14th Anniversary Sunday Million SMASHES Guarantee; Late Registration Still Open
The PokerStars 14th Anniversary Sunday Million was billed as the site's biggest online tournament ever, coming with an initial $12.5m guaranteed prize pool. In order to meet this, the tournament needed 62,500 entrants, a figure that was surpassed less than halfway through the day.
By the end of play, the number of entries stood at over 85,000 players, generating a prize pool of over $17m.
Curiously, the top ten players in the chip counts come from ten different countries, but only one could end Day 1 as chip leader. That was "nowwor880" ahead of "X_QQ_AA_KK_fish" who was the only other player over 600,000. In fact, nine of the top ten were over 500,000 in chips.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | nowwor880 | China | 680,117 | 340 |
| 2 | X_QQ_AA_KK_fish | Belgium | 643,093 | 322 |
| 3 | DLSXL | Netherlands | 576,980 | 288 |
| 4 | GLiTCHy M-F | Sweden | 565,242 | 283 |
| 5 | flyflo | Germany | 545,887 | 273 |
| 6 | guiantonio2 | Brazil | 530,381 | 265 |
| 7 | nakolene888 | Bulgaria | 529,102 | 265 |
| 8 | IownYoUlolz | Austria | 513,879 | 257 |
| 9 | ChrizCrozz | Germany | 501,481 | 251 |
| 10 | CharlyBigPot | United Kingdom | 499,343 | 250 |
Notables still in the Sunday Million include Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo (243,417), PokerStars Team Online's Lex Veldhuis (145,073), Patrick "pads1161" Leonard (115,032), Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford (97,661), Niklas "Lena900" Astedt (87,603), Alex "bigfox86" Foxen (85,166), Arlie "Prince Pablo" Shaban (70,883), Jens "Graftekkel" Arends (42,025), Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle (39,724) and Benj "Spraggy" Spragg (26,429) to name but a few.
The PokerNews coverage of the Sunday Million continues on Monday 23rd March at 17:05 UTC. Day 2 plays until the end of Level 50, with the levels reduced to 15-minutes long. Late registration and re-entry is available until the start of Day 2
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
680,117
52,381
|
52,381 |
|
|
643,093
-35,628
|
-35,628 |
|
|
576,980
79,676
|
79,676 |
|
|
565,242
565,242
|
565,242 |
|
|
545,887
545,887
|
545,887 |
|
|
530,381
530,381
|
530,381 |
|
|
529,102
529,102
|
529,102 |
|
|
513,879
513,879
|
513,879 |
|
501,481
501,481
|
501,481 |
|
|
499,343
499,343
|
499,343 |