How many chances in your life do you get to watch a guy win a million bucks? Those people who were awake early Monday morning got to see Kyle "First-Eagle" Weir do it in the PokerStars 10th Anniversary Sunday Million. Now, those who weren't awake now have their chance to see it, too.
If you missed it the first time, Weir beat out the richest online poker tournament field in history when he triumphed over more than 12,000 people to win more than a million dollars. At one point last week, he considered himself unemployed. Now he's a millionaire.
Kyle Weir (he's the one on the left)
This special Online Poker show report is more than just a replay of the final table. It once again has the funny and expert commentary of Nick Wealthall. He's joined this time by Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree.
To watch the full show, just check out the video below.
Everyone knew the final weekend of the PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebration was going to be big. It would be a party befitting the world's largest online poker site. It would be rich. It would be glamorous. It would be everything everyone expected it to be. But who could've predicted how big it would actually get?
By the time registration closed on the 10th Anniversary special Sunday Million, 62,116 players had signed up to play the biggest Sunday Million and biggest online poker tournament in history. The prize pool swelled to $12,423,200 and offered up some of the greatest stories in PokerStars' history.
For instance, the 14th place finisher in the event got into the 10th Anniversary Sunday Million for 375 Frequent Player Points and turned it into $48,000. Meanwhile, 20th place finisher Nest17 made it into the event for eight--EIGHT!--FPPs and earned more than $22,000.
Meanwhile, the $10,000 10th Anniversary High Roller was in action with 187 players and a prize pool worth nearly $1.9 million. When it was all said and done, Joey Lawrence had defeated an exceptionally tough field and captured the $402,000 first prize.
It was, as our Martin Harris wrote, an "exclamation point on the 10th Anniversary festivities." After a month of huge promotions, giveaways, and parties, after giving away 100 PCA seats, after setting world records, after once again shocking the poker world, PokerStars finally turned out the lights on its anniversary party.
Here arre just a few of the other big stories from the 10th Anniversary celebration (you can read them all in our special 10th anniversary section):
If you'd like a look at all the people who won big money over the final 10th Anniversary weekend, see the PokerStars 12/18/11 majors results page.
Congratulations to all the big winners during the past month of celebrations on PokerStars, and thanks to all who helped us celebrate. It's been an amazing experience.
In Toronto, Canada, Kyle Weir sat unemployed. He was 24 years old and paying the bills by playing poker. Meanwhile, he had college loans hanging over his head It was a life, but not necessarily a rich one.
"I've always played cards to scrape together money," Weir said.
A lot of people might be satisfied with that way of life. Still, the idea of scraping to get by isn't one that appeals to many. Before this weekend, Weir--known as First-Eagle on PokerStars--had never cashed for more than $40,000 in one online tournament. Though he's been playing on PokerStars for four years, his success has been somewhat limited.
That changed early this morning when Weir won the biggest-ever Sunday Million--the biggest-ever online tournament in history!--and became an instant millionaire.
"The feeling after the win was unbelievable," Weir said. "I still feel like I'm dreaming and can't believe it's happened. It's an incredibly fortunate experience."
The 10th Anniversary Sunday Million final table
As you likely know by now, Weir was one of more than 62,000 people who signed up for the PokerStars 10th Anniversary Sunday Million. Before yesterday, the biggest Sunday Million prize pool was $12,215,000. Now the standing record is $12,423,200, and Weir got the lion's share of it. His cut of the final table deal earned him $1,146,574.
"I plan on paying off some loans I have built up over the years paying for college. Its a huge weight off my shoulders getting rid of those," Weir said.
At one time just a friendly homegame player, Weir spent a lot of time over the past several years honing his online game and working to support himself with his talents. It's not always easy on him, nor is it easy on the people he loves. Now that it's paid off in spades, Weir is looking for a way to pay back some support to some important people.
"I would definitely like to send my parents on vacation for a few weeks. Playing poker so much doesn't only take effect on a player itself, but parents and friends as well," he said. "It's going to be a great feeling giving them a few weeks off to enjoy themselves."
As for whatever else is next? That's still up in the air. Weir hasn't even had 12 hours to process the fact that he's now a millionaire. He's going to take a couple of days off to celebrate and relax, and then it's back to the grind.
"Tournament leaderboards are still out there. Why stop after such a great run?" he said. "I just hope it continues. I would love a chance to play some live events soon. We'll just see where the next few months take me."
Congratulation to Kyle "First-Eagle" Weir for a stellar performance. Thanks for helping PokerStars celebrate its 10th anniversary in style!
Helping to put a big exclamation point on the 10th Anniversary festivities here at PokerStars, a special $10,300 High Roller tourney was added to the schedule on Sunday, and as expected the event drew many of online poker's biggest names. Combine that tough field with deep starting stacks (10,000 chips) and 30-minute levels and the tourney was certain to present a true challenge to players' skills.
At least 50 had to enter to match the event's $500,000 guarantee, but more than an hour before it began twice that had already signed up. By the time the first hands were dealt there were 150 seated, including more than a dozen Team PokerStars Pros and Team Online members.
When registration ended two hours in, a final total of 187 had joined the fray. That added up to $1.87 million for a prize pool -- way, way over that $500K guarantee -- to be divided among the top 27 finishers. Six-figure paydays awaited the top five finishers, with $402,050 of that going to the winner (barring any final table deals).
It took about three hours for the field to be trimmed to 140, with Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu (147th) and Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth (143rd) among the recent eliminations. At that point, bidernutnut led the way, having built a stack of nearly 45,000, with b8chatz and shaman627 the only other players with more than 30,000.
Ninety minutes later there were 100 left, with Humberto Brenes (127th) and Ville Vahlbeck (120th) having joined the group on the rail. shuriken555 led with over 74,000, with Steve "gboro780" Gross next with just under 52,000 and bearsfan775, Adam "squee451" Sherman, bindernutnut, and b8chatz not far behind.
The tourney had been going just about seven hours, with L0ve2playU sitting with the most chips of the final 50 with a little over 100,000, with Dan "djk123" Kelly, Schildy1984, lb6121, and Rachid "SkaiWalkurrr" Ben Cherif rounding out the top five. Meanwhile, Team PokerStars had but two representatives left, Eugene Katchalov and Jonathan Duhamel, both hovering with below-average stacks just inside the top 30.
Katchalov was among the next wave of eliminations, however, going out in 43rd just after other familiar names like Athanasios "Athanasios 9" Polychronopoulos (49th), Ronny "1-ronnyr3" Kaiser (47th), and Steve "gboro780" Gross (46th).
Meanwhile Duhamel scored a double-up when his [Ah][Kc] held against Ashley "DYBYDX" Mason's [Ac][Qs] to push the 2010 WSOP Main Event champ back above average. Mason was trying to replicate his success in the $10K High Roller event from the 2011 SCOOP last September when he bested a field of 200 to take the bracelet and $430,000 payday.
As they crossed the nine-hour mark, 28 remained, with Toby "810ofclubs" Lewis (39th), Timothy "Tim0thee" Adams (37th), bindernutnut (36th), Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko (34th), Rachid "SkaiWalkurrr" Ben Cherif (32nd), and Dan "Danny98765" Smith (30th) among the latest to be eliminated.
On the bubble with the blinds 600/1,200, Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver opened for 2,520 from UTG and Adam "squee451" Sherman reraised all in for 7,621 from a couple of seats over. It folded back to Oliver who called, turning over [7s][7d] to Sherman's [Ac][Ad].
The flop came [5s][As][3s], giving Sherman a set of aces but also giving Oliver a flush draw. The [2s] then landed on the turn, completing ImDaNuts' flush, and after the [6c] river Sherman had been ousted in 28th.
"awesommmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeee" typed a sarcastic squee451 as the hand completed.
With 27 left, Dan "djk123" Kelly held the lead with about 275,000, just over 100,000 better than Jamie "pokerjamers" Armstrong in second. ImDaNuts, Ashley "DYBYDX" Mason, and aaabbbccc rounded out the top five, with Duhamel still there in 10th.
Over the next hour-and-a-half the field was reduced to 18, with each of the nine players eliminated earning $18,700: William "Altrum Altus" Reynolds (27th), bearsfan775 (26th), Renato "leguito" Almeida (25th), asadi (24th), Mike "Timex" McDonald (23rd), Joao "joaobarb" Barbosa (22nd), L0ve2playU (21st), Liutauras "liutas.a" Armanavicius (20th), and FisFarfar (19th).
Dan "djk123" Kelly still led with 318,583, well ahead of second-place Andrey "Chaaai" Saenko with 174,127. Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen was third with 167,598, while Duhamel was near the bottom of the counts with about 35,000.
Duhamel lasted through the next three eliminations -- Banderivets (18th), lb6121 (17th), and b8chatz (16th) -- each of whom earned $23,275. Then with the blinds 1,000/2,000, Duhamel open-pushed his remaining 22,774 from early position with [Kh][3d] and got one caller in Chaaai who held [Th][Td]. The board came [Qd][3c][Ad][5s][4s], and Duhamel was out in 15th, good for $28,050.
Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel
It would take a while for the next five eliminations to occur: Alexander "Schildy1984" Debus (14th, $28,050), Russell "rdcrsn" Carson (13th, $28,050), aaabbbccc (12th, $32,725), kriga (11th, $32,725), and Jamie "pokerjamers" Armstrong ($32,725). As the clock tripped past 3:00 a.m. ET -- about 11-and-a-half hours after the tournament began -- the final table began.
With the blinds 1,500/3,000 (Level 21), almost everyone still had healthy stacks with which to compete with the leader Ashley "DYBYDX" Mason except Greenstone25, and it would only take a half-dozen hands for Greenstone25 to get those chips in the middle.
Following an opening raise to 6,600 from UTG by Joey "jcl87" Lawrence, it folded around to Greenstone25 who pushed all in for 54,502 from the cutoff. The others got out, and jcl87 quickly called, turning over [Ac][Kc] to Greenstone25's [Jh][Jd]. The board came [3h][Ad][Tc][6s][As], giving Lawrence trip aces and sending Greenstone25 out in ninth.
Not long after that hand Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen would essentially switch stacks with DYBYDX to grab the lead when Stammen's [Ks][Kd] held versus DYBYDX's [Jd][Jc].
A short while later the blinds were still 1,500/3,000 when Dan "djk123" Kelly raised to 6,000 from the hijack seat, then Grayson "gray31" Ramage reraised to 15,678 from the button. The blinds folded, then Kelly made it 28,662 to go. Ramage responded by reraising again, this time to 49,876, and Kelly shoved all in over the top for 170,008 total. Ramage made the call, showing [Ad][Qs] to Kelly's [Js][Jd].
The flop paired Ramage, coming [Qc][3s][Ts]. The turn was the [8s] and river the [3d], and djk123 was eliminated in eighth.
Seven hands later they'd just moved to Level 22 (500/2,000/4,000) when Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver raised to 8,385 from middle position and it folded around to montecarlo13 who reraised to 24,000 from the small blind. DYBYDX folded the BB, then Oliver pushed all in and montecarlo13 called with the 51,371 he had left.
ImDaNuts had [Td][Tc] and was hoping that pair would hold versus montecarlo13's [As][Kc]. The five community cards came eight-high -- [4d][8d][5c][4s][2h] -- meaning Oliver's tens were best and montecarlo13 was out in seventh.
A few minutes later there another bit of preflop back-and-forthing ensued, this time between Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver and Joey "jcl87" Lawrence from the blinds. After it folded around to Lawrence, he raised to 10,000, then Oliver made it 18,999. jcl87 pushed it to 42,750, eliciting an all-in shove for 234,183 by ImDaNuts which jcl87 promptly called.
jcl887 had [Ac][Kd] and ImDaNuts [3c][3s]. The flop landed [Kh][5d][8d], putting Lawrence in front with a pair of kings. The turn was the [Js] and river the [8c], and they were quickly down to five.
The remaining players took the 12-and-a-half-hour break, then soon after they returned came another elimination.
It was Level 23 (625/2,500/5,000). Andrey "Chaaai" Saenko raised to 10,000 from UTG, Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen called from the button, and Grayson "gray31" Ramage called as well from the small blind. The flop came [7c][9h][Kc]. Ramage checked, Saenko bet 19,625, then Stammen raised to 49,775. gray31 folded, Chaaai reraised to 82,500, Stammdogg pushed all in, and Chaaai called with the 137,244 he had left.
Saenko showed [Ad][Ac], but Stammen had flopped a set of nines with his [9d][9s]. The turn was the [5s] and river the [6s], and Saenko was out in fifth.
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With four players remaining, jcl87 led with just over 751,000, Stammdogg had pushed into second with about 660,000, gray31 was third with just over 301,000, and DYBYDX was last with almost 157,000.
Mason chipped up to move out of last and take a slight lead over Ramage, then the pair had an all-in preflop confrontation in which Mason had [Ks][7d] and Ramage [Ah][Qh]. The flop brought a seven, but the turn was a queen, and gray31's hand held up, pushing him up over 500,000 and sending DYBYDX down to just 17,188.
Just a few hands later, DYBYDX would reraise all in from the big blind over a button raise by Stammen, sticking his last 15,938 in the middle with [Ah][4s] and Stammdogg called with [Ac][Th]. Again the flop was good for Mason -- coming [7h][4c][Jc]. And the [9s] turn was okay, too. But the [Ts] river gave Stammen the better pair and sent DYBYDX to the rail in fourth. Still, it was another nice six-figure payday for Mason following his WCOOP High Roller win last fall.
At that point the remaining trio had a brief conversation between hands about the issue of deal-making.
gray31: u guys wanna look at numbers?
jcl87: can look i guess
jcl87: stamm?
gray31: look at numbers stamm or play?
Stammdogg: no ty lets play for it all :)
gray31: kk
jcl87: ok
Stammdogg: glgl
They continued for another half-hour, during which time Stammdogg saw his stack slip down under 250,000 while jcl87 and gray31 both hovered around 800,000-820,000.
Then, with the blinds 3,000/6,000 (Level 24), Stammen opened with a raise to 14,225 from the button and jcl87 called from the big blind. The flop came [9s][8d][8s]. Joey "jcl87" Lawrence checked, Stammdogg bet 16,225, then Lawrence check-raised to 38,765. Stammen pushed all in for 220,839 total, and jcl87 called.
Stammen had [Qc][Qd] for queens and eights while Lawrence had [As][Ts] for a flush draw. The turn was the [6c] and Stammen was still best, but the [7s] fell on the river, giving Lawrence the flush and sending Stammen out in third.
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jcl87 had 1,060,210 to gray31's 809,790 to start heads-up play. Both immediately agreed to revisit the idea of perhaps chopping the remaining prize pool, and they called to have the tournament paused. They played one hand -- a raise-and-take-it by Ramage -- and had begun the second of heads-up when the signal came that the tourney would be paused upon the completion of their hand.
The way things turned out, there wouldn't be a need for a deal after all.
They had just begun Level 25 (875/3,500/7,000), and Lawrence began with a min-raise to 14,000 from the button. Ramage made it 39,876 and Lawrence called the reraise.
The flop came all spades -- [4s][9s][8s] -- and without waiting too long gray31 bet 38,765. jcl87 paused for a while, then raised to 100,500. Ramage took even longer to respond, then finally reraised back to 234,567. jcl87 hesitated, too, then pushed all in and Ramage called with his remaining chips.
Lawrence had flopped a flush with [Ks][7s], but had to fade another spade as Ramage turned over [As][Kh]. The turn was the [Jc] and river the [Ah], and before any deal discussion could take place the tourney had been decided. Two spade flushes in three hands equaled two knockouts and a High Roller win for Lawrence!
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Congratulations to Joey "jcl87" Lawrence for a huge High Roller win over a tough, tough field and a $400K-plus score!
10th Anniversary High Roller, $10,300 No-Limit Hold'em:
This is it. The final weekend of the PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebration has arrived. I hope you have prepared in advance for this, because this could easily end up being the biggest weekend of your year, if not your entire life. Somebody is going to win at least $2 million this weekend, and if that doesn't change your life for the better, there aren't many things that will. If you're not prepared for this weekend's festivities and the $10 million guaranteed Sunday Million, you now have 48 hours to get ready. That's not a lot of time, but with the following checklist, you might just get ready.
$215--Find $215 right now. That's the normal cost of a Sunday Million. Usually that gives you a short at a first prize worth $150,000 to $200,000. This weekend, the same $215 will get a chance at a $2 million first prize. The $215 is crucial. Set it aside right now and sign up for the $10 million guaranteed Sunday Million. At this writing, nearly 10,000 people have already signed up. Cards go in the air at 14:30 ET Sunday.
$11--Okay. You're right. $215 isn't small change. We don't all have it to set aside. How about $11? If you can swing that, there is a $11 Sunday Million Mega Satellite with 1,000 seats guaranteed. It's happening 45 minutes before the Sunday Million.
$1--Eleven dollars is too much. Okay. You have a buck, right? Alright, then sign up for one of the $1 satellites to the $11 Mega. Do that right now and get your seat in the qualifier.
Sustenance--As long as you're going to be saving lots of money on the entry fee, you might as well treat yourself to a lot of good snacks. Your shopping list should include Red Bull (1 case), Caribou Coffee (1 pound), Frozen Pizza (4), Bananas (8), Butler to handle the rest of your needs (1).
$10,000--Listen, if you can afford to hire a butler for the weekend, you might just have the scratch to play on of online poker's most prestigious events of the year. The 10th Anniversary $10,000 High Roller has a $500,000 guarantee and will host some of the biggest names in the game.
$700--This has nothing to do with the 10th Anniversary celebration, but as long as as you are settled in for the big day, you might as well play the Very Big $700 Mega Qualifier for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with 30 PCA main event packages guaranteed. It runs at 15:00ET Sunday. There are also satellites for that qualifier are running right now.
After more than a month of celebration parties, giveaways, and excitement, it seems hard to believe the PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebration is getting ready to come to a close. When a party goes on for a so long, it starts to feel like the road goes on forever. But this weekend is the end. Might as well go out with the biggest of bangs, right?
Just in case the month-long party has your head swimming, we've put together a quick primer on what you need to remember for the next few days. It's short, but it's important.
On Sunday, PokerStars will host the 10th Anniversary $10 million guaranteed Sunday Million. You can qualify right now for as little as $1, or pay the relatively small $215 buy-in for a chance at a guaranteed $2 million first prize. This could easily end up being the biggest Sunday Million of all time. With four days to go until the cards go in the air, six thousand people are already registered. Satellites are running around the clock. It's not to be missed. It kicks off at the normal time, 16:30 ET.
If you're looking for a bigger buy-in, the 10th Anniversary $10,000 High Roller event will go off at 15:30 ET on Sunday. The $500,000 guaranteed event will have some of the biggest names in the game in it and is sure to be a star-studded affair.
In case you missed it, this week the Battle of the Planets Sit & Go Leader Boards awarding double cash prizes across all divisions. You can play as few as 20 of your favorite tournaments and end up getting a share of a lot of extra prizes. Added to that, any player who beats a 10th Anniversary Target Score on their Leader Board will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000.
So, there's your primer. Clear your calendar and getting ready for the big finale. You don't want to have to say you missed the best part of the party.
It's mesmerizing. It's almost zen-like. Open your PokerStars tournament lobby and watch the 10th Anniversary $10 million Sunday Million registration number climb. As of this moment, it's 4,783. I've been watching it go up for the past 24 hours. I've not quite seen anything like it.
This event is unlike any PokerStars has ever hosted. After ten years on the internet, PokerStars is throwing an anniversary party to rival almost any in the world. Go to most 10th wedding anniversary parties and the traditional gift is something made of tin. Go to PokerStars' 10th anniversary party and it's something made of ten million.
You're not a dullard. You can do the math. With a $10 million guarantee, that means PokerStars is expecting more than 50,000 people to show up. On most days, the $215 weekly tournament draws fewer than 10,000.
And so we watch the registration numbers tick up. It's now grown to 4,786 since I typed the first words of this story. I type pretty quickly.
The crazy early registration is due to a couple of things. First, the first prize in this week's Sunday Million is guaranteed at $2 million. That's right. It's not a typo. This week's first place prize is double the normal guarantee for the weekly prize pool.
In addition to that, PokerStars is running a ton of satellites that can get players into the Sunday Million for as little as $1.
A dollar for a chance at $2 million? The math isn't that hard. (Registrations are at 4,789 now).
Mesmerizing, no?
In the time it took me to put that picture in there, registrations went up to 4,793. There may be a market in making this tournament lobby into a New Age meditation device.
There is some precedent for a Sunday Million breaking the 50,000-player mark. On March 6 of this year, 59,128 people played a special Sunday Millon anniversary event for a $12 million prize pool. It remains to be seen if we can get anywhere close to that number this weekend.
In any case, what do you care, right? Regardless of whether there is an overlay, you'll be playing for a $10,000,000 prize pool (and maybe more) for a maximum cost of $215. One hyphenated word: No-brainer.
As I close, registrations sit at 4,797. I may just sit here until it hits 5,000. If someone wouldn't mind brining me a cup of tea and a scone, I'd be much obliged.
On December 18th PokerStars will be holding an absolutely amazing event. For its 10th Anniversary, they will boost the Sunday Million guarantee to an incredible $10 Million prize pool. What this means is that there will most likely be 50,000+ players all paying just $200 for a chance to win $2 Million.
The best way to approach such an event is probably to realize that you're going to have to get through a ton of people and so taking risks too much from the beginning is probably not the best option. Survival is key in this tournament and looking for really good spots to pick up chips in, is ideal in comparison with random risk taking. Many people will probably be taking risks in the beginning thinking that 50,000 is just too many players to overcome and so they think that getting lucky and picking up a ton of chips early on is crucial to doing well, but I disagree and think you should certainly take advantage of people employing these strategies by playing good hands and trapping them in any way you could.
As this is really a one of a kind tournament that you may not see again for a very long time I think everyone who has the opportunity, should go out of their way to play this. If $200 is too much of a buy-in for you, PokerStars is running a multitude of satellites where you could win your buy-in for as little as $1 if not less or even Freeroll your way into it using other PokerStars promotions. I'm personally used to playing live tournaments where the buy-ins generally range from $5,000-$10,000 in main events and it's very rare to see a 1st prize of $2,000,000 in those, so I definitely plan on going out of my way to make sure I'm able to play this tournament for only $200.
I wish everyone the best of luck and see you at the tables!
When the "Sunday Storm" debuted on PokerStars earlier this year, the $11 buy-in tournament swiftly became one of the more popular tourneys on the weekly calendar. Typically the Storm has little trouble smashing its usual $200K guarantee -- for example, last week 39,815 came out, creating a prize pool of $398,150.
But with PokerStars celebrating its 10th anniversary, this week's Storm needed some extra thunder.
So the guarantee was upped to $1 million. Boom!
And first prize was guaranteed to be at least $150,000. Crack!
And to make things even more fun, $100 bounties for anyone knocking out a PokerStars pro along the way. That's a lot of extra cash raining down!
The Gathering Storm: 116,400 Entrants
When the first hands were dealt the total number of entrants had already climbed past 85,000 and would continue to rise throughout the two hours of late registration. A half-hour later the field had pushed past the 100,000-player mark, thus ensuring the guarantee would be met.
As the overall field grew, players began to fall, among them Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree. Down to 1,527 chips at the start of the second hour, Boeree shoved over a GUST1931956 limp, then saw Martonio reraise all in from one seat over. It folded back to GUST1931956 who thought a bit -- he had Boeree covered, but not Martonio -- and finally he called.
Boeree had [4c][4d], but both of her opponents had drawn pocket fives, as GUST1931956 held [5s][5c] and Martonio [5d][5h]. The board then came [8d][9d][7d][Ad][Ac], giving Martonio the flush and two knockouts, plus $100 for having ousted Boeree.
Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree
Among other bounties collected during the early afternoon, Gabden77 knocked out Humberto Brenes, 5AULIU5 knocked out 2011 WSOP Main Event runner-up Martin Staszko, ProffiKid eliminated Eugene Katchalov, and cc128 sent Jan Heitmann railward.
When registration finally closed, 116,400 players altogether had jumped into the Storm, creating a $1,164,000 prize pool. The top 15,166 finishers would make the money, with a minimum-cash equaling $23.28. All of those making the final table would earn at least five-figure paydays, with first prize a huge $157,140! (Barring any final table deals, that is.)
Storming Through: From 100,000 to 10,000
A few more bounties were collected as the field shrunk below 40,000. A short-stacked Sebastian Ruthenberg shoved with [8d][8s] and was called by R£Ch_HaRd waiting in the big blind with [Ad][As]. That was bad for the Team PokerStars Pro, but the [Ac][Ah][6c] flop made it even worse, and soon R£Ch_HaRd had all of Ruthenberg's chips and a $100 bounty.
Shortly after that, the blinds were 400/800 when Juan Manuel Pastor shoved his last 5,800 from UTG with [5h][5d] and TIME250 decided to take a shot at the bounty by calling from the button with [9d][2h]. The board came [As][Td][Jd][6s]... [9h], that river rewarding TIME250 with the pot and an extra hundy.
And clucker28 collected Angel Guillen's bounty when he spiked a river queen with [Ad][Qs] against Guillen's [Ah][Kh] and SVGoogle's pocket eights.
By the three-hour mark the field had been trimmed under 20,000 players. At that point k33nz0 and mextrex were setting the pace with more than 200,000, with MD IACONI, ligra80, Yvon-King not far behind.
The cash bubble was still nearly 5,000 eliminations away, but it wouldn't take long to get there -- just 20 minutes, in fact. Along the way, more bounties were collected by skaza777 (Martin "AABenjaminAA" Hruby), KOSEC510 (Marcel Luske), and AKSU-47 (Richard "Tzen1" Veenman).
A half-hour later 10,000 players were left, with forAwhiteguy setting the pace, nearing the 500,000-chip mark. sergey963 was his nearest challenger with about 379,000, with maro61058 in third with just over 337,000.
More PokerStars Pros Caught in the Storm: From 10,000 to 1,000
Barbero was the first of the five to fall when his [Qd][Js] failed him against Kaketka550's [Ks][Tc], knocking out the Argentinian in 8,576th ($23.28).
Duhamel followed him soon thereafter in a three-way hand in which $wish$lots$ successfully ousted the 2010 WSOP Main Event champ in 7,049th ($34.92).
A little later the blinds were 3,000/6,000 when gabtom13 limped in from late position, then Kravchenko shoved all in for 78,171 from the small blind. gabtom13 thought for several seconds, then called with [5s][5c]. It was a good call, as his Russian foe had but [2s][2c], and five cards later Kravchenko was out in 5,023rd ($34.92)
With 5,000 players left, Remmi was in first position with more than 683,000 while bemessinger and bunicul177 were the only other players with more than 600,000.
Another 999 players ran out of chips, then Ivan Demidov reraised all in for 114,192 (about 16 big blinds) and Pestilential called. Demidov had [Ks][Jd] and Pestilential [As][Jc], and after the board came ten-high Demidov was gone in 4,001st, giving him $34.92 and $100 for Pestilential.
"I think you got the last bounty pro here gl," typed Pierre "Zoutechamp" Neuville at his table a while later.
Team PokerStars Pro Pierre "Zoutechamp" Neuville
Some time after that Neuville became short-stacked, then folded down until he had but 664 chips remaining at which point he pushed his last chips in the middle.
Five opponents limped along for 20,000 each to see if they could earn the final bounty, and in the end it was Luk1985 whose [Ks][5c] gave him a pair of fives, good enough to win the pot and $100 as Neuville hit the rail in 1,562nd ($58.20).
Lightning Strikes: From 1,000 to 100
The tourney was a little over five-and-a-half hours old when 1,000 players remained. They'd outlasted over 115,000 opponents, but the forecast was for the Storm to last quite a bit longer.
By then Efimike had pushed in front with just over 3.23 million, with cover_point next with about 3.12 million and lennie-g22 hovering at 2.7 million.
Over the next hour the field shrunk to less than 300 players, during which period tiriesto steadily rose to the top of the leaderboard and close to the 10 million-chip mark. Then came a huge three way-all in between tiriesto with [Ad][Qs], KRANTY with [Tc][Ts], and kid_world with [Qd][9d].
After the [2c][5h][8h] flop and [9s] turn it looked as though KRANTY would be claiming the 6 million-plus chip pot. But the [Ah] struck on the river like a bolt of lightning, sending out both kid_world (242nd, $116.40) and KRANTY (241st, $116.40) and pushing tiriesto up close to 13.3 million chips -- at the time about five million more than second-place collins82.
tiriesto kept adding to his leading stack, and a half-hour later would be the first to cross 20 million. Then lightning would strike for tiriesto again in another big three-way all-in in which he held ace-queen.
In this one, the blinds were up to 120,000/240,000 when Vlad_Russia raised to 1,571,618, leaving himself just a single chip behind. tiriesto reraised to 2,903,236 from the button, then Felsss shoved all in for 5,159,748 from the small blind. Vlad_Russia tossed in his last chip and tiriesto called as well.
As mentioned, tiriesto had [Ac][Qd], better than Vlad_Russia's [As][9d] but way behind Felsss' [Ad][Ah]. But the flop came [Qh][2s][Qs], giving tiriesto trips, and two cards later his hand had held. Vlad_Russia was out in 105th ($430.68) and Felsss out in 104th (also $430.68).
Meanwhile, as three more fell and the field shrunk to 100 players, tiriesto was up over 29.5 million, a full 10 million ahead of second-place Puigmal.
In the Eye of the Storm: From 100 to 9
As they crossed the eight-hour mark, tiriesto continued to maintain the lead, moving out further past 35 million. Eliminations were now resulting in $500-plus paydays for players, a nice return on an $11 investment. But all continued to eye those $10K-plus prizes at the final table, including the $157,140 awaiting the winner.
By the time 50 were left, tiriesto was holding steady at 35.3 million, with Eldasensei next with 28.4 million and sebstop, dim1388, and Orekhov59 all around the 25 million-chip mark.
Puigmal would rush past them all, however, to be the first to 40 million, then 45 million. As tiriesto's run good finally slowed down to knock him back a few spots, Eldasensei would likewise move over 40 million, then past the 50 million-mark with just 30 players left. Then Eldasensei took a bite from tiriesto's stack to go over 60 million in a hand in which he rivered a spade flush and got paid.
After nine hours and 40 minutes of play there were 20 left, by which point the average stack was a whopping 29.1 million. Eldasensei was still in front with more than 62 million, Kutscher83 in second with about 56.6 million, and Kuzjayo in third with a little less than 47.4 million.
Soon after tiriesto's run came to an end, knocked by Kuzjayo in 20th ($2,106.84). He was followed to the rail by zbaur (19th, $2,106.84), avasimp (18th, $3,154.44), siinovedad (17th, $3,154.44), dandanaini (16th, $3,154.44), BartezJB (15th, $4,737.48), and stefanoy (14th, $4,737.48), during which stretch Eldasensei became the first to 100 million.
Next out was tianmojing85 (13th, $4,737.48), followed by isexshop.us (12th, $6,855.96) and lennie-g22 (11th, $6,855.96), the latter at the hands of sebstop. That hand catapulted sebstop up over 125 million and into the chip lead, followed by Eldasensei who'd slipped back around 75 million, and Kutscher83 with about 72 million.
The final ten played hand-for-hand through the 10-and-a-half-hour break. sebstop would actually build his stack up over 150 million at one point before falling back, then losing a huge one to Eldasensei in which the pair got all of the latter's chips in the middle on a [5h][Ts][5c] flop with sebstop holding [Qc][Th] and Eldasensei [Kh][Tc]. Eldasensei's hand held, shooting him back to the top of the counts and sending sebstop down near the bottom.
Finally Orekhov59 was eliminated in 10th ($6,855.96) when his [Ad][As] got cracked by chrjs2k's [Tc][9c]. All in for 10.7 million before the flop, Orekhov59 saw three clubs fall right away to strike him down one spot shy of the final table.
Some deep stacks with nine left, although the blinds had reached 900k/1.8m, meaning Kutscher83 and Timjonsen were sitting on just about 11 big blinds each to start the final table.
Storming Out of the Gate: From 9 to 6
Timjonsen would waste little time getting his stack in the middle, open-shoving from late position for 19,274,258 and getting a caller in emaestrodobi from a seat over. Speedyy1986 then reraised all in for nearly 29 million from the blinds, and emaestrodobi called that as well.
The board rolled out [Tc][Ad][7h][Ac][5h], giving Speedyy1986 both the main and side pots and sending Timjonsen out in ninth.
The other short stack Kutscher83 would be all in shortly thereafter, open-shoving from the small blind for 13,524,505 with [Ac][3d] and getting called quickly by sebstop in the BB with [Ac][Jc]. The flop paired Kutscher83, coming [3c][2d][Qc], but the [Jd] fell on the turn to give sebstop the better pair. The river was the [7d] and they were down to seven.
The remaining players then began to discuss possibly making a deal, but sebstop said he wasn't interested and play continued. And as often seems to happen in these spots, it was the one averse to the deal-making who'd be the next to go.
The blinds had reached 1m/2m by the time sebstop's end arrived. Speedyy1986 opened with a raise to 4.38 million from UTG and it folded around to sebstop who made it 9.3 million from the small blind. The BB folded and Speedyy1986 called.
The flop came [7s][Th][Qc]. sebstop checked, Speedyy1986 bet 7,825,899, then sebstop check-raised to 20 million even. Speedyy1986 made it 32,174,101, sebstop reraised again all in for 67,784,255 total, and Speedyy1986 speedily called.
sebstop had but [3h][3s] while Speedyy1986 had a set with [Ts][Tc]. The [9d] on the turn sealed it, and sebstop was out in seventh.
RSS readers click through to see replay
Thunderous Applause for the Six Who Made a Deal
The remaining six players then agreed to talk chop, and after a while the tourney was paused. At that point Speeddy1986 had the lead with about 157 million, Eldasensei was next with just over 108 million, Kuzjayo was third with almost 95.5 million, chrjs2k was fourth with almost 91 million, Puigmal was fifth with about 67.5 million, and emaestrodobi last with about 62.5 million.
"Chip chop" numbers were provided -- leaving $20,000 for which to play -- and all agreed except for the short-stack emaestrodobi who wanted at least $55,000 rather than the $51,127.83 being proposed for him. But that presented a problem for Puigmal who was ahead of emaestrodobi in the counts but was only due to receive $53,113.39.
The others agreed to give emaestrodobi more and let Puigmal keep what was due to him via the "chip chop," and while it took some encouraging Puigmal finally agreed. (See payouts below.) Then came a bit of jubilation.
Puigmal: It's a BIG BIG RESULLT!!!!
Puigmal: FOR ALL
Puigmal: CONGRATS
chrjs2k: yes
Speeddy1986: it is for all
chrjs2k: Amen
Puigmal: ang now play for 20,000!!!!!
And so -- after congratulating each other a bit more -- they did.
Riders on the Storm: From 6 to 2
They'd been back at it a short while, and the blinds had crept to 1.25m/2.5m when Kuzjayo opened for 7.5 million from the button, then Eldasensei reraised to 17.5 million from the big blind. Kuzjayo called the reraise, and both saw the flop come [2s][9d][5s]. Eldasensei led for 32.5 million, Kuzjayo raised all in for 78,131,381, and Eldasensei called with the 37,272,932 he had left.
Eldasensei showed [Qh][Qd] for queens while Kuzjayo had [Ac][9h] for nines. The turn was the [Ts] and Eldasensei was still ahead, but the river brought the [Ac], giving Kuzjayo a second pair and sending Eldasensei out in sixth.
About 15 minutes later, leader Speedyy1986 would lose a huge preflop all-in versus Kuzjayo in which the latter caught an ace with [Ac][Ks] to outdraw Speedyy1986's [6c][6s]. That 215 million-plus pot sent Kuzjayo into the chip lead with five left and momentarily made Speedyy1986 the short stack.
Then came a huge three-way all in pitting Kuzjayo's [Qd][Qs] against emaestrodobi's [Jh][Js] and Puigmal's [7d][7s]. The flop paired no one, but the turn and river both brought sevens to give Puigmal quads and send emaestrodobi out in fifth. Take a look:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Five hands later the blinds were 2m/4m when Speedyy1986 open-pushed for 57,608,138 from the button with [Qs][Jh] and got one caller in Kuzjayo in the small blind with [As][8s]. The community cards came [7s][Ts][6h][9d][4d], giving Kuzjayo a straight. Speedyy1986 was out in fourth, although was assured the biggest payday of the tourney thanks to the earlier deal.
The blinds moved to 2.5m/5m, and Kuzjayo opened for 10 million from the small blind. Puigmal pushed all in from the big blind for 68,611,031, and Kuzjayo called. Puigmal had [Ac][2h] but needed help versus Kuzjayo's [As][Th]. The board came [Ah][Jh][3h][Kc][4s], and Puigmal's run ended in third place.
Weathering the Storm: Heads-Up
Kuzjayo began heads-up play with the chip advantage, his massive stack of 354,714,782 ahead of chrjs2k's 227,285,218.
On the 11th hand of heads-up, chrjs2k scored a big double-up when his [Ad][Kc] managed to outrace Kuzjayo's [2c][2s], hitting a king on the flop. Then five hands later -- just about 12-and-a-half-hours after the tourney began -- the final hand took place.
With the blinds still 2.5m/5m, chrjs2k raised to 15 million from the button, Kuzjayo shoved for 128,429,564, and chrjs2k called. This time chrjs2k had the black deuces and was hoping [2s][2c] would work out better for him than it had for Kuzjayo who here held [Ad][6c].
The flop was very good for chrjs2k, coming [Kd][2d][3s] to give him a set. The turn was the [Kc], improving him to a full house and making the river [8c] no matter. chrjs2k had won!
RSS readers click through to see replay
Congratulations to chrjs2k for besting a field of 116,400 to win the 10th Anniversary Sunday Storm! And also congrats to Speedyy1986 who netted the biggest payday thanks to the six-way chop. Some nice returns on those $11 buy-ins!
Kozlicek_x hails from the Czech Republic, a fact which will become important later in this story. But at the tale's beginning, he was just a very small gear in a record-breaking PokerStars Sunday prime time engine. At the peak of the day, more than 410,000 people were playing on PokerStars at one time. Even the always-robust PokerStars server was saying, "Enough already!" But Kozlicek_x had his seat, and that would be the key to this story reaching its climax.
He was sitting at a NLHE table with .02 and .05 blinds. It's a microstakes game where on almost every day of the year nobody will get rich. In fact, on most days, a big win might buy lunch. Today, that changed.
As more than 400,000 players looked on in envy, the people at that table were dealt into PokerStars' 72 billionth hand. In any other year, this would've been just another hand. However, thanks to the on-going PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebration, all the players dealt into the hand were guaranteed to win $10,000.
It's possible Kozlicek_x was having the best day of his year. Not only did he get dealt a pair of sevens pre-flop, but he managed to to flop a set, good for the $27 pot, and good for $24,300 in extra 10th anniversary prize money.
His initial response?
"Holy goat," he said.
Here's how it looked at is it happened.
In all, the players at that table won nearly $100,000. Here's a breakdown of who won what in the big hand.
Veles84 -- $14,690
7th_floor -- $14,730.00
v0ero0v -- $14,730.00
silentfridge -- $12,150.00
Kozlicek_x -- $24,300.00
thevik -- $14,730.00
"Czech mate," declared railbird Team Online member Kristian "CharismA3" Martin.
Czech mate, indeed.
So, for today, Kozlicek_x can consider himself the luckiest of PokerStars players. He might want to set aside a little luck and some money for next weekend. After all, the biggest Sunday of the year is coming soon. Next weekend will have the 10th Anniversary $10,000 High Roller event, and the insanely big $10 million guaranteed 10th Anniversary Sunday Million. It's going to be quite a day.
For now, however, congratulations to Kozlicek_x for winning PokerStars 72 billionth hand and $24,300!
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How many chances in your life do you get to watch a guy win a million bucks? Those people who were awake early Monday morning got to see Kyle "First-Eagle" Weir do it in the PokerStars 10th Anniversary Sunday Million. Now, those who weren't awake now have their chance to see it, too.
