By the time the highly anticipated 2011 March 6th Sunday Million rolled around this past weekend, there were definitely few avid players, online regulars or not, who were not participating or checking up on friends results. Come game time on Sunday afternoon, many Canadian players had swapped action, purchased a piece of a friend, entered in “last longer” pools, posted a picture of their “soon to be new ride” on Facebook or updated their status to lay claim to the Lamborghini and $1,000,000+ first prize, as a minimum.
Players put up their stakes and watched the numbers continue to climb well past the guaranteed $5 million dollar mark, finally coming to a stop after late registration at more than double what was expected, $11,825,600 to be exact.
While the previous record for attendance in the Sunday Million was set in February of 2010 as part of a 40 billionth hand promotion that had 36,169 players battling it out for a $4 million GTD, this Sunday Millions field record was annihilated in full by the 59,128 entries this past Sunday. First place had now grown to $1,655,629.38! With 7450 spots paying, (the rough equivalent for the number of total entries normally expected in the Sunday event), good players chalked their chances up to no less than turning a small profit, with a shot at making a million if things went well. The money pay-outs start at a minimum of $354.76 for spots 7450th-3241st.
When the game finally came to a finish at 7:00 am Eastern Time the following morning, there were unfortunately no new Canadian millionaires however, in fact there were no new millionaires at all as the event ended in a nine way deal. “Bdbeatslayer” of the USA was declared the 1st place finisher after the game played out to completion, post deal for the car, claiming $671,093.81 and the fancy ride for the “win. The highest cash prize was awarded to “wrzr123” of Germany, who took home $844,209.87 for a third place finish. The lowest pay out of the final 9 was $263,888.06 to “Battmeister” of the USA, a fair bit more than the $41,389.60 that was originally slotted for 9th place.
The last standing Canadian poker player was “mariepoker22” whose respectable 26th place finish earned $13,008.16. “welsho” and “Majin Legacy” of Canada both had pay days worth just over $10,000 for also finishing in the final 50. Only 3 other Canadians made it to the top 100; “landlord27”, “marwan24” and “PotKing2004” all earned $6622.33 to $6858.34 for their deep finishes.
The last standing “Team Poker Stars Pro” was “GualterS” of Brazil who finished 84th for $6858.34, with the deepest run by a well known “mainstream” name being made by Humberto Brenes who finished 144th. From the Canadian pro team, Pat Pezzin and Anh Van Nguyen made the money, as did a lot of members of the Canadian poker playing community.
Some of the Poker Stars pro’s are in this amusing commercial put out before the epic event:
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Congrats to all who put up the money and took a shot! Tell us your stories and finishes in our forum, bad beats or otherwise. After all, there’s a thread for that….
