Brazilian Wins PokerStars Sunday Million 18th Anniversary Event For $1,000,000

The 18th Anniversary running of the PokerStars Sunday Million was almost won by a player going by the screen name ‘Sunday Melon’. The $215 buy-in event attracted a field of 39,226 entries, falling just short of meeting the $8 million guarantee. In the end, it was Brazil’s Mateus ‘CrossBreed17’ Mendes who emerged victorious, taking home $1,000,000 after defeating ‘Sunday Melon’ heads-up.

The top eight finishers ended up walking away with at least six-figures for their efforts in this online event which spanned three days (April 7-9). ‘Sunday Melon’, of Poland, earned $733,959 as the runner-up.

World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jans ‘Graftekkel’ Arends was the most accomplished player at the final table. The Dutch poker pro took home $270,961 as the fifth-place finisher after his A-8 suited failed to beat out the K-Q of Mendes.

Another big name from the online world was also knocked out by Mendes on day 3. Bert ‘girafganger7’ Stevens, who won last year’s WSOP Online main event event for nearly $2.8 million, placed 25th in this tournament. In a limped battle of the blinds, his 10-55 ran into the KK of Mendes on a 1086 flop. The Q turn and J river were no help and Stevens settled for $13,600.

Mendes won a big pot during three-handed action that saw him overtake the lead. Mendes limped from the small blind with Q10 and ‘Sunday Melon’ made it 4x (16,000,000) the big blind with J5. Mendes called and the flop came down QQ3. Mendes check-called an 8,375,000 continuation bet and the turn brought the 4. Mendes checked again and ‘Sunday Melon’ fired 42,500,000 into 50,250,000. Mendes called and the A completed the board. Mendes checked again and ‘Sunday Melon’ shoved for 125,524,845 effective into a pot of 135,250,000. Mendes made the call and chipped up to 386,299,690, while ‘Sunday Melon’ slid to 319,627,028.

Mendes extended his advantage even further by knocking out ‘FcProto10’ in third place ($526,523). He entered heads-up play with nearly a 3:2 lead. His offer of a deal was declined, which led to roughly 90 minutes of one-on-one action with the title hanging in the balance. In the final hand ‘Sunday Melon’ called all-in from the big blind for around 12 big blinds with 55. Mendes had shoved with 97 on the button. The board ran out AK29K to bring the event to a close.

Here are the payouts from the final table:

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