And while the biggest numbers in terms of entrants were posted by the MicroMillions, the site’s flagship Sunday majors generated no less than four six-figure paydays.
Big names like Shane “Shaniac” Schleger, Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen, Jonathan “therookieQQ9” Plens, Martin Staszko, Laurence “rivermanl” Houghton and Giussepe “Ansgar2000” Pantaleo all got in on the money.
Keep reading for the rundown on the weekend's three biggest online poker tournaments.
SpeckBasu Wins Sunday Million
Germany posted big results in this week’s Sunday Million, taking three of the top 10 spots including SpeckBasu’s $231,214 win.
Bucking the trend, this week’s biggest major did not end in a chop, with the German alone pocketing the nearly quarter-million dollar first-place prize.
SpeckBasu defeated TONI-BG of Bulgaria who took $169,554 for runner-up.
All told 7,707 took part in the Million. 1,170 of them got paid.
Securing a spot in the money were a host of big names, but none of them were able to crack the top 10.
Finishing deepest among members of Team PokerStars Pro was 2011 November Niner Martin Stasko who made it to 136th before going bust.
Not far behind was Staszko’s fellow Team Pro Lex Veldhuis in 199th.
1st: SpeckBasu (Germany) - $231,214.05 2nd: TONI-BG (Bulgaria) - $169,554.00 3rd: fullmagro_ps (Brazil) - $115,605.00 4th: Faxe07 (Denmark) - $77,686.56 5th: davebond2 (Canada) - $61,656.00 6th: brauniTR (Germany) - $46,242.00 7th: Valdem2010 (Belarus) - $30,828.00 8th: niku1971 (Romania) - $17,726.10 9th: cime173 (Slovenia) - $11,945.85Maverick 360 Top Gunner in Sunday Warm-Up
3,280 players bought in to this week’s Warm-Up, crushing the half-million dollar guarantee and putting $656,000 in the pot.
That sum was chopped up among the top 495 finishers with Dutch player Maverick 360 taking the top spot, worth $102,992.
Just like this week’s Million, the Warm-Up did not end in a deal.
Maverick beat out Romanian player a.S.e High who received $76,752 for second.
Here are the full final table payouts for this week’s Warm-Up:
1st: Maverick 360 (Netherlands) - $102,992 2nd: a.S.e High (Romania) - $76,752 3rd: kiskin1979 (Belarus) - $54,120 4th: dimetriospb (Russia) - $37,720 5th: yurasov1990 (Belarus) - $27,880 6th: Mysters_Y (Russia) - $21,320 7th: SUNDAYKING (Sweden) - $14,760 8th: johngarvey (Denmark) - $8,200 9th: rssoul20 (United Kingdom) - $5,248Finishing 15th, narrowly missing the final table, was former Sunday Warm-Up winner Giussepe “Ansgar2000” Pantaleo of Germany.
Pantaleo has over $1.65 million in winnings on PokerStars including a third-place finish in the Sunday Million in January of 2012 and a win in the Warm-Up when it was a $750k guarantee back in 2010.
Finishing 73rd was Canadian Jonathan “therookieQQ9” Plens who has more than $1.67 million in winnings on PokerStars.
Plens is a PocketFives Triple Crown winner with more than $3.72 million in career online poker tournament earnings.
His incredible list of accomplishments is highlighted by wins in both the PartyPoker Birthday Million and the PokerStars Sunday Million.
Four-Way Chop Decides Sunday 500
The final four players in this week’s Sunday 500 agreed to cut down on variance by chopping up over $215,000.
Eventual winner Gasnjep of the Netherlands walked away with $61,846, the biggest prize among the four.
He defeated UK player thewattsy who took down $49,408.
In total 904 players coughed up the $530 buy-in, putting together a prize pool of $452,000.
135 places were paid, and a few notable names found their way into the money.
UK pro Laurence “rivermanl” Houghton finished 35th, while Christopher “NigDawG” Brammer finished 41st.
Houghton has earned over $2.8 million on PokerStars and $4,89 million in total playing online poker tournaments.
Brammer, meanwhile, has just shy of $1 million in earnings on PokerStars, including a second-place finish in the 2011 PokerStars.fr FCOOP main event for $236k.
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