German online poker player DrUPSWING is a million dollars richer this week after besting a field of 46,586 players in the $215 buy-in NLHE Pokerstars eighth anniversary Sunday Million, which carried an $8 million guarantee.
The German was at the top of the list of almost 6,000 players who cashed in the event, which drew players from all over the world to the Pokerstars website, ensuring that the guaranteed prize pool was exceeded by over a million dollars at $9,317,200.
An international mix of players survived the massive field to form the final table, which included three Germans, a Dutchman, two from the United Kingdom, an Estonian, a Croatian and a Swiss national.
DrUPSWING faced fellow German hdjgkfkgsdl in the heads up, with DrUPSWING holding a more than 5 to 1 chip advantage and playing with confidence.
That all changed when hdjgkfkgsdl achieved two big double ups to even the chip counts, and at that point the duo paused to negotiate a chop that would leave an extra $160,000 on the table for the winner.
The chop agreed, the two Germans went at it again, with a seemingly unstoppable DrUPSWING living up to his nom-de-plume with a series of shrewd decisions that put him sufficiently back in the lead to eliminate his opponent in less than a half-hour.
The second placing prize of $877,090.19 will have been some consolation to hdjgkfkgsdl as his opponent walked away with the honours and the main prize of $1,038,540.31.
Other final table cashes were:
3. cynfarAA $554,373.40
4. MRJ1111 $374,458.26
5. Kukoc69 $283,522.39
6. temp0r2k $221,749.36
7. pinkfinger $172,647.71
8. Uninc257 $137,242.35
9. pads1161 $110,874.68