Sunday Briefing: Big Win For Connor Drinan

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Oct 28, 2019 5 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

Hundreds of poker players are currently in Rozvadov for the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe festival, but that did not stop the online poker world from creating some massive prize pools. Let’s take a look at who the biggest winners were on October 27th.

Sunday Big Game at partypoker

The $5,200 Big Game ran again at partypoker again this week and saw 100 players buy-in and create a $500,000 prize pool that was shared among the top 16 finishers.

Everyone who reached the eight-handed final table locked up at last $16,500, which is the sum won by “kristian150”, who was the first finalist to bust. They were followed to the rail by “huevo2000”, who banked $20,000.

$25,000 and sixth place went to “EmpireMaker” who was joined on the rail by “tdlvehcicknbn” whose fifth-place exit locked up $32,500. The prize money kept on increasing, and a cool $43,750 was enjoyed by “CalmDownMan” who gained some company on the sidelines by “kannichtmehr” who secured a $62,500 prize.

Heads-up saw “Jizoint” and “mnnlfg” lock horns, and it was the former who came out on top. Second place was worth $87,500, with Jizoint winning a massive $122,500.

High Roller Sunday Masters at partypoker

One of the new additions to the partypoker Sunday schedule is the High Roller Sunday Masters, a $1,050 buy-in non-PKO tournament. Some 205 players bought in and created a $205,000 prize pool.

It was “fromHolland1945” who emerged victoriously and turned their $1,050 into an impressive $41,799. “fromHolland1945” defeated “tdlvechicknbn” who earlier finished fifth in the Big game. This runner-up finish was worth $30,340.

Earlier at the final table, “Pablos” busted in eighth for $4,715 with “hotsince92” collecting $6,355 for their seventh-place finish. Sixth-place and $8,610” went to “Kroat..” who was joined on the rail by “Psilocybin” who padded their bankroll with $11,275.

High stakes regular “CalmDownMan” ran out of steam to fall in fourth place, a finish worth $15,990. “MahmoudMaokhtar” was the penultimate bust out, their third-place finish yielding $21,627.

$2,100 Sunday High Roller at PokerStars

Over at PokerStars, the final table of the $2,100 Sunday High Roller was ridiculously tough, and any of the finalists would have been a worthy champion.

It was game over in eighth-place for Finland’s “elmerixx”, who banked $5,702. Swedish star “anteen” crashed out in seventh for $7,501 before Ole “wizowizo” Schemion busted in sixth-place and won $9,867, the last prize not weighing in at five-figures.

$12,980 was awarded to “mararthur1” of Russia before Denmark’s Simon “IgorKarkarof” Pedersen. Yet another Scandinavian player in Johannes “Greenstone25” Korsar then fell in third for $22,461, setting up a one-on-one encounter between “Aren1991” and Connor “blanconegro” Drinan (lead photo).

The latter came out of the battle unscathed and got his hands on the $38,867 top prize, resigning the runner-up to a $29,546 consolation prize.

$109 Sunday Million at PokerStars

The Sunday Million attracted more than 11,000 players this week, and they were all outlasted by Ukraine’s “FeaNoR4eG” who locked up a six-figure prize, namely $113,824. The Ukrainian’s victory was made all the more impressive by the fact they defeated one of the world’s best players heads-up.

That runner-up was Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, who had to make do with $82,592. Not many people manage to brush aside Astedt once a tournament reaches the heads-up stage, but FeaNoR4eG managed to do precisely that.

All but one of the nine finalists won a five-figure prize, going to show how fantastic this $109 buy-in tournament is. Shout out also to “Keisuke-ace” who managed to navigate their way to a third-place finish for $59,937 from their home all the way in Japan.

Sunday High Roller $1K at Natural8

After a week or so of $25,000 invitational tournament, the largest Natural8 events on October 27th were $1,000 buy-in affairs.

The Sunday High Roller $1K had a compact field of 38 entries, and only four of those received a slice of the $40,000 prize pool. Hong Kong’s “bingpong” was the first player to cash, their fourth-place weighing in at $4,091. Another Hong Kong player in “HalfKid” collected $6,721 for their third-place exit before “pDNA” defeated “WooKah” heads-up for the title.

pDNA won $18,142 for their victory although they did fire four bullets at the tournament. The runner-up, who hails from Germany, also netted a five-figure score, namely $11,043.

Sunday Purple $1K at Natural8

The Sunday Purple $1K saw 42 players create a $39,900 prize pool that was distributed among the top five finishers.

“WooKah”, fresh from a runner-up finish in the other $1K game, finished in fifth for $2,507. They were joined on the rail by “MickeyM” of the UK, who scooped $3,984. pDNA continued their impressive form with a third-place worth $6,330.

Second place went to “BigGogi” of Germany, who collected $10,056 after losing heads-up to New Zealand’s “Moist”. The first place weighed in at a cool $17,020.

$20,000 Sunday Sale Whale at 888poker

888poker ran its Sunday Sale promotion again this week, which slashed the buy-ins of some key events. One was the $20,000 Sunday Sale What that was reduced from $530 to $320. It was a prevalent decision as 96 entries ensured the $20,000 guarantee was surpassed by $8,800.

The final two players struck a deal for the lion’s share of the prize pool. Qatar’s “Full2Win” was the official runner-up and won $6,507 with the UK’s “Kroat.” being crowned champion, an accolade that came with $6,740 after the heads-up deal.

Poker truly is a global game, and it was proven at this final table. In addition to the players from the UK and Qatar, several other countries were represented at the final table. It has players from New Zealand, Kazakhstan, Germany, Malta, Ukraine, and Russia. You’ve got to love the cosmopolitan nature of this crazy game.

^{*reflects a heads-up deal}

$100,000 Sunday Sale Mega Deep at 888poker

The $215 buy-in of the $100,000 Sunday Sale Mega Deep was slashed to $109, and a massive field of 1,211 players turned out to support it. This meant the $100,000 guarantee was blown out of the water with a $121,100 prize pool created.

Like the Sunday Sale Whale, this event ended in a deal, although it was a three-handed one and not just heads-up. Third-place and $15,482 went to Ukraine’s “my888GMode” with second-place eventually going to “SleepingZace” of Malta whose $109 investment turned into $14,257. The champion was none other than “HnThMn” of Finland, who secured a $19,729 payout.

_{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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