Sunday Million

The pokerstars Sunday Million is an iconic tournament on the weekly internet calendar of events. As the names suggests, the prize pool is guaranteed to meet or exeed $1Million. Sadly it does not guarantee that the winner takes down a $1Million prize, but it does tend to be north of $200k. The tournament is famous for very large fields and long running times

I think the best value way to participate is to satellite in (good value) but last night I decided to buy in directly and give it a spin. $215 entry (some weeks it is more) didn't feel too bad after stumping up £1,060 at the GUKPT

7,349 entries. 1,080 places to pay. I can't remember what my previous best performance is, but this time I got off to a relatively good start early on I picked up KK and made a standard raise pre-flop, which was called.

The flop was KKT !! I checked to allow the other player to catch up, and I made a small bet when the turn put a flush draw on board (hoping he has the draw, or puts me on a draw). The river put a straight on board, and my opponent bet $1,000 which I raised to $3,000 (wondering how much he would call).

He actually did have the straight and called, so perhaps he can call more, although it was the low end. Mind you, since he called a pref-flop raise o.o.p. with J8, maybe he would call an all-in ! Who knows.

I wasn't playing many hands. I had JJ hold up against AQ-suited (a Queen flopped but I made a straight). I lost with KQ vs AK but then had my AK overtake KK (flush). I ran QT (top pair) into AA (which didn't raise preflop) but then doubled up with 99 vs A5 (???).

I was eventually out in 1,771st after about 3 hours. I am not sure how much longer it takes to get into the low end of the money. Top 25% of the field doesn't seem too bad but no return of course.

My exit hand was KT-suited. A short stack in mid-position min-raised. I thought his range can easily include under-pairs and so I called on the button. The big-stack on the SB now raised which I felt could be a move, so I re-raised all in figuring that he needs a big hand to call 1/3 of his stack.

He had QQ ....