Sunday Briefing: PokerStars PKO Smashes Guarantee Despite Boycott

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Feb 18, 2019 6 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

It was a massive Sunday for online poker tournament players on Feb. 17 thanks to the partypoker KO Series and PokerStars Turbo Series concluding, 888poker running its RakeLESS events and the Natural8 Blade $10K and $5K events taking place.

One of the stories of the weekend was high stakes tournament player “girafganger7” organizing a boycott of PokerStars’ $5,200 buy-in Turbo Series PKO event. The Belgian managed to get more than 200 fellow high stakes pros to promise they wouldn’t play in this event, yet the $750,000 guarantee was still easily met thanks to 187 entries into the event.

partypoker responded to the planned boycott by adding a $5,200 event to their KO Series schedule, one with a massive $1 million guaranteed prize pool. This guarantee was also hit, making it a great day for online poker tournament players around the world.

PokerStars Turbo Series 108: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max PKO High Roller

Russia’s “needdollarz” walked away with a $239,695 prize after taking down the PokerStars Turbo Series 108: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max PKO High Roller event, a tournament that saw 160 players battle it out for glory. Twenty-seven reentries made for 187 entries total.

Nobody at the final table won less than $16,554 when bounties were taken into consideration, the prize awarded to “GamadGADOL” of Malta who busted in ninth-place.

Two British players followed GamadGADOL to the rail, “despedespi33” and Magnus “Giffordonian” Martin before Finland’s “WRUUUM” busted in sixth-place having not won a single bounty along the way.

Bounties were now massive and boosted the remaining players’ prizes. Fifth-place went to “pvigar” of Brazil who netted $42,984 in total with fourth-place finisher “Pokeryugo” netting a cool $60,692.

Mexico’s “tanganantor” finished in third-place for $85,360 and China’s “huang33” turned their $5,200 investment into a combined $91,096. The Russian champion secured $92,742 for finishing in first place and also collected $146,953 worth of bounties to win over 2.6 times what the runner-up did.

PokerStars Turbo Series 109: $1,050 NLHE Main Event High

Former EPT London champion Robin “robinho” Ylitalo triumphed in the Turbo Series 109: $1,050 NLHE Main Event High to get his hands on an incredible $322,429 after a heads-up deal with fellow Swede “jamaica_11”.

The final table members were guaranteed $23,015. Someone had to bank the smaller sum, and that person was “publier” of the Netherlands, who was joined on the rail by “Chrobson” of Poland, “MrMaximize” of Canada, and then Griffin “Flush_Entity” Benger. Benger busted when his ace-eight ran into the suited ace-ten of Ylitalo.

Argentina’s Cristian “progre69” Sampaoli was the next player to fall, his elimination locking up a six-figure score for the remaining four players.

Canada’s “carl_nash13” busted in fourth-place for $125,050 with third-place and $175,426 going to Belgium’s “Pontois2012”, which left Yliatlo and jamiaca_11 to lock horns heads-up for the title.

The Swedish duo struck a deal that left $40,000 on the table, and this extra money went to Ylitalo when he flopped trip nines and value bet all streets and was called all the way by jamiaca_11’s pocket queens.

partypoker KO Series #74-SHR: $1M Gtd 8-Max

The partypoker KO Series #74-SHR: $1M Gtd 8-Max hit its ambitious guarantee when 206 players bought in for $5,200 to create a $1,050,000 prize pool.

The lion’s share of this impressive sum is now nestled in the partypoker account of Sweden’s “STORTjavlaGL” who emerged victorious in the early hours of Feb. 18 with a massive prize worth a total of $193,935.

“PokerBrothersTM” of Belarus was the tournament’s runner-up and the only other player to secure a six-figure payout, namely $109,982.

Earlier at the final table, Finnish superstars Lars “LarsLuzak1” Luzak crashed out of the tournament in sixth-place for a combined score of $35,247 with Canadian high stakes guru “TIMEXCNT” busting in fifth-place for $61,060 in total.

partypoker KO Series #74-HR: $500K Gtd 8-Max

Another big KO Series event was the KO Series #74-HR: $500K Gtd 8-Max that saw 1,154 players exchange $530 for the chance of glory and a huge cash prize.

The champion was none other than “marjanko89” of Ukraine who got their hands on the $38,828 first-place prize and an additional $37,278 worth of bounty payments. That bounty payment included the scalp of runner-up “GRRRIZZZLY” of Belarus who was the tournament’s bridesmaid, a finish worth a combined $54,293 when bounties were taken into consideration.

All but one of the players at the eighth-handed final table won a five-figure score, eighth-place finisher “hasleloren” of Sweden was the only one not to; he or she banked $4,761.

888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep

There was a great rags to riches story in the 888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep event as the eventual champion won their place in the $200 buy-in tournament from a $22 buy-in satellite.

Latvia’s Rihards “Rihard4a” Dobelis turned that $22 satellite victory into a cool $27,669 by outlasting 731-opponents.

Rihard4a found themselves heads-up against “kudesnik2012” of Belarus to lock up the top prize. The Belarusian had to make do with a $20,276 consolation prize when they fell in second-place.

“SkallPer58” of Sweden and “OneH1tWodner” of Austria busted in third and fourth-place respectively to bank $14,932 and $11,272, the only other players to turn their $200 investment into a five-figure score.

888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Main Event

Russian grinder “CalmRevolver” was crowned the 888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Main Event champion, with first-place worth a cool $21,646. No rake was charged on this $300 buy-in tournament, and no reentries were allowed, making it a big freezeout competition that was hard fought throughout.

The top three finishers turned their $300 into five-figures. The champion banked $21,646, with Russian runner-up “krakadiller” walking away with $16,074 to console themselves with. Third-place was worth $11,844 and that went to “kiskutya23”.

CalmRevolver has a solid record at 888poker having won the $100,000 Mega Deep and an XL Eclipse title previously.

Natural8 Sunday Blade $10K

Natural8 had two massive events this week, one of them being a $10,000 buy-in affair that attracted a field of 31 runners, creating a $300,000 prize pool.

Lithuania’s Laurynas “LaurisL91” Levinskas was crowned champion, a finish with a massive $135,177 score after he defeated “DownswingPete” heads-up for the title. The British runner-up won $83,079 for their second-place finish, although they did fire three bullets at the tournament.

Both the third-place and fourth-place finishers fired two bullets each, too. “Pihler13” of Ukraine finished in third place for $51,060 with “carsonweltz” collecting $31,381 when they busted in fourth-place.

Natural8 Sunday Blade $5K

Natural8’s Blade $5K saw 41 entries of $5,000 each and a $200,000 prize pool that was shared among the top five finishers.

After bursting the bubble in the $10K, “B3ndTheKnee” of Canada reached the money in the $5k, falling in fifth-place for $12,571. They were joined on the sidelines by “MiMosa1” of Finland who collected $19,972 then by “HE22” of Mexico whose third-place finish locked up $31,730.

Heads-up saw “ImLividBuddy” of Costa Rica and “HogFish333” of Colombia fight for an $85,316 top prize, and it was the latter who got their hands on this huge sum, resigning ImLividBuddy to the $50,409 runner-up prize.

_{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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