- 49,287 players signed up to create a prize pool of almost $10m.
- A final table deal guaranteed over $700k to each of the three remaining players.
- The 5th anniversary SM held the month before Black Friday drew a field of 59,128 players.
- Six months later in December, PokerStars celebrated the company’s 10th anniversary with a SM which drew 62,116 players.
PokerStars celebrated the 7th anniversary of its flagship Sunday Million tournament by offering a $7m guarantee. Though the final prize pool fell short of previous records, a still impressive 49,287 players signed up to create a prize pool of almost $10m.
A final table deal guaranteed over $700k to each of the three remaining players. Although the shortstack when the deal was made, Lithuanian player “benislovas” fought back to take the $140k left on the table for 1st place and took home the largest prize, a phenomenal $848k.
British MTT pro “sexygee” picked up $836k for second and Kasra84 from Germany enjoyed $813k for third.
PokerStars reported that “benislovas” normally plays $11 MTTs and Kasra84 was playing $3.50 Sit and Go tournaments the day before the big event. The huge tournaments that only PokerStars is currently capable of running provide remarkable opportunities for low stake players to win life changing amounts of money.
Newly appointed Head of Poker Communications, Lee Jones, a traditional and well liked Sunday Million final table host, had to get tough with “2outs4cake” who was badgering the other players to do an early deal: “We will not have pressure put on people to deal, or even pause to look at numbers.”
Maybe the player didn’t know who he was dealing with because he responded: “mod please leave us alone.” This prompted Lee Jones to make one of his longest chat box comments: “Actually, no. My job is ensure that the player’s rights are respected. One of those rights is to play the tournament, as scheduled, with the payouts as published. Without being hassled for making that choice.”
“2outs4cake” managed to do all right, winning $117k for 7th.
