The Sunday Briefing: Dan Smith Wins The Sunday Million

Mickey Doft Live Reporter

Oct 22, 2012 5 min read

It isn't every Sunday that the best live tournament players in the game win the biggest online tournaments. However, this Sunday that's what happened. Current GPI Player of the Year leader Dan Smith took down the Sunday Million for $219,504.25. Even more impressive was that Smith, without asking for a penny more that the first-place prize of $211,800, ended up with an extra $7,704.

Many other notables had impressive showings, too. Joining Smith in the winner's circle were Zsolt "Vzsolt800" Vasvenszki, Simon "ministerborg" Ravnsbaek, and Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich.

PokerStars Sunday Million ($1M Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$200+$15	7,060	$1,412,000

With five players remaining in the Sunday Million, Dan "Danny98765" Smith held just about half the chips in play when the players paused to discuss a deal. After a slight tweak to the numbers to satisfy "yurabond," a deal was agreed upon that guaranteed Smith just about $12,000 less than first-place money ($211,800) and still gave him a chance to top that with the remaining $20,000 that was left to play for.

Even with the sizable chip lead when play resumed, Smith took a back seat as the rest of the table took care of each other before he was heads-up with "yurabond." Starting the heads-up duel at a slight chip disadvantage, Smith scored a double up when his A?J? held against "yurabond's" K?Q?. From there, though, "yurabond" staged a comeback of his own to retake the chip lead.

The key hand took place at 400,000/800,000/80,000 with Smith on the button. He min-raised to 1,600,000 (beginning the hand with 33,569,990). From the big blind, "yurabond" popped it to 4,444,444 (beginning the hand with 37,030,010). Smith called and after the flop fell K?9?9?, "yurabond" fired out 4,400,000. Smith called to see the Q? turn and again "yurabond" bet, this time 8,800.000. Another call from Smith delivered the A? river. All in was "yurabond's" next move, leading to Smith calling all in for 15,845,546 with K?J?, besting "yurabond's" 10?10?. Smith closed it out a few hands later to notch the impressive victory.

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Dan "Danny98765" Smith	$219,504.25
*2	yurabond	$85,000
*3	Karger222	$102,993.24
*4	tulipaner	$115,841.91
*5	AMELPADRINO	$89,991.04
6	untouchable10	$43,772
7	sunseeker	$30,538
8	smokey3511	$16,944
9	Pratyush "Shane Gamble" Buddiga	$10.943

*denotes five-handed deal

To read more about this week's Sunday Million, head over to PokerStarsBlog.com.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up ($500K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$200+$15	3,449	$689,800

Among those who made deep runs in the Sunday Warm-Up were Alex "Kravchenko" Kravchenko (12th - $4,138.80), Soren "Kongsgaard" Kongsgaard (17th - $2,069.40), Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (26th - $1,758.99), and Morten "-MortenVM-" Mortensen (28th - $1,552.05). Zsolt "Vzsolt800" Vasvenszki earned the outright victory and the six-figure prize �� $108,299.68.

Place	Player	Prize
1	Zsolt "Vzsolt800" Vasvenszki	$108,299.68
2	!Mp!yavv	$80,706.60
3	elmerixx	$56,908.50
4	thopfl	$39,663.50
5	u.RuGwaI	$29,316.50
6	shodek	$22,418.50
7	nikov	$15,520.50
8	LexaLucky666	$8,622.50
9	AzEsmTzar	$5,518.40

To read about this week's Sunday Warm-Up, head over to PokerStarsBlog.com.

PokerStars Sunday 500 ($300K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$500+$30	838	$419,000

Among the slew of notables who went deep in the Sunday 500 were Nico "PKaiser" Fierro (10th - $4,190), Engelberth "engelberth.v" Varela (13th - $3,352), Sebastian "p0cket00" Sikorski (14th - $3,352), Christian "el grillo" De Leon (17th - $2,514), Jonathan "MONSTER_DONG" Karamalikis (19th - $1,885.50), and Angel Guillen (21st - $1,885.50). "Sanpri" topped the talented final table for $74,000.

Place	Player	Prize
*1	sanpri	$74,000
*2	trickyone14	$55,890
3	Jason "jdtjpoker" Wheeler	$40,643
4	Brandvold	$30,377.50
5	zugzwang16	$21,117.60
6	Brian "brianm15" England	$16,760
7	Julian "soydelmillo" Menendez	$12,570
8	Matias "Festivuss" Gabrenja	$8,380
9	Skrigepas	$5,028

*denotes heads-up deal

PokerStars $109 Sunday Rebuy ($225K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$100+$9	1,031	$336,100

Notables who made a good run of it in the $109 Sunday Rebuy were Richard "nutsinho" Lyndaker (13th - $2,856.85), Lars "Dsavo" Bonding (14th - $2,856.85), and Dylan "WhiteRabbito" Honeyman (18th - $2,184.65). Taking it down outright was Simon "ministerborg" Ravnsbaek for $62,178.50.

Place	Player	Prize
1	Simon "ministerborg" Ravnsbaek	$62,178.50
2	acesover333	$45,037.40
3	Sghango	$33,610
4	ebej24/7	$25,207.50
5	NoClue222	$17,645.25
6	moukari6	$14,284.25
7	PDonfire	$10,923.25
8	sonmonedas	$7,562.25
9	losttoriver	$4,705.40

PokerStars Bigger $109 ($160K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$100+$9	3,078	$307,800

Steve "mcnallyville" McNally (17th - $1,000.35) and Michael "PapaGreggio" Hawkins (20th - $846.45) were the notables who posted nice showings in the Bigger $109. Following a heads-up deal, "matbeich" came away with the victory for $41,000.

Place	Player	Prize
*1	matbeich	$41,000
*2	w4ldo	$43,645.33
3	GENERRRRRAL	$25,855.20
4	fishbizzzone	$17,698.50
5	Maureli	$13,389.30
6	czlol	$10,311.30
7	N'Doye #14	$7,233.30
8	strflushtome	$4,161.45
9	progarbage	$2,616.30

*denotes heads-up deal

PokerStars Bigger $162 ($150K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$150+$12	1,713	$256,950

Notable finishes in the Bigger $162 include Stefan "I'am_Sound" Huber (11th - $2,029.90), Shyam "G's zee" Srinivasan (12th - $2,029.90), Russell "rdcrsn" Carson (13th - $1,593.09), Vojtech "Vojta_R" Ruzicka (17th - $1,156.27), and Stefan "random_chu" Chew (18th - $1,156.27). Following a heads-up deal, Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich took it down for just less than $34,987.

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich	$34,987.26
*2	IceStream	$38,000
3	Jason "TeamWispy" Helder	$23,125.50
4	hypnotic242	$17,215.65
5	log1c7	$12,205.12
6	HeeltydSpeel	$9,635.62
7	Magardan	$7,066.12
8	jokocash	$4,496.62
9	philipoo	$2,569.50

*denotes heads-up deal

PokerStars Sunday 2nd Chance ($175K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$200+$15	1,394	$278,800

Seth "SFisch4" Fischer (12th - $2,453.44) and Maria "Femmeonfelt" Ho (13th - $1,895.84) were among those who came up just short of the final table in the Sunday 2nd Chance. In the end, though, it was "grapedrink07" besting a final tale that included Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero and Alex "Schildy1984" Debus.

Place	Player	Prize
1	grapedrink07	$47,396
2	Theodoros "teo96" Aidonopoulos	$34,850
3	zwuerbs	$26,458.12
4	Balazs "birs320" Botond	$18,859.40
5	Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero	$13,800.60
6	TheMakrill7	$11,012.60
7	Pollopopeye	$8,224.60
8	THEDUTCH4141	$5,436.60
9	Alex "Schildy1984" Debus	$3,011.04

PokerStars Sunday Storm ($300K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$10+$1	36,004	$360,040

The Sunday Storm attracted a field of 36,004, creating a prize pool of $360,400. For the second time in three weeks, no deal took place at the final final table. This week, "REALfillgood" topped the field outright for $31,305.

Place	Player	Prize
1	REALfillgood	$31,305.85
2	dadowiec	$22,477.29
3	Huncsaba	$15,121.68
4	JonnyDS	$11,521.28
5	SHIP_IT_SOS	$7,920.88
6	panos753	$4,860.54
7	muzzi87	$3,330.37
8	scavengerrr	$2,340.26
9	links111	$1,638.18

PokerStars Sunday Kickoff ($100K Guaranteed)

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$100+$9	1,592	$152,900

A heads-up chop got things started this weekend in the Sunday Kickoff. "SerkanBJK" and "rofos1983" each collected $23,610 for their efforts.

Place	Player	Prize
*1	rofos1983	$23,610.38
*2	SerkanBJK	$23,610.38
3	Steve "BetrThanPhil" Tripp	$14,328
4	acozubi	$10,666.40
5	icwww	$7,562
6	plasticard	$5,970
7	Dan&Alisa	$4,378
8	DarWinFil	$2,786
9	Torhonen	$1,592