Massive guarantees abounded in Sunday lineup for GGPoker and PokerStars
The second Sunday in November yielded one of the most robust lineups of big-money tournament opportunities in recent memory. GGPoker ran seven-figure guarantee events in its Battle of Malta and High Rollers Weeks series, while the first day of the 2020 EPT Online kicked off with big-money events at PokerStars.
Here's a recap of how some of those tournaments played out on a monumental Sunday in the online poker world:
Battle of Malta High Roller Championship
The biggest buy-in tournament of the 2020 GGPoker Battle of Malta lineup came with a $5,250 buy-in, but that high-stakes price point didn't deter players from pushing the prize pool well past the promised $2 million guarantee. Event #6: $5,250 High Roller Championship played out Sunday with a field of 495 players ballooning the final prize pool to $2,475,000.
The High Roller Championship brought out some of poker's biggest names, with the 71 players that finished in the money presenting a field loaded with some of poker's best. Ryan Riess, the 2013 WSOP Main Event champion, finished one spot out of the money bubble.
Players finishing in the cash included Stephen Chidwick, Kristin Bicknell, Mikita Badziakouski, Fedor Holz, Rainer Kempe, and Dzmitry Urbanovich, among many other top players. Top ten finishers included Damian Salas (10th - $36,462), who busted out on the final table bubble.
Bert Stevens eventually came away with the win, taking home a $437,548 payday. Stevens outdueled Darren Elias (2nd - $320,721) in the heads-up battle for the title.
Other final table finishers included Kyle Menard (3rd - $235,088), 'JokerFace' (4th - $172,318), Davidi Kitai (5th - $126,309) and Dario Sammartino (6th - $92,584).
GGPoker High Rollers Week crowns two six-figure champions
The $22 million guaranteed High Roller Week series kicked off Sunday on GGPoker, with a schedule that included a pair of one-day events with seven-figure prize pools. Event #3: $10,300 PLO High Roller played out with the biggest grand prize of the two events, with tournament champion Aku Joentausta of Finland taking down the win.
Joentausta took home a $271,790 first-place prize, outlasting 'smbcall911' (2nd - $206,747) in the heads up battle. High-stakes fixture Issac Haxton put his overall poker skills on display with a six-figure finish (3rd - $157,269) in the Pot-Limit Omaha event.
Other top finishers included 'somebodyelse' (4th - $119,633), Ronny Kaiser (5th - $91,003) and Leonid Yanovski (6th - $69,224).
Event #1: $1,050 GGMasters High Rollers guaranteed $1.5 million, also running Sunday. 'Cantaloupe7' emerged with the win in that event, coming away with a $233,813 winner's prize.
Event #2: $10,300 Super MILLION$ takes the place of the weekly Super MILLION$ High Roller on GGPoker, and the High Rollers Week edition of the tournament promises a $3 million prize pool, doubling the normal $1.5 million guarantee. Event #2 began Sunday, drawing 291 entries and playing down to the final nine.
Still in contention for a Super MILLION$ title are Stephen Chidwick (9th - 10.3 big blinds), Eelis Parssinen (6th - 25.4 big blinds), Philppe D'Auteuli (5th - 27.1 big blinds) Timothy Adams (4th - 28.6 big blinds) and tournament chip leader Kyle Menard (1st - 49.4 big blinds). The tournament resumes Tuesday, with streaming coverage available on the GGPoker.TV channel.
Other big money tournaments in Sunday include several events in the 2020 EPT Online at PokerStars. The festival marks the first time the European Poker Tour has moved online, and Poker.org coverage of that series can be found here.
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