Sunday Briefing: Online Festivals Create Massive Scores

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Feb 04, 2019 5 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

Dozens of online poker players won big on Feb. 3 thanks to the 888poker RakeLESS promotion, partypoker KO Series, PokerStars Turbo Series, and Natural8 running some big buy-in events that attracted players in droves.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest online poker tournament scores from Feb. 3.

PokerStars Turbo Series 01: $215 NLHE PKO

The PokerStars Turbo Series 01: $215 NLHE PKO attracted a massive field of 6,282 entrants who helped create a mammoth-sized $1,256,400 prize pool that was shared among the top 881 finishers and with whoever managed to eliminate an opponent.

At least $4,698, plus any bounties, was guaranteed for each of the nine final table members, the sum awarded to “5692262” of China; the Chinese player banked $11,031 when bounties were added to their score.

“Mr Meykes”, “despedespi33”, “Hytuio” and “khch” all crashed out to bank between $7,613 and $29,788 in total, with fourth-place finisher “patabdd” collecting a combined $31,823.

Third-place and a total of $51,379 was awarded to “Thomas198713” of Belgium, leaving “atanas_1980” and “FrCnntn1960” to play heads-up for the title and a considerable difference in prize money.

No deal was struck despite this now essentially being a heads-up sit & go for more than $70,000, meaning when Bulgarian “atanas_1980” busted in second-place, they netted $71,226 in total, leaving the British FrCnnctn to walk away $144,652 richer.

PokerStars Sunday Million

The new $109 buy-in for the PokerStars Sunday Million continued to remain popular with 13,228 players entering this weekend’s tournament. Eight of the nine players who reached the final table locked up a five-figure score, although ninth-place finisher “parisjoe” came close with $9,938 awarded to them.

Lithuania’s Benas "benasg" Gudelis banked 13-times more than ninth-place when they defeated “BarkieBoy NL” of the Netherlands heads-up for the lion’s share of the prize. The Lithuanian secured a $129,213 prize, which we would guess would be their largest-ever. BarkieBoy NL didn’t do too badly for their runner-up finish; their $109 investment was now worth a cool $93,762.

partypoker KO Series #01-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max

partypoker’s KO Series got off to a flying start with several of its bigger buy-in events smashing their guarantee.

One such event was the KO Series #01-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max won by “fizzygypsy” of Canada. partypoker recently took steps to make their PKO events a bit more fair. They did this by making first and second-place pay almost the same, leaving the heads-up duo to fight for the usually substantial final bounty payment.

fizzygypsy walked away with $65,906 and “fumateotro” of the United Kingdom $53,821 after both players collected $29,998 and $29,958 from the main prize pool, but fizzygypsy scooped more than $12,000 extra from the bounty prize pool.

partypoker KO Series #02-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max

It was a similar story in the KO Series #02-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max where 748 players exchanged $530 for the chance to become a KO Series champion.

First-place in this exciting event weighed in at $26,199 with second-place locked in at $26,162. The difference between the first-place bounty and runner-up was a massive $24,743 thanks to “dean23pricel” having a sizeable bounty on their heads.

This meant when dean23pricel defeated “sanguenuzoio” heads-up, their bankroll was boosted by a combined $54,436 with the second-place finisher netting $29,656 in total.

888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Main Event

The 888poker RakeLESS promotion went down a storm with the two biggest tournaments each surpassing their $100,000 guarantees. The $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Main Event saw $132,300 distributed among the top 63 finishers, with the eight-handed final table all securing almost $3,000.

João “joaobarb” Barbosa, “mrsmith78” and Finland’s “dmg36” were the first casualties of the final table, walking away with prizes worth between $2,976 and $5,622. Fifth-place finisher “Lannovar10” of the United Kingdom banked $7,276 and was the last player in this tournament to not scoop five-figures.

Germany’s “t8ofdiamonds” busted in fourth-place for $10,319 and was joined as a spectator by “easylimp888” of the UK who netted $13,560 for their third-place exit.

Long-time grinder Michael “wywrotx” Wywrot triumphed over the 441-strong field, securing $25,137 for his efforts and leaving Jans “Graftekkel” Arends to collect the $18,522 consolation prize.

888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep

The $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep saw 773 players create a $154,600 prize pool and the lion’s share is now nestled in the 888poker account of “Tedson89” of the UK, namely $29,219.

The British player defeated “nixokofits” of Greece heads-up to secure the biggest prize of the tournament, which left the Greek grinder to bank $21,412 for their second-place finish.

Only two other 888poker players netted more than $10,000 from the RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep. Fourth-place “GramNaKartke” was awarded $11,904 with “sblanch259” of Canada busting one place later for $15,769. Sam “sammygrinder” Grafton bubbled the final table; he finished ninth for $2,365.38.

Natural8 Sunday Blade $5k

A new addition to the Sunday Briefing this week are a couple of results from Natural8 on the GGNetwork, and it is easy to see why. The Sunday Blade $5K isn’t a $5K guaranteed affair; it’s a $5,000 buy-in event!

Five of the 43 starters banked some of the $204,250 prize pool; “oviens22” netting $12,838 for their fifth-place finish. “HONEYDETECTED” of the UK finished in fourth-place for $20,396; it would not be the Brits’ only big score of the night.

“Pihler13” of the Ukraine busted in third-place for $32,404 to leave “chapdelaine” and “SasukeUchiha” to play one-on-one for the title and the huge $87,129 top prize.

It was the latter who emerged victorious, meaning the runner-up had to lick their wounds with a $51,480 score heading to their Natural8 poker account.

Natural8 Sunday Blade 500

HONEYDETECTED finished fourth in the Blade $5K event and followed that up with another fourth-place finish, this time in the Sunday Blade 500, a $500 buy-in tournament that attracted 191 entrants. The Brit netted an additional $8,711 for this fourth-place bust out and was the last player in this event not to win at least $10,000.

Mexico’s “oldzet” was the third-place finisher and saw $11,463 added to their account. Croatia’s “OutlawStar” and “HFNMWH2U” were the last two players standing, and they struck a deal that saw the former win $17,968 and the latter $16,698, although HFNMWH2U was confirmed as the tournament’s champion.

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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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