The Sunday Million Season series was created to celebrate the 19th anniversary of PokerStars' most famous tournament , which first ran on April 6, 2006. The $320 buy-in, $70k guaranteed event, played about three weeks ago, attracted 241 entries, with 31 cashes. First and second place earned $6,116 before knockouts – and, of course, significantly more with them.
Final table players and starting stacks:
Roman "RomeOpro" Romanovsky (Ukraine) – 60.2 bb
Jans "Graftekkel" Arends (Austria) – 44.7 bb
Georgi "millennial" Sandev (Bulgaria) – 32.7 bb
Caio "sombra97" Meyrink (Brazil) – 22.8 bb
Thiryyyy (Austria) – 19.6 bb
VIgnasPokerV (Lithuania) – 16.9 bb
Dalton "daltonhb" Hobold (Brazil) – 17 bb
DB975 (Bulgaria) – 13 bb
1426395 (Mexico) – 11.4 bb
Seating arrangement:
In the very first hand of the final table, RomeOpro limps A5s and plays a limped pot against his most dangerous opponent, who got a free flop in the BB with . On the flop The presence of the ace of hearts seems promising for Arends. Maybe he will even manage to win this hand? RomeOpro reacts harshly: he bets 5 bb, an overbet of one and a half times pot! Arends immediately folds.
A rigged hand between two anonymous players. The Lithuanian VIgnasPokerV min-raises, seven-figure Mexican defends the big blind with nice, and both are happy with the flop:
Flop: VIgnasPokerV slowplays – check. On the turn a second flush draw appears, and the seven-figure wisely bets 3/4 pot with a straight. VIgnasPokerV calls to see more scary rivers. And the river does not disappoint – : and the flush comes in, and four cards to the straight are there too! Maybe at least on such a river, it is possible to fold this set?
There are 15 blinds in the pot. The Mexican player 1426395, with a stack of 11.6bb, thinks for a moment and goes all-in. His opponent makes a supersonic call.
Well, no, then no.
Since 1426395 has four hundredths of the blind more, he gets an additional knockout prize.
RomeOpro is in first position, he has J2o. Simple, intuitive solution – min-raise from the whole table and into the big blind of the main opponent.
The short stack DB975 goes all-in one position later.
And another simple, intuitive solution with J2o – of course, call! It's a progressive knockout.
Ace on the flop, king on the turn, the unnamed Bulgarian DB975 doubles up, but RomeOpro maintains the lead.
The next hand is between the same opponents. The Bulgarian opens with a min-raise and checks the flop after that.
On the turn, RomeOpro leads by 2.5 bb. Not much? Well, it's enough to knock out A-high. His opponent doesn't think about folding for more than a second.
Thiryyyy goes all-in and Graftekkel thinks for a long time. What do you think he should do? Call, push, fold?
Having spent part of his time bank, he goes all in. An ace falls on the river, Thiryyyy doubles up.
Roman continues to play exclusive chip-leader ranges. Sombra97 responds by going all-in from the small blind, but even his immodest bounty is not enough to induce his opponent to call.
Unexpected move from Thiryyyy – he has no confidence in Graftekkel' opening range! Does AJo have a call?
Graftekkel is sure that it is not, and very quickly throws the cards into the fold.
RomeOpro opens from UTG with metronome frequency, but still can't win even one hand. What should he do with this 3-bet from sombra97? Call, fold, 4-bet?
A conservative fold follows.
Daltonhb couldn't show his worth in this final table. Having sat down to a short stack, he goes "almost all-in" with his best hand in a long time, but the digital Mexican has too good a hand. All-in goes to AKo. Another knockout!
A fearless all-in with a playable hand against a relatively deep stack, and RomeOpro continues to multiply his capital without difficulty.
Limp, raise or push? Or even fold? How would you play?
RomeOpro chooses a mini-raise, and the victory remains his again.
From the cutoff, RomeOpro opens Q8o and gets calls from both blinds.
The flop is all check, on the turn the blinds check again, and Roman makes a small bet with his second pair, seemingly not preventing his opponents from drawing flush draws.
Both opponents quickly fold! I wonder what kind of hand scenario the player in the small blind was expecting?
RomeOpro tries not to miss any opportunity to raise. Thiryyyy defends the biggest small pair in the small blind.
RomeOpro has some hooks on the flop, which is probably why he doesn't scare his opponent with an overbet, but makes a sneaky bet of a quarter of the pot. Well, that's also quite enough – Thiryyyy doesn't like the texture, and he folds.
So, knockout experts, do you have a call?
RomeOpro folds.
On the next hand everyone folds to him and he takes the blinds and antes with a triple raise with 72o.
Thiryyyy moves all-in against the numbers, gets called and wins 43% – an ace comes on the turn.
The player from Mexico has one blind remaining.
Next up is 1426395, deciding not to push with J4o and wait for a better hand. RomeOpro opens K6o and gets all-in from the second shortest stack? Any call?
After some thought, he presses call, but no miracle happens. "Do you have other hands?" he fumes in the chat.
The numbers sit out until auto-all-in, and the whole table comes in to saw off the bounty.
Flop – – does not leave much room for maneuver. The only person who hits it hard (sombra97) bets half the pot and wins a well-deserved victory.
RomeOpro checks out the new chip leader.
Thiryyyy makes the call and catches quads – .
RomeoPro makes a quarter pot continuation bet. Obviously, he calls.
Turn (24.3bb, effective stack 24.8bb):
Roman continues the attack and bets a quarter of the pot again! Thiryyyy makes another courageous call.
On the river SPR drops to 0.5 and here the attack chokes – check and fold to all-in.
Immediately after this hand the blinds go up and Roman ends up with 16bb, the second stack from the bottom.
He reconnects the limps.
Thiryyyy, however, doesn't want a free postflop and goes all-in.
Quick call and a very timely double!
In the next hand, Thiryyyy doubles Arends in the blinds, Q7o<A5o, but, surprisingly, continues to lead.
In the cutoff, RomeOpro limps K5s and thus gets the opportunity to play postflop against the big blind. On the board RomeOpro makes a proven 5bb overbet c-bet and sombra97 folds A3o.
Crash! RomeOpro defends Q3o against a min-raise, then checks the flop and after a check back, bets the turn with top pair. The opponent calls and draws the less obvious of his outs.
After an ambitious draw on the river, there are less than ten blinds left.
Well, with a stack like this, it's time to play a long postflop out of position.
Sombra97 min-raises, Thiryyyy calls in the cutoff, and RomeOpro decides to call from the small blind with KTs. Three people see the flop, an ace flops, but no one likes the ace, everyone checks.
RomeOpro puts in one and a half blinds and gets two quick passes. Easy game! It's nice to play according to the map.
The two Bulgarians are in the blinds (DB975 and millennial) , and A7o is stronger than a pair of fours. It's not a knockout, but millennial is left with less than five blinds. A couple of hands later, he goes all-in, and the electronic dealer's was unforgiving:
Successful resteal with a fashionable hand against Graftekkel:
During the short break, it looks like the deck was loaded with a cooler.
Sombra97 doesn't even go for a raise, he's an experienced guy, but Thiryyyy with his pathetic fours makes a call for some reason, and Graftekkel responds with a squeeze of 7.5 bb. RomeOpro, who seems to aim to blow his opponent's mind with every move, reraises to 13 bb. Thiryyyy folds, Graftekkel goes all-in and loses – RomeOpro collects three aces.
The most dangerous opponent leaves the tournament!
Successful resteal against the second chip leader:
In the blinds, RomeOpro open-shoves into the last Bulgarian, but he calls, counting on the strength of two aces.
—In vain!
The Ukrainian player now has more than half of all the tournament chips.
An impatient open-push from Thiryyyy leads to heads-up:
RomeOpro calls and catches the jack just in case.
Heads-up: RomeOpro raises to 2.5bb with 53o, gets called.
On the flop he checks next.
Turn – , the opponent makes an overbet – 6 bb into a 5.26 bb pot. Roman is distrustful and he calls the overbet.
Sombra97 doesn't dare to bluff again on the river.
RomeOpro is on the button again. Raises to 2.5bb with . The opponent calls.
Flop (5.26bb):
A check is a check.
Turn (5.26bb):
Sombra97 bets 1.66bb and gets all-in in response!
75% turns into 100% on the river and Roman "RomeOpro" Romanovsky takes a well-deserved victory.
The total amount of bounties he earned was $8,223, which exceeded the main first prize.
