Sunday Briefing: Absolutely Massive Scores All Round!

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Mar 30, 2020 6 min read

What an amazing day March 29th was for online poker tournament players. There were so many massive scores enjoyed at 888poker, GGPoker, partypoker, and PokerStars that it was almost like back in the old days of the Moneymaker Boom.

POWERFEST #137-SHR: $1M Gtd at partypoker

The biggest prize from Sunday came at partypoker where “NotDarwin” walked away with the POWERFEST #137-SHR: $1M Gtd title. Some 319 players made it into the $5,200 Final Phase and played for a share of $1,423,305, more than $420,000 more than the advertised $1 million guarantee.

This bumper prize pool meant the top four finishers all secured a six-figure prize!

“iRunStims” was the first player to bank six figures, namely $104,612 for their fourth-place exit. “JailWallet” followed them to the rail soon after and won $143,753.

Heads-up saw “NotDarwin” and “nomeansyes” fight it out for the title. No deal was struck, despite an almost $80,000 difference in the prize money. This meant NotDarwin scooped a cool $283,237 when they won all the chips in play, leaving nomeansyes to pad their bankroll with $204,955.

POWERFEST #135-HR: $400K Gtd 8-Max

The POWERFEST #135-HR: $400K Gtd 8-Max was another tournament that blitzed its guarantee, doing so by $123,000.

“CAPN_Crunch”

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GG Masters $500K Gtd at GGPoker

There was plenty of action over at GGPoker too where the GG Masters tournament received a guarantee boost for the second consecutive week. GG increased the guarantee from $300,000 to $400,000 last week, and made it a $500,000 guaranteed event this week! At this rate, it’s going to be a million dollars by May! Here’s hoping that happens.

Brazilians have a great record in this tournament. Ricardo Nascimnento is the current Player of the Year leader and on course for the $500,000 sponsorship package awarded to the overall champion. Fellow Brazilian “StrongMentality” isn’t a million miles behind them in the race thanks to outlasting 3,269-opponents in this weeks event, banking $71,961, the largest-ever prize awarded by the GG Masters.

The top six finishers all won five-figures for their $150 buy-in. “sryulose” from the United Kingdom won $13,244 and was joined on the rail by the first of two Argentinians “pelaguacha” who secured an $18,580 payday.

“HeyImGay” of Germany was the next to fall, they won $26,065 before the second Argentinian finalist “Tycarlazo” ran out of steam in third and won $36,565.

StrongMentality then busted “pokerfaceAaa” heads-up to win that $71,961 prize, resigning the runner-up to a $51,296 consolation prize.

Phased HR Week $250 at GGPoker

The GGPoker High Rollers Week has created some big prize pools, the $250 buy-in Phased tournament being one of them.

It was a familiar name at the top of the leaderboards when the dust had settled. Rui “RuiNF*” Ferreira getting his hands on the $72,169 top prize. It would have been larger but Ferreira struck a deal with Hungary’s “Geraaaard” that saw the Hungarian pad their bankroll with $67,436.

Shout out to Ecuador’s Ryan “getplunted” Plant who finished sixth in this event for $15,606. Plant won the GG Masters a couple of weeks ago and looks to have hit something of a purple patch of form at the virtual felt.

*reflects a heads-up deal

Win when you lose at Unibet Poker

$109 Sunday Million at PokerStars

We’re not sure what happened at PokerStars this weekend but some of their tournaments went completely bananas, but in a good way!

The Sunday Million, so-called because of is $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, attracted an astonishing 23,134 players this week, meaning the top 4,202 finishers fought it out for a slice of the $2,313,400 prize pool.

Unsurprisingly, this week’s edition of the Sunday Million ended in a chop; the near $50,000 pay jump was too much for the heads-up duo to play for.

Netherlands’ “Roykus” is the player who won this monster-sized tournament, turning their $109 into a most impressive $159,915 after the aforementioned deal. Mexico’s “lfmdcv” was the runner-up, they’re now $149,034 richer than there were before this weekend’s action.

Another Dutch player in “Floesoe” almost won a six-figure prize. Third-place was worth $94,277 this week.

Three British players were present and correct at the nine-handed final table. “Thx4Paying” and “786 LUCKY” were two of them. They had to make do with the $13,770 and $18,975 ninth and eighth-place prizes. “NUT3UK” made it to fourth-place before bowing out; they won $68,416.

*reflects a heads-up deal

$530 Bounty Builder High Roller at PokerStars

The $530 Bounty Builder High Roller was another PokerStars tournament that went berserk, with 3,203 players buying in and creating a $1,601,500 prize pool! This lead to the top two finishers winning more than $100,000 each, when bounty payments were included.

Taiwan’s Carlos “cyphellus” Chang crashed out in third-place for a combined score weighing in at $71,012, which left “kropop” of Denmark and “J0hn Mcclean” of Andorra to lock horns heads-up for the title.

Andorra may not be the first county you think of when it comes to online poker, but J0hn Mcclean put it firmly on the map by taking down this tournament. Their prize was $178,474 while the Danish second-place finisher didn’t do too badly for themselves either because they reeled in $104,033 in total.

$120,000 Sunday Mega Deep at 888poker

888poker is enjoying a renaissance of sorts with attendances of its tournaments continuing to climb. This has led the site to increase some of it’s tournament’s guarantees, the $100,000 Sunday Mega Deep becoming the $120,000 Sunday Mega Deep this week.

The new guarantee was hit when 1,220 players bought in. One of those players, Finland’s “megis22”, was the player who emerged victoriously and got their hands on the $21,960 first-place prize. The Finn defeated Russia’s “Alex15944893” to win the top prize, leaving the Russian to console themselves with $15,860.

Denmark’s “EtEsIAben” was the only other player to net five-figures, third-place yielded a $11,834 prize.

$25,000 Sunday Challenge at 888poker

Completing the Sunday Briefing for another week is the Sunday Challenge at 888poker which also received a guarantee boost this weekend, rising from $20,000 to $25,000. A field of 292 playrs ensured the new level was hit and it was “Smithstudent” of Russia who won the new-look event.

First-place came in at $5,971, Smithstudent’s award for sending the UK’s “TheRaven888” to the showers in second place. The Brit can’t be too upset, however, because they turned $109 into $4,380.

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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