Sunday Briefing: "bencb789" Wins $2,100 Sunday High Roller

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Aug 26, 2019 7 min read Last updated Dec 19, 2019

Thousands of poker players are currently in Spain for the 2019 European Poker Tour Barcelona festival, but plenty of online grinders look to have stayed at home judging by some of the massive prize pools created on Aug. 25.

Two of the online world’s bigger Sunday tournaments, the PokerStars Sunday Million and 888poker Mega Deep, both switched to a PKO event this week and both proved extremely popular. Let’s check out who won big in this weekend’s biggest tournaments.

$215 Sunday Million at PokerStars

A huge field of 14,139 players competed in the $109 Sunday Million, which was a PKO event for the second week running. A huge prize pool of $1,413,900 was shared half among the top 2,474 finishers with the remaining fifty percent going on the heads of each and every player.

The bounty payments made a big difference to the prices once the final table was reached and nobody won less than $9,117 with those bounties included.

Denmark’s “dazzy2004” saw their time in the limelight limited as they busted in ninth-place. The Dane was joined on the rail by Canada’s Samuel “SamuelBT” Tsehai who collected $13,903 and then by “caaaaamel” of Austria whose seventh-place finish weighed in at a combined $12,407.

Sixth-place went to one of two players from the United Kingdom. “BADEXTASY” scooped $14,776 with their fellow Briton falling in fourth-place for $29,986. Sandwiched between the Brits was “jhonne silva” of Brazil; their fifth-place finish was worth $22,378.

The penultimate bust-out was that of “Apoutsos” who won $44,637 from their home in sunny Greece.

A deal was struck when only two players remained. Ukraine’s “Armin2188” is credited with finishing second for a total prize of $75,226 with Brazil’s “FKAXM” being crowned the champion, an accolade that came with $88,743 in prize money.

^{*reflects a heads-up deal}

$2,100 Sunday High Roller at PokerStars

A compact field of only 66 entries took part in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller this weekend but it was a star-studded field to say the least. Only seven of the players saw a return on their buy-in, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet being the first player to cash after being eliminated in seventh-place for $2,872.

Geraldo “GeraldoCesar” Cesar Neto then fell in sixth-place for $3,985. The Brazilian would go on to triumph in a $500 buy-in event at Natural8 later in the evening. Cesar Neto gained some company on the sidelines when “halfway420” of Finland crashed out in fifth-place for $5,530. The Finn, like Caesar Neto, later won another tournament, this one the $1,050 Sunday Supersonic for $24,664.

Sweden’s “frippin” ran out of steam and fell in fourth-place for a $7,674 haul before partypoker sponsored pro Anatoly “NL_Profit” Filatov saw his tournament end in third place, a finish worth $10,650 to the Russian.

No deal was struck when the event was heds-up, meaning “be_awesome1” collected $14,778 when they busted in second-place and the legendary Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle walked away with $20,507.

Sunday High Roller Gladiator at partypoker

Two members of Team partypoker reached the final table of the Sunday High Roller Gladiator on Aug. 25, a $2,100 PKO event that attracted 59 entries who created a $120,950 prize pool.

Renato “renato_nomura” Nomura of Brazil was the first of the duo to bust, he fell in fifth-place for $4,614 boosted by $4,068 from the bounty prize pool. Falling two places later was Jeff “JeffGross” Gross whose third-place exit locked up $9,558 and that was bolstered with $3,871 worth of bounties.

Gross’ exit left “NewYorkJummY” and “BaDaDeBaBa” to battle one-on-one for the title and a now huge final bounty payment. NewYorkJimmY couldn’t get the job done and had to settle for the $14,496 second-place prize plus a bounty payment of $8,760 for a total prize worth $23,256. The champion took home $37,050 tanks in part to a $22,542 bounty.

Sunday Gladiator at partypoker

Jeff Gross put together another deep run in the $320 Sunday Gladiator but ultimately fell in 12th place, four short of another final table.

The player of the hour was “John Coffey13”, named after the protagonist in The Green Mile. Whether this player had the same magical powers as the film’s character remains to be seen, but they do have an extra $33,130 thanks to winning this tournament.

The champion slew “akkaakkaa” heads-up to win the lion’s share of the prize pool, with the runner-up scooping a total prize of $20,039

Those two players were the only ones to win a five-figure prize, although third-place finisher “shall not fade” did get extremely close as their haul weighed in at $9,987 when bounty payments were taken into consideration.

Sunday Blade $200 Special at Natural8

The super high rollers were not very well attended at Natural8 this week so we’ve taken a look at two lower buy-in events instead. The first is the Sunday Blade $200 Special that drew in a crowd of 366 players who played for a slice of $75,000.

Everyone at the nine-handed final table waled away with a four-figure prize with the top two finishers netting five-figures.

Three Canadians fell in quick succession: “BigDumbIdiot”, “bh9999” and “GolfQueenJenny” being that trio. They were soon followed by “shakaka” of Israel, “NeverIsEasyMoney” of Brazil and “JeffMonson” of Russia, the latter taking home $5,433.

Third place and $7,399 went to “BertBernstein” of Austra, which set up a heads-up clash between Ireland’s Cathal “shinerrr” Shine and “UgotKantchance” of Brazil. It was the Brazilian who emerged from the one-on-one battle unscathed, collecting $13,724 in the process and leaving the Irishman to bank $10,077.

Sunday Blade $500 at Natural8

Another Brazilian excelled in the Sunday Blade 500, namely Geraldo “BateBarbaPLZ” Cesar Neto. He turned his $500 investment into $15,546 by outlasting 144 opponents in the $75,000 guaranteed event. Cesar Neto defeated “binkdat” heads-up to close the tournament, the runner-up padding their bankroll with an $11,847 prize.

Earlier at the final table, which was a cosmopolitan affair, “i.pariguariensis”, “whitegold27” and “JomJunze” all fell by the wayside, the latter securing a $3,046 prize. They were joined in the role of spectator first by “Kaggis” of Iceland who won $3,997, then by Costa Rica's “Yerick” whose fifth-place finish weighed in at $5,244.

Fourth place and $6,881 went to Germany grinder “Overkick3000” with the penultimate elimination being that of “Super_B” of Israel who netted a cool $9,029.

$20,000 Sunday Challenge at 888poker

Over at 888poker, the $20,000 Sunday Challenge saw its guarantee hit when 229 entrants created a $22,900 prize pool that was shared among the top 27 finishers.

“Lyle_Demo”, “mvpalls” and “Mr.Fonzi” were the first players to bust from the nine-handed final table, the latter being the last player not to win at least $1,145.

That prize went to “bLEENk7” who fell in sixth-place and was joined on the rail by “lucasrouck” and “SmileThHero” who walked away with their bankroll boosted by $1,374 and $2,003.

“IamYourDille” busted in third place, a finish worth $2,690 and he was joined by the UK’s Stuart “Naffer87” Hardcastle who fell at the final hurdle, his runner-up finish seeing $3,549 added to his 888poker account.

Macedonia’s “NZhero007” was the last player standing and they got their hands on $4,923 as a result.

$100,000 Mega Deep PKO at 888poker

It may not have hit the $100,000 guarantee but the decision to switch the Sunday Mega Deep to a PKO event was well-received by the 888poker players with 454 players buying in.

Latvia’s “sikosomatik” took full advantage of the overlay to walk away with the title of champion and a payday of $18,797. The Latvian defeated “KoXSkitumas” of Lithuania heads-up to lock up the bumper prize and resign the second-place finisher to $10,453.

Nobody else won five-figures, but the payouts were still healthy. Third-place was worth a total of $7,279 and that went to “MASTERSH1FU”. Indeed, with bounty payments included, nobody won less than $1,698.

_{The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media}

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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