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October 24th 2006
PokerStars holds record breaking Sunday Million tournament
No-one quite yet knows what the future holds for PokerStars, but if it’s even half as rosy as the last few weeks have been, then they ought to think about adding Senator Bill Frist (the architect of the UIGEA bill) to their Christmas card list.
This Sunday’s $1 million guaranteed tournament saw the biggest ever turn out for a weekly tournament, breaking the previous record set by PokerStars on er, last weekend!
6413 players paid up the $200 sign-up fee, helping to create a prize pool of $1,282,600 and a first prize of $183,411; 900 places paid.
With six players left deal talks began in earnest, but were scuppered when the young British pro Julian Adamson (nickname ‘hartwith’) demanded more than the other players thought his short stack deserved. Play continued and Adamson was punished for his stubbornness when he exited in sixth, earning $15,000 less than he was due to receive in the deal.
Another round of talks then also stalled before ‘jmikekennedy’ (fifth) and ‘lex0170’ (fourth) hit the rail. With three left deal talks finally took on a determined air; ‘Halkeye’ held the chip lead with around $33 million, 'lteopepe88' was close behind with $23 million and ‘osten87’ went into the negotiations with a shortstack of $8 million. They eventually settled on a deal that gave Halkeye $124,000 and left $32,000 to play for.
What happens next goes to show why deals are so often made at this stage of a tournament, with the difference between first, second and third place prize money being so steep.
Osten87, with roughly $71,000 guaranteed form his share of the chop, began to build momentum, lifting his stack to around $16 million before clashing with lteopepe88 to win a $13 million pot and then winning a vast pot form Halkeye to take over the chip lead. On that pivotal hand Osten87 and Halkeye got their money in the middle on a board of 7-T-4. Halkeye actually began in front with Q-7 but Osten87 caught up when an ace on the turn paired his AK and held out on the river to give him a $44 million pot.
Having taken over the chip lead Osten87 then finished the tournament as if he had other arrangements, busting lteopepe88 in third with a rivered flush and sending Halkeye out in second when his pair of queens with a king kicker bested Halkeye’s queens with an eight kicker.
Osten still ended with the least money, but only just:
Position / Player / Prize (after deal)
1st osten87 ($103,318)
2nd Halkeye ($124,397)
3rd lteopepe88 ($104,735)
4th lexx0170 ($45,917)
5th jmikekennedy ($36,810)
6th hartwith ($29,756)
7th Jmaxime ($23,086)
8th ($16,673.80): win532
9th ($11,030.36): mikem1181
Submitted: 24/10/2006 10:51:11
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