Craig "YourPetCat" Rubinstein celebrated his birthday in a huge way by taking down the PokerStars NJ Sunday Special for an impressive haul of $13,242, the biggest regulated online poker tournament in New Jersey this past weekend.
In just the second weekend since the PokerStars NJ hard launch, this tournament has proven its popularity with significant week-over-week growth from 309 entrants in the first week to 371 entrants in the second. This translated into a 20-percent increase in the prize pool from $57,434 to $69,006.
Meanwhile, popular New Jersey poker players Patrick "my2chis" Shelley (4th - $5,520) and Keith "donnysack" Donovan (7th - $2,243) also scored big in the Sunday Special after navigating their ways to the final table.
New Jersey's "McLovin81" claimed the second biggest payday over the weekend by outlasting a 276-player field in the partypoker NJ/BorgataPoker.com $50,000 Guarantee to bank $11,040. Three notable players to also appear on the final table in this tournament included Ted "roystalin" Ely (2nd - $7,270), Josh "jerseyjosh" Baer (4th - $4,416), and Sean "MyBoysCanSwim" Rice (6th - $3,146).
Rice also navigated his way to the final table in the biggest major tournament on the WSOP NJ/888poker NJ poker network by taking ninth in the $30,000 GTD Weekly Sunday, a tournament won by "StackyMcChip" for $8,591. Four other well-known players to wade through the 172 entrants in this tournament to reach the final table included Brian "pure__reason" Wood (3rd - $2,864), Michael "miw210x" Wang (4th - $2,227), Vinny "brownmagic" Pahuja (5th - $1,909), and Anna "JewJon" Antimony (7th - $1,209).
Antimony, one of the most popular female poker players in New Jersey, also hauled in another $733 on this network when finishing in fifth in the $10,000 GTD Weekly Sunday. Michael "myGAME" Lavenburg, who last week won The BIG Deal for $12,378, continues to impress by shipping the $10,000 GTD Weekly Sunday for $3,178. Also making their way to the final table in this tournament were Jake "Jakep474" Perry (2nd - $1,922) and Jesse "No_Xcape" Elliot (8th - $300).
Two other players to win tournaments on Sunday with guaranteed prizes pools of at least $10,000 were Anthony "FlawlessBINK" Maio, shipping the PokerStars NJ Sunday Warm-Up for $2,652, and Joseph "megolaman1ac" Liberta, taking down the partypoker NJ/Borgata Poker Daily $10K for $3,576.
If you play regulated online poker tournaments in New Jersey and would like your real name appearing in future articles, please contact this editor at [email protected].
*Special thanks to PocketFives.com for some of the data in this article.
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