Sunday Briefing: Technical Difficulties Hit PokerStars, Moorman Wins 888's The Whale

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Aug 13, 2018 5 min read Last updated Oct 11, 2018

Sunday is traditionally the biggest day in online poker, at least where multi-table tournaments are concerned. Historically, PokerStars has had some of the biggest offerings on that day, while sites like partypoker, 888, and at times Unibet, try to challenge that more and more.

With other poker sites having suffered technical difficulties in recent weeks, this Sunday it was PokerStars that underwent some significant problems. Around 9 pm GMT, the site was first hit. The vast majority of the players were unable to connect, which resulted in players sitting out throughout all the tournaments running.

Eventually, all tournaments were canceled, but not before players lucky enough to be able to connect had amassed a ton of chips by "stealing" the blinds and antes that were passed around as the majority of the players were sitting out due to being unable to connect.

PokerStars: Sunday Million

One look at the lobby of the Sunday Million at PokerStars will show you the tournament easily met its $1,000,000 guarantee, but the $148,672 first-place prize was never awarded. With 1,755 players remaining in the tournament, the tournament was put on hold as most of the players weren't in their virtual seats.

The tournament was set to reward the top 998 players but all 1,755 got cash in their accounts, a result of the PokerStars Cancellation Policy.

The PokerStars client had suffered much wider problems well before the tournament was canceled but played on for a bit before the cancel tournament button was pushed. During that time, solely players from Bulgaria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Romania were able to play. So when the payouts were distributed in the canceled tournament, players from those four countries got the biggest sum. They were able to sit in and got rewarded the blinds and antes automatically as the rest could not connect.

Player “vvvpoker” from Romania was the one to profit the most as he or she had the biggest stack when the tournament ended, thus being awarded $4,087.

PokerStars: Sunday Rebuy

Things were a bit different in the $33+R Sunday Rebuy. When the tournament was canceled, 32 players remained. But, again well before that, the tournament was already experiencing technical difficulties. Romanian player “crinu_negru” was the only player able to connect, and he or she got a whole lot of blinds and antes before the tournament was indefinitely paused. This player got $16,379 following the PokerStars Cancellation Policy, a whole lot more than the originally slated first-place prize of $10,212.

888poker: The $80,000 Whale

No problems over on 888poker, with a familiar name taking down their marquee event.

In the $80,000 Whale on 888, a tournament with a buy-in of $1,050, the site was one player short of making their guarantee. The 62 entries and 17 reentries resulted in 8 players getting paid.

Chris “888Moorman” Moorman was the one taking down the lot, banking $26,000. There was no deal made, and his heads-up opponent Rodrigo "sonmonedass" Perez had to settle for $16,800.

partypoker: Sunday Kick-Off-H

"SouhftfW" took down the partypoker Kick-Off-H, banking $14,920 in the $215-buy-in tournament. The $50,000 guarantee was quickly met with 373 players taking to the felt, resulting in a prize pool worth $74,600.

partypoker: Sunday High Roller-HR

With 99 players buying in for $1,050, the partypoker Sunday High-Roller-HR was one buy-in short of making the $100,000 guarantee.

Sixteen players cashed in the event, with "smilethenclick" taking down the biggest slice of the pie. He or she won $24,500, some $7,000 more than runner-up "juergenresch" who took home $17,500.

partypoker: Sunday Bounty Hunter-HR

The Bounty Hunter High Roller on partypoker, another massive Sunday tournament with a buy-in of $1,050, had 163 entries when registration closed. The $150,000 guarantee partypoker traditionally puts on the tournament was easily met with a total prize pool of $166,464.

"JimyTransaction" was the one triumphing in the tournament, taking down the first-place prize of $16,437 and racking up well over that in bounties along the way. When the last hand was done, they took home $40,113, a whole lot more than runner-up "Chelsea72" who banked $19,948.

Milko van Winden has been a part of the poker media corps since 2017. Starting out as [I]PokerNews[/I] contributor and live reporter, Milko is now the Digital Media Manager at [i]PokerNews[/i].

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