Friday, 29th March 2024 10:35
Home / Poker / MicroMillions 2020: Prize pools approach $2.5 million in brilliant bargain series

Another 30 tournaments have concluded since we last checked in on MicroMillions, with series prize pools now closing in on $2.5 million. Here’s the latest update from the brilliant, and staggeringly popular, low-stakes series.


MICROMILLIONS NEWS BULLETIN:

Canadians will not be moved: There were some amazing scenes towards the final stages of MicroMillions #52, which was a $5.50 buy-in NLHE Turbo. Suddenly all of the Canadian players staged a sit in and refused to move until they were placed at the final table. Surely that can be the only explanation for the fact that each of the top four places in the tournament went to Canadians, who also took seventh and eighth, meaning six of the final eight were from up there, North America. The winner was “DrLedZepplin”, who beat a field of 2,996, including all of those other Canadians, to win $2,120.66. “Pay4drawz” was second, taking $1,497.82.


MORE ABOUT MICRO MILLIONS:
ANNOUNCEMENT | SCHEDULE AND RESULTS


Come in Kyrgyzstan! The most notable change since we last checked in on MicroMillions is the sudden influx of winners from outside the established powerhouses (Brazil, Russia, etc.). On Monday night, we saw our first winner from Vietnam, when “ducnh123987” took down the $3.30 limit hold’em event for $752.14. But if Vietnam isn’t far enough off poker’s beaten track, then the victory of “Nurleone” in Event #54, an 8-Max PKO event, should sort that out. Nurleone was one of six players in the 5,400-strong field from Kyrgyzstan. Although it’s very difficult to confirm, it seems likely that Nurleone became the first player from the central Asian country to win during one of PokerStars’ flagship series. With a population of 6.5 million people just discovering poker, it may not be the last.

Re-buys are the new jam: In comparison with PokerStars’ other major series, MicroMillions does not offer too many tournaments with re-entries. At this level, players tend to prefer freezeouts. However, the schedule also makes happy concession to players who like flinging chips around with a decent number of rebuy events — significantly different from re-entry tournaments in that there’s never any limit on the number of times one can rebuy. It can be wild. In Event #68 on Wednesday night, for instance, there were 11,046 entries, but a further 35,424 rebuys! (There were also 3,871 add-ons.) That’s what allowed the organisers to place a $50K guarantee on a tournament costing $1.10 to enter. It was a similar story in Event #39, another $1.10 hold’em event, played to the “Splash” structure, with a long rebuy period. In this one, there were 12,751 entries and a further 34,250 rebuys, with 4,166 add-ons. The winners of these two events — Hungary’s “kisberki” and Lithuania’s “Bumbols” — took $5,064.51 and $5,700.88, respectively, both after deals were arranged in the late stages.

On the subject of deals…: The ROI for players making the deep stages in MicroMillions is off the charts, with an outright victory usually meaning tens or hundreds of thousands of percent increase on your buy-in. With these enormous fields, it’s only to be expected. It also follows that it’s smart to think about reducing some of the variance in the late stages and we’ve seen far more deals between players in this tournament series than we would normally expect. Nineteen tournaments have ended in chops so far, usually between the last two players. However, Germany’s “Zorkas” won Event #59 after the last five players decided to split the prize money, guaranteeing themselves $1,726 at least, and then playing for the bounties.


STAT TRACKER

More than half a million entries; nearly $2.5 million in prize pools. MicroMillions VI continues to dazzle:

Tournaments completed: 73
Entries: 585,164 (inc. 107,837 re-entries)
Prize pools: $2,468,673.51
First place prizes: $243,085.49 (inc. bounties)

Click for full schedule and results.


COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

There’s no surprise to see Russia and Brazil still going head-to-head at the top of the leader board, but it’s good to see so many other countries now appearing, including Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Vietnam and the MicroMillions strugglers: the United Kingdom.

14 titles – Russia
12 – Brazil
9 – Canada
6 – Greece
3 – Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, Ukraine
2 – Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania
1 – Argentina, Belarus, Denmark, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, UK, Vietnam.


BIGGEST AND BEST

Here’s a look at the records so far in this MicroMillions series:

Biggest prize pools so far

Event #38 $5.50 NLHE, Half Price Sunday Storm
Entries: 47,989 (inc. 18,147 re-entries)
Won by: EqualizeSTAR (Brazil) – $22,006.25

Event #14 $11 NLHE, PKO, Daily Highlight
Entries: 21,587 (inc. 6,867 re-entries)
Won by: VaiPahOnde (Brazil) – $13,913.35 (inc. $5,527.43 in bounties)

Event #4 $11 NLHE, Opener Event
Entries: 18,729 (inc. 5,858 re-entries)
Won by: zinc95 (Canada) – $19,129.53

Biggest fields so far

Event #38 $5.50 NLHE, Half Price Sunday Storm
Entries: 47,989 (inc. 18,147 re-entries)
Won by: EqualizeSTAR (Brazil) – $22,006.25

Event #37 $3.30 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO, Daily Highlight
Entries: 34,061 (inc. 11,821 re-entries)
Won by: Nazg̼̼l (Czech Republic) Р$6,015.64 (inc. $1,854.43 in bounties)

Event #57 $1.10 NLHE, 8-Max, PKO
Entries: 23,758 (inc. 8,809 re-entries)
Won by: Elektro71 (Russia) – $1,370.12 (inc. $352.23 in bounties)

Biggest winners’ ROI

Bumbols (Lithuania)
Turned $1.10 buy-in into $5,700.88 in Event #39 $1.10 NLHE, 8-Max, Splash

andreas8866 (Brazil)
Turned $1.10 buy-in into $5,347.17 in Event #3 $1.10+R NLHE

kisberki (Hungary)
Turned $1.10 buy-in into $5,064.51 in Event #68 $1.10+R NLHE, 8-Max, Daily Highlight – Splash

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