A young German poker player has won the inaugural PokerStars Sunday Million Live, and the British have started well at the 2017 World Championship of Online Poker with two wins, and a second in the first four events.
There was a time when a Sunday sucked balls.
An afternoon down the pub with your mates, watching the footy, couldn’t make up for the dreary Sunday night TV, and inevitable insomnia, knowing you had to wake the next morning and clock on for a job you hated.
And then, on March 6, 2006, PokerStars changed everything when they created a $215 buy-in event that afforded an escape from Songs of Praise, the Antiques Roadshow, and Swiss Rolls, with a $1m guaranteed prize pool.
5,893 players entered that day, and the Canadian Daryl “aaaaaa” Jace came into poker folklore when he banked the $173,843.50 first prize (ok, perhaps folklore is a tad too strong, it’s for effect).
The PokerStars Sunday Million was born.
It was, and remains, online poker’s version of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in The Key of Life.
11-years and $800m later, and PokerStars‘ engravers need to etch a new name into that overstated folklore.
“Philipp Salewski.”
The young German always dreamed of winning the Sunday Million, but he never thought he would jump into his car and drive to a brick and mortar venue to compete in a live version of the iconic event.
The PokerStars Sunday Million Live was a rip roaring success. Held at the King’s Casino, Rozvadov in the Czech Republic, 5,045 runners, came t
hrough a barrage of hybrid online/live Day 1’s to make the event the largest in mainland Europe (The Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour Goliath holds the pan-European record with 6,385 entrants set earlier this year).
The final four agreed upon a chop after Andrei Kurdyukov hit the rail in fifth place. Salewski took the largest slice of €101,674, with €10,000 up top for the person outlasting the remaining quartet.
Salewski would eventually face Dominik Kalabs in heads-up action once Karel Kovarik and Jozef Komorny exited stage left. Kabas began with a slight chip lead, but Salewski clawed it back before his ace high held in the final hand of the night to take the additional €10,000, and place in the PokerStars record books.
Final Table Results
1. Philipp Salewski – €111,674
2. Dominik Kalabs – €92,011
3. Jozef Komorny – €81,093
4. Karel Kovarik – €76,522
5. Andrei Kurdyukov – €39,680
6. Werner Nather – €29,000
7. Filip Zak – €21,400
8. Markus Kowalski – €15,500
9. Patrick Vogelsanger – €11,300
WCOOP Round Up
The first four events from the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) are in the bag.
4,034 entrants created a $806,800 prize pool in Event #1: $215 buy-in Sunday Kickoff, and the British player Carpediem2000 took the $115,278 first prize.
2,943 entrants churned up a $1,471,500 prize pool in Event #2: $530 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max progressive KO, Sunday Warm Up (Man these titles keep getting longer), and serevsini of the Czech Republic won the $106,262.93 in prize money, plus $81,292.66 in bounties.
The big event of the weekend was Event #3: $1,050 buy-in Sunday Million. 2,074 entrants contributed to a $2,074,000 prize pool, and KumarOy of Russia won the $310,289.83 first prize with Bryn Kenney finishing fourth for $109,703.81.
And WeakyLeeks rounded off a great weekend for the British when he defeated 501 entrants to win the $62,354,87 first prize after winning Event #4: $530 No-Limit Omaha HiLo 8-Max event. The UK’s Richard ‘raconteur’ Gryko finished second in that one. Naoya ‘nkeyno’ Kihara was eighth.
