize this year in its popular lottery-style Spin & Go tournaments.
The match took place early this morning in a $100 buy-in game where, in just 33 hands and 10 minutes of play, Australia's "GrindHeaps" became a millionaire.
The event represented a new record for the least amount of hands required for a player to win a seven-digit sum. However, this match just fell short of the record least amount of time. Last month, Canada's "Koovoon" won the 12th million dollar Spin & Go jackpot in a record-breaking nine minutes and 37 seconds.
According to The Hendon Mob, "GrindHeaps" is known in real life as Anthony Aston. The site has tracked almost $169,000 in live tournament winnings for the Aussie, with his biggest cash coming in March 2012 when he finished in third place in the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour for AU$80,214 ($84,465).
Check out the ultimate guide to Spin & Go Poker at PokerStars
While Aston's competition in the jackpot Spin & Go, Ireland's Gavin "gavonater" O'Rourke and the United Kingdom's "EnglishGirl9" fell short of winning the top prize, they were each awarded handsomely with a $100,000 consolation prize.
O'Rourke, the runner-up in the Spin & Go, is known to be one of the top tournament players in his country with his biggest online multi-table tournament win coming in Sept. 2013 when he won $117,708 after finishing on top of a three-way deal in the WCOOP $320 NLHE 3X Chance.
Not much is known about "EnglishGirl9," as the third-place finisher previously had only one recorded online multi-table tournament result for a $10 cash according to Official Poker Rankings. This cash was also from a tournament that took place today, implying that this is a new PokerStars player that quickly struck it big.
This Spin & Go also marked the eighth time in the past two months that a player has won a $1 million haul. Here is a look at the other seven players during this time frame to have their dreams come true and become millionaires thanks to this game:
| Date | Player | Country | Buy-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 21 | Koovoon | Canada | $100 |
| Oct. 28 | ifipushud325 | Australia | $5 |
| Oct. 26 | handbt1 | Germany | $5 |
| Oct. 26 | barrakuuda4 | Estonia | $100 |
| Oct. 25 | prophethicks | England | $5 |
| Oct. 22 | wrawras | Brazil | $100 |
| Oct. 21 | Samara Lúcio | Brazil | $5 |
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