From time to time we report on the regular weekend tournaments run by some of the larger online poker sites, and this weekend was of particular interest due to the signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act by the President on the Friday morning immediately preceding the weekend.
Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars both hosted massive attendances, whilst Ultimate Bet‘s regular $200 000 Sunday offering fell a tad short of expected numbers.
Poker Stars’ regular Sunday Million pulled in 6 157 players, building an impressive $1 231 400 prize pool, the largest weekly-event prize pool in Poker Stars history. 900 players were ‘in the money,’ the top nine taking home five-figure prizes, with the top player collecting a cheque for just over $176,000.
Player ‘Håcken’ led the final nine to the showdown table with slightly more than $10 000 000 in chips, and was dominant for most of the game. By the time the heads up confrontation started, this aggressive player was at a 4:1 margin in chips over final opponent ‘rockdown’. Just over 20 hands later it was all over when Håcken raised with A-K suited, rockdown re-raised with pocket kings, Håcken pushed all-in and rockdown made the call. The three-out ace arrived, but not until the river, building the suspense. The final board read 4-7-9-10-A, making Håcken the champion of this memorable Pokerstars event. ‘Rockdown’s second place earned the player almost $90 000.
Full Tilt’s monthly $500 000 guarantee tournament attracted a field of 1 127, each of whom was either sponsored or paid the buy-in of $500 +35 to have a crack at the $125 000 grand prize. 108 players were ‘in the money’ as the prize pool rose to a very creditable $ 563 500, said to be one of the largest seen in these popular Full Tilt competitions.
Once again a single player dominated much of the game in ‘JungleKing’ who was a full million clear of his competitors by the time the bubble had burst after some exciting and aggressive poker. However, by the time the heads up stage was reached JungleKing had fallen almost 2 to 1 in chip count behind the eventual winner, player ‘Copi’ who had successfully fought from a trailing position. ‘Copi’ cleared $126 787, with JungleKing picking up the second place prize money of $80 298.
896 players lined up for the Ultimate Bet $200 000 guaranteed tournament, putting 90 players ‘in the money’ and setting the winner’s cheque at $45 000. The heads up was between players ‘Farkouh’ and ‘Nauti1’ in an exciting series of hands in which Farkouh fought back from the trailing position to win, taking home a nice pay packet of $45 000 whilst a disappointed ‘Nauti1’ had the consolation of a $27 000 payday.