PokerStars Tournament Payout of $39M a New Online Record

PokerStars Tournament Payout of $39M a New Online RecordOn May 21st, PokerStars paid out a total of $39 million in prize money, representing a new record high in the history of online poker. At the start of the day, the site had committed to forking out more than $29.5 million in tournament payouts, with the whopping guarantee applying to more than 1,200 MTTs, including a number of Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) events.
Despite the seemingly high figure, however, the final payout still smashed the guaranteed prize pool by 40 percent, with the $10,300 SCOOP Main Event helping to boost the numbers with its 693 buy-ins resulting in a prize pool worth $6.93 million.
The tournament featured a guarantee of $5 million, providing a strong incentive for many of the game’s top players to enter the high stakes tournament, including the likes of Andre Akkari, Bertrand Grospellier, Phil Galfond, Harrison Gimbel, and Charlie Carrel. Needless to say, the final table featured a talent packed line-up, with Ola Amundsgard, Connor Drinan, Samuel Vousden, and Emil Patel all making the cut. UK pro Charlie Carrel, too, was there, albeit as the low stack, and suffering from internet connectivity issues while competing from a Starbucks in Mexico.
Carrel was soon able to put himself back in contention, though, and with just five players remaining was propelled into the chip lead after doubling up with pocket kings against Amundsgard’s A-Q, before finishing him off two hands later with A-9 versus J-10. Harrison Gimbel subsequently did likewise to Garrin4e (4th), and th’Kick (3rd) to usher in heads-up against Carrel for the title.
After agreeing to a deal in which Gimbel received $1,122,873 to Carrel’s $1,100,899, with $100,000 left over for the ultimate champion, Carrel subsequently ground his opponent down to just 10bb before finishing him off to claim his biggest online score to date.
Final Table Resullts:
1: Charlie “Epiphany77” Carrel $1,200,899
2: Harrison “gibler321” Gimbel $1,122,873
3: th’Kick $690,348
4: Garrin4e $492,542
5: Ola “Odd_Oddsen” Amundsgard $351,414
6: Connor “blanconegro” Drinan $250,723
7: C. Darwin2 $178,883
8: Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden $127,628
9: Emil “maroonlime” Patel $91,058

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