Sunday Briefing: 'B4NKR0LL3R' Wins Second Major in a Fortnight!

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Feb 17, 2020 5 min read

“B4NKR0LL3R” looks to be on an unstoppable heater after the player calling the United Kingdom home managed to win yet another Sunday major title at PokerStars.

The grinder won the Sunday Million two weeks ago and padded their bankroll with $105,728. Yesterday, they took down a $2,100 Bounty Builder Series event for another $102,045 prize.

Bounty Builder Series 177: $2,100 NLHE at PokerStars

A field of 244 players took to the PokerStars virtual felt for the Bounty Builder Series 177: $2,100 NLHE, resulting in a $488,000 prize pool shared half among the top 31 finishers with the remaining 50% going on the heads of all entrants.

Such a high buy-in tournament tends to restrict the field to a select group of elite players. This tournament continued that trend.

The final table was full of stellar names. Austria’s “WATnlos” was the final table’s first casualty, their ninth-place netting them a combined $5,132. Eighth-place and $11,518 went to “Kot_Spartac” of Russia, who was joined on the rail by “kofi89” of Uruguay who scooped $13,736.

German legend Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, who is meant to be retired from poker, finished in sixth for $15,330 in total, while “MITS 304” secured a $25,799 prize from their home in sunny Cyprus.

Oliver “sk2ll_m0dR” Weis banked $26,525 when he fell in fourth, leaving the final three to lock horns short-handed for some massive prizes.

The elimination of Ukraine’s “Remi Lebo_10”, worth $35,139, set up a one-on-one battle between B4NKR0LL3R and Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford. The latter fell at the final hurdle and won $52,045, leaving B4NKR0LL3R to be crowned champion, an accolade that came with a $102,045 haul.

Bounty Builder Series 178: $215 NLHE at PokerStars

The Bounty Builder Series 178: $215 NLHE also smashed its guarantee thanks to 3,314 players turning out for it. Germany’s “RUMUKULUS” was the main beneficiary of the juicy prize pool as they were the last player standing. This meant they turned their $215 investment into a combined prize worth $70,176.

A handful of well-known players also managed to reach the nine-handed final table of this bounty event.

Romania’s Ferdi “ferdi123zzz” Ciorabai didn’t last long under the spotlight and had to make do with a $5,282.

Another established pro finished in second-place, narrowly missing out on glory. Rafael “LiroLa” Lirola hails from Brazil and the $51,974 awarded will give him plenty of ammunition for the coming months.

GG Masters $150, $300K Gtd at GGPoker

The $300,000 guaranteed GG Masters continues to grow with this week’s tournament seeing 2,135 players turn out for it.

GGPoker sponsored pro Daniel Negreanu flew from Las Vegas to Toronto for this week’s tournament but his trip was fruitless as he fell in 1,045 place.

Brazilian “mayKKz_” was the player who lasted the longest and they have done their chances of becoming the GG Masters Player of the Year no harm at all with this impressive victory. They netted $44,710 and will now likely be entering the majority of the GG Masters tournaments in an attempt to get their hands on the $500,000 sponsorship package that’s up for grabs.

The Brazilian defeated “katoooo” of Japan who had to console themselves with the $31,871 runner-up prize.

Those finishing in places third through fifth also banked five-figure prizes. Shout-outs to “KittyAtTheCocobongo” ($22,719), “FastActor” ($16,194) and “Killuckkk” ($11,544).

Phased: High Rollers $250 at GGPoker

The Phased: High Rollers $250 attracted another bumper crowd with 1,162 participants this week. None of them lasted longer than Austria’s “SpeedMoreSpeed” who bulldozed their way to a victory weighing in at a cool $40,154.

It was an Austrian one-two with “Olekonjole” busting at the final hurdle and securing a $32,731 payday.

Earlier at the final table, “MaoZeDonk” won $11,713 from their home in Germany while Bart “escobarry” Lybaert netted $16,141 from their Belgian abode. Netherlands’ “valterzao” was the penultimate elimination of this successful event.

Big Game: $500K Gtd at GGPoker

“GimmeHummus” won the largest sum at partypoker this weekend after they triumphed in the Big Game. The $5,200 buy-in affair is now a phased tournament and that’s helped bolster the attendance figures. A cool $669,205 was in the prize pool and the top 20 finishers shared a piece of it.

All eight finalists won more than $20,000. “Junglemandan”, who isn’t Daniel Cates on partypoker, won $20,076. They won this event a couple of months back.

“Tree91”, “CalmDownMan”, and “tdlvechickenbn” all fell by the wayside before “WatchMeDance” lost their stack and won $56,882 for their fourth-place finish.

“Sasha307” scooped $80,304 after busting in third-place, which left GimmeHummus and “BlueMagic1” to fight it out for the title and the lion’s share of the prize pool. The former came out on top and banked $153,850, leaving the second-place finisher to add $110,418 to their lifetime winnings.

partypoker MILLION: $1M Gtd

The partypoker MILLION broke through its $1 million guarantee this week much to the delight of the top three finishers who struck a deal and walked away with a share of more than $340,000!

“m0rd1sc0” crashed and burned in fourth-place for $47,161 and the remaining three players had the deal box checked so the tournament paused. Brief discussions resulted in a deal being struck, one that saw “BuddyRW” walk away with $105,000. Second-place and $112,000 went to “bite_me” with “AbejogluBele” getting their hands on a cool $130,157.

$20,000 Sunday Challenge at 888poker

Over to 888poker now where “usainzeus35” won the $20,000 Sunday Challenge. Some 234 players bought in for $109 to ensure the guarantee was hit. The champion turned that $109 into a more substantial $5,031 after defeating Croatia's “PaSSoGiveUP” heads-up. Second-place was worth $3,627.

Two well-known and established pros reached the nine-handed final table but their appearance there was short-lived.

UK’s Ben “topbeaver69” Spraggons fell in ninth for a $468 prize while Russian pro “EyeofSkadi” collected $702 for their eighth-place exit.

Stay tuned to PokerNews for a recap of the final XL Blizzard tournaments, including the Main Event, because there were some big prizes awarded on Feb. 16.

_{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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