Historic PokerStars Sunday Million And Other Online Action News

With the live tournament schedule in full swing once again, it’s easy to get distracted by all the high profile events and to forget that plenty is still going down online. We’re a bit late reporting last weekend’s online poker action, but better late than never, especially when the action is so worth reporting on.

What made this weekend’s online tournaments so noteworthy? For one, PokerStars has been promoting this weekend for a long time since it marked the fifth anniversary of the site’s increasingly popular Sunday Million. In honor of the Internet’s largest ongoing online tournament, PokerStars hosted an unprecedented $5 million guaranteed on Sunday. The winner would earn at least $1 million plus a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo (valued at nearly $200,000).

As a result of PokerStars’ aggressive marketing, the celebratory tournament ended up being twice the advertised size drawing a stunning field of 59,128 hopefuls for a total prize pool of $11,825,600. The stakes were so high that all nine of the final table players agreed to a deal that gave even the first one out at least a quarter million.

The initial chipleader – wrzr123 – profited most from the bargain; despite finishing third he netted the top payout of $844,209.87. Meanwhile, first place finisher Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel still scooped a respectable $671,093.81 plus the Lambo, to say nothing of the instant accompanying fame. As is often the case, the other Sunday tournaments also benefited from some of the $5 Million Guaranteed overflow, creating larger than average prize pools for all of the winning weekend warriors.

In related news, the 2011 World Series of Poker may still be months away, but now’s as good a time as ever to start scheming for a seat. A good place to look for WSOP opportunities is UB.com which will be awarding one $12,000 WSOP package every Sunday for the foreseeable future. Over Full Tilt’s way there’s plenty of news this week, too. Today Tom Dwan and Daniel Cates briefly clashed again in a fast and furious addition to their current durrrr Challenge. The pair called it quits after only 110 hands, but those few minutes of play were enough to put Cates up another $143,704.50 thanks to a series of massive pots.

Also over at Full Tilt Poker, likeable pro Greg Raymer – who was only recently released from his longtime Team PokerStars contract (supposedly over salary issues) – has already been snapped up by FTP. The 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion and highly visible PPA spokesperson is no doubt a welcome addition to the site’s already star-studded team of pros.

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