The Sunday Million this evening had slightly less players than the successful Guinness Book of World Records attempt earlier in the evening when the capped 65,000 players piled into the dollar tournament with PokerStars doubling the prize pool to $130,000 (won by 004 license after ten hours who took home $13,000 for the win).

Nonetheless, 8,027 players found the slightly higher $215 buy-in at the Sunday Million more to their liking, especially when the $1.6 million prize pool was paying out 1,170 players with $240,810 and don’t forget the penny going to man or woman who takes it down.

With blinds sitting at 150K/300K ante 30K and facing the massive stack of Hanamichi23’s small blind raise into the big blind and holding just six big blinds left, williams46 made the call holding 8♥ K♠ and hoping to pick off a blind steal. Unfortunately, the raiser had an ace, as Hanamichi23 flipped over A♠ 7♣ and both players would catch a piece of the 3♦ 8♠ A♦ 4♠ 4♥ board, it was Hanamichi23’s pair of aces that would send home tonight’s final table bubble boy, williams46, in tenth place ($8,588.90).

Seat 1: Hanamichi23 (14888962 in chips)
Seat 2: cardlo69 (3049834 in chips)
Seat 3: Dusnumbri (17458843 in chips)
Seat 4: Lenny _1964 (5617156 in chips)
Seat 5: kartalli (6593735 in chips)
Seat 6: demistocles (2366024 in chips)
Seat 7: morbo1 (12207184 in chips)
Seat 8: danilov153 (10058802 in chips)
Seat 9: aprilsfool (8029460 in chips)

In the first significant hand of tonight’s final nine, aprilsfool opened for 777,000 from UTG + 1, folded around to Dusnumbri who three-bet to 2.1 million. Lenny_1964 sitting on Dusnumbri’s immediate left decides its go time and shoves from the cutoff for five million total, aprilsfool calls as Dusnumbri rightfully allows these two to settle the pot. Pocket queens for aprilsfool Q♦ Q♥ and big slick K♠ A♣ for Lenny_1964. The J♠ 2♣ 2♦ 9♠ 4♦ board remained vacant of aces and kings as aprilsfools’ ladies survived to ship Lenny_1964 ninth place money ($12,441.86) as tonight’s first prank victim of the final table.

demistocles down to less than two big blinds at one point, managed a slight resurgence right before the players took a five minute break as the blinds increased to 250K/500K ante 50K. Here’s how they stacked up with even the big stacks having to watch their waistlines:

Seat 1: Hanamichi23 (9322984 in chips)
Seat 2: cardlo69 (10359336 in chips)
Seat 3: Dusnumbri (15761476 in chips)
Seat 5: kartalli (7358524 in chips)
Seat 6: demistocles (6352288 in chips)
Seat 7: morbo1 (10579305 in chips)
Seat 8: danilov153 (5020730 in chips)
Seat 9: aprilsfool (15515357 in chips)

As if on cue, the first two hands back from the break two different players found their tournament lives on the line. In the first hand danilov153 was all-in preflop holding 10♣ A♣ versus the pocket kings K♠ K♦ of Dusnumbri for an eleven million chip pot. The kings would not survive the flop as A♦ J♠ Q♥ hit the board putting danilov153 in the lead and leaving Dusnumbri drawing thin. 4♦ on the turn and an unnecessary third ace A♥ on the river and danilov153 was given a second life. On the flip side the comeback story of demistocles came to an abrupt end at the hands of kartalli. While danilov153 was still raking in the chips from the previous hand kartalli and demistocles would get 13 million chips into the middle. Pocket eights 8♦ 8♠ for demistocles and big slick A♣ K♦ for kartalli. demistocles rise back into the tourney was safe on the 4♦ 5♦ 3♠ flop but the turned K♣ spelled disaster as the river 10♠ lacked one of the two eights in the deck and demistocles would have to settle for eighth place ($18,462.11).

Note to aprilsfools: Doyle Brunson just called and wants credit for this hand that led to the elimination of our seventh place finisher. With blinds still at 250K/500K ante 50K and folded around to aprilsfool in the small blind a choice to push with 10♦ 2♠ was made to grab the blinds. Which is fine the big blind folds and you don’t have to show it, but Hanamichi23 did make the call with J♥ Q♦ . The call for the 13.5 million chip pot was not rewarded as aprilsfool would make two pair on the 2♥ K♠ 7♣ 10♥ Q♣ board and left Hanamichi23 head scratching while counting out the $32,108.01 seventh place money.

The new chip leader aprilsfool wasn’t done there as eight hands later he would take down five hands in a row, including the hand below that showed cardlo69 the door in sixth place:

RSS readers click through to see replay

No luck needed this time, just the better hand will do as aprilsfools’ Q♠ A♠ holds against cardlo69’s K♣ Q♣ on the 2♥ 5♠ 6♦ 4♦ A♣ board to shoot aprilsfool past the 32 million chip mark and leave $48,162.01 in real money for cardlo69 in sixth place.

Dusnumbri got a little short as the blinds moved up to 300K/600K ante 60K, but pocket aces A♠ A♥ against the A♣ 9♠ of aprilsfool helped Dusnumbri become solvent again to the tune of 11 million chips. Eleven hands later, a fortunate river card would help Dusnumbri double up again, this time against morbo1 who’s A♠ J♠ looked prime for sending home Dusnumbri in fifth place on the A♦ 10♣ 5♠ 3♠ turn. But, the two-outer J♣ spiked on the river elevating Dusnumbri to 24 million chips and sending morbo1 to the basement with 5.8 million.

In the last two hands before the end of the blind level, morbo1 would double up off kartalli for a ten million chip pot, and danilov153 would trap Dusnumbri with pocket aces against Dusnumbri’s suited connector that hit top pair on the flop for a 21 million chip pot in back-to-back hands as the blinds increased once again to 400K/800K ante 80K.

Several hands of the “raise everyone fold” variety go by to set up this three-way all-in between kartalli, danilov153, and Dusnumbri watch the hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The pocket jacks of J♠ J♣ got double teamed by the big slicks of kartalli A♠ K♠ and danilov153 A♦ K♦ as kartalli had to sweat the river when danilov153 picked up a flush re-draw. But the final board showed K♥ 4♥ 10♦ 4♦ 2♣ to split up Dusnumbri’s tournament chips and send home the Oslo native in fifth place ($64,216.01).

This prompted some attempts to start chop talks but the table could not agree to look at the numbers despite having similar stacks across the board, so play moved on into its eleventh hour with 500K/1 Million ante 100K blinds.

Just three hands after kartalli doubled up, aprilsfool would take down the next three hands in a row, including taking out kartalli in fourth place. After aprilsfool limped in from the button, kartalli would complete from the small blind as morbo1 checked in the big blind to see a spade heavy flop of 5♠ J♠ 7♠ . kartalli led out for six million as morbo1 may have lacked a spade and folded, but aprilsfool decided to put kartalli to the test and shoved holding A♠ 2♣ for the nut flush draw. kartalli however was in the lead with 8♠ J♣ hitting top pair and a flush draw as well (but probably wasn’t rooting for the flush after the cards were turned over). kartalli was happy that the flush did not hit, but two of the remaining three aces did, as the turn A♣ , and river A♦ gave aprilsfool trip aces for the 36 million chip pot sending kartalli out in fourth place ($80,912.17).

The next three places would enjoy at least six figure pay outs as the players broke for five minutes returning to level 41 and 600K/1.2 million ante 120K blinds and the following chip counts:

Seat 7: morbo1 (14351874 in chips)
Seat 8: danilov153 (32687360 in chips)
Seat 9: aprilsfool (33230766 in chips)

aprilsfool’s stack would take a hit right away in the new blind level, first losing a 7.5 million chip pot to danilov153 than doubling up morbo1 when another preflop shove for the blinds steal went wrong as aprilsfool turned up 4♣ 7♣ in the small blind for the busted steal as morbo1’s A♣ 2♠ would catch an ace the board of A♠ 9♠ 3♦ K♣ 7♠ to double up from the 28 million chip pot.

danilov153 caught one player in a trap earlier at the final table with aces, this time it was morbo1 getting caught. After the three players paid the minimum to see the 2♦ 8♠ 6♥ flop, watch the hand below after aprilsfool gets out of their way:

RSS readers click through to see replay

A bit of a cooler for morbo1 catching top pair and running into the set of deuces held by danilov153 as the 53 million chip pot slid to the crafty danilov153 and morbo1 was rewarded with a six figure score tonight in third place ($120,405.01).

Heads-up play was as one-sided as the starting chip count as danilov153 enjoyed a 60 million to near 20 million chip lead over aprilsfool. danilov153 would win all four hands that comprised heads-up play as aprilsfool could do nothing but watch yet another danilov153 trap get sprung when on the fourth hand of heads-up play danilov153 limped from the button and aprilsfool took the bait and shoved for 15.2 million holding pocket sevens 7♦ 7♣ . danilov153 quickly called with pocket queens Q♦ Q♥ which held up on the K♦ 8♦ 4♦ 6♣ 6♥ board to claim the $240,810 and don’t forget the penny first place prize as this week’s Sunday Million champion!

For the relentless aggression, aprilsfool tricked enough players at the final table to score $176,594.01 as the runner-up.

As with the just finished Sunday Warm-up, you will find commentary on tonight’s tournament with hole cards (personally I’d love to see with aprilsfool was playing on a couple of hands) at PokerStars.tv soon.

$1.5 Million Guarantee Sunday Million Results (07-19-09)
1. danilov153 (Oviedo) $240,810.01
2. aprilsfool (Southlake) $176,594.01
3. morbo1 (Woodridge) $120,405.01
4. kartalli (marietta) $80,912.17
5. Dusnumbri (Oslo) $64,216.01
6. cardlo69 (Stoney Creek) $48,162.01
7. Hanamichi23 (Bahía Blanca) $32,108.01
8. demistocles (Perugia) $18,462.11
9. Lenny _1964 (Sweden) $12,441.86

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