Back on Sunday 5 March 2006 the first-ever Sunday Million tournament was played on PokerStars. A total of 5,893 players paid the $215 entry fee, creating a prizepool of $1,178,600, the lions share of which was won by “aaaaaaaa.” Those figures may seem impressive but they are actually quite pitiful when you compare them to those created by Sunday’s record-breaking Sunday Million tournament.
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its flagship tournament, PokerStars increased the guarantee from $1,500,000 to $5,000,000 and there was never any doubt that this figure would be reached. By the time registration had closed on Sunday 6 March 2011 a staggering 59,128 players had exchanged $215 for 10,000 chips, creating a prizepool of $11,825,600! This ridiculous sum of money would be shared out amongst the top 7,500 players with payouts ranging from $354.76 all the way up to $1,655,629.38!
Despite the huge field the money bubble was reached in less than five hours! Team PokerStars pr Richard Toth almost burst the bubble, finishing in 7,457th place but the dubious title of bubble boy went to xxLemmyxx who busted out in 7,501st place meaning each of the surviving players would walk away with at least $354.76 for their efforts. Two hours later and the field had been whittled down to just 1,000 players and by the time the 45th level had started, meaning blinds were 1,250,000/2,500,000/250,000a the final table had been reached.
No sooner had play resumed on the final table it was paused again as the players discussed making a chip count based deal as the gargantuan blinds had essentially turned the game into a form of bingo and with the massive prizes on offer the players were keen to lock up what for most would be a life-changing sum. Almost 40 minutes passed before an agreement was made mainly because one player, who shall remain nameless, wanted an extra $55,000 on top of what the chip counts would pay out despite the fact he was a losing player at the micro-stakes level! He was eventually convinced that it was in his best interest to accept the deal and the tournament was restarted.
Each of the players was now guaranteed more than $260,000 but they still had the chance to win the additional prize of a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4, worth anywhere between $202,000 and $235,000 depending on the specification of the model. One by one the players fell by the wayside until just two players, sheppyshape and Bdbeatslayer had chips in front of them, though the latter held a massive 4-to-1 chip lead over his opponent. After around thirty minutes of play sheppyshape moved all in preflop with a pair of red sevens and Bdbeatslayer snap-called with his pair of nines and when the board ran out 4d-Jh-6s-Tc-Qh Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel was announced as the winner and the new owner of one of the fastest production cars in history, not to mention the $671,093.81 in cash that he also received!
Final table payouts
1st place: Bdbeatslayer: $671,093.81 and a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4
2nd place: sheppyshape: $465,647.02
3rd place: wrzr123: $844,647.02
4th place: guccyka: $411,090.13
5th place: Syndrome1977: $799,842.09
6th place: zeurrr: $518,402.53
7th place: nhar818: $441,541.06
8th place: Jan10004: $311,023.33
9th place: Battmeister: $263,888.06
