It was almost a standard weekend on PokerStars this weekend with the Sunday Majors taking place unmolested, albeit with the final table of the APPT to serve as a distraction to railbirds.So to Auckland first.
It may be something of a junior tour to its European sibling, but the APPT still produces some of the biggest prize pools in the southern hemisphere, and this weekend it also proved to throw up a few twists as well, the most notable featuring Angela Brewster.
As Heath Chick reported from Auckland, Brewster had an issue over what she thought was some unreturned chips, prompting staff to review the action on the video cameras. While they were locked away in a room full of screens Brewster lost a huge hand that wiped out her stack, only for staff to return in the nick of time with a last moment reprieve. She was right, she had been short changed a 500 chip and was suddenly back in the tournament. Never before has the term chip and a chair been so theatrical.
Angela Brewster
Now reinstated, albeit with a single chip, Brewster set about turning herself into that most famous of poker clichés, spinning it up to 10,000. Did she then go on to win the lot, setting up a remarkable finale? Well no. She crashed out before reaching the money. But it’s still a good story.
So too was that of the eventually winner Minh Nguyen, who dominated his way to a first prize of NZ$111,600, the full report of which can be found here.
Minh Nguyen
Back online, to a world in which players rather than tournament staff lock themselves away in rooms full of screens, there were a number of notable results from the big weekend tournaments. Team PokerStars Pro Christophe de Meulder reached a final table, finishing seventh in the Sunday re-buy, while Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara continued his habits of recording deep runs — two more this week, finishing second in the weekly 8-Game and fourth in the $215 Weekly Turbo.
But the weekend belonged to Irishman John “LeNaber” Howlett, who took $119,919.37 as this week’s winner of the Sunday Million, the full report of which, written by Martin Harris, can be enjoyed in full here.
11/23/14 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants: 6,729
Prize pool: $1,345,800
Places paid: 990
1. John “LeNaber” Howlett (Ireland) — $119,919.37*
2. Niels “Fisherman903” van Alphen (Netherlands) — $123,327.03*
3. Joldis “moiadcosmin” Cosmin (Romania) — $118,096.41*
4. Ben “F3nix35” Dobson (United Kingdom) — $103,638.84*
5. yougotJDZ’d (Canada) — $129,327.41*
6. StoyanB (Bulgaria) — $43,065.60
7. Diego “Die Ventura” Ventura (Peru) — $29,607.60
8. Julio “JULK77” Bianchi Bedos (Chile) — $16,149.60
9. Jandro Mura (Mexico) — $10,429.95
* denotes five-way deal
Prior to that it was all about the warm up, which this week was won by former Super Tuesday winner Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen.
Chris Hunichen
Hunichen is among the best layers in the online game right now and doesn’t slouch when playing live either. But Sunday proved another successful day online for the American, boxing out of Costa Rica, who took $89,995.36 for first place, having fought German player Phemo into second place. Read the report of Hunichen’s heroics here.
11-23-14 PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results:
Entrants: 3,102
Places Paid: 450
Prize Pool: $620,400
1. Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen (Costa Rica) *$89,995.36
2. Phemo (Germany) *$79,995.36
3. Hierlson85 (Germany) $51,493.20
4. Kennethmedh (Sweden) $35,673.00
5. hownorez (Czech Republic) $26,559.32
6. marbog12345 (Sweden) $20,163.00
7. CkiLePatr0n? (United Kingdom) $13,959.00
8. hguo (Germany) $7,755.00
9. bellos2828 (Greece) $4,963.20
* denotes two-way deal
That’s everything from the weekend, although you can find all the results from the weekend November 22-23, 2014 by clicking here.
Congratulations to all of the weekend’s winners.
Read the interview with John “LeNaber” Howlett here.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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