With the tournament now below 20,000 players, we can take a look at the proper chip counts and see who is currently in the lead. Here are the top 10 chip counts currently in the Sunday Million.
"pottedmeat12" opened to 3,500 and "j0ker4ki" called in the next position.
"DingeBrinker" then three-bet all in for 18,956. "pottedmeat12" then four-bet to 34,412 and "j0ker4ki" five-bet to 73,600. "pottedmeat12" called.
The flop came and "pottedmeat12" jammed, with "j0ker4ki" calling all in for their last 77,360.
pottedmeat12:
j0ker4ki:
DingeBrinker:
"pottedmeat12" had shoved with just king-high into the pocket aces of "j0ker4ki". The turn was the which changed nothing, but the river [the] improved "pottedmeat12" to the nut straight and a stack of just under 600,000 in chips.
With fewer than 18,000 players remaining from the starting field of over 84,000, the final 20-minute level has just begun in the 14th Anniversary Sunday Million.
A reminder that late registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 which is at 17:05 UTC on Monday 23rd March.
You have to go all the way back to March 5, 2006 to find the inaugural Sunday Million. A field of 5,893 players exchanged $215 for the chance to become the first-ever PokerStars Sunday Million champion. That player was “aaaaaaaa” who got their hands on the $173,843 top prize and a place in online poker’s history books.
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