Logic would state if two great gatherings of poker players were going on at the same time, one may have many more participants then the other. Team PokerStars and PokerStars qualifiers are currently tearing up the Amazon Room in the World Series Main Event along with 6,832 hopefuls to claim the next title of “World Champion”. When I logged this evening and saw the starting amount of runners for the Sunday Million, I expected a slight downturn since many of those players could be in Vegas.

7,131 players lined $215 for the Sunday Million tonight.

Yes, the Sunday Million this week outdrew the vaunted Main Event by 299 players and PokerStars paid out 1017 places this evening, while leaving $177,276.66 to the brave soul with all the chips after nearly twelve hours of play. Here are your final table players who will be walking away with no less then five figures tonight:

Seat 1: racin77db (9054261 in chips)
Seat 2: MyMaria44 (14490213 in chips)
Seat 3: dynoalot (4624840 in chips)
Seat 4: GravityPilot (9995431 in chips)
Seat 5: etushekki (1393570 in chips)
Seat 6: Oderec25 (7510626 in chips)
Seat 7: BadBeatKid_2 (16593048 in chips)
Seat 8: PokerSavage1 (2941427 in chips)
Seat 9: thugmoneymkr (4706584 in chips)

BadBeatKid_2 had the chip lead for the final four tables and never let it go entering the final table with the big stack. Right off the bat, he open raised for the next three hands straight, all three times being rebuffed by others and doubling up short stack etushekki with his A8 vs. etushekki’s 88 which held up. Oderec25 looked down at AhQh and was facing a re-raise from the aggressive chip leader, and after a few pauses decided to put the eagle to the test by shoving his remaining 6.5 million chips into the middle. Aces are hard to fold pre-flop, and Oderec25 was staring at a 9d 7h Ks needing running hearts or broadway cards to defeat BadBeatKid_2’s black bullets. The King on the turn left Oderec25 drawing dead and the ninth place finisher received $11,124.36 for his efforts.

With blinds and antes worth $825,000, chip leaders MyMaria44 and BadBeatKid_2 began playing ping pong with the dead chips in the middle by raising four consecutive hands without a flop coming out. PokerSavage1 managed to catch these two thieves by snagging a sizable 5.8 million chip pot pre-flop when he flashed Kings after both the bullies went into hiding after his push.

Blind versus blind battles are rarely pretty, and thugmoneymkr looking down at a pair of eights and facing a push from the small blind of PokerSavage1 might have had his gray monkey bouncing of the walls in glee. The cards were turned over and PokerSavage1 was not just trying to collect the blinds with his Jacks which made the monkey sad. Board running out to no avail for a possible turn of luck, and thugmoneymkr left us with $17,114.40 in eighth place.

Coolers are something left best for the lake with a fishing line holding live bait and some good stories about past fishing conquers. After a pre-flop raising war broke out between chip leaders BadBeatKid_2 and MyMaria44 and half of both of their stacks in the middle, one could predict the cooler on its way when the low flop made a 30 million chip pot that would give the winner almost half the chips in play. The Kings of BadBeatKid_2 left MyMaria44’s Queens hoping for a sister on the turn or river. Unfortunately, MyMaria44 found no love at the end of Brooks and Dunn’s song and ended his day with $25,671.60 in seventh place.

Etushekki quietly rode up the money ladder after arriving at the final table with less then ten big blinds to his stack. His run past sixth place would come to a halt as PokerSavage1 found AQo to etushekki’s AJo and with a queen on the flop making a boat by the river, etushekki can leave proud for adding $26.6K more to his payday in sixth place and $37,794.30 total, after starting on the lowest rung of the final table chip ladder.

A big race between racin77db’s JJ and GravityPilot’s big slick left the skydiver with fumes and launched racin77db into third place. With the blinds climbing to $200,000/$400,000 antes $40,000 GravityPilot pushed all-in for the next three hands. Meat Loaf would say two out of three ain’t bad, but in poker if you lose an all-in and it’s time to find something else to do. With A4o, Gravity Pilot found himself ahead of dynoalot’s KJo, but a turned pair of Jacks with no ace on the river our fifth place finisher, Gravity Pilot, floated into the virtual cashier’s cage for $52,056.30

Despite taking out the fifth place finisher, dynoalot found himself having to push preflop to stay ahead of the blinds. But, one of his small blind open pushes found BadBeatKid_2’s sizable stack and big slick suited in clubs waiting the big blind. Dynoalot was well behind AKs holding A3o with five cards running through without any wheels, flushes, or pairs to help Dynoalot’s pre-flop disadvantage and dynoalot received a DYNO-mite $66,318.30 in fourth place.

Chip chop talks broke out after a few non-descript three-handed hands with BadBeatKid_2 holding a nearly 4 to 1 chip lead on PokerSavage1 and racin77db. With the sizable lead and a few thousand dollars moving hands, they reached a deal sealing up six-figures for our final three tonight with $30,000 left to race for:

BadBeatKid_2: $145,000
PokerSavage1: $103,000
Racin77db: $100,370

With the deal in place the three players continued to play tough poker, seldom pushing all-in preflop until BadBeatKid_2 and PokerSavage1 tangled in the biggest pot of the tournament with PokerSavage1’s nines holding off BadBeatKid_2’s pocket sixes to take the chip lead and leaving racin77db down to ten big blinds on the outside looking in. The chop earned racin77db an extra $20,000 after racin77db’s push with ATo in the big blind woke up PokerSavage1’s concealed pocket Aces in the small blind after just completing. When the board came to no avail, we were down to two fighting for the $30,000 left aside for our Sunday Million champion.

One heady call with King high, and two pocket pairs later our champion was crowned. After a lengthy heads up match for the remaining $30,000; PokerSavage1 shoved his 29 million chips into the middle with pocket sevens after re-re-raising the aggressive BadBeatKid_2. But, this time the kid had the goods while flipping over pocket Tens on the way to shipping BadBeatKid_2 $175,000 a the title of PokerStars Sunday Million champion after the board produced a little scare of added straight outs on the turn for PokerSavage1, but ended with no change to the preflop advantage.

Congratulations to all of the final table participants and our champion BadBeatKid_2!

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Result:
(Based on finishing order and three-way deal)

1. BeatBeatKid_2 $175,000
2. PokerSavage1 $103,000
3. racin77db $100,370
4. dynoalot $66,318.30
5. GravityPilot $52,056.30
6. etushekki $37,794.30
7. MyMaria44 $25,671.60
8. thugmoneymkr $17,114.40
9. Oderec25 $11,124.36