Sunday Briefing: Ryan Plant Wins Biggest GG Masters Event Yet

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Mar 23, 2020 5 min read

Sunday 22 March was massive for online poker tournaments. Field sizes were up across the board, probably due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The PokerStars 14th Anniversary Sunday Million smashed its guarantee with several hours of late registration remaining. partypoker’s POWERFEST created some massive prizes, while the bigger GG Masters and 888poker’s Superstorm all blow their guarantees out of the water. Let’s check out who the main beneficiaries of these juicy prize pools were.

GG Masters $400K Gtd at GGPoker

Ryan “getplunted” Plant, a British poker pro calling Ecuador home, won the biggest GG Masters tournament yet. GGPoker increased the tournament’s guarantee by $100,000 to $400,000 but a crowd of 3,051 entries ensured the new guarantee was met.

Plant banked a cool $60,753 for his victory and enough Player of the Year points to no occupy second-place on the leaderboard. The Liverpudlian defeated Austria’s “DaanOss” heads-up to get his hands on the lion’s share of the prize pool, resigning the runner up to a $42,958 consolation prize.

Four other players padded their bankrolls with five-figure prizes.

Sixth-place finisher “spade7979” won $10,739 while “Majlo987” turned their $150 into $15,188. Fourth-place and $21,479 when to India’s “ThePunisherr” with “NuNuNu?!” of Lithuania securing a $30,375 addition to their bankroll.

What are GGPoker's Jackpot Hands?

Phased High Rollers $250 at GGPoker

Hong Kong’s “chulatte” is another player who won big at GGPoker on Sunday. They came out on top of a 1,613-strong field in the Phased High Rollers $250 to receive an impressive $56,498.

Like the GG Masters, this tournament saw its top six finisher walk away with scores in excess of $10,000.

Canada’s “Gut Voldmar, Gut!” banked $11,371 before “oldzet” won $15,669 from their Mexican home. Dutch rounder Rui “MrBe4n” Bouquet was the fourth-place finisher and they won $29,753 before China’s “SON_7” collected $41,000 after falling at the final hurdle.

Check out the biggest POWERFEST prize yet

$1,050 Daily Warm-Up 8-Max at PokerStars

Luke “Bit2Easy” Reeves is in hot form right now and continued his impressive run with victory in the PokerStars $1,050 Daily Warm-Up. Some 327 of the world’s best poker players entered and plenty of them reached the eight-handed final table.

“needdollarz” was the final table’s first casualty and they had to make do with a $8,381 score. “ReWARds84” and “Korrinho” were the next players to bust, their finishes saw them haul in $11,123 and $14,761 respectively.

Double SCOOP Main Event champion Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza ran out of steam in fifth, a finish worth $19,590. Then Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood headed for the exits with the $25,999 fourth-place prize tucked under his arm.

The penultimate bust out was that of “kimokh”. The Lebanon-based star fired three bullets and he turned the third into $34,504.

This left Reeves and “RJYJYR” to fight it out heads-up for the lion’s share of the prize money. Reeves emerged victoriously and saw his bankroll swell by $60,771, with the runner-up scooping a still-impressive $45,791.

$530 Bounty Builder High Roller at PokerStars

This weekend’s $530 Bounty Builder High Roller was massive. PokerStars increased its guarantee to $750,000, a move that proved extremely popular. The tournament attracted 2,535 entries, which meant a gargantuan $1,267,500 prize pool was created.

The juicy prize pool meant everyone at the nine-handed final table won more than $10,000 when bounties were included. Eighth-place finisher “tmavrodiev” got busy busting foes and ended up winning more than “cmontopdeck” who busted one place later! The Bulgarian was only $2,000 short of sixth-place finisher “bencb789” they’d accumulated that many bounties.

Bounties were mammoth-sized by the time heads-up was set. “Robob101” of Germany and “u3meha” from Ukraine locking horns for the title. The latter came out of the one-on-one battle unscathed and with a total prize worth $143,074. This left the runner-up to walk away $105,840 richer than a few hours ago.

Sunday Million to pay out more than $17M!

$1,000,000 Superstorm at 888poker

888poker’s Superstorm has been running for several weeks and March 22 saw it conclude. By the time the final $100 buy-in Day 1 concluded, 10,540-entries had been processed and a $1,068,856 prize pool created. This is by far the largest prize pool enjoyed at 888poker for some time.

“zaSPARTAK” of Russia is the player who goes into the 888poker history books as the Superstorm’s champion. Victory in this event resulted in a $112,234 prize, with the runner-up, “Raise1In.” of Lithuania enjoying an $80,164 payday.

Only “uiixx” of Brazil and the UK’s “paraRC” failed to win five-figure sums, although the latter got close with a $9,299 prize.

“RasAlGhul”, “TheElIphant” and “AllanSheik” were the next players to crash out. They collected $13,895, $19,239 and $28,859 respectively.

Another British player in the shape of “AnOnlineGuy” won the $42,574 fourth-place prize before Belarus’ “Two.DV” fell by the wayside in third for $58,787.

$100,000 Sunday Mega Deep at 888poker

The $100,000 Sunday Mega Deep performed well again with a field of 1,087 ensuring the guarantee was hit once again.

Canada’s “algsxr” was the main beneficiary of the big prize pool because they were the last player standing. First-place this week weighed in at $19,674. The Canadian defeated Cyprus’ “0nlyBet” heads-up for their victory, leaving the Cypriot to collect $14,131 for their efforts.

Only Malta’s “pueeete” managed to turn $109 into a five-figure prize; the third-place finished netted $10,598.

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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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