Even with the deck stacked against U.S. online poker play, participation in big-buy-in Sunday tournaments has never been larger. Casino City provides you with a weekly Monday round-up of the big money tournaments.
In this week's installment, two PokerStars-participation records fall, Full tilt crowns another FTOPS Main Event champion and Ultimate Bet reaches their guarantee for the third time in history.
Poker Stars Sunday Million continues record breaking pace
PokerStars hosted the largest tournament in poker history Sunday, seating 10,894 players and creating an online-record prize pool of $2.4 million, less than 24-hours after dealing its 10-billionth hand.
PokerStars broke their own Sunday Million record of 10,508 players set in March, 2007 when the site was celebrating the year anniversary of the Sunday Million launch.
The site added $250,000 to the pool Sunday in recognition of their 10-billionth hand, sweetening a pot that already resembled honey. The record-breaking field competed for more than 11 hours, finally seeing "tanbai" of Newark, New Jersey take home the title and $187,000.
"tanbai" was a negative ROI player on Stars tournaments before taking home the largest poker tournament in history. He had never finished higher than eighth place in a Star's tournament, according to www.officialpokerrankings.com. His previous largest cash was for a little more than $1,000.
Yippee-ki-yay at Full Tilt's FTOPS Main Event
Casino City hasn't confirmed that is was Bruce Willis, but one of his online poker alter-egos is a very rich man Monday after winning $336,217 in the fourth running of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series Main Event.
"John_McClane17," whose lifetime winnings in Full Tilt tournaments was a little less than $3,000 prior to Sunday, took home the site's most coveted prize, refusing to die in tough field of 3,798 players. That field was an FTOPS Main Event record.
The fourth FTOPS was a resounding success, building off the momentum gained last January in FTOPS III. The 10-event series drew more than 17,000 players, creating a prize pool nearing $6 million. Those numbers represent a 25% increase from the last series.
Ultimate Bet Sunday players break participation record
Ultimate Bet cracked their $100,000 guaranteed money plateau for the second time this month and the third time in the site's history. UB drew 1,010 for their Sunday biggie, "crushing" their record of 1,008 players set May 6.
The only other time UB broke the 1,000 player barrier was Jan. 14, 2007 when they hosted 1,006 players.
"Simoneb73" technically won the tournament, holding a slight edge over "dougr2" when the pair decided to stop playing. The two auto-folded their hands while attempting to contact player support.
The pleas went unanswered for 30 minutes, as UB does not support final-table chops. Unwilling to continue without a deal, the duo agreed to transfer the difference via a player-to-player transfer. "Simoneb73" won the crown, but both he and "dougr2" presumably took home $35,228 each, baring any transfer shenanigans.
