Sunday Briefing: Franklin Defeats Filatov for Sunday Million Title
Ryan "HITTHEPANDA" Franklin took his lifetime online poker tournament winnings past $4.1 million this weekend when he came out on top of a 5,914-strong field in the PokerStars Sunday Million to get his hands on $159,701, his largest online cash to date.
Franklin reached the nine-handed final table with 4,149,869 in chips, which were enough to place him in fifth place. He was joined at the table by online poker luminaries Anatoly "NL_Profit" Filatov, "vip25459" and "flong78".
One by one the players at the final table fell by the wayside with Filatov being particularly dominant. By the time play was four-handed, Filatov held more than half of the chips in play and looked on course for a deserved victory.
Belarus' "Alexey5758" bust in fourth place before vip25459 crashed out in third place to send the tournament into the heads-up stage.
Franklin started the one-on-one battle aggressively and quickly took the lead. Filatov fought back before Franklin took the lead again courtesy of his ace kicker when the board ran out quad threes.
The final hand saw Filatov three-bet all in with ace-jack over the top of Franklin's open with ace-queen. Franklin called, paired his queen on the flop, and sent Filatov to the showers in second place.
Here's a look at some of the others who joined Franklin in the winner's circle on PokerStars on Dec. 3.
| Tournament | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| $530 Bounty Builder | Perfect1232 | $71,871* |
| $2,100 Sunday High Roller | Nikita "fish2013" Bodyakovsky | $59,662 |
| $215 Sunday Warm-Up | anti-VGKC | $42,180 |
| Sunday 500 | Diego "Die Ventura" Ventura Chunga | $37,333 |
| $109 Bounty Builder | Remi Lebo_10 | $34,825* |
| $215 Bounty Builder | filusPL | $33,488* |
| $215 Sunday Supersonic | dennysramos2 | $30,263 |
| Bigger $109 | Tim "tamiam122" Cramer | $24,053 |
| Hotter $215 | josef_shvejk | $21,931 |
| Bigger $215 | ardonaS | $21,480 |
| Hotter $109 | nailuk90 | $18,651 |
| $109 Sunday Cooldown | ferris69 | $18,648 |
| $109 Sunday Kickoff | gabi_igna | $18,060 |
| $530 Omania High Roller | Jens "Fresh_oO_D" Lakemeier | $17,020 |
| $109 Sunday KOmania | cuddy1990 | $8,177* |
| Hotter $162 | montejeu8 | $7,685 |
| $215 Triple Threat | Pedro "pcayobh" Cayo | $7,336 |
| $109 Sunday Wrap-Up | Pthelegend | $6,979 |
| $109 Omania | Minthon19 | $6,706 |
| $109 Sunday Starter | 99_shark_94 | $6,160 |
| $215 NLO8 Sunday Supersonic | vachette17 | $5,661 |
| Bigger $162 | Chris "Moorman1" Moorman | $5,277 |
| $109 Bubble Rush | Luuk "pokerkluka" Gieles | $5,008 |
*Includes bounty payouts
888poker Action
Dec. 3 was another big day at 888poker where the United Kingdom's "Eat1ngAndWIN" triumphed in the $100,000 Baby Whale to turn $320 into $21,500. Meanwhile, "RakDoll" won the $100,000 Mega Deep for $19,114.
Also at 888poker, "heyfreddy" won the $50,000 Sunday Challenge for $9,625 and the $30,000 Sunday GREAT 8 was chopped heads-up with "kiskutya23" banking $6,568 and "Mikel_Hansen" walking away with $6,269.
Big Scores at partypoker
Over at partypoker there were several big scores, including one for "Chelsea72" who won the $2,600 Super High Roller for $46,856. A top prize of $31,848 was awarded to "SentimenTODO23" for taking down the $530 High Roller.
In the $215 Title Fight Warm Up, "NEW_Flat" triumphed and won $34,960. "Coulduchkplease" won the $109 Main Event Warm Up for $20,255, while "MentulaMagna" secured the $25,226 top prize of the $530 High Roller Warm Up; "reallygamble" won the $109 Main Event Kick Off for $12,742; and "FearTheBeard13" won $14,356 for winning the $215 Title Fight Kick-Off.
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