Sunday Storm smashes guarantee

A few weeks back, we prophesied that PokerStars would struggle to meet it’s $1m guarantee in a special edition of its $11 Sunday Storm, but we were wrong. On December 11, a staggering 116,400 signed up for the anniversary event, taking the prizepool to $1.16m and wiping the smirk of those who thought there would be a juicy overlay.

But while the huge field may be another feather in PokerStars’ cap, for those chasing the bloated first prize it was a grueling journey. After 10 hours, the six-figure starting field had been whittled down to a final nine, as blinds reached the rarely seen 900,000/1,800,000 level.

Understandably, a six-way chop was agreed after the shorter stacks had hit the rail, leaving $20,000 on the line for the eventual winner. That would be chrjs2k, who banked a tidy $81,604 for his efforts after seeing of Kuzjaya when the runner-up’s A-6 failed to outdraw chrjs2k’s mighty deuces.

Here’s how the final table finished, and don’t forget this Sunday’s $10m guaranteed Sunday Million, which caps off PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebrations in style.

1. chrjs2k $81,604.01
2. Kuzjayo $63,462.39
3. Puigmal $53,113.39
4. Speedyy1986 $87,437.94
5. emaestrodobi $55,127.43
6. Eldasensei $68,458.64
7. sebstop $20,952
8. Kutscher83 $15,783.84
9. Timjonsen $10,556.4