Following PokerStars announcement that the second edition of Sunday Million Anniversary tournament had smashed its $10 million guarantee, Dutch online poker player known as “Daenarys T” won the online championship and took home the attractive first place prize of $1 million. He was the last standing player on Day 2 out of a gigantic entry field of 56,310, which made it possible for the total prize pool of $11,262,000.
The tournament started Sunday, April 22, and managed to collect the guarantee of $10 million after, in February, it failed to do so. With such a massive field of players, however, the online championship proved that online poker tournaments can be real competition to live cash tournaments that offer top players the chance to become millionaires after a few days of play. The total prize pool of $11,262,000 was gathered after more than 56,000 poker pros and enthusiasts paid the $215 entry on the PokerStars network. The massive sum was shared among 9,296 players who finished the money on Day 1 and some of them were Team Pros Liv Boeree, Chris Moneymaker, Jaime Staples, and Jeff Gross.
Last time, the Sunday Million Anniversary Edition lasted a day and the winner was announced Sunday evening, but Take 2 of the online championship saw many more registrations. As a result, PokerStars said that poker play would continue on Monday until the winner is crowned. Day 2 started with a strong competition between 735 players who returned to the virtual tables and received at least $1,102 in guaranteed cash prizes. Most of them were eliminated one by one until the final table remained where the top 9 players were guaranteed a nice $63,229. In the final heads-up duel for the amazing prize of over $1 million, Rick “ThEcLaiMEer” Trigg and “Daenarys T” remained. The Dutchman triumphed, becoming instantly a millionaire, but Trigg also took quite a nice prize of $715,335.
Plenty of Six-Figure Prizes at the Colourful Final Table
The first player to bust from the feature table on Monday was Canada’s “Rippedut” whose pocket Aces were taken over by “Daenarys T”’s pocket Queens after a Queen appeared on the flop. The Canadian banked $63,229 for the 9th place, while Norway’s “kaizerdrea” finished 8th and received $89,418. The Norwegian player was eliminated by British grinder Rick “ThEcLaiMEer” Trigg who sent home several of his opponents. However, the remaining seven had a guaranteed reward of over $100,000. Interestingly, two Mongolian players sat against each other for the 6th place – “Noobanx” managed to defeat Sholkey989 who finished $126,456 richer.
Russia’s “Mike180373” (6th, $178,834) was the next to leave the final table, followed by Brit “Hidey7” (5th, $252,910), who were eliminated by “ThEcLaiMEer” and “Daenarys T”, respectively. “Noobanx” then sent Bulgaria player “Peter788502” home with a nice cash of $357,667 and the 4th place but did not get much further. The Mongolian was defeated by “ThEcLaiMEer” taking $505,818 for their 3rd place. Trigg and the Dutch Game of Thrones fan remained for the final heads-up, with the Brit holding a 2 to 1 chip advantage.
After some interesting play, this changed and in the final hand, “Daenarys T” took the title with Ace-6 against Trigg’s Jack-10 (Ace-10-8-3-2 on the board). Despite the defeat, the Brit managed to add $715,335 to his bankroll. “Daenarys T”, on the other hand, whose avatar shows Dutch poker player Tim “FysioTim” Hendriks, took immediately $1,000,043, becoming one of the top online poker millionaires.
