“Daenarys T” Wins Sunday Million Anniversary Take 2 for $1MM
Netherlands’ “Daenarys T” became a millionaire on Apr. 23 thanks to being the last player standing in the $10 million guaranteed PokerStars Sunday Million Anniversary Take 2 tournament. The Dutchman started the day in 55th place of the 735 remaining players.
PokerStars Sunday Million Anniversary Take 2
| Date | April 22-23 |
| Buy-in | $215 |
| Guarantee | $10,000,000 |
| Entrants | 56,310 |
| Prize pool | $11,262,000 |
| ITM | 9,296 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daenarys T | Netherlands | $1,000,043 |
| 2 | Rick “ThEcLaiMEer” Trigg | United Kingdom | $715,335 |
| 3 | Noobanx | Mongolia | $505,818 |
| 4 | peter788502 | Bulgaria | $357,667 |
| 5 | Hidey7 | United Kingdom | $252,910 |
| 6 | Mike180373 | Russia | $178,834 |
| 7 | Sholkey989 | Mongolia | $126,456 |
| 8 | kaizerdrea | Norway | $89,418 |
| 9 | Rippedut | Canada | $63,229 |
Day 2 of the $10 million guaranteed spectacle saw 735 players return to the PokerStars virtual felt. Each of the returning players was guaranteed $1,102, but with a shade of over a million dollars waiting for the eventual champion, nobody wanted to claim this much lesser sum.
The players fell one-by-one until only the nine-handed table remained. Everyone at the final table had locked up a cool $63,229 for their $215 investment and were only eight eliminations away from becoming an instant millionaire.
Final Table Reached
Canada’s “Rippedut” was the first player to bust from the final table. Rippedut looked set to double their stack because their pocket aces were all-in against Daenarys T’s pocket queens. A queen on the flop ended the Canadian’s tournament.
Next to fall was Norway’s “kaizerdrea” who committed their stack with ace-jack and lost to the dominating ace-king in the hand of British grinder Rick “ThEcLaiMEer” Trigg. This elimination meant the remaining players would all take home a six-figure score.
In something of a rarity for online poker, two Mongolian players clashed to reduce the player count by one. “Sholkey989” busted when their suited king-queen could not come from behind to beat the ace-six in the hands of “Noobanx”.
Trigg then claimed his second scalp of the final table when his king-jack improved to a pair of jacks on the river to beat the ace-king of Russia “Mike180373”. Right after, “Hidey7” of the United Kingdom missed a flush and straight draw in a hand involving Daenarys T to head to the rail in fifth-place.
“Peter788502” of Bulgaria exited in fourth-place at the hands of Noobanx. Trigg then ramped up the aggression with only three players remaining and soared into the chip lead. The British pro made a solid call on a board that had both straight and flush possibilities to bust Noobanx in third-place; Noobanz had run a big bluff that ended badly.
Trigg and Daenarys T locked horns heads-up for the $1 million first-place prize knowing whoever finished second would still bank a healthy $715,335. They looked at the numbers to possibly strike a deal but decided against it in the end.
Trigg held a 2-1 chip advantage going into the heads up, but his Dutch opponent quickly turned things around winning a series of hand to take the lead.
The final hand saw Daenarys T open from the button with A♥6♥, and Trigg call with J♣10♥. Trigg check-called a 14,875,000 bet on the A♠10♦8♣ flop before check-calling a 54,187,000 bet on the 3♥ turn. Another check by Trigg on the 2♠ river saw Daenarys T shove. Trigg eventually called with second pair only to see his opponent had top pair and therefore the title.
Daenarys T, with Dutch poker player Tim "FysioTim" Hendriks as its avatar, had just $162,427 in lifetime cashes before this event, according to PocketFives.
PokerStars’ players have plenty more opportunities to win potentially massive prizes as the Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP) begins on May 6 and lasts until May 21. A total of $65 million is guaranteed across the festival, including a trio of Main Events costing $109, $1,050 and $10,300 that have combined guaranteed prize pools weighing in at $6.5 million.
Thanks to the PokerStars Blog for information used in this article
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