PokerStars 7th Anniversary Sunday Million draws huge field

This past Sunday the world’s largest online poker room hosted one of the largest online poker tournaments of all-time, as nearly 50,000 players turned out for the 7^th Anniversary of the PokerStars Sunday Million tournament. The final tally of 49,287 players ranks Sunday’s tournament as the third largest Sunday Million n the site’s history, trailing only the 10^th Anniversary Celebration Sunday Million that was held in September 2011, and the 5^th Anniversary of the Sunday Million which took place on March 7, 2011.

Here is a look at the three largest Sunday Million tournaments:

1. PokerStars 10^th Anniversary Celebration Sunday Million: 62,116 entrants
2. PokerStars Sunday Anniversary Sunday Million: 59,128 entrants
3. PokerStars 7^th Anniversary Sunday Million: 49,287 entrants

The 7^th Anniversary tournament easily surpassed the $7 million guarantee put-up by PokerStars, falling just shy of the $10 million mark at $9,857,400. As is typically the case in these massive online events, a deal at the final table saw the bulk of the prize-money divvied-up between three players, although there was a bit of controversy mixed-in when the final table was eight-handed, considering the following chat exchange I found on the PokerStars Blog after some players at the final table were trying to force a deal:

Lee Jones (Commentator): Hey folks – nobody is obligated to deal; let’s be very clear about that.
Lee Jones (Commentator): We will *not* have pressure put on people to deal, or even pause to look at numbers.
2outs4cake: mod please leave us alone

Lee Jones (Commentator): Actually, no. My job is ensure that the player’s rights are respected. One of those rights is to play the tournament, as scheduled, with the payouts as published.
Lee Jones (Commentator): Without being hassled for making that choice.

Once the talk of a deal was set aside the final table went at a blistering pace, with five players eliminated in the span of seven minutes –with three players eliminated in the space of four hands! So it wasn’t until the table became three-handed that a deal was finally struck. Here is a look at the official payouts after the final table deal:

1. benislovas (Lithuania) $848,589.33*
2. sexygee (United Kingdom) $836,321.83*
3. Kasra84 (Germany) $813,370.28*
4. n0rflip (Norway) $358,809.36
5. pellompogos (Cyprus) $254,320.92
6. stradale430 (Austria) $181,376.16
7. 2outs4cake (United Kingdom) $117,303.06
8. rewgr343 (Russia) $85,759.38
9. Heminsley (United Kingdom) $62,101.62

While all this was going on in the tournament lobby, PokerStars was also fast approaching its 95 billionth cash-game hand dealt, a milestone that was reached on Monday when a micro-stakes $.08/$.16 NLHE table hit the proverbial jackpot, with each player receiving at least $10,000, while the winner of the hand saw his bankroll get a $23,000 boost.