Sunday Briefing: Lefrancois Enjoys a Fantastic Sunday

Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor
5 min read
Pascal Lefrancois

Sundays are traditionally the busiest day on the online poker calendar and August 9 was no different with dozens of massive events taking place around the major sites.

Pascal Lefrancois will look back at August 9 with fond memories after enjoying a super Sunday that saw him walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lefrancois triumphed in the $25,500 buy-in WPT Super High Roller at partypoker on Sunday and saw his bankroll swell by a massive $315,812. Some 31 players bought into the event and created a $775,000 prize pool. Only the top five finishers secured a slice of this pie and Nick Petrangelo was the unfortunate soul who burst the money bubble.

Team partypoker’s Isaac Haxton and Mikita Badziakouski were the first competitors to bank some prize money, namely $54,250 and $73,625. Vyacheslav Buldygin won the first six-figure prize when he collected $127,875 for his third-place exit.

Heads-up pitted Lefrancois against Jake Schindler and the former came out on top. Lefrancois won $315,812 which left Schindler to bank $203,437.

A $10,300 buy-in High Roller took place at partypoker on August 9 and while Lefranoics did win it, he did finish fifth for another $26,600.

Laszlo Bujtas and Benjamin Rolle also cashed, leaving Petrangelo and Timothy Adams to fight it out one-on-one for the title. The remarkably talented duo struck a deal that saw Adams finish first and collect $135,855 and Petrangelo to scoop a $118,744 runner-up prize.

Some of the other notable scores at partypoker included:

  • Lars Kamphues – first-place in the WPT 6-Max Warm Up for $95,606
  • Phil Mighall – first-place in the $2,100 WPT 6-Max Turbo Knockout: $200K Gtd for $44,227*
  • Felipe Theodoro Da Costa – first-place in the WPT 6-Max Mini Warm Up for $22,717
  • “Jupiter Jones” – first-place in the Big Gladiator: Mix-Max: $100K Gtd for $16,697*
  • Raman Sfalsin - $215 WPT 6-Max Turbo Knockout: $100K Gtd for $15,616*
  • “Jamnix_90” – first-place in the Masters: $75K Gtd for $13,726

*includes bounty payments

Gavin Cochrane banks $540,000 at partypoker

Star Shine Bright at PokerStars

Lefrancois hot run continued over to PokerStars where he reached the final table of the $5,200 NLHE Single Event. A field of 93 entrants battled it out for a slice of $500,000 and Lefrancois scooped $19,670 of this after falling in eighth-place.

The rest of the final table wouldn’t have looked out of place in a tournament with a buy-in 10-times the size. It was eventually won by “CrazyLissy” of Russia for $119,483. The Russian defeated Mike “SirWatts” Watson heads-up, resigning Watson to a $92,337 consolation prize.

PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1CrazyLissyRussia$119,483
2Mike “SirWatts” WatsonCanada$92,337
3Fedor “CrownUpGuy” HolzAustria$71,359
4HITRII999Russia$55,147
5Anatoly “NL_Profit” FilatovRussia$42,618
6Thomas “WushTM” MuehloeckerAustria$32,936
7roo_400Canada$25,453
8Pascal “Pass_72” LefrancoisCanada$19,670
9KorrinhoAustria$15,755

Check out some of these big scores enjoyed by PokerStars’ players this weekend:

  • “ISultanchiki” – first-place in the $109 Stadium Series Afterparty High for $100,002
  • “Armani1974” – first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Cooldown for $32,648*
  • “Jemisis” – first-place in the $109 Bounty Builder for $31,240*
  • Marc “FrenchDawg” Ladouceur – first-place in the $215 Bounty builder for $28,731*
  • “Keep2p34Ch” – first-place in the $109 Sunday Cooldown for $25,920*
  • “Kevin.PU” – first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Supersonic for $23,061
  • “Eleres88” – first-place in the $215 Sunday Warm-Up for $21,202
  • “SinkedShrimp” – first-place in the $215 Sunday Supersonic for $20,125
  • Simon “C.Darwin2” Mattsson – first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up for $16,779
  • “nomalice” – first-place in the Bigger $109 for $14,094
  • “umvelt900” – first-place in the $109 Sunday Kickoff for $12,024
  • Gustavo “GuGuGFBPA” Rego – first-place in the Hotter $109 for $11,659
  • “dantegoyaf” – first-place in the $530 Omania for $9,416

*includes bounty payments

$721K score for Brazil's Fernando "fviana" Viana

You Won't Believe The Size Of The prizes at GGPoker

It was a similar story over at GGPoker where more than a dozen massive events took place. GGPoker is enjoying a ton of traffic thanks to the WSOP being held online there and those extra players resulted in some mega prizes.

Kristen Bicknell got her hands on one such prize namely $89,156, after she triumphed in the High Rollers Blade Closer $5K. Bicknell came out on top of a 44-strong field to secure the chunky top prize.

Bicknell had to contend with a final table that was the home to such luminaries as Isaac Haxton, Sergi Rexiach, Stephen Chidwick, David Peters, Sean Winter and runner-up Derek Chun Cheung “Derek Ip” Ip, the latter netting $52,677.

Darren Elias also walked away with a title and a bumper prize courtesy of winning the High Rollers Blade Opener $5K for $95,001. Elias defeated Thomas Muehloecker heads-up to secure the title, after battling at the final table against the likes of Dario Sammartino, MILLIONAIRE Maker winner Daniel Dvoress, Nick Petrangelo, Kristen Bicknell, and Pascal Hartmann.

While impressive, both these scores were blown out of the water by the gargantuan $275,344 won by Canada’s Christopher Brewer. Brewer was one of 25 players to pony up a massive $25,000 in the Bryn High Rollers $25K event. Jake Schindler bubbled in fifth before Laurynas Levinkas collected $63,922 for his fourth-place finish. Timothy Adams finished third for $104,006 with Mikita Badziakouski falling in second for $169,226. Brewer was the last man standing and banked $275,344.

Some of the other huge GGPoker results included:

  • “YrttiDekaani” – first-place in the High Rollers Blade Prime $5K for $143,748
  • “BTCtoMOON” – first-place in the WSOP Side EVent: $500 FIFTY STACK for $130,555
  • Belarmino De Souza – first-place in the High Roller Blade Mulligan $5K for $129,100
  • “CharlieD23” – first-place in the WSOP Side Event: $2,100 Bounty Turbo 6-Handed for $120,958*
  • “jochee” – first-place in the High Rollers Blade PLO $5K for $87,130
  • “RDIC” – first-place in the Sunday Special $250 for $69,243
  • Boris Kolev – first-place in the High Rollers battle Royale $525 for $61,187*
  • Manig Loeser – first-place in the WSOP Side EVent: $400 Warmup for $55,693
  • Conor Beresford – first-place in the High Rollers Big Game Hunter $1,050 for $46,668*
  • “chrisbenoit” – first-place in the Sunday Monster Stack $200 for $46,105
  • “hotsince93” – furst-place in the WSOP Side EVent: $210 Bounty Turbo 6-Handed for $31,691*
  • “YippeeKiYay” – first-place in the Bounty Hunters Sunday Special $105 for $29,822*
  • “FortySixand2” – first-place in the WSOP Side Event: $150 Super Turbo 6-handed for $24,883

Bicknell secures her third career bracelet!

Big Scores Galore at 888poker

There was a big win over at 888poker for Lithuania’s “SNICKERS05” who triumphed in the $100,000 Sunday Sale Mega Deep. Some 1,884 players bought in for the cut-price of $55 which left 888poker nursing a $5,800 overlay, but SNICKERS05 wasn’t bothered because it meant their to prize weighed in at a cool $17,000.

The $20,000 Sunday Sale Whale was also half price this week and 196 players bought in for $160. Morocco’s “BhadizUlue” came out on top, turning their second bullet into a substantial $6,321.

Special mentions also to “TOUGHEST_” and “wklix” who won the $20,000 Sunday Challenge for $3,774 and the A Good Tournament for $8,200 respectively.


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Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor

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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