Sunday Briefing: Michael Zhang Excels in High Rollers

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Apr 30, 2018 5 min read

The United Kingdom’s Michael Zhang is in excellent form at the moment and that form continued on Apr. 29 with a victory and a final table appearance in two of online poker’s toughest Sunday tournaments.

partypoker Super Sunday High Roller-SHR: $200K Gtd

Zhang was one of 81 entries in partypoker’s $2,600 buy-in Super High Roller and he helped create a $202,500 prize pool, which meant the $200,000 guarantee was hit. The entry list read like a who’s who of online poker, as you would expect from such a high buy-in event, so it was no surprise to see such a star-studded final table.

Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi bubbled the final table, finishing in ninth-place or $6,581. The first casualty of the eight-handed final table was “PhileasFogg,” who is ranked second in the world by our friends at PocketFives.com.

“Cool_Dave” fell in seventh-place with Team partypoker’s Roberto “WelshWizard” Romanello busting one place later and becoming the tournament’s first player to win a five-figure score. Next to exit was the talented Swede Simon “HellmuthTheGr8” Mattsson and he was joined on the sidelines by the winner of this tournament last week “BenRichards1.”

Ukraine’s Roman “SanityWaterline” Romanovsky crashed out in third-place, leaving Zhang and “MentulaMagna” to battle it out heads-up for the title. Zhang eventually brushed his opponent aside to bank $53,662.

This Super High Roller must be a favorite of Zhang’s because he won it on Apr. 15 for $50,375. You may also recall that Zhang walked away with €800,000 in February when he won the €50,000 Super High Roller at the partypoker MILLIONS Germany festival in Rozvadov; is there any stopping this guy?

partypoker Super Sunday Main Event High Roller: $200K Gtd

This week’s $530 Super Sunday Main Event High Roller ended in a heads-up deal that saw the final two players add a combined $68,060 to their partypoker accounts.

Some 415 players turned out for the Main Event High Roller this week, and the $207,500 prize pool was shared among the top 56 finishers, with partypoker ambassador Patrick “Patrick_Leonard” Leonard being the first player to cash ($1,182).

The least anyone at the eight-handed final table could take home was $3,672, and this is the sum Team partypoker’s Joao “joaosimaobh” Simao collected when he busted in eighth-place. Another of Simao’s team-mates, Dzmitry “Dzmitry_Urbanovich” Urbanovich fell in sixth-place for $7,138 while the impressive Uruguayan Fabrizio “DrMiKee” Gonzalez collected $13,695 for his fourth-place finish.

A deal was struck shortly after “keSchogori” exited in third-place, and it saw “Z-ENERGIES” secure $32,543 and Niklas “lena900” Astedt crowned champion with a $35,516 prize.

*reflects a heads-up deal

PokerStars Sunday High Roller: $150K Gtd

Earlier we wrote about Michael Zhang winning the partypoker Super High Roller and reaching the final table of another, well this is the other tournament he reached the final table of; the $2,100 Sunday High Roller at PokerStars.

While Zhang couldn’t quite walk away with another win, that honor went to Thailand-based Australian Michael “imluckbox” Addamo, he did collect $12,195 for his sixth-place finish.

As mentioned, it was Addamo who emerged victorious to turn his $2,100 into a more impressive $50,386, defeating the United Kingdom’s “Mad4it4life” heads-up to get his hands on the title.

There were two players at the final table who call China home. “Zwyyyy” finished in ninth-place for $6,098 and “RJYJYR” busted in seventh-place for $9,182.

PokerStars Sunday Million

“Adam4_Condor” of the Czech Republic will go down in the history books as being the winner of this weekend’s Sunday Million, but did not walk away with the largest cash prize due to the final four players striking a deal.

First-place was originally going to award $172,307, but Adam4_Condor collected a still respectable $117,195 for the victory. The deal awarded $109,027 to “nielssie88” of the Netherlands who finished as the tournament’s runner-up, $89,558 to Romania’s Virgil “vidi.pkr” Marculescu with the biggest haul going to another Czech player in the shape of “Rohlik2” who banked $121,844 despite finishing in fourth-place.

It is not unusual for the Sunday Million final table to feature players from nine different countries, but this week saw two Czech players, two Romanians, two Dutch, and two Austrians, with a Russian player fulfilling the final nine. The Czech players came out on top not only because one of them won the event, but because they got their hands on almost $240,000 of the $1,276,400 prize pool.

*reflects a four-handed deal

888poker $100,000 Whale

The United Kingdom’s “bigblindbets” won the most money at 888poker this weekend courtesy of taking down the $100,000 Whale. The Brit turned $1,050 into $30,000 by outlasting 91 players in the high stakes tournament.

Ukraine’s Roman “romeopro33” Romanovsky, fresh from a final table appearance in the partypoker Super High Roller, finished in second-place and collected $20,000.

Satellites for the Whale run all week and start as low as a single cent.

888poker $100,000 Mega Deep

Over at 888poker, the $100,000 Mega Deep missed its guarantee, but that didn’t bother India’s “checcmate” who topped a field of 436 to turn $215 into a most impressive $19,250. The India-based player defeated Kuwait’s “genab 10” heads-up to get their hands on the top prize and leave the runner-up to collect $14,250 for their second-place finish.

Johannes “TrollKonst8” Korsar was the player at the final table with the highest profile. The Swede couldn’t quite finish the job after reaching the final table and bust in fourth-place for a $7,750 score. Korsar now has more than $11 million in online poker tournament winnings.

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