Major Poker Sites Show Gains in Weekend Tourneys

Weekend tournaments from the major online sites have stood up defiantly since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act went into effect by showing steady or increasing entry numbers. This weekend had even larger turnouts for the four big tournaments on the four major sites. The PokerStars Sunday Million Guaranteed tournament had its biggest prize pool ever at $1,392,500, despite its entry fee being raised from $200+15 to $500+30 for this week. Full Tilt also saw a slight increase in attendance, making for the biggest weekly tournament the site has had in recent history. The biggest news, however, is the huge jump in attendance at Ultimate Bet and Bodog. While both tournaments had an overlay again this week, both also saw more than 100 extra players over the same tournaments last week, making the overlays the smallest they've been in a long while.

PokerStars Sunday Million Guaranteed

The PokerStars Sunday Million Guaranteed tournament has had a knack, lately, for shattering its own records. Well, the tournament did it again this week by luring 2,795 players to pony up the $530 entry fee and build a prize pool of $1,392,500. First place would net almost a quarter million. Jennifer "jennicide" Leigh was one pro to cash in the event, finishing in 110th to earn $2,088.75.

Whaassuuppp entered the final table as the big stack, but he wasn't ahead by much as all of the stacks were fairly bunched together. AndersFriden was the only player with under $1 million in chips, and he was also the first to go, within four minutes of the inception of the final table. AndersFriden pushed all in preflop and whaassuuppp called, showing K Q. AndersFriden was ahead when he flipped up A 8, and he enjoyed the flop of 9 5 2. He enjoyed the turn less when it spiked a king for whaassuuppp, and the river even less when it paired whaassuuppp's queen. AndersFriden was sent packing in ninth with $16,710.

Supernova9 was the next to go when he pushed on a board showing A J 10 Q 3 and was called by his opponent, dizney1984. Supernova9 showed K 2 for a straight, while dizney1984 flipped up 10 7 for a flush to take the hand. Supernova finished in eighth ($25,065).

Six minutes later, Bruski9 put his chips in the middle preflop with K 4 and was up against tomba26, who showed A K for a dominating hand. Bruski9 failed to connect with the board and tomba26 hit an unneed ace on the river to rake in the pot and eliminate Bruski9 in seventh. Bruski9 earned $34,116.25 for his finish.

Tomba26 pushed on to win the next elimination hand as well, this time against html. After some aggressive preflop raising from both players, html bet out on a flop of 9 8 3. Tomba26 answered by pushing in the rest of his chips, having html barely covered. Html called and showed J 7 for straight and flush draws. Tomba26 flipped up pocket aces for the lead. The turn and river only managed to pair html's 7 and he was eliminated in sixth ($43,167.50).

Tomba26 was now in second place, only barely behind chip leader dizney1984. Dizney1984 reinforced his lead with the next elimination hand, where he busted previous chip leader whaassuuppp. Whaassuuppp raised all in preflop and dizney1984 called and showed pocket sevens. Whaassuuppp turned over J 9 and needed some help. He got that help when the flop spiked a 9, but his hopes were dashed when the turn brought one of the two remaining sevens to give dizney1984 a set. The set would be enough to put out whaassuuppp's lights in fifth for $53,611.25.

A short while later, KA@tntech managed to get all of his chips in preflop with A K, but was slightly behind when he was called by beset7 with pocket queens. The flop was incredible for KA@tntech when it put out A A 7 but, just as with whaassuuppp before him, the turn spelled doom with one of the two remaining queens, to give beset7 a full house. Another false hope dashed and KA@tntech was sent to the virtual rail in fourth ($65,029.75).

The final three players, beset7, dizney1984, and tomba26 had very similar stacks at this point, and play was paused for a chop discussion. Eventually, dizney1984 spoke up that he'd rather take his chances, and play continued for another 10 minutes. A scheduled break arose and again there was talk of a deal, with all three still holding comparable chip stacks. Eventually a deal was made with a slightly modified by-the-chips chop to give each player close to $140,000 and play continued for the remaining $40,000, as per PokerStars rules.

Tomba26 would be the first victim, post-chop, when he pushed on a board of Q 9 6. He showed A 8 and his opponent, dizney1984, flipped up Q J for top pair and the lead. Tomba26 failed to improve on the turn or the river and he was eliminated in third, earning $139,859 after the deal (instead of the $80,068.75 he would have made pre-deal).

With tomba26's elimination, dizney1984 amassed a 2-1 chip lead over beset7. The final hand would take place after only 8 minutes of heads-up play. Both players played aggressively preflop and dizney1984 pushed all in after the flop came 9 5 2, still having beset7 covered. Beset7 seemed tired and worn as he said, "alright, gg" before he called all in and showed A K. His instincts were right as dizney1984 flipped up 5 3 for a pair and a flush draw. The turn and river came 3 and 7 to give dizney1984 a diamond flush to take the hand and the tournament. Beset7 took home $141,284 with his part of the deal, while dizney1984 won the extra $40,000 to put his total winnings at $183,116.

The final standings were:

*1) dizney1984 - $183,116
*2) beset7 - $141,284
*3) tomba26 - $139,859
4) KA@tntech - $65,029.75
5) whaassuuppp - $53,611.25
6) html - $43,167.50
7) Bruski9 - $34,116.25
8) supernova9 - $25,065
9) AndersFriden - $16,710

* Based on a three-way, slightly modified chip chop, per PokerStars rules.


Full Tilt $250,000 Guaranteed

Full Tilt's weekly $250,000 guaranteed tournament saw another slight jump in attendance this week with 1,780 entrants compared to 1,726 last weekend. This meant a healthy prize pool well beyond the guarantee, at $356,000. No red-named Full Tilt pros made it into the money this week, but a few big-name players did cash, including Pete "TheBeat" Giordano (89th, $534), Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy (118th, $462.80), and Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul (GetPWN3D on Full Tilt, 122nd, for $462.80).

The final table saw the return of last week's second-place finisher, cardno, who had won $48,328. He was the short stack entering a final table where the stacks ran the gamut from cardno's $176,000 to DETROIT JOHN's $1 million. Peteec, who had held the chip lead for much of the tournament preceding the final table, was sitting in third with $760,000. Cardno wound up being the first eliminated ($5,293.72) when DETROIT JOHN made a set of threes to trump his 9 2. DETROIT JOHN eventually went out in fourth ($28,925) when his A 6 ran into the pocket aces of peteec.

At that point, peteec had close to $4 million in chips, versus Dangerous Plyr in second with almost $1 million. Backstaber went out in third ($36,045) five minutes later at the hands of Dangerous Plyr, putting Dangerous Plyr's stack at $1.8 million compared to peteec's now $3.5 million. The chip lead changed numerous times over the course of the heads up match, until the two were virtually tied at close to $2.5 million each.

That all changed when Dangerous Plyr pushed all in on a flop of 4 3 2 and peteec called, having him barely covered. Peteec showed pocket fives and Dangerous Playr flipped up A 10 and would need to improve. He did just that when he hit a 10 on the turn and took down the pot, leaving peteec severely crippled. Despite bolstering his stack a bit, peteec was eventually ousted from the tournament when he called all in with pocket tens and was up against Dangerous Plyr's Q 9. The flop improved neither, but the turn and river were both queens to give Dangerous Plyr trip queens and eliminate peteec in second ($49,840). Dangerous Plyr earned $76,540 for his win in the tournament.

The final standings were:

1) Dangerous Plyr - $76,540
2) peteec - $49,840
3) Backstaber - $36,045
4) DETROIT JOHN - $28,925
5) spybar - $21,822.80
6) karam00 - $16,020
7) UntiltDotCom - $10,324
8) AJKHoosier1 - $7,476
9) cardno - $5,293.72

Ultimate Bet $200,000 Guaranteed

The Ultimate Bet $200,000 guaranteed tournament missed its guarantee again this week, but by less of a margin than in at least the two months that CardPlayer.com has been covering the event. This weekend, Ultimate Bet had 966 entrants, up from only 863 last weekend. That amounted to a truly significant jump and meant that Ultimate Bet only had to overlay a relatively small $6,800 to meet the $200,000 guarantee.

The players at the final table were tightly bunched, with all but the top two players having stacks between $90,000 and $200,000. GO STEVE sat at the top with $670,000 and was followed by horseshoe 6 at $415,000. Player MiracleGro decided that he'd liked the final table so much last weekend, where he came in third ($18,500), he'd come back for more this weekend.

In fact, MiracleGro liked his third-place finish last week so much that he went out in third again this week when, relatively short-stacked, he pushed all in with 5 3 and was called by Sin77Seven with A 6. Sin77Seven paired his 6 on the flop and that was enough to take out MiracleGro in the end. MiracleGro again earned $18,500 for his finish.

Despite knocking out MiracleGro, Sin77Seven was still sitting with four-and-a-half times fewer chips than chipleader horseshoe 6. Fifteen minutes later it was all over. Sin77Seven pushed all in preflop and horseshoe 6 called, showing A 9. Sin77Seven was behind with K 2 and would need to improve. Horseshoe 6 hit a 9 on the flop to further his lead and the turn and river failed to pair Sin77Seven's king, sending him home in second with $27,000. Horseshoe 6 took down the tournament for a first prize of $45,000.

The final standings were:

1) horseshoe 6 - $45,000
2) Sin77Seven - $27,000
3) MiracleGro - $18,500
4) HatesPoker - $13,000
5) GO STEVE - $11,000
6) Sideshowbobbb - $9,000
7) luckyfire44 - $7,000
8) dlperrio - $5,000
9) Blackness1 - $3,500
10) Whirlaway - $2,000


Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed

Like Ultimate Bet, Bodog's tournament has a hard time matching its guarantee on the merits of its entries alone. Also like Ultimate Bet, Bodog's tournament saw a surge in players this weekend that made for a relatively insignificant overlay. Bodog's $100,000 guaranteed tournament lured 990 players to the tables, an impressive feat considering last week the same tournament had only 855 entrants. The extra players meant Bodog only needed to put up $1,000 from its own pockets to match the guarantee.

BriR99 entered the final table with a slight chip lead at just over $500,000 in chips, compared to ThePokerPlayer9 in second with around $450,000. BriR99 loaned his chip lead to both slavik and urbandb888 at various points during the final table until finally those three players entered three-way play less than 25 minutes in. While slavik had the chip advantage going into the final three, both BriR99 and urbandb888 chipped away at his stack until he was shortstacked. Slavik finally pushed all in with A 4 and was called by urbandb888 with pocket nines. The nines held up to eliminate slavik in third ($9,000) and put urbandb88 in the chip lead going into heads up.

The heads-up match between urbandb888 and BriR99 lasted 37 minutes, which amounted to more than half of the entire final table action. The two players traded the chip lead three times over the course of the match, until finally BriR99 got an edge and started slowly siphoning off chips from urbandb888's stack. Urbandb888 had a third as many chips as BriR99 going into the final hand. Both players limped preflop to see a flop of 9 8 2. Urbandb888 checked, prompting BriR99 to bet half the pot. Urbandb888 pushed all in over the top for over five times more and BriR99 instantly called and showed 9 4 for top pair. Urbandb888 showed 8 7 for middle pair and would need to improve. The 2 and the 6 came on the turn and river and urbandb888 was eliminated in second ($14,000). BriR99 pocketed $25,000 for his first-place finish in the event.

The final standings were as follows:

1) BriR99 - $25,000
2) urbandb888 - $14,000
3) slavik - $9,000
4) SARIMAS - $6,500
5) BELIVEME - $5,400
6) ThePokerPlayer9 - $4,400
7) SoxNation83 - $3,400
8) s1gs2o - $2,400
9) eckofiger - $1,550


Card Player is also working with several sites that continue to serve U.S. players to provide deposit bonuses to our readers. Click on the following names to receive bonuses: UltimateBet, Bodog, Absolute, and Full Tilt.

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