In all the years I’ve been writing the PokerStars Year in Review, I have never seen a year quite like 2011. Anyone with a true love for the game has spent the past twelve months on a roller coaster ride the likes of which we had never before experienced. Like a poker game itself, this year has seen its ups and downs. Now, as we prepare to close the books on 2011, it’s worth it to take a look back at the highlights from the year gone by.

In the face of what could’ve been a tough year, PokerStars and its players persevered and found success all over the world. Bumper live fields impressed the circuit rounders. Online players broke world records. PokerStars celebrated its tenth anniversary, and its loyal players celebrated in kind. Now we look forward to 2012, a year that already promises big live events, a brand new turbo online tournament series, and the final steps along the Road to 100 Billion.

Once again, thanks to you, the loyal PokerStars player and PokerStars Blog reader. You make our jobs fun, and you make PokerStars what it is. We wish you peace, success, and prosperity in 2012.

Happy New Year.

Previous years: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

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JANUARY

ISILDUR1 BEATS TONY G IN SUPERSTAR SHOWDOWN–Just a few days before he revealed his true identity once and for all, Isildur1 sent the notorious Tony G. on his bike in the first SuperStars Showdown of 2011.

VIKTOR BLOM COPS TO HIS SECRET IDENTITY–As part of his new life as a Team PokerStars Pro, Viktor Blom announced he was, indeed, Isildur1. The big reveal happened at the 2011 PCA. Afterward, Team Pro’s biggest 2011 signing spent the next year playing his SuperStar Showdowns and frequenting the nosebleed games.

Blom waves to the crowd during his unveiling

KATCHALOV DEFEATS NEGREANU IN SUPER HIGH ROLLER–For the first time, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure held a $100,000 Super High Roller event. It drew 38 of the biggest names in high-dollar poker. Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu got heads up with Eugene Katchalov. That was as far as it went for Kid Poker. Katchalov came out on top for the $1.5 million win.

Eugene Katchalov after winning the Super High Roller

JONATHAN DUHAMEL JOINS TEAM POKERSTARS PRO–In what was probably an inevitability, 2010 WSOP champion Jonathan Duhamel officially announced he was joining the ranks of Team PokerStars Pro. Duhamel almost immediately went to EPT Deauville and won the High Roller event there for $200,000.

POKERSTARS UNVEILS HOME GAMES–Always at the forefront of new innovations, PokerStars used the first month of the year to reveal one of the biggest innovations in years. PokerStars Home Games was an immediate hit among players and became even more so after it was announced Lee Jones was returning to PokerStars to head up the effort.

ITALY WINS WORLD CUP OF POKER–With as much energy as any World Cup of Poker team before it, Team Italy won its first World Cup championship at Atlantis during the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

GALEN HALL WINS $2.3 MILLION AT 2011 PCA–Cerebral, reserved, and a student of the game, Galen Hall staged an historic comeback at the 2011 PCA main event final table to win $2.3 million. He defeated the biggest field in PCA history, one that saw 1,560 sign up to play. Hall was the biggest star of the 2011 festival, but he was joined on the winners’ podium by High Roller winner Will Molson, Ladies Event winner Kristin Bihr, and Bounty Shootout champ Andrew Chen. This year’s PCA also saw Chris Moneymaker make a deep run and nearly make the final table.

Galen Hall after winning 2011 PCA

BLOM DEFEATS CATES IN SUPERSTAR SHOWDOWN–Letting little time pass after beating Tony G., Viktor Blom resumed his SuperStar Showdowns and beat Daniel Cates for more than $50,000.

WBCOOP CROWNS BLOGGER CHAMPIONS–For the past five years, PokerStars celebrated its players who spent as much time writing about poker as playing it. That happened again in the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker.

LUCIEN COHEN WINS EPT DEAUVILLE–In a story for underdog lovers everywhere, Lucien Cohen astounded the field at EPT Deauville to win €880,000 and the main event championship.

Lucien Cohen after winning EPT Deauville

FEBRUARY

OCTAVIAN VOEGELE WINS ANZPT ADELAIDE–A year after placing third at the ANZPT Adelaide main event in Season 2, Octavian Voegele returned and finished the job, taking first place and winning nearly $150,000.

LIV BOEREE WINS SUNDAY WARM-UP–No one ever accused her of being just another pretty face. Liv Boeree took care of that with her EPT San Remo win. Just in case anybody forgot, Boeree took the opportunity to win a Sunday major.

TEAM ONLINE ANNOUNCES CLASS OF 2011–The were already bright stars among PokerStars’ online ranks, but in February, Team Online made it official when it named players like Dale Philip, Shane Schleger, and Andrew Brokos to the ranks of Team Online.

Team Online’s Shane Schleger

BLOM BEATS KATCHALOV IN SUPERSTAR SHOWDOWN–Still on his early 2011 heater, Viktor Blom took on Eugene Katchalov in the SuperStar Showdown series and beat him for more than $100,000.

GARETH WALKER WINS UKIPT NOTTINGHAM–More than 1,000 players showed up to UKIPT Nottingham, and Gareth Walker managed to outplay them all for the title and £109,000.

ALEX MANZANO WINS LAPT SAO PAULO–It was the first time the LAPT had visited Sao Paulo, and the Brazilians were looking for a chance to win their first LAPT title. Chilean Alex Manzano made sure that didn’t happen when he won the record-breaking LAPT main event.

BLOM TAKES ON QUALIFIER–Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom likes to spend most of his time playing against the people in the high stakes rooms. In February, he stepped down in stakes for an afternoon to give a qualifier a shot.

MICHAEL TURENIEC WINS EPT COPENHAGEN–One-time EPT main event runner-up Michael Tureniec could still taste the victory he missed in London. He settled that score with an EPT Copenhagen title.

Michael Tureniec

MARCH

ANDREW LI BECOMES FIRST 2011 SUPERNOVA ELITE–It seems to happen earlier every year. This year, Andrew Li broke the record for first Supernova Elite of the year by three weeks.

Andrew Li on his way to Supernova Elite stardom

SUNDAY MILLION BREAKS RECORD–Though it was a record that would only last for nine months, the Sunday Million’s fifth birthday broke all the event’s previous records with a prize pool worth $11,825,600. Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel won the title.

CHRIS MONEYMAKER GOES DEEP AT HEADS-UP CHAMPIONSHIP–Proving once again that he’s not some flash in the pan, Chris Moneymaker finishes runner-up at the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship.

Chris Moneymaker

VICTOR RAMDIN WINS THE BIG EVENT–Heads up against then fellow Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem, PokerStars’ Victor Ramdin won half a million bucks at the Bike in Los Angeles.

Victor Ramdin

POKERSTARS REVEALS SUNDAY STORM–What was once known as The Sunday 1/4 Million got a new name: The Sunday Storm.

BLOM WINS ROUND 1 AGAINST NEGREANU–In the first of two SuperStar Showdown matches, Viktor Blom won $150,000 off Daniel Negreanu in fewer than 1,500 hands.

JOHNSON WINS FIRST EUREKA POKER TOUR EVENT–In March, PokerStars debuted the Eureka Poker Tour and saw its first champion Keith Johnson win €58,400.

FIGUEIREDO WINS LAPT CHILE–After Chile’s devastating earthquake, the LAPT was forced to take a break from hosting events there. In 2011, the LAPT made its return for Chile’s National Poker Championship.

POKERSTARS SIGNS KATCHALOV TO TEAM PRO–In a match made in heaven (and cemented at the PCA after a Super High Roller win) Team PokerStars Pro and Eugene Katchaov made it official.

GESHKENBEIN WINS EPT SNOWFEST–The EPT made its return to the Austrian Alps for one of the best poker vacations of the year. Vladimir Geshkenbein won the title.

Vladimir Geshkenbein

GRANT LEVY WINS ANZPT PERTH–Already an APPT champion, Grant Levy went to Perth, Australia as a PokerStars qualifier and won the ANZPT event there.

Grant Levy

NEGREANU GETS BLOM IN ROUND 2–After losing $150,000 to Viktor Blom in the first of two SuperStar Showdown matches, Daniel Negreanu broke Viktor Blom’s winning streak and beat the young gun for $26,500.

POGO650 WINS POKERSTARS 60 BILLIONTH HAND–In a year that would see more than a few big PokerStars milestones, March saw the 60 billionth hand come out. it was worth more than $100,000 to PokerStars player Pogo650.

APRIL

BLOM DROPS A FEW BLINDS TO PALMER, BUT WINS THEM BACK, AND MORE–In a highly-anticipated SuperStar Showdown match, Victor Blom played Scott Palmer in the first of two rounds. Blom lost, but only $5,245. In the next round, Blom came back to win more than $61,000.

WILINOFSKY WINS EPT BERLIN–In Season 8, the Germans would begin to dominate the EPT, but toward the end of Season 7, the EPT invaded Germany, and Canadian Ben Wilinofsky defeated Germany’s Maximilian Heinzelmann for the title and €825,000 first prize.

Ben Wilinofsky

LIN WINS MACAU MILLIONS–After battling though 1,329 people, the largest poker field in Asian history, Hung-sheng Lin won the Macau Millions in the PokerStars Macau Poker room.

SELBST WINS SECOND NAPT TITLE–In a stunning repeat performance, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst traveled to Mohegan Sun for the NAPT (the site of her first NAPT title) and won the event again.

Vanessa Selbst after winning NAPT Mohegan Sun

MERCIER MATCHES SELBST WITH BACK-TO-BACK WIN–As if to say, “Oh, yeah, I can do that, too,” Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier followed up his 2010 NAPT Mohegan Sun victory with a second at the same venue in 2011.

Jason Mercier after his High Roller title

KANAAN WINS ANZPT SYDNEY–In a lighting-fast final table performance, Daniel Kanaan won the ANZPT event in Sydney, Australia.

HOMETOWN BOY DOES GOOD–When the Latin American Poker Tour made the trip to Lima, Peru, local player Kemai Ferri made sure the trophy didn’t leave town.

BLOM GIVES ANOTHER QUALIFIER A SHOT–After a bunch of high-profile matches, Viktor Blom gave an online qualifier a chance to win some big money. It worked out better for Blom.

TURBO TAKEDOWN RETIRES–After a great run that saw a lot of people win a lot of cool cars, the PokerStars Turbo Takedown played its last match and quietly left the PokerStars tournament schedule.

MAY

ELDER WINS EPT SAN REMO–Max Heinzelmann, fresh off his near-win at EPT Berlin, once again tried (and once again failed) to win a championship. Instead the title went to Englishman Rupert Elder for the €930,000 first prize.

Rupert Elder

ELKY WINS EPT MADRID HIGH ROLLER–Proving once again that there is simply no place in the world he can’t win, Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the EPT High Roller in Madrid for more than half a million euros.

ElkY after winning the High Roller event

SCOOP RETURNS, KELOPURO RIDES HIGH–The Spring Championship of Online Poker came back to PokerStars and finished with more than $43 million in prize money. In total, SCOOP hosted 114 events with more than 107,000 unique players, 403,378 buy-ins, and 156 countries. Riding high among the biggest winners was Sami Kelopuro who won the big-buy-in main event, while Anders Berg grabbed Player of the Series honors.

IVAN FREITEZ WINS EPT GRAND FINAL–For the first time in its seven-season history, the EPT moved its Grand Final to Madrid, Spain. There, Ivan Freitez put on an unorthodox display to win the title and €1.5 million.

Ivan Freitez after winning Grand Final

BRITO WINS EPT PLAYER OF THE YEAR–After a startling season-long performance, businessman Fernando Brito won the EPT Player of the Year award.

MERCIER WINS CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS–As if to prove he could win any event you put him in, Jason “When Will It End” Mercier won the EPT Champion of Champions event to close EPT Season 7.

RODRIGUEZ SCORES WINS ON EUREKA POKER TOUR–Just a couple of months after finishing runner up in Prague, Antonio Rodriguez won the Eureka Poker Tour’s event in Nova Gorica.

MATUSIK WINS ANZPT GOLD COAST–Chewing Gum Pete Matusik beat out a field of 245 players over four days to win the ANZPT Gold Coast main event.

UKIPT CORK GOES TO RAZAVI–Worth €71,000, the UKIPT Cork battle put Sam Razavi heads up against David O’Connor. After a two-hour man-on-man battle, Razavi came out on top.

JUNE

BRENES HITS 60 IN TWO WAYS–Humberto Brenes not only turned 60 years old this year, but he also finally crossed the mark for 60 career WSOP cashes.

KATCHALOV WINS FIRST WSOP BRACELET–Proving he is more than a hold’em guru, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov won a seven-card stud bracelet for $122,000.

MAH WINS RED DRAGON–In another stellar Red Dragon main event at the Macau Poker Cup, Kwan Mah won the title and nearly a million Hong Kong dollars.

POKERSTARS AND PLAYERS DONATE NEARLY HALF-MILLION TO JAPAN RELIEF–After the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, PokerStars and its players donated nearly half a million dollars to the relief effort.

MONEYMAKER DEFEATS FARHA IN RE-MATCH–In a series of made-for-TV rematches, ESPN replayed a few of the heads-up matches from historic WSOP events. Among them was the Chris Moneymaker vs. Sammy Farha battle. Moneymaker, once again, emerged with the victory.

HUANG WINS ANZPT CANBERRA–After a long weekend of celebrating the Queen’s birthday in Australia, Sammy Huang found a way to call himself King of Canberra.

Huang in Canberra

ELKY COMPLETES TRIPLE CROWN, WINS WSOP BRACELET–ElkY needed only a WSOP bracelet to complete poker’s triple crown. He got it after a WSOP 7-card-stud championship win.

ElkY at the 2011 WSOP

BLOM TAKES CAO FOR $150,000–After a two-month layoff, Viktor Blom resumed his SuperStar showdowns to felt Rui Cao in fewer than 2,300 hands.

SINCLAIR RIDES ACES TO UKIPT NEWCASTLE WIN–Richard Sinclair became the first man from Scotland to win a UKIPT event, helped in part by getting dealt aces heads-up.

BRAZIL GETS ITS OWN POKER TOUR–After becoming one of players favorite stops on the LAPT, Brazil got its own circuit, the Brasil Poker Tour.

COSSETTE GETS ANOTHER PORSCHE–Bucking the trend of buying just one Porsche with FPP points, longtime PokerStars player Spencer Cossette bought a second Porsche.

Cossette with his two Porches

MERCIER WINS SECOND WSOP BRACELET–Jason Mercier continued to amaze in June by winning his second WSOP bracelet.

BIG GAME RETURNS FOR SEASON 2–After a successful inaugural season, the PokerStars Big Game returned to the small screen for another season of high-stakes action.

GREENBERG WINS IN BULGARIA–Israel’s Idan Greenberg took his lead at the start at the final day of the Eureka Poker Tour event in Bulgaria and used it to win the €55,000 first prize.

AKKARI WINS FIRST WSOP BRACELET–Fulfilling a career-long dream, Brazilian Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari won his first WSOP bracelet and $675,000.

Andre Akkari and his bracelet

JULY

BLOM TOPPLES TERKEN89 FOR $150,000–After winning eight of his ten previous matches, Viktor Blom notched another SuperStar Showdown win for $150,000.

LYKOV WINS WSOP BRACELET–After watching four other Team Pros win WSOP bracelets, Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov won one of his own.

ROWSOME JOINS TEAM ONLINE–After years of being a loyal player and qualifier, Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome joined Team PokerStars Online.

Adrienne Rowsome

POKERSTARS DEALS 65 BILLIONTH HAND–After letting its players know the Road to 100 Billion was now paved and open for travel, PokerStars dealt its 65 billionth hand to New Zealand’s “yllams.”

SUNDAY CUBED GETS MAJORS SPOT–In July, PokerStars launched its newest Sunday major, the Sunday Cubed.

AUGUST

JP KELLY GOES DEEP IN WSOP MAIN EVENT–Though he just missed the WSOP Main Event final table in July, Team Pro JP Kelly’s deep run in the WSOP Main Event was worth a lot of money and a great story. The title link will take you to Part One. You can find Part Two HERE.

BOXELL WINS APPT MELBOURNE–It was the first time the Asia Pacific Poker Tour had visited Melbourne, Australia, so it was only fitting that the title go to a future Australia Poker Hall of Famer, Leo Boxell.

Leo Boxell

PAGANO WINS IPT SAN REMO–After years of promoting poker in his home country of Italy, Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano won his first Italian Poker Tour event.

KAISER REIGNS AT EPT TALLINN–In the first event of EPT Season 8, 21-year-old Ronny Kaiser won the title.

Ronny Kaiser

DANNY MCDONAGH MAKES HALL OF FAME–Normally reserved for players, the Australian Poker Hall of Fame decided to induct its first administrator, Danny McDonagh, head of the APPT.

CANADA WINS AMERICAS CUP OF POKER–Just a year removed from winning the inaugural Americas Cup of Poker, Team Canada came back and did it again.

KOMAROMI WINS LAPT PUNTA DEL ESTE–Although the LAPT had been to Uruguay every season it existed, no one from Uruguay had ever won a title until Alex Komaromi did it in August.

Alex Komaromi and friends

PATRICK KAR KENG LEE WINS RED DRAGON–Singapore’s Patrick Kar Keng Lee took down the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon event after winning a satellite in the PokerStars Macau poker room.

FINTAN GAVIN WINS UKIPT EDINBURGH–Irishman Fintan Gavin may well have been known for his conversational abilities, but his poker prowess seemed just as strong in Edinburgh when he won the UKIPT title there.

WORLD CUP OF POKER SETS FINAL TABLE–After a series of online playoffs, the PokerStars World Cup of Poker determined its seven finalists, all of which will fight for a title at the PCA.

BODIS WINS IN CROATIA–31-year-old entrepreneur Richard Bodis beat out 254 people to win the Eureka Poker Tour event in Croatia.

SCHREINER SHIPS THE SNOWFEST–Not only did he get to go on one of the best poker vacations in the world, but Marcel Schreiner won the title in Queenstown.

Marcel Schreiner

SEPTEMBER

MARTIN SCHLEICH WINS EPT BARCELONA–In what proved to be a record-setting main event in Barcelona, Martin Schleich triumphed over the field in Barcelona, Spain for the €850,000 first prize.

Martin Schleich

WCOOP HOSTS $47 MILLION IN EVENTS–Once again, WCOOP returned to the PokerStars world. Over the course of 62 events, WCOOP put up more than $47 million in prize pools. Among he biggest stars in the series was Joel Adam Gordon (aka 2FLY2TILT) who won the Player of the Series Award. Meanwhile, Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen won the main event.

Thomas Pedersen, 2011 WCOOP main event winner

MICKEY PETERSEN JOINS TEAM ONLINE–In another late-year signing, PokerStars’ Team Online signed up the famed Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen.

ZANDVLIET WINS SECOND UKIPT TITLE–He had already done it once before. In September, Joeri Zandvliet won another UKIPT title. This time it happened in Dublin for €83,500.

VIVIAN IM JOINS TEAM POKERSTARS PRO–After winning APPT Cebu, Vivian Im seemed destined for greatness in Asia. It only made sense that she would hook up with Team PokerStars Pro.

GOSK WINS AT IBIZA–It’s always a party in Ibiza, but Grzegorz Gosk showed everyone how to party in style with his €92,000 win on the Estrellas Poker Tour.

LEE NELSON WINS IN MELBOURNE–He already had a reputation for big finishes.They didn’t give him that “Final Table” nickname for nothing. In Melbourne for the ANZPT, Lee Nelson did it again with a title-winning performance.

OCTOBER

SPINDLER WINS EPT LONDON–Benny Spindler set out to prove he could do well on his home continent, and prove it he did with a £750,000 win at EPT London. Meanwhile Philipp Gruissem won another EPT High Roller title.

Benny Spindler

JACK DRAKE WINS IN DARWIN–The ANZPT finished its third season in Darwin where Australia’s Jack Drake took home the championship.

KAN WINS MPCC TITLE–In a dominant performance the likes of which tourney vets hadn’t seen in some time, Raiden Kan won the Macau Poker Cup Championship.

MENENDEZ WINS LAPT COLOMBIA–For the first time in its four-season history, the LAPT traveled to Colombia where Julian Menendez took the title.

Julian Menendez

POKERSTARS LAUNCHES TIME TOURNEYS–In one of many improvements PokerStars made to its software during 2011, the company launched Time Tourneys in October and gave time-crunched players a chance to play tournaments whenever they like.

BARRY GREENSTEIN NAMED TO POKER HALL OF FAME–It was a long time coming, but team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein was finally voted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

PATEYCHUK WINS EPT SAN REMO–The EPT once again traveled to the always-popular San Remo stop where Andrey Pateychuk pulled off a sick runner-runner beat on Dimitar Dachev to win the title.

Andrey Pateychuk

NOVEMBER

POKERSTARS DEALS 70 BILLIONTH HAND–As PokerStars got ready to kick off its 10th Anniversay party, it dealt its 70 billionth hand to a man from Germany. The milestone earned the winner $73,380.

POKERSTARS BLOG LOOKS AT ITS BEGINNINGS–As part of the PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebration, the PokerStars Blog looked back at how it got its start.

HEINZ JOINS TEAM PRO—Does PokerStars know how to pick’em or what? Nine guys at the final table of the WSOP Main Event and PokerStars signs just one of them….and then this happened…

PIUS HEINZ WINS WSOP MAIN EVENT–Worth more than $8 million, the WSOP Main Event first prize went to the newly-dubbed Team PokerStars Pro.

Pius Heinz after winning WSOP Main Event

MARCUS HELLNER BECOMES POKERSTARS SPORTSTAR–As winter got ready to settle in over Europe, one of its Winter Olympics stars became part of the PokerStars family.

ANOTHER FREE PORSCHE–Just because it’s been happening for years doesn’t mean people aren’t still buying Porsches with their FPPs. This was the latest of those stories.

POKERSTARS MACAU ANNOUNCES ACOP–As poker continues to rampage across Asia, PokerStars Macau announced that it would host the Asia Championship of Poker in November of 2012.

ZIYARD WINS FIRST EPT LOUTRAKI–Season 8 of the EPT added Loutraki, Greece to the schedule. Zimnan Ziyard won the title.

Zimnan Ziyard

VELDHUIS KNOCKS OUT ELKY–A little sidebar between Lex Veldhuis and ElkY ended up with the Team PokerStars Pros in the ring together. It ended badly for ElkY.

Les Veldhuis in fighting mode

LEW WINS APPT MACAU–It was his first time in Asia, his first time playing an APPT event, and his first major live win, but PokerStars Team Online’s Randy Lew made it look easy when he took down APPT Macau.

Randy Lew

STASZKO JOINS TEAM POKERSTARS PRO–Not content to have only the winner of the WSOP Main Event on the roster, Team PokerStars Pro signed runner-up Martin Staszoko to its roster, too.

DECEMBER

POKERSTARS CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY–After ten years of dealing billions of hands to millions of people, PokerStars threw a month-long anniversary party that was worth millions and millions of dollars. As the party rolled on, PokerStars released a 10th Anniversary magazine; broke the world record for the largest tournament with 200,000 players; awarded special milestone money for the winner of the 72 billionth hand; and hosted a giant Sunday Storm. The end of the month saw the biggest part of the celebration, a $10,000 High Roller event and the world’s richest online tournament and biggest-ever Sunday Million won by Kyle “First-Eagle” Weir.

Kyle Weir, winner of the 10th Anniversary Sunday Million

POKERSTARS INTRODUCES CORPORATE BLOG–Now it’s no longer just we pro bloggers who write here on the PokerStars Blog. In December, we introduced the Corporate Blog, with words from some of the top dogs at PokerStars.

FINGER BAGS PRAGUE—To cap off the 2011 portion of the EPT’s eighth season, Martin Finger became the third German to win an EPT title in Season 8.

Martin Finger

MERCIER WINS ANOTHER $700K–To cap off another amazing year, Jason Mercier won $700,000 at the Bellagio in a $100,000 buy-in High Roller event.

SELBST CAPS A MILLION DOLLAR YEAR–Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst proved for another year that she is among the best in the game. After a final table finish at the WPT Five Diamond, Selbst secured her second-straight million-dollar year.

POKERSTARS ESTABLISHES PLAYER TRUST FUND–In its on-going effort to protect its players funds in regulated markets, PokerStars established a fully independent trustee to oversee player funds.

POKERSTARS TURBO CHAMPIONSHIP OF ONLINE POKER–After wooing the online poker world with the World Championship of Online Poker and Spring Championship of Online Poker, PokerStars announced that in 2012 it will host the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, 50 turbo events that will give players a chance to win a true online championship in record time.

Tags: belgian poker series | eureka poker tour | home games | liv boeree | pokerstars | rio | sunday-warm-up | team pokerstars online | Tony G | world cup of poker

The last Sunday of the month is always a big one at PokerStars. This Sunday was no exception. From a SuperStar Showdown, to the Sunday majors, to saying goodbye to the Turbo Takedown, it was a day and a half to end a month that’s felt more like a year.

We had tons of coverage last night. If you’re looking for one place to find it all, this post should do it for you.

Here’s a rundown of all that was during April’s final weekend of 2011.

SuperStar Showdown: Blom gets the best of “Mastermixus,” banks $1,279

Turbo Takedown: turu90 takes the last Audi TT on the lot

Sunday Warm-up: honest abeainy wins $105K after win

Battle of the Planets: deTorkemada plays it out to win after a nine-way chop

Victory for VanDerPelto in April 24 Sunday Million

For a full look at all the big final tables from the weekend, check out our 4-24-11 PokerStars Sunday tournament results.

When we next do this, the month will have changed. After April showers, you know what they say about May. So, let’s make it through the week together, eh?

Tags: news | planets | pokerstars | stars-sunday | sunday | sunday-million | sunday-warm-up | turbo | turbo-takedown

This is a public service announcement.

Friday is April Fools’ Day. This is going to be a silly week. People are going to be doing their best to make you believe the most outlandish of things. Protect yourself. Believe no one. Except me, of course. I can be a reliable source. Seriously.

With that in mine, know this. This past weekend on PokerStars was about an unbelievable as could be. Just in case you don’t believe me, here’s the primary source material:

SuperStar Showdown: A resurgent Negreanu breaks Blom’s streak, banks $26,500

Sunday Warm-up: No chop this time, BrandanZ win the full $149K

69jocker69 jockeyed for the Sunday Million win & took home $220,630.24

Sunday Storm: Uvelir888 tops six-figure field for six-figure score

Turbo Takedown: Near flawless victory, zugzwang16 rules the final table

Luzzzy locks up first Women’s Sunday title and $2,116.68 in prize money

Battle of the Planets: VN_Milingo lets chips do the talking in victory

Also, while we’re still in a zone that appears to be silly-free, remember that the 60 billionth hand on PokerStars could hit sometime within the next 24 hours. If you feel like gluing yourself to something, this might be the right time to choose your computer mouse (is if there ever isn’t a right time–am I right?).

For the final table results from nearly all the big events on PokerStars this weekend, check out the 3-27-11 PokerStars Sunday tournament results page.

Good luck to everybody in the coming week. Remember what Friday is.

Tags: april-fools | Battle of the Planets | final | most-outlandish | news | pokerstars | PokerStars news | rio | rules-the-final | stars-sunday | sunday | sunday-million | sunday-storm | sunday-warm-up

Every Sunday is busy in the world of online poker, and PokerStars always offers plenty of tournament options. The last Sunday of every month offers extra opportunities to win with the Battle of the Planets and the Turbo Takedown. But this Sunday topped previous efforts by adding two more events to the roster, first with the inaugural Women’s Sunday tournament that more than doubled its guarantee, and second with the newly-dubbed Sunday Storm with its celebratory $1 million guarantee (for the $11 buy-in). Add in the Isildur1 vs. Daniel Negreanu SuperStar Showdown, and it was a thrilling and exhausting day in online poker.

With that said, the Sunday Million was going strong late into the evening hours, and those still in the late stages of the tournament didn’t know the meaning of the word exhaustion.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning, where 9,288 players signed up for the weekly $1.5 million guarantee of the Sunday Million, thus creating a prize pool of $1,857,600.00. When the tournament made it to the money bubble, assuring the last 1,350 people standing of cash for their efforts, there were still a few members of Team PokerStars in the crowd. Of them, none were able to make it to the final table, but they cashed in this order:

Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom (Team Pro) – 1283rd place
Dag Palovic (Team Pro) – 1222nd place
Grzegorz “DaWarsaw” Mikielewicz (Team Online) – 1188th place
Tyler “frosty012″ Frost (Team Online) – 1186th place
Christophe de Meulder (Team Pro) – 1166th place
Dusty “Leatherass9″ Schmidt (Team Online) – 1156th place
Clayton “cnew27″ Newman (Team Online) – 1104th place
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein (Team Pro) – 627th place
Joe “jcada99″ Cada (Team Pro) – 488th place

Play continued as numerous other players made efforts to secure seats at the final table, but it wasn’t until around the ten-hour mark of the tournament that the seats were determined. It happened at Table 614 where guldkasse doubled through Nile1 in one hand, and the very next hand saw short-stacked Nile1 move all-in. Guldkasse and Jysky11 called and checked down the [7h][5c][4s][2c][4d] board, and when guldkasse showed [Kd][Jc], it was enough to take the pot. That left Nile1 out in tenth place with $9,659.52.

Jysky11 jumps into final table with the lead

The final table was set just a few minutes into the tenth hour of play, and Level 36 had blinds at 200,000/400,000 and the ante at 40,000. The starting chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1: Jysky11 (17,000,923 in chips)
Seat 2: guldkasse (8,682,998 in chips)
Seat 3: 69jocker69 (10,061,229 in chips)
Seat 4: Exan13 (6,509,097 in chips)
Seat 5: player9ball (9,640,674 in chips)
Seat 6: Cares37 (5,684,576 in chips)
Seat 7: AmazingErvin (12,349,605 in chips)
Seat 8: chevy chasin (13,116,914 in chips)
Seat 9: Kragg111 (9,833,984 in chips)

Some of the players were quite aggressive at the table, but there was enough caution to call it a slow start to the action.

But after about 10 minutes, guldkasse was back in the zone and looking for another double-up. After an initial raise from Kragg111, guldkasse moved all-in for just over 6.6 million chips. Kragg111 called with [Ad][Qd], and guldkasse turned over [Jh][Jc]. The board came [8d][8s][7c][3s][Ah], and Kragg111 rivered the better two pair. Guldkasse headed out in ninth place with $13,003.20.

Shortly thereafter, short-stacked Cares37 made the all-in move preflop with [Ac][9c], but AmazingErvin reraised all-in with [Ts][Tc] to isolate, which worked. The dealer provided [Kc][6s][3h][Th][9h], which only improved AmazingErvin to a set. Cares37 was gone in eighth place with $20,433.60.

On the very next hand, chevy chasin started it with a raise, and Exan13 pushed all-in with [Ah][Kh]. Chevy chasin called with [Ad][Qh] and would need to improve to eliminate his opponent. The flop of [3h][9s][4h] didn’t meet that need, but the [Qd] on the turn did the deed. The [6s] on the river finished the hand with Exan13 exiting in seventh place, which was worth $37,152.00.

Deal fails, double-ups prevail

The final six players stopped the action to see some chip-chop numbers, and once they were given, there was enough objection to call off the talks almost immediately. It seemed that the divide was too wide, and play resumed quickly.

Then it was time for 69jocker69 to double, and it happened when A-K beat the A-Q of chevy chasin. That put 69jocker69 into the chip lead, while former chip leader Jysky11 was the short stack of the bunch. And when Jysky11 moved with pocket queens against the pocket sevens of chevy chasin, each hit a set but the queens ruled and gave Jysky11 the double-up.

Chevy chasin didn’t waste much time moving his 3 million chips all-in with [7d][7c], but AmazingErvin just happened to wake up to [Qc][Qd]. The board fell [4s][Tc][5d][8h][9h], and that was all it took to eliminate chevy chasin in sixth place with $55,728.00.

Another attempt at a deal was made with the remaining five players, but that quickly went sour and play resumed. Again. But this time, play was slow and steady for quite a few rounds of poker.

Just after the clocked bonged for the 11th hour of the game, player9ball put all 8,655,674 chips at risk with [Qs][Jh], and AmazingErvin was there for the battle with [As][Kc]. When the board produced [3s][8s][5c][4c][Ac], the hands stood and player9ball had to go in fifth place with $74,304.00.

Final four fancy a deal

The last four players tried it again, and it worked! They were given the chip-chop numbers, they all agreed, and it was quickly settled. With $30,000 in extra cash to be awarded to the winner, the players were to be paid as follows per their chip counts at the time of the deal:

Seat 1: Jysky11 (10,253,971 in chips) = $124,893.46
Seat 3: 69jocker69 (31,309,583 in chips) = $190,630.24
Seat 7: AmazingErvin (39,494,464 in chips) = $216,183.88
Seat 9: Kragg111 (11,821.982 in chips) = $129,788.88

The player with the fewest chips then made his push, as Jysky11 was all-in with [Ah][2h]. AmazingErvin called from the big blind with [Ac][5d], and though the flop of [3h][9s][4d] brought interesting possibilities, the [2c] turn and [3c] river only completed the straight for AmazingErvin. Jysky11 was out of the tournament in fourth place with $124,893.46.

AmazingErvin was in a fairly solid first place of the final three, especially after taking a pot worth more than 27 million chips from 69jocker69. Kragg111 proceeded to double through AmazingErvin, but that didn’t hurt the latter’s standing.

Kragg111 was itching to play and got into a raising war preflop with both opponents, though it ended with Kragg111 raising all-in and only AmazingErvin calling. Kragg111 showed [Ac][Qc], but AmazingErvin had the amazing [As][Ah]. The board of [Ts][7s][3d][Th][5c] changed nothing, and Kragg111 was cut in third place with $129,788.88 to show for it.

What’s in a name?

The final two players started their match-up with these chip numbers:

Seat 3: 69jocker69 (19295233 in chips)
Seat 7: AmazingErvin (73584767 in chips)

Within only a few hands, 69jocker69 doubled through with Q-8 over K-Q on a Q-9-4-8-8 board. And two hands after that, the following hand changed the entire dynamic of heads-up play:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The next all-in came in short order when AmazingErvin moved with [Ah][Kh] against the [As][2c] of 69jocker69 and looked like the chip lead might change hands again. But the board of [6d][2d][Qs][7h][6c] gave 69jocker69 the deuces to go with the sixes, and that left AmazingErvin out in second place with $216,183.88.

And the March 27th Sunday Million champion became 69jocker69, who walked away with $220,630.24 and the biggest weekly title in poker. Congratulations!

Sunday Million Results for 03/27/11:

1st place: 69jocker69 ($220,630.24)*
2nd place: AmazingErvin ($216,183.88)*
3rd place: Kragg111 ($129,788.88)*
4th place: Jysky11 ($124,893.46)*
5th place: player9ball ($74,304.00)
6th place: chevy chasin ($55,728.00)
7th place: Exan13 ($37,152.00)
8th place: Cares37 ($20,433.60)
9th place: guldkasse ($13,003.20)

*results of a four-way deal

For more information on ways to register and qualify for upcoming Sunday Million tournaments, visit the Sunday Million page.

Tags: amazing | Battle of the Planets | double | game | greed | kragg111 | match | online-poker | pokerstars | river | sunday-million | the-tournament | time | tournaments | women's sunday

Think of the $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown as part of your benefits package here at PokerStars. You get your usual wage taking pots off the other players or perhaps taking down a SnG or two. Then after checking your paystub (the cashier’s window), there’s a listing for “Frequent Players Points” which can be used for buying anything from hats and t-shirts up to a brand new MacBook Air. For 3,000 of those points you could buy six black star stress balls to throw after that one outer hits, or you could take a shot at winning $60,000.00 and a brand new Audi TT in tonight’s Turbo Takedown. While stress relief is essential to profitable poker, cruising around in a brand new Audi might lower the blood pressure more than a stress ball. 18,211 players took their FPPs for a nearly one in three shot of cashing tonight as 5,000 walked away with at least $78.00 and everyone at the final table would receive at least five figures.

A handful of Team PokerStars members would find some cash back in their pockets after players relieved them of the $100.00 bounties on their heads. Juan Pastor 4028th place ($81.15), Javier “El_Cañonero” Dominguez 3873rd place ($85.00), Sebastian Ruthenburg 2157th place ($105.00), Henrique Pinho 1932nd place ($110.00), and Pat Pezzin 1747th place ($115.00) would take home last longer honors for those Team PokerStars players that cashed tonight.

After nearly exactly eight hours of play we would reach the final table. With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K Arvaj23 would make a 480,000 raise from UTG as it folded to “0PIGGYBANK” in the big blind who shoved over the top for 3.1 million total. Back to Arvaj23 holding big slick [Ks][Ac] and covered, quickly made the call. “0PIGGYBANK” could only produce [Ad][9h] as both players would pair their ace but Arvaj23′s king kicker ruled the day on the [Jh] [3c] [As] [Qs] [6h] board dropping $8,000.00 in “0PIGGYBANK”‘s coin slot for tenth place and setting up our final table below:

Seat 1: LAPINKY (8596298 in chips)
Seat 2: DEEPSEA2608 (4367986 in chips)
Seat 3: patrice023 (3402347 in chips)
Seat 4: Netstorm (8128602 in chips)
Seat 5: DaveGoodman7 (9025301 in chips)
Seat 6: P-Tius (3294482 in chips)
Seat 7: lermonad (2364441 in chips)
Seat 8: Wivawat04 (4860627 in chips)
Seat 9: Arvaj23 (10592916 in chips)

Making lemonade out of nothing

With the blinds starting at 80K/160K ante 16K there was plenty of action early on the final table as eleven hands into the final table we would have our first elimination. lermonad would try to make a move from middle position open shoving all-in for 1.9 million as two seats over Arvaj23 made the call holding [As][Qh]. lermonad tried squeezing something out of [6s][Ks] but neither player could connect with the [Jc] [8d] [8s] [2d] [3s] board sending lermonad off in ninth place ($10,000.00).

You want action, we got ACTION

The very next hand would see another all-in preflop as 9.4 million was put in the middle by LAPINKY and P-Tius. Watch the results below:

Ladies for LAPINKY [Qd][Qs] ruling over the jacks [Js][Jh] P-Tius and they would hold on the [9h] [6c] [7c] [6h] [Kh] board shipping the huge pot to LAPINKY as P-Tius would not win the Audi TT but $12,500.00 will go a long way towards buying one in eighth place.

Blinds go up, number of players go down

Moving up to the 90K/180K ante 18K blind level a massive 18 million chip pot would leave one player ahead of the pack and the other in seventh place. Wivawat04 who topped the leaderboard for much of the two hours leading up to the final table but slipped to under five million chip made a min-raise for early position as Arvaj23 doubled that bet to 720,000 on the immediate left. Folded around to Netstorm in the big blind who would four-bet to 1.4 million. Wivawat04 gave up his chips but Arvaj23 did not and shoved all-in for 11.7 million. Back to Netstorm holding a little over seven million chips and two black queens [Qc][Qs] in front made the call only to be shown the cooler as Arvaj23 flipped up pocket aces [Ac][Ad]. Zero broadway cards on the [5c] [3c] [8h] [9d] [9s] board shipped the big 18.2 million chip pot to Arvaj23 and Netstorm was left in the cold earning $15,000.00 in seventh place.

Welcome to poker’s version of Davy Jones’ Locker

10 hands later the blinds would push up to 100K/200K ante 20K as DaveGoodman7 would lead out for 440,000 from UTG+1 as Wivawat04 shoved for 3.7 million and folded to shortstacked DEEPSEA2608 in the big blind who made the call for 1.7 million. DaveGoodman7 saw High Stakes Poker playing on GSN and folded as Wivwat04 turned over pocket fives [5h][5d] and was flipping against the big slick [Kh][Ac] of DEEPSEA2608. One crab and zero aces or kings on the [3c] [6h] [Qd] [8s] [7d] shipped the 4.5 million chip pot to Wivwat04 and DEEPSEA2608 was sent to the abyss in sixth place ($17,500.00).

Why must you do this???

Nearly each month the final five or six players try to chop up the remaining cash as it happens in thousands of tournaments held here at PokerStars. The Turbo Takedown however adds the mentioned Audi TT to the prize pool, and without fail someone at the table wants to chop up the car five or six ways. As HostSusan as well as some other players explained, breaking up the car five ways would leave five people with assorted car parts that are better left together. No deal, as we play on.

Good day sir

DaveGoodman7 was looking to make a deal but the chip leading Arvaj23 would not budge on distributing a few bucks around the table. Fast forward to the blinds going up to 125K/250K ante 25K and DaveGoodman7 holding just 3.1 million chips, those chips would head into the middle holding [6c][Ah]. Wivawat04 sitting on pocket aces [Ad][As] quickly made the call. A six on the [Tc] [5s] [6s] flop had DaveGoodman7 spamming the chat box for a six. But, the six pips never found their way to the board as the [8h] and [Ks] joined the flop and sent 6.6 million chips to Wivawat04, and bid good day to DaveGoodman7 in fifth place ($20,000.00).

Nearly a half-hour later, Wivawat04′s insisting on no deal since he would not agree to giving Arvaj23 nearly first place money (chip chop numbers would have given Arvaj23 over $52K) Wivawat04 would be a part of the largest pot to this point in the tournament. 28.5 million in the middle and Wivawat04 holding pocket tens [Tc][Th] to Arvaj23′s [Qs][Ac]. Ace would hit the flop along with three hearts [9h] [8h] [Ah] giving Arvaj23 the advantage until the [Ts] spiked on the turn leaving three jacks to turn the tide again. Instead the [8c] dropped and the shift of power moved briefly to Wivwat04′s stack. Arvaj23 would win a few of those chips back shortly before the players went to their ninth hourly break with the chips counts below and blinds at 225K/450K ante 45K:

Wivawat04: 23,954,686
Arvaj23: 19,675,350
LAPINKY: 5,969,830
patrice023: 5,033,134

Packing it in for the night

patrice023 sat on the short stack four-handed for nearly an hour and made just enough doubles up to stay in the game. Right before the blinds were to move to the last blind level at 250K/500K ante 50K patrice023 would be all-in against LAPINKY. Watch the hand play out below:

Pocket tens [Ts][Tc] were good against patrice023′s [5d][Ad] on the [5s] [7c] [3h] [9h] [Kd] board shipping 8.4 million chips to LAPINKY and ending patrice023′s night in fourth place ($25,000.00).

Short end of the hand

Four hands later Arvaj23 would double up off Wivawat04 for a 30 million chip pot and despite the stagnant blinds, another four hands after that Wivawat04 would double up off LAPINKY sending him back to the short stack with just 4.7 million chips. There would be no come back after that for the 7th place finisher in the Sunday Million back in November 2009 when LAPINKY banked $36K as Arvaj23 put the pressure on from the small blind betting enough so LAPINKY would be all-in from the big blind. With five million chips and [Th][Ad] LAPINKY made the call and was ahead of Arvaj23′s [Ks][3c]. Both players pair the flop [Kc] [Ts] [Jd] but Arvaj23 took the lead with the kings. [3h] made two pair for Arvaj as LAPINKY still needed an ace or ten, but the [6h] was not it and LAPINKY would grab another big cash, earning $30,000.00 in third place.

Slovenia vs. USA

Arvaj23 representing Slovenia would start out heads-up play with a 35.8 million to 18.8 million lead over Wivawat04 from the US. Both these players continually played back at each other despite being the two biggest stacks for the majority of the tournament.

Flip for the car

Sure enough, just seven hands into heads-up play Arvaj23 and Wivawat04 decided to settle things preflop, watch below for the result:

39.8 million chips in the middle and a potential car as Wivawat04 turned over [Ah][Jd] hoping to catch against Arvaj23′s pocket tens [Tc][Ts]. The Ace-Jack never threatened on the [3d] [4s] [Kd] [9s] [4c] shipping the remaining tournament chips to Arvaj23 along with the $60,000.00 first place prize AND a brand new Audi TT for being this month’s $1 Million Turbo Takedown champion!

February $1 Million Turbo Takedown results (02-27-11)
1. Arvaj23 (Slovenia) $60,000.00 + Audi TT
2. Wivawat04 (United States) $40,000.00
3. LAPINKY (United States) $30,000.00
4. patrice023 (Canada) $25,000.00
5. DaveGoodman7 (United Kingdom) $20,000.00
6. DEEPSEA2608 (United Kingdom) $17,500.00
7. Netstorm (Netherlands) $15,000.00
8. P-Tius (Germany) $12,500.00
9. lermonad (Russia) $10,000.00

Tags: flop | game | middle | players | tournament | tournaments | turbo-takedown | usa

Let me be clear: I will not, under any circumstances, for any amount of money, nor any promise of fortune sit down at a poker table with Vanessa Selbst. She is a fine woman and as nice as you could ever want. However, the prospect of playing against her is one that simply makes me want to throw up. It’s not been a year since we saw her win the NAPT event at the Mohegan Sun, and since then she’s demolished most of what she’s played. The only thing she hasn’t done recently is making a Sunday Million final table.

What?

Well, yeah. There is what happened last night. Apparently, while most of the world was sleeping, Selbst made the final table of the Sunday Million. It was a table full of familiar faces. And, frankly, I don’t care if she didn’t win. Her fifth place finish is enough to make me hide in my room for a while.

The final winning honor went to the well-known wwwBTHEREcom after he cut a deal with the also-familiar Daut44. All that, and Justin Bonomo at the final table, too? That’s a final table recap you have to read. It’s right here: There was wwwBTHEREcom to win $195K and Sunday Million title.

Other news? Yep, there was a lot of it. Here’s the rundown of the biggest stories from last night.

SuperStar Showdown: Isildur1 scores a $51,196 win over Dan “w00ki3z” Cates

Turbo Takedown: BLOODP finds the right band-aid wins $60K plus Audi TT

Sunday Warm-up: dr.greenish surgically removes field in $152K win

January Battle of the Planets

For results from the top 30 tournaments of the weekend, check out the 1-30-11 PokerStars Sunday tournament results page.

Now, if anyone needs me, I’m going to be hiding under my bed with a Vanessa Selbst voodoo doll and a bottle of brown liquor.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | finds-the-right | january-battle | made-the-final | napt | planets | PokerStars news | stars-sunday | sunday-million | sunday-warm-up | tournaments | turbo-takedown | vanessa-selbst

At the end of each month, PokerStars waves goodbye to that page on the calendar with special tournaments for its players. But to kick this January out the door, there were numerous bits of excitement to keep poker players and fans entertained on a Sunday that was anything but ordinary. The Battle of the Planets rewarded the month’s top sit-n-go players with a sizeable freeroll, the Turbo Takedown awarded $1 million (and a car!), and the WBCOOP gave poker bloggers more chances at big prizes with its Main Event. And to top it all off, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom battled Daniel Cates in a SuperStar Showdown.

Of course, there were the usual head-turning events that make up the Sunday majors as well. That brought us to the Sunday Million, where players line up each week to take a shot at the $1.5 million guarantee. When registration stopped for this week’s big tournament, it showed 8,994 competitors at the tables and a subsequent prize pool of $1,798,800.00.

The passage of several hours of play led to the bursting of the money bubble that allowed the top 1,350 finishers to be paid for their efforts. In that group, several well-known players could be found via the list of Team PokerStars Pros, including Humberto Brenes, who exited in 1333rd place, Jason Mercier in 927th, Christian “el grillo” de Leon in 779th, Henrique Pinho in 758th, Tom McEvoy in 141st, and Johnny Lodden in 109th. And as the action continued toward the last few tables, one PokerStar continued to shine as Vanessa Selbst took over the top position on the leaderboard with three tables remaining.

Play moved more quickly than usual. With ten players and hand-for-hand play in action, Stev0L tangled with chip leader Daut44 on every street as the board came [Ts][6d][4d][Qs]. It was then that Stev0L made the all-in move with [Ah][Td], but Daut44 called with [Th][6h] and two pair. It held up through the [2h] on the river, and Stev0L departed in tenth place with $9,353.76.

Daut44 undoubtedly leads the pack

It was only 9 hours and 15 minutes into the tournament when the final table got underway. That meant that Level 33 provided blinds of 100,000/200,000 and a 20,000 ante, and the starting chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1: Daut44 (19,379,569 in chips)
Seat 2: robinho (3,393,748 in chips)
Seat 3: salfshb (7,556,067 in chips)
Seat 4: ZeeJustin (12,249,794 in chips)
Seat 5: V. Selbst (13,112,007 in chips)
Seat 6: wwwBTHEREcom (9,787,977 in chips)
Seat 7: Drewfus81 (7,353,380 in chips)
Seat 8: binhoeiji (13,132,185 in chips)
Seat 9: Leveret2 (3,975,273 in chips)

Only a few hands into the action saw a big hand develop. After an initial raise by Daut44, short-stacked robinho reraised all-in for just 3,293,748 chips. But Vanessa “V.Selbst” Selbst came over the top with her own all-in move. That prompted Daut44 to get out of the way, and Selbst showed [Ac][Kh], which was ahead of the [Ad][Qs] of robinho. Nothing about the [8s][5h][2d][5c][Js] changed the outcome, and robinho was ousted in ninth place with $12,591.60.

Just before the first break, Selbst used her aggression to take over first place on the leaderboard, though Daut44 was prepared to take it back a short time later. And after that break, Drewfus81 was able to double through ZeeJustin to stay in the game.

ZeeJustin tried to recover from that hit. A hand that started with a raise from binhoeiji and call from Daut44 found ZeeJustin pushing all-in for little less than 3.5 million chips. Binhoeiji called, Daut44 folded, and ZeeJustin showed [9d][9s]. But binhoeiji turned over the dreaded [Ac][Ad], and those aces held as the dealer gave them a board of [Qc][6c][Ts][4h][2s]. Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo was out of the tournament in eighth place with $19,786.80 to show for it.

Daut44 then proceeded to take a 7.5 million-chip pot from Selbst, and salfshb doubled through Selbst. Things were getting dicey for the Team PokerStars Pro.

Meanwhile, short-stacked Leveret2 finally decided to move it or lose it. The all-in push came preflop with [Ad][Tc], and original raiser binhoeiji called with [Qh][Jd]. The board of [8h][2d][Th][9c][Qd] gave binhoeiji the straight, and Leveret2 was left with a pair of tens, which meant a seventh place departure and a $35,976.00 payday.

As Daut44 continued to soar, the following hand gave him a substantial lead over the rest of the pack:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Salfshb then took another hit when wwwBTHEREcom doubled through, leaving the former with less than 4 million chips.

But it was Selbst who was the next to risk her tournament life. From the small blind, she pushed all-in for 6,467,701 chips with [Ks][3s], but wwwBTHEREcom decided to call from the big blind [Ad][4d]. The flop of [Ah][As][5h] was not what Selbst wanted to see, as it gave wwwBTHEREcom trip aces, and the [6s] turn and [Kh] river ended the hand. Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst was gone from the Sunday Million in sixth place, for which she received $53,964.00 for the deep finish.

Finally, salfshb took a shot with [Qc][4h], and Daut44 called 1,777,507 more chips from the big blind with [Td][7d]. The dealer handed them a flop of [8s][6d][Qh] to make things look even better for salfshb, but the [9d] and [Kd] that followed gave Daut44 the diamond flush. Salfshb was out in fifth place with $71,952.00.

Drewfus81 was the next to be in danger, pushing all-in preflop with [Ac][9c]. After Daut44 reraised from the big blind, original raiser wwwBTHEREcom left the party. Daut44 showed [7c][7s], and he improved to two pair with the reveal of the [8d][Qd][Jc][4h][8s] board. Drewfus81 left in fourth place with $89,940.00.

Final three agree on deal

At the onset of three-handed play, the finalists took a break from the tournament to discuss a possible deal. After some numbers were given and adjustments made per the players’ requests, an arrangement was made to accept the following numbers, considering that $30,000 was set aside to be added to the winner’s total:

Seat 1: Daut44 (46,720,015 in chips) = $208,668.16
Seat 6: wwwBTHEREcom (17,463,655 in chips) = $165,000.00
Seat 8: binhoeiji (25,756,330 in chips) = $176,000.00

Play resumed, and it only took a few hands for wwwBTHEREcom to put it all on the line with A-K offsuit against the pocket jacks of Daut44. An ace on the turn gave wwwBTHEREcom the double-up and the chip lead for the first time at the final table. But when binhoeiji doubled through wwwBTHEREcom, it was binhoeiji in the top spot. All three players were fairly close in chip counts, though, until wwwBTHEREcom’s aggression put him out in front by a margin. It was hands like this that made it happen:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Ultimately, it was binhoeiji who got into a raising war with wwwBTHEREcom, and binhoeiji finally pushed all-in with [5h][5c]. But wwwBTHEREcom showed [Kh][Kc], and that pair held up through the dealing of the [9d][6c][3d][Ad][2h] board. Binhoeiji had to depart with $176,000.00 for the third place finish.

Heads-up play began immediately, with the following counts:

Seat 1: Daut44 (12,649,815 in chips)
Seat 6: wwwBTHEREcom (77,290,185 in chips)

Daut44 made an effort but was able to make little headway against a tough opponent with a majority of the chips. Any progress was chipped away quickly. Finally, Daut44 had enough and responded to a wwwBTHEREcom raise with an all-in move for just less than 14 million chips. The easy call was made by wwwBTHEREcom with [Kh][Ks], while Daut44 showed [7h][5h]. The cards came [6h][4d][As][4c][Ts], and Ryan “Daut44″ Daut had to accept second place and the $208,668.16 that went with it.

The winner of this week’s Sunday Million was wwwBTHEREcom, and the prize was $195,000.00. Congratulations!

Sunday Million Results for 01/30/11:

1st place: wwwBTHEREcom ($195,000.00)*
2nd place: Daut44 ($208,668.16)*
3rd place: binhoeiji ($176,000.00)*
4th place: Drewfus81 ($89,940.00)
5th place: salfshb ($71,952.00)
6th place: Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa “V. Selbst” Selbst ($53,964.00)
7th place: Leveret2 ($35,976.00)
8th place: ZeeJustin ($19,786.80)
9th place: robinho ($12,591.60)

*Results of a three-way chop

For more information on ways to register and qualify for upcoming Sunday Million tournaments, visit the Sunday Million page.

Tags: ept | isildur1 | money | planets | pokerstars | selbst | team pokerstars pro | vanessa-selbst | wbcoop

It is a heady task to follow 17,743 players that signed up for tonight’s $1,000,000.00 Turbo Takedown. If you would like a visual of such a crowd, imagine being the cameraperson at an NBA game trying to find Brad Pitt and Mr. Pitt could not find one of those $2,000 courtside seats. The capacity-sized crowd at an NBA game is around 18,500 people, figure 800 or so are getting a beer and you have a life-sized “Where’s Waldo (or in this case Brad)” game all searching for the right cards to win the $60,000.00 first prize plus an AudiTT automobile.

A few names stood out in the crowd with little red spades next to them. Team PokerStars players were valiantly trying to protect the $100.00 bounties on their heads but all of them would pass along the hundo after being knocked out. Joep van den “Pappe_Ruk” Bijgaart who enjoyed a deep run in the Sunday Warm-up as well tonight was the last Team PokerStars player standing in 422nd place ($260.00). Much further down the pay scale found Julian Thew at 1987th place ($110.00), Nuno Coelho 3130th place ($90.00), Dennis Phillips 3855th place ($85.00), Alex Kravchenko 4173rd place ($81.15), Celina Lin 4553rd place ($78.00), Javier “El_Cañonero” Dominguez 4979th place ($78.00), and Steven Paul eeking into the money at 4990th place ($78.00).

On to the places that would be paid out quite bit more money tonight on the final table bubble after eliminating 17,733 players in eight hours found blinds of 100K/200K ante 20K and triger02 shoving from the button for 2.5 million with [Qd][Kh]. Free blinds? Not so fast says DerNautz who covered and made the call from the big blind holding pocket sevens [7c][7d] for the coin flip. This flip was over by the turn after DerNatuz found a third seven on the flop [8c] [7h] [5d] and a rib-tickling [Kd] on the turn closed the doors on triger02′s night in tenth place ($8,000.00) setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: Karel373 (3852459 in chips)
Seat 2: Serpy25 (2170826 in chips)
Seat 3: MEGAPROFY (2130426 in chips)
Seat 4: NESTEN (7826974 in chips)
Seat 5: DrunkLV (3245360 in chips)
Seat 6: WildZealot (12475411 in chips)
Seat 7: Gsweetshot1 (1973482 in chips)
Seat 8: DerNautz (9055706 in chips)
Seat 9: BLOODP (10498356 in chips)

Three and out

If you are watching American football the term “three and out” means the team took the minimum amount of offensive plays to kick the ball back to the other team. MEGAPROFY only got to see three hands at this final table after open shoving for 1.7 million with blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K and waking up DrunkLV for a call from the small blind. DrunkLV showed pocket jacks [Jh][Js] and looking to avoid the ace of MEGAPROFY’S [Ac][3d]. Mission accomplish as the [Qs] [5c] [8s] [6c] [Qc] board remained ace-less and MEGAPROFY was punted in ninth place ($10,000.00).

Blinds goes, number of players go down

As the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K, BLOODP made a standard 750,000 chip raise as Karel373 shoved a small stack of 2.1 million from the cutoff. NESTEN in the small blind covered and made the call as BLOODP looked for a band-aid and folded. Good fold by BLOODP as NESTEN turned up aces [As][Ac] as Karel373 would need a lot of help with [Qh][Ks]. Five cards under ten later [4d] [5d] [3h] [9h] [8s] and the aces hold with no sweat as Karel373 left $12,500.00 richer in eighth place.

Drunk in Las Vegas? Standard.

Many people enjoy a drink or twelve in Las Vegas but few get to see a shot at one of those cars sitting above the slot machines. DrunkLV had a one in seven shot of being the proud owner of an AudiTT until his shove of 2.1 million chips was called by Gsweetshot1 that is. The short stacked DrunkLV tried to take the blinds holding [3h][Kd] but instead were looking up at the [Ad][Jc] of Gsweetshot1. And after the [6s] [8s] [Ah] [Th] [4d] board came out, DrunkLV was looking at the $15,000.00 added to his bankroll in seventh place.

Seeing Red

Watch BLOODP and Gsweetshot1 take the action preflop with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K:

Pocket eights [8d][8s] for Gsweetshot1 stood ahead of the [Ah][4h] of BLOODP until the flop came all low with two hearts that is [6s] [3h] [7h]. With an inside straight and flush draw, Gsweetshot1 had to dodge a lot of more than just ace now. The dodging would stop at the [5d] turn making the straight for BLOODP as Gsweetshot1 clung to the three fours left in the deck for a higher straight. [7c] came instead and Gsweetshot1 took a seat on the rail in sixth place ($17,500.00).

Racing for the exit

The very next hand DerNautz tried chipping up without a flop in a blind versus blind battle. After WildZealot raised from the small blind to 1.045 million with blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K, DerNautz shoved all-in to 5.6 million total. Snap call by WildZealot holding big slick [Ah][Kh] as DerNautz turned up the dominated [Ad][4c]. A king on the flop [Ks] [2s] [9h] all but ended DerNatuz’s night and the [2c] did as top pair top kicker for WildZealot was enough to take down the 11.4 million chip pot and boot DerNautz in fifth place ($20,000.00).

Striking a vein

Moving up to the 225K/450K ante 45K BLOODP was continuing to collect scalps sitting on a final table leading 22.5 million chips when this hand went down against an all-in Serpy25:

7.9 million chips in the middle and Serpy25 hoping [Jd][Kd] would hold up versus the [Qh][9s] of BLOODP. It would not get past the first three cards as a nine flopped [4h] [9c] [2h] [3c] [2s] and held to ship another big pot to BLOODP and leave Serpy25 out in fourth place ($25,000.00).

Break time for three? Not so fast

Just prior the trio of players taking five minute break at hour nine of the tournament, still fighting for the AudiTT and $60,000.00 first prize, NESTEN decided to try to double up. After the blinds moved up again to last level of the tournament 250K/500K ante 50K, NESTEN would shove 3.1 million over the top of BLOODP’s 1.5 million chip raise from the button. BLOODP with plenty of chips made the easy call with [Js][Qc]. Not easily won however as NESTEN found himself in a dominating position holding [Kc][Qs]. This was BLOODP’s night however and a jack was found on the door [Jc] [3s] [2h] [2c] [6s] and also found at the door was NESTEN taking $30,000.00 home in third place.

Chips speak for themselves

As we moved to heads-up play BLOODP enjoyed a starting 31.7 million to 21.4 chip lead as the two entertain a chop of the money remaining ($100,000.00) but not the beautiful AudiTT but BLOODP did not speak English. Enter HostTannerS who asked BLOODP in Spanish to type “pause” if he still wanted to make a deal. After no response the two went back to playing with no deal in place.

Quarter after and all is well (for one player)

After another 15 minutes of heads-up play BLOODP started to pull away grinding up to a 35.3 million to 17.8 million chip lead when both players decided to flip preflop for the car. Suited big slick [Kd][Ad] for BLOODP and pocket treys [3d][3s] for WildZealot. One person would get $40,000.00 towards the purchase of a car, the other one an extra $20,000.00 to hang an air fresher in their new AudiTT. King on the flop [8c] [Kc] [Tc] [8s] [2d] was all BLOODP needed to put away the final opposite claiming the title of January Turbo Takedown champion and proud owner of the AudiTT!

January $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown results (01-30-11)
1. BLOODP (GUADALAJARA) $60,000.00 + Audi TT
2. WildZealot (Winnipeg) $40,000.00
3. NESTEN (fredrikstad) $30,000.00
4. Serpy25 (den haag) $25,000.00
5. DerNautz (FFM) $20,000.00
6. Gsweetshot1 (Houston) $17,500.00
7. DrunkLV (Riga) $15,000.00
8. Karel373 (Petrozavodsk) $12,500.00
9. MEGAPROFY (Tolyatti) $10,000.00

Tags: auditt | final | flop | from-the-button | gsweetshot1 | julian-thew | karel373 | money | pokerstars | rio | straight | sunday-warm-up | tournament | turbo-takedown

When nearly 9,000 people show up for the PokerStars Sunday Million, you know the holiday celebrations are finished. It is time to get back to work, and that’s exactly what happened with the final Million of the year. The prize pool nearly hit the $1.8 million mark, enough to make the final table payday a big one.

It was that way all over the PokerStars landscape yesterday as the month-ending and year-ending tournaments kicked off for a big Sunday.

Here are the biggest PokerStars stories coming out of this weekend.

pageh656 closes book on 2010, wins 12/26 Sunday Million

Sunday Warm-up: profiles in winning, proFile takes Sunday Warm-up title Mizzi finishes third

Turbo Takedown: gmd68 enjoys holiday present winning Audi TT after four-way chop

Battle of the Planets: Four way chop ends the year with derdaniel81 named champ

For a complete rundown of all the big winners from the last Sunday of 2010, see the 12-26-10 PokerStars tournament results page.

Congrats to everyone on a great year and good luck in 2011.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | ends-the-year | from-the-last | holiday | holiday-present | make-the-final | pageh656-closes | pokerstars | sunday | sunday-million | year

If you haven’t made your monthly nut by now, time may be running out. That’s why yesterday was such a huge day on PokerStars. People came out of the woodwork to play the Sunday majors, and we saw some performances that people will be talking about for a while.

Team PokerStars Pros Anh Van Nguyen and George Danzer both made final tables (Nguyen won one of the two he made). Fellow Team Pro Pat Pezzin made three final tables. All of that was impressive, but not nearly so much as Jude Ainsworth’s third place finish in the Sunday Million. The British Team Pro won nearly $200,000 for his finish. Meanwhile, Wasaberga went on to take the win. You can read all about it in Wasaberga wins 11/28 Sunday Million for a $211,180.98 score.

11-18-10 Sunday Million final table.

In other news, the end-of-the-month majors were kicking off in a big way. Here are some of the bigger stories from this weekend:

Battle of the Planets: making it personal, personal takes entire $12K prize in freeroll win

Sunday Warm-Up 11/28: INormaJean, you Warm-Up winner

Turbo Takedown: coasting to the win, shiptosails takes down $60K plus the Audi TT

For a complete look at all the big winners from this weekend, see the 11-28-10 PokerStars Sunday tournaments results.

Now, onto December.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | british | plus-the-audi | poker | stars-sunday | sunday-million | weekend | woodwork