Sunday Briefing: 3-Way Chop Concludes Sunday Million, Talbot Wins 888poker's Sunday Mega Deep

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Nov 19, 2018 5 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

Nov. 18 was another big day for online poker tournament players with some massive scores enjoyed by players all around the globe. As is usually the case, it was the PokerStars Sunday Million that created the biggest prize pool, a tournament that saw three players walk away with six-figure scores.

PokerStars Sunday Million

A guarantee-busting field of 5,657 turned out for this weekend’s PokerStars Sunday Million. Each player at the nine-handed final table turned their $215 investment into a more substantial $8,988.

This was the sum awarded to China’s “mahairong” when they busted in ninth-place, the last player not to lock up five figures.

The first five-figure haul, namely $12,808, went to “Chapo16” of Germany and they were followed to the rail by “aecrim93” of Romania, “EPNR” of Russia, and Brazil’s “edu22.sp”.

By now the least anyone was taking home was a cool $52,808. Two Irishmen, a Brazilian, and a Norwegian were battling it out for what was a $152,804 top prize. One of the Irish grinders, Aidan “yaboybush” Hynes fell in fourth-place, which resulted in the last standing trio of players to pause the tournament’s clock and discuss a deal.

A deal was struck that saw each of the players secure at least $100,227 with $20,000 left for the eventual champion.

It was a good deal for Frederico “fred_volpe” Volpe as he busted in third-place for $101,342 to set up a one-on-one encounter between James “deyrzuited” Noonan and Norway’s “MrFure.” The latter came out on top to resign Noonan to the $100,227 consolation prize, locking up the $133,713 and Sunday Million title for themselves.

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PokerStars High Roller Club: $2,100 Sunday High Roller

A familiar name was the last man standing in the PokerStars High Roller Club: $2,100 Sunday High Roller event as he banked another $41,580.

Patrick “pads1161” Leonard has been ranked as highly as number one in the world for online poker tournaments and is one of the most-feared poker players of his generation. He added to his reputation by topping a field of 87 of the world’s best tournament players to win yet another major online event.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Brit as the nine-handed final table hosted some incredible talent. Sweden’s Niklas “Lena900” Astedt fell in eighth-place and Canadian star Timothy “Tim0thee” Adams departed in fifth-place, that finish worth $14,530.

Austria’s Oliver “sk2ll_m0dR” Wies was the fourth-place finisher before Russia’s “Futti18” exited in third-place to leave Leonard and Hristiyan “cskar4e1” Panchev to lock horns heads-up. Leonard brushed aside Panchev to claim the $41,580 top prize, while Panchev added $31,969 to his bankroll.

partypoker KO Series #03-HR: $300K Gtd [8-Max]

The $10 million guaranteed KO Series began at partypoker on Nov. 18 and Canada’s “ellis204” kicked off the week-long festival in style.

Some 579 players exchanged $530 for 100,000 chips in the partypoker KO Series #03-HR: $300K Gtd [8-Max] event and ellis204 got their hands on all 57,900,000 chips and a massive prize of $50,423, which included bounty payments.

Bounties were substantial in this event as partypoker does not rake the bounty element of its PKO tournaments. Runner-up “rnggodx” of Germany banked $19,404 from the main prize pool and an additional $6,585 worth of bounties; only ellis204 netted more money from bounties due to claiming their own when they emerged victoriously.

The only other player to walk away with a five-figure score was “senyorpou”. There are not many poker players hailing from Andorra, but senyorpou did their country proud by navigating their way to a third-place finish worth a combined $19,773.

partypoker KO Series #03-H: $300K Gtd [8-Max]

partypoker ran a $300,000 PKO event that only had a $109 buy-in, the KO Series #03-H: $300K Gtd [8-Max]. A field of 2,480 left a significant overlay on the guarantee, not that “Bill Kassouf” of Austria minded because they took down the tournament and a combined score of $40,513.

It looked like the United Kingdom was going to have a KO Series champion in the latter stages of the tournament because “brookert33” and “redcoatchris” found themselves grinding three-handed along with Bill Kassouf.

brookert33 saw their tournament come to an abrupt end in third-place. Their $12,406 prize was boosted by $3,520 worth of bounties for a combined score of $15,926. redcoatchris did everything in their power to defeat Bill Kassouf but ultimately fell short.

This mean redcoatchris was the tournament’s runner-up, a finish worth $20,619 in total, which also left Bill Kassouf to be crowned a KO Series champion, an accolade that came with $40,513.

888poker $100,000 Sunday Mega Deep

The 888poker $100,000 Sunday Mega Deep is a popular tournament although nobody loves it more today than streamer extraordinaire Parker “888tonkaaaa” Talbot. Why? Because he won it on Nov. 18!

Talbot bulldozed his way through the 506-strong field and found himself heads-up against “sikosimatic” of Austria. First-place was meant to be $19,481 with the second-place finishers set to win $14,421.

Both Talbot and sikosimatik decided to lessen the pay jump by chopping the remaining prize pool. This meant sikosimatik turned their $215 investment into $16,511 with Talbot banking $17,390.

A special mention has to go to India’s “checcmate” after they finished sixth for $3,795. The Indian finished sixth in last week’s Sunday Mega Deep, which is a fantastic achievement in anyone’s eyes.

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888poker $20,000 Mini Mega Deep

Malta had two players at the final table of the $20,000 Mini Mega Deep this week, and one of them walked away with the title and the lion’s share of the $23,800 prize pool.

Everyone finishing in fifth-place or higher won no less than $1,225, the prize awarded to Germany's “0110111”. Fourth-place and $1,737 went to “Analyser” with Brazil’s David “davidsutil” Martins dusting off his stack in third-place for a $2,320 addition to his bankroll.

Unlike the bigger Sunday Mega Deep, this tournament did not end in a deal because “Agsur_Seni” of Malta made short work of “Bumbi320” to claim the $4,307 first-place prize for themselves, leaving the runner-up to collect $3,094.

_{The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media}

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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