The Sunday Briefing: Jose Carlos Garcia Tops Talent-Filled Sunday Million Final Table
The cream truly rose to the top of this week's PokerStars Sunday Million. More than 9,000 players participated in the flagship Sunday event, and by the time a final table was reached it was filled with well-known poker pros.
Tournament regulars [B]Marcel "Mr. Sparco" Vonk[/B], [B]Tomasz "Sphinx87" Cybulski[/B], Michael "mossified84" Skomac, and Oliver "OJLimpsinn" Prior earned a seat at the final table, each eyeing a $250,000 top prize. But in the end it was Poland's Jose Carlos "TryToExploit" Garcia and Australia's Steve "Stev0L_" Leonard playing heads-up for the title.
Garcia (pictured) began heads-up play at a 5.5-to-1 disadvantage, but he doubled through Leonard twice to stay alive. A short while later, the two players negotiated a deal which locked up $219,698 for Leonard and $210,700 for Garcia, with $20,000 left to play for. From there, Garcia doubled through Leonard again and eventually put the Aussie away when his A?Q? held up against Leonard's Q?8?.
For a full recap of the Sunday Million, visit the PokerStars Blog.
Several other notables found success on the virtual felt this week. Among those pocketing big scores were Connor "negroblanco" Drinan, Karolis "g.karolis" Grybauskas, and Anthony "holdplz" Spinella. Drinan was the biggest earner on Full Tilt Poker, taking down the $250K Guaranteed for $55,120.
Here's a full look at the results from the Sunday Majors on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, partypoker and WSOP.com:
Sunday Million ($1M Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 9,088 | $1,817,000 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Carlos "TryToExploit" Garcia | $230,707* |
| 2 | Steve "Stev0L_" Leonard | $219,698* |
| 3 | Graftekkel | $135,320 |
| 4 | marc cedric | $90,880 |
| 5 | Marcel "Mr. Sparco" Vonk | $72,704 |
| 6 | Tomasz "Sphinx87" Cybulski | $54,528 |
| 7 | Faborizer | $36,352 |
| 8 | Michael "mossified84" Skomac | $19,993 |
| 9 | Oliver "OJLimpsinn" Prior | $12,723 |
*Denotes heads-up deal
Notable Finishes: Artem "Artem205" Metalidi (26th - $3,907)
Sunday Warm-Up ($500K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 3,401 | $680,200 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | KTURK | $96,978* |
| 2 | Kredka77 | $71,810* |
| 3 | geopaep | $73,702* |
| 4 | allucan3at | $39,111 |
| 5 | Dario-one | $28,908 |
| 6 | bennybunny18 | $22,106 |
| 7 | agnik80 | $15,304 |
| 8 | klinger63 | $8,502 |
| 9 | PeepOnTheSly | $5,441 |
*Denotes three-handed deal
Notable Finishes: Evan "SenorPokes" Jarvis (19th - $1,734)
$250K Guarantee
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 1,378 | $275,600 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connor "negroblanco" Drinan | $55,120 |
| 2 | Fabian Quoss | $36,654 |
| 3 | SubtleBadger | $26,182 |
| 4 | GIAMPP | $19,567 |
| 5 | Anthony "holdplz" Spinella | $14,606 |
| 6 | Syyyke_mann | $10,748 |
| 7 | YouOnlyLivOnce | $7,992 |
| 8 | marko2701 | $5,787 |
| 9 | Vote L 4T2L0 | $4,106 |
Notable Finishes: Christian "eisenhower1" Jeppsson (10th - $2,756), Mike "wywrot" Wyrot (21st - $1,102), Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky (26th - $1,102)
Sunday Brawl ($200K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $240+15 | 1,054 | $210,800 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grazza No1 | $42,160 |
| 2 | midnightGuest | $28,078 |
| 3 | lordjosejose | $20,026 |
| 4 | inf3rnal | $14,966 |
| 5 | dadowiec | $11,172 |
| 6 | Randy "rh300487" Hereman | $8,221 |
| 7 | Volody512345 | $6,113 |
| 8 | PerfectWeather | $4,426 |
| 9 | Gl4diat0r | $3,162 |
Notable Finishes: Brandon "norajean" Meyers (10th - $2,018), Carter "cswidler" Swidler (11th - $2,108), Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen (15th - $1,602), Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves (17th - $1,222), Anton "antesvante" Wigg (19th - $906), Taylor "ambiguosity" Paur (22nd - $906)
Sunday 500 ($300K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $500+30 | 931 | $465,500 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BriDge2PaiN | $83,790 |
| 2 | a$$ou | $59,723 |
| 3 | MatejM47 | $44,688 |
| 4 | JNandez87 | $33,516 |
| 5 | Chaz D 87 | $23,275 |
| 6 | easylimp | $18,620 |
| 7 | Paul "padjes" Berende | $13,965 |
| 8 | Gleb "Ti0373" Tremzin | $9,310 |
| 9 | fers223 | $5,586 |
Notable Finishes: Laurynas "LaurisL91" Levinskas (16th - $2,650), Thayer "THAY3R" Rasmussen (17th - $2,560), Joe "bigegypt" Elpayaa (23rd - $2,048), Pablo "pablotenisis" Fernandez (24th - $2,048)
Get in on the Sunday Majors action yourself by visiting PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and PartyPoker.
Sunday 2nd Chance ($175K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 1,657 | $331,400 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Takapillu7 | $55,509 |
| 2 | sanex29 | $40,596 |
| 3 | Psychol11111 | $30,654 |
| 4 | miho777 | $22,535 |
| 5 | IkillU2012 | $16,238 |
| 6 | texaszanardi | $12,924 |
| 7 | tooturney | $9,610 |
| 8 | Barakiel27 | $6,296 |
| 9 | samoooth | $3,413 |
Notable Finishes: Jonas "Telefonkiosk" Lindlof (10th - $2,783), Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja (16th - $1,524), Carter "cswidler" Swidler (20th - $1,325)
Sunday Supersonic ($125K Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $210.80+4.20 | 1,603 | $337,912 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Klebanov999 | $48,213* |
| 2 | Karolis "g.karolis" Grybauskas | $45,810* |
| 3 | a.S.e High | $43,305* |
| 4 | hdjgkfkgsdl | $24,498 |
| 5 | R&O--UL | $17,571 |
| 6 | o23oSyD | $14,192 |
| 7 | altiFC | $10,813 |
| 8 | huiiiiiiiii | $7,434 |
| 9 | lagartinha73 | $4,730 |
*Denotes three-handed deal
Notable Finishes: Jason "jadedjason" James (11th - $3,041), Chris "NigDawG" Brammer (13th - $2,365), Ryan "ryanghall" Hall (17th - $1,689)
$25,000 Weekly Sunday Guarantee (New Jersey)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 133 | $26,600 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CANTBREATHE | $7,315 |
| 2 | Squertz | $4,256 |
| 3 | jmzit2u | $2,420 |
| 4 | rungood27 | $1,888 |
| 5 | Moose4Life | $1,622 |
| 6 | olmuggins | $1,356 |
| 7 | rocnation | $1,037 |
| 8 | GrumpyChumpy | $665 |
| 9 | juice | $478 |
$15,000 Weekly Sunday Guarantee (Nevada)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 91 | $18,200 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BShriever5 | $5,187 |
| 2 | Gatsby | $3,003 |
| 3 | pokerkat | $1,820 |
| 4 | IBEENGrindN | $1,456 |
| 5 | COOKIEBEAR | $1,255 |
| 6 | nevada | $1,073 |
| 7 | TimTebow | $891 |
| 8 | Sir1_Sack_U | $618 |
| 9 | MSAHM4 | $491 |
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