Players turned up in less numbers to play online poker in the Garden State with every major Sunday tournament with at least a $10,000 guaranteed prize pool shrinking in size when compared to the previous week. Regardless, many players took advantage of the smaller fields to bank big paydays.
The biggest single cash of the weekend came in the PokerStars NJ Sunday Special, $50,000 Gtd when "NvrEatShrdWt" outlasted a field of 307 entrants to take home $11,049. New Jersey's "BOnEheAd109" also scored big in this tournament by winning the runner-up prize of $8,280.
Steven "FadeOrHoldz" Madara took down the tournament with the biggest buy-in, winning the top prize of $9,043 after beating out a small field of 52 entrants in the $500 Sunday High Roller [6-Max], $15,000 Gtd on PokerStars NJ. Madara also banked $540 after exiting the partypoker NJ/BorgataPoker.com Daily $10K in seventh place.
Meanwhile Joshua "WilfordBrimley" Berardi secured the second biggest payday over the weekend by shipping the partypoker NJ/BorgataPoker.com $50,000 Guarantee for $10,200. To add to this, he also finished in eighth place in the Sunday Special for $540 under the screenname "YogaGrandma".
Other notable players to appear on the final table in the $50,000 Guarantee were David "phatchoy" Cheng (2nd - $6,717), Eric "alwaysliquid" Vanauken (3rd - $4,845), Lucas "lucasp" Picking (4th - $3,417), and Sean "SmellsLikeIrish" Martin (8th - $1,887).
Cheng's Sunday performance wasn't finished here, as he won another $3,818 by finishing in third place in the WSOP.com NJ Spring Poker Series Event #1 under the screenname "phatdaddy". Joseph "megolaman1ac" Liberta came short of the big money spots in this tournament, however, still banked $1,273 after being eliminated in eighth place.
New Jersey's "Beastro" also had reason to celebrate this weekend with him outlasting a tough final four to win the WSOP NJ/888poker NJ $30,000 GTD Weekly Sunday for $8,100. Finishing just behind "Beatro" were David "draiman517" Raiman (2nd - $4,725), Douglas "Onbadwis" Weider (3rd - $2,700), and Keith "T1mB3y_B33F" Donovan (4th - $2,100).
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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