Sunday Briefing: Online Festivals Create Massive Scores

February 04, 2019

Dozens of online poker players won big on Feb. 3 thanks to the 888poker RakeLESS promotion, partypoker KO Series, PokerStars Turbo Series, and Natural8 running some big buy-in events that attracted players in droves.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest online poker tournament scores from Feb. 3.

PokerStars Turbo Series 01: $215 NLHE PKO

The PokerStars Turbo Series 01: $215 NLHE PKO attracted a massive field of 6,282 entrants who helped create a mammoth-sized $1,256,400 prize pool that was shared among the top 881 finishers and with whoever managed to eliminate an opponent.

At least $4,698, plus any bounties, was guaranteed for each of the nine final table members, the sum awarded to “5692262” of China; the Chinese player banked $11,031 when bounties were added to their score.

“Mr Meykes”, “despedespi33”, “Hytuio” and “khch” all crashed out to bank between $7,613 and $29,788 in total, with fourth-place finisher “patabdd” collecting a combined $31,823.

Third-place and a total of $51,379 was awarded to “Thomas198713” of Belgium, leaving “atanas_1980” and “FrCnntn1960” to play heads-up for the title and a considerable difference in prize money.

No deal was struck despite this now essentially being a heads-up sit & go for more than $70,000, meaning when Bulgarian “atanas_1980” busted in second-place, they netted $71,226 in total, leaving the British FrCnnctn to walk away $144,652 richer.

PokerStars Sunday Million

The new $109 buy-in for the PokerStars Sunday Million continued to remain popular with 13,228 players entering this weekend’s tournament. Eight of the nine players who reached the final table locked up a five-figure score, although ninth-place finisher “parisjoe” came close with $9,938 awarded to them.

Lithuania’s Benas "benasg" Gudelis banked 13-times more than ninth-place when they defeated “BarkieBoy NL” of the Netherlands heads-up for the lion’s share of the prize. The Lithuanian secured a $129,213 prize, which we would guess would be their largest-ever. BarkieBoy NL didn’t do too badly for their runner-up finish; their $109 investment was now worth a cool $93,762.

partypoker KO Series #01-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max

partypoker’s KO Series got off to a flying start with several of its bigger buy-in events smashing their guarantee.

One such event was the KO Series #01-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max won by “fizzygypsy” of Canada. partypoker recently took steps to make their PKO events a bit more fair. They did this by making first and second-place pay almost the same, leaving the heads-up duo to fight for the usually substantial final bounty payment.

fizzygypsy walked away with $65,906 and “fumateotro” of the United Kingdom $53,821 after both players collected $29,998 and $29,958 from the main prize pool, but fizzygypsy scooped more than $12,000 extra from the bounty prize pool.

partypoker KO Series #02-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max

It was a similar story in the KO Series #02-HR: $300K Gtd 8-Max where 748 players exchanged $530 for the chance to become a KO Series champion.

First-place in this exciting event weighed in at $26,199 with second-place locked in at $26,162. The difference between the first-place bounty and runner-up was a massive $24,743 thanks to “dean23pricel” having a sizeable bounty on their heads.

This meant when dean23pricel defeated “sanguenuzoio” heads-up, their bankroll was boosted by a combined $54,436 with the second-place finisher netting $29,656 in total.

888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Main Event

The 888poker RakeLESS promotion went down a storm with the two biggest tournaments each surpassing their $100,000 guarantees. The $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Main Event saw $132,300 distributed among the top 63 finishers, with the eight-handed final table all securing almost $3,000.

João “joaobarb” Barbosa, “mrsmith78” and Finland’s “dmg36” were the first casualties of the final table, walking away with prizes worth between $2,976 and $5,622. Fifth-place finisher “Lannovar10” of the United Kingdom banked $7,276 and was the last player in this tournament to not scoop five-figures.

Germany’s “t8ofdiamonds” busted in fourth-place for $10,319 and was joined as a spectator by “easylimp888” of the UK who netted $13,560 for their third-place exit.

Long-time grinder Michael “wywrotx” Wywrot triumphed over the 441-strong field, securing $25,137 for his efforts and leaving Jans “Graftekkel” Arends to collect the $18,522 consolation prize.

888poker $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep

The $100,000 RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep saw 773 players create a $154,600 prize pool and the lion’s share is now nestled in the 888poker account of “Tedson89” of the UK, namely $29,219.

The British player defeated “nixokofits” of Greece heads-up to secure the biggest prize of the tournament, which left the Greek grinder to bank $21,412 for their second-place finish.

Only two other 888poker players netted more than $10,000 from the RakeLESS Sunday Mega Deep. Fourth-place “GramNaKartke” was awarded $11,904 with “sblanch259” of Canada busting one place later for $15,769. Sam “sammygrinder” Grafton bubbled the final table; he finished ninth for $2,365.38.

Natural8 Sunday Blade $5k

A new addition to the Sunday Briefing this week are a couple of results from Natural8 on the GGNetwork, and it is easy to see why. The Sunday Blade $5K isn’t a $5K guaranteed affair; it’s a $5,000 buy-in event!

Five of the 43 starters banked some of the $204,250 prize pool; “oviens22” netting $12,838 for their fifth-place finish. “HONEYDETECTED” of the UK finished in fourth-place for $20,396; it would not be the Brits’ only big score of the night.

“Pihler13” of the Ukraine busted in third-place for $32,404 to leave “chapdelaine” and “SasukeUchiha” to play one-on-one for the title and the huge $87,129 top prize.

It was the latter who emerged victorious, meaning the runner-up had to lick their wounds with a $51,480 score heading to their Natural8 poker account.

Natural8 Sunday Blade 500

HONEYDETECTED finished fourth in the Blade $5K event and followed that up with another fourth-place finish, this time in the Sunday Blade 500, a $500 buy-in tournament that attracted 191 entrants. The Brit netted an additional $8,711 for this fourth-place bust out and was the last player in this event not to win at least $10,000.

Mexico’s “oldzet” was the third-place finisher and saw $11,463 added to their account. Croatia’s “OutlawStar” and “HFNMWH2U” were the last two players standing, and they struck a deal that saw the former win $17,968 and the latter $16,698, although HFNMWH2U was confirmed as the tournament’s champion.

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