The field may have been smaller than usual due to the old year exiting
and the new one arriving, but the online poker action was still brisk
and the winnings were spectacular, showing once again that it takes
more than political shenanigans to keep a good game down.
Mansion boosted their tournament cash as did Party Poker and Poker
Stars, with the latter launching a special $1 000 buy-in competition
that attracted a few big names using online *handles* and gave the
winner a larger than usual pay check.
Poker Stars' weekly Sunday Million attracted a field of 1 083, creditable
but well below its normal big numbers due probably to the high buy-in.
The prize pool of $1 083 000 resulted in just over 150 players making
the cash bubble, and the eventual winner, dim-tix - pulled down a
cool $232 845 after some solid poker action. 2nd placed crazyButcher
won $128 119 and even the first man out on the final table took home
$12 500.
Full Tilt offered a $250 000 Guarantee that attracted 1 432 players,
generating a prize pool to $286 400, from which 216 finalists benefited.
At the death it was Zufunft979 and robby966794 who faced off in the
heads up, with Zufunft taking the winner's purse of $53 843 and some
change, and the runner up banking $33 365.
Mansion generously added $20 000 to its Sunday prizepool as an element
in its added-value promo month. The buy-in of $200 + 15 pulled in
143 players, competing for a prize pool of almost $50 000. The heads
up between olivert and Sunyata resulted in the former player walking
off with $14 580 in winnings.
Ultimate Bet's $200 + 15 buy-in produced a prizepool of $87 400 with
437 players in the field, of whom 50 ended up in the money. Appropriately
nicknamed TwoFistedLou confronted RProps in the heads up, playing
with skill and aggression to dominate and take home the winning check
of $21 850.
Party Poker's $200 000 Guaranteed tournament pulled in 653 players,
of which just on a hundred cashed out. With a total prize pool of
almost $270 000 there was plenty of action culminating in the final
clash of lausfloh and SamDiam0nd, fighting for the significant $47
000 winner's check. In the end it was lausfloh who prevailed in a
close-run contest.
More evidence of online poker's robust state of health was apparent
across the Internet this week as is showcased by the following representative
selection of offers found in a quick surf across the major portals:
Poker Stars was offering 150 percent new player bonuses, exclusive
deposit bonuses and $2 500 monthly freerolls, whilst Mansion was touting
a new 100 percent maxed at $1 000 and of course their $100K daily
tournaments.
Full Tilt Poker players could pick up matchplay bonuses maxed at $600,
and Absolute Poker had a similar offer maxed at $750. Pacific Poker
was a little less generous with a 60 percent sign-up bonus offering
up to a maximum of $100, whilst Ultimate Bet took the middle path
with a matchplay capped at $650 for their Ultimate Blackjack Tour.
Lower down the scale, TonyG Poker players could get a freebie $75
in addition to a 200 percent first deposit bonus, although the capping
wasn't clear in the ads. Surprisingly, Party Poker was not really
competitive with its 20 percent first deposit bonus capped at $100.