Online Poker -- TheGoingRate Wins Sunday Million

It was a week of close calls for many of the game's top online players. Read the recaps for Sunday’s flagship events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, UltimateBet, Cake, and Bodog below:

PokerStars -- Sunday Million

Because of daylight savings time here in the states, PokerStars decided to push the Sunday Million and other major tournaments back an hour to make up for the lost hour of sleep.

The tournament drew in a field of 8,118, down 546 players from last week. Still, the prize pool was large enough to clear the guarantee at $1,623,600.

A total of 1,170 places were paid, and among the notables to go deep were Rick "Wachovia" Velilla (74th), delegator (58th), LockdownTex (57th), Ari "BodogAri" Engel (53rd), Stian "JohnnyBelow" Stabell (51st), hard2tel (47th), David "GRinDer444" Redlin (18th), and Steve "thorladen" Weinstein (12th).

MCLegend, who finished second in the Sunday Million in early February, made another deep run in this event, eventually busting out in 34th place.

With 10 players remaining on the final table bubble, Confused1 was eliminated just moments before lacman73, causing the final table to form eight-handed.

The final table featured online legend Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet (pictured above right). Van Fleet was short heading in, but managed to stay alive long enough for a fifth-place payday of $57,637.

After he went out, the final four players agreed to chop up the prize pool according to the chip counts, leaving $30,000 on the side for the winner. When play got heads up, TheGoingRate had a huge chip lead on steakstud. TheGoingRate's two pair was good enough for the tournament and the top prize of $132,081.

Here were the final table results:

1. TheGoingRate -- $132,081*
2. steakstead -- $127,661*
3. Kurschner -- $132,955*
4. kuzman89 -- $105,097*
5. Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet -- $57,637
6. ferminaitor -- $41,401
7. George2Loose -- $28,413
8. 1stAir -- $18,671
9. Confused1 -- $11,365

* Based on a four-way chop at the final table.


Watch Online Poker Show P1: Sunday Million - Mar 1, 2009 on PokerStars.tv


Full Tilt Poker -- $750,000 Guarantee

The Full Tilt $750,000 guarantee was down 222 entrants this week to 3,966 players. That brought the prize pool to $793,200, clearing the guarantee.

522 places were paid out to notables such as Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (76th), Evan "NEONPILS99" Parkes (68th), Dutch "Dutchalicious" Boyd (63rd), "CrazyMarco" Johnson (58th, pictured right), Nick "BlueFlare" Saxon (52nd), and Bahbak "bigredAK" Oboodi (13th).

The final table featured Jonathan "xMONSTERxDONGx" Karamalikis, who finished ninth in the Sunday Million two weeks ago. Karamalikis improved on that with a seventh-place finish in this event for $18,243.

In the end, SteveyMoney topped dilling89 heads up for the victory and $140,436.

Here were the final table results:

1. SteveyMoney -- $140,436
2. dilling89 -- $84,872
3. Bbuddy4brkfst -- $55,524
4. Dahladino -- $43,784
5. Jims619 -- $32,838
6. Michael "benvo123" Benvenuti -- $24,351
7. Jonathan "xMONSTERxDONGx" Karamalikis -- $18,243
8. MISSTILT1 -- $14,277
9. 8SR8 -- $10,628

UltimateBet -- $200,000 Guarantee

For the first time in five weeks, the big tournament on UltimateBet failed to meet its guarantee. A total of 964 players bought in, requiring the site to put up a $7,200 overlay.

The tournament paid out 99 places to notables such as Jon "Pokertrip" Freidberg (82nd), Steve "StevoL_" Leonard (66th), Matt "NotAJGreen" Holtzclaw (54th), J.P. "Mavfish" Kelly (40th), Peter "Breeth" Turmezey (39th), Tony "MuckTheNuts" Dunst (36th), and Peter "Apathy123" Jetten (29th, pictured right).

When play got heads up, NSinger1 and ZXCV3B came to an agreement and decided to chop up the remaining prize pool.

Here were the final table results:

1. NSinger1 -- $35,680*
2. ZXCV3B -- $35,680*
3. DEALTHEMMOS -- $18,100
4. ILLINICHASER -- $12,900
5. ARWYNJADEN -- $10,900
6. FILEN -- $8,900
7. WHITETAIL0 -- $6,900
8. FUHRMANP -- $4,900
9. 18BIGCHIPS -- $3,400

* Based on a two-way chop at the final table.

Bodog -- $100,000 Guarantee

Bodog brought in 603 players for its big Sunday major, forcing the site to put up $39,700 in overlay.

Johnathan "UFPokerStar" Westra (53rd), Kenny "Hixx" Hicks (47th), Lucas "BeaverFever" Rifkin (20th), and Joe "Dyzalot" Morneau (17th) all made the money.

The tournament was won by Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt (pictured right), who took out The Wetness heads up for the top prize of $23,600.

Here were the final table results:

1. Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt -- $23,600
2. The Wetness -- $13,600
3. Sweet Cakes -- $9,100
4. GREENKEEPER -- $7,000
5. Swany420 -- $5,700
6. Longhorn_99 -- $4,500
7. perudc -- $3,300
8. corndogg99 -- $2,200
9. bigboat21 -- $1,300

Card Player is 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, Cake and Full Tilt Poker.

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