With the Amazon room full to capacity with poker players from all over the world this Sunday, it shouldn't be all that surprising that the Sunday Million was overlaid once again this weekend. What was surprising was that for the second week in a row the Million was able to draw exactly 7,309 players, all of which put up the $215 entry fee with hopes of taking down a large chunk of the $1,500,000 prize pool. Among the hopefuls was a venerable cavalcade of PokerStars Team Pros, led by Online Team Pro Diego "vgreen22" Brunelli, who finished in an impressive 64th place ($2,145). Other PokerStars Pros who managed to cash Sunday included Lee "LeeNelsonP*" Nelson (856th for $345), Grzegorz "DaWarsaw" Mikielewicz (303rd for $615), Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (216th for $720) and Emad Tahtouh (94th for $1,470)

Kroon Conked

The bubble burst in a fairly predictable way for the Sunday Million. Dutch player Kroonkurk was among the shortest stacks from 15 down to the final table bubble. Unable to gain any real traction late in the tournament, Kroonkurk found himself in a raising war with redsfan9 preflop, eventually leading to all of Kroonkurk's chips going into the middle. Kroonkurk showed [Ks] [2s], which was behind redsfan9's [10d] [10h]. No spades on the flop, [3h] [9d] [2d], meant Kroonkurk was looking for king on either the turn or river in order to stave off elimination. However, a turn [9s] and river [Ad] meant there would be no three-outer for Kroonkurk, who bowed out in tenth place with a nice consolation prize of $8,250.


Seat 1: pollyhan (2675014 in chips)
Seat 2: redsfan9 (16991935 in chips)
Seat 3: 4ikunkoff (6234015 in chips)
Seat 4: a$$ou (17214007 in chips)
Seat 5: gorzoni (5201992 in chips)
Seat 6: DooM_DaYs (9602681 in chips)
Seat 7: kiaser (4491799 in chips)
Seat 8: tytkto (4359577 in chips)
Seat 9: 7starr (6318980 in chips)

The remaining nine players reassembled at Table 605 to battle it out for the final part of the prize pool. a$$ou entered the final table with a roughly 200k lead over the second place redsfan9, who carried 16.99 million chips into the last table. Blinds were 200k/400k with a 40k ante when play was restarted.

Ladies are No Good

The ninth hand of final table play provided the first major action of the tournament's final stage. redsfan9 raised to 800k under-the-gun. Action folded over to gorzoni in middle position, who shoved his last 5.2 million into the pot. redsfan9 snap called after action folded around back to him, producing a premium hand, [Jd] [Jc]. However, redsfan9 was actually far behind, as gorzoni showed down two red queens. The flop was safe for gorzoni, coming down [8d] [Kc] [8c]. The [7c] on the turn gave redsfan9's hand new life with a jack-high flush draw, however. And sure enough, the [6c] fell on the river, flushing gorzoni's ladies and sending him home in ninth place ($11,625).

Polly Want a Safe River?

redsfan9's river elimination of gorzoni vaulted him into the chip lead, with over 24 million in chips. On the opposite side of the spectrum, pollyhan had barely managed to make the final nine and had been floating at around 3 big blinds since arriving at the last table. Finally, pollyhan found his hand, five hands after gorzoni's exit, moving all-in in early position for a little over 1 million. pollyhan found one caller, kiaser, who called from the big blind. kiaser had a pair, deuces, but it was in terrible shape against pollyhan's much bigger [Kc] [Ks]. Looking to double up to a playable stack, pollyhan faded a deuce on the flop, [Js] [7h] [4d], and the turn, [6h], but the river struck again, producing the [2s]. kiaser's river trips eliminated pollyhan in eighth place, earning the Norwegian player $18,000 for his efforts.

Argentina 1 - Russia nil

Not long after pollyhan's departure in eighth--nine hands to be exact--another short stack found his determining hand. Russian player 4ikunkoff open shoved all-in with his last 3,474,015, only to have Argentinian player DooM_DaYs push all-in over the top in the cutoff seat. The button and blinds folded, and DooM_DaYs revealed the bad news to 4ikunkoff, [Ah] [Kh]. 4ikunkoff was in serious trouble, holding a dominated [Ac] [7s] and needed to find a seven somewhere on the board in order to survive. The flop was no help, [10s] [2h] [Jc], but another jack on the turn gave 4ikunkoff some splitting outs with a river ten or deuce. Instead a river [As] sent 4ikunkoff packing in seventh ($32,250).

A Seven Star Exit

33 hands more would come and go before another player would fall. 7starr fought the good fight all day, being one of the shorter stacks from 15 players onward. 7starr's run would eventually come to an end, however, at the hands kaiser when, after open shoving all-in from early position with pocket threes, 7starr was unable to hold against kaiser's late position call with [Ad] [Qs]. An ace on the flop spelled the end for 7starr, who was unable to catch up on the turn or river. The nearly 15 million chip pot pushed kaiser's stack into a second place, with a comfortable 17.4 million, while simultaneously ending 7starr's day in sixth place ($46,500).

Brazil's (Canada's) Swan Song

As soon as the final table was formed, moderator, Brazilian PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari, wrote "go Brazil" in the chat box, in reference to the two players who were using the new World Cup avatars, representing Brazil.


gorzoni early exit meant the honor of the Brazillian avatar--a$$ou is actually from Canada, but as one player pointed out on the final table bubble, Canada isn't in the World Cup--and Andre's hopes rested with the Montreal based a$$ou. At the beginning of final table play a$$ou looked like a pretty solid horse to back, entering with the chip lead. However, some rough pots early cut a$$ou's once proud stack in half and left him floundering near the bottom of the chip count. kiaser finally put a end the Brazilian presence at the table when he woke up with [Ad] [Ah] on the button, after a$$ou had already moved all-in in early position. a$$ou was, obviously, way behind, showing down [4d] [4h]. The flop came down [Qh] [Jh] [3h], giving both players a heart flush draw, but kiaser the nut draw. The turn and river came [Ks] [5c], eliminating Brazil, Canada and, much more importantly, a$$ou in fifth place ($61,500). It was also kiaser's third knockout of the final table, propelling him past redsfan9 into the chip lead, with about 27 million in chips.

Truly Doom Days

kiaser was able to hold onto his new found chip lead for exactly one hand as DooM_DaYs and redsfan9 got tangled up in a big pot immediately following a$$ou's exit. With 300k/600k and a 60k ante, redsfan9 opened in the small blind for 1,345,444. DooM_DaYs responded by shoving his last 11 million into the pot and redsfan9 called. redsfan9 was ahead with [As] [Jh] against DooM_DaYs's [Qs] [2s] and increased his lead after a [10c] [Qd] [Ah]. A jack came on the turn, limiting DooM_DaYs's options to a one of the two remaining queens for the win or a king to split. However, instead the [5h] fell, sealing DooM_DaY's fourth place finish ($79,500) and pushing redsfan9's stack to over 36 million.

The Haves and Have Not

Entering three handed play, there was quite the discrepancy in stack sizes, between the "bigs"--redsfan9 with about 61 big blinds and kiaser with about 45 big blinds--and the not-so-big--tytkto who had about 15 big blinds. tytkto had quietly maneuvered his stack around the table to a top three finish thus far, but with blinds still at 300k/600k with a 60k ante tytkto was going to have to make a move shortly if he was going to continue to move up the later.

Here were how they stacked up as the final table entered three-handed play:

Seat 2: redsfan9 (36583465 in chips)
Seat 7: kiaser (27404571 in chips)
Seat 8: tytkto (9101964 in chips) 

Ty, Goodbye

Ten hands after DooM_DaYs's elimination tytkto picked his spot. redsfan9 opened on the button for 1.2 million. kiaser got out of the way and tytkto decided to make his stand, going all-in for 10,711,096 straight. redsfan09 made the call and showed [Ac] [10c] against tytkto's [Qd] [9d]. A flop of  [6d] [2d] [7s] gave tytkto a queen high flush draw. However, the turn and river ran dry for tytkto, coming [3s] [2s], giving redsfan9 the pot with just an ace high. tytkto exited in third, adding a nice $120,000 to his bankroll in the process.  

Let's Make a Deal

kaiser and redsfan9 got heads-up play started with some cautious deal discussions. Eventually Andre Akkari was asked to pause the tournament to give way to the great poker tradition of deal bargaining. Entering the deal break redsfan9 held a comfortable 47,781,227 to 25,308,773 chip lead over kiaser. A straight chip-chop gave $184,804.12 to redsfan9 and kiaser $175,750.88, leaving $30,000 on the table for the eventual winner. redsfan9 initially said he wanted more, but after a few minutes of debate a strict chip-chop was finally agreed upon.

redsfan9: $184,804.12
kiaser: $175,750.88

Ebb and Flow and Champion

Over the course of 29 hands after the deal was made kiaser pressured redsfan9 into nearly surrendering the chip lead he had held for most of the final table. However, every time kiaser got close to overtaking redsfan9, redsfan9 would take some back. Eventually, entering the 38th hand of heads-up play, things had swung back to almost where they started in the match with, redsfan9 holding 47 million chips and kiaser wielding 25 million. With the blinds at 400k/800k and a 80k ante, redsfan9 opened on the button for 1.6 million. kiaser then re-popped the bet to almost 3.5 million and, after calling time, redsfan9 made the call. The flop came down [9s] [7h] [9d]. kiaser led for 3,255,555 and redsfan9 flat called. The [Qh] came on the turn and kiaser led out again, this time for nearly 9 million, leaving him with just over 10 million behind. redsfan9 decided it was now time to pounce and moved all-in. kiaser quickly called and revealed [Ac] [Qc]. kiaser was way ahead of redsfan9, who showed down [Kc] [Qd] for a weaker pair of queens. Only a king could win the pot for redsfan9, with a nine splitting.Then, ding, the [Ks] fell on the river giving redsfan9 the pot, the extra $30k and the title.

$1,500,000 Guarantee Sunday Million Results (06-13-10)
(* denotes part of two-way deal)

1. redsfan9 (Springfield) *$214,804.12
2. kiaser (Denver) *$175,750.88
3. tytkto (Kiev) $120,000
4. DooM_DaYs (Mar del Plata) $79,500.00
5. a$$ou (Montreal) $61,500.00
6. 7starr (KI) $46,500.00
7. 4ikunkoff (Russia) $32,250.00
8. pollyhan (Bodo) $18,000.00
9. gorzoni (Sao Paulo) $11,625.00     

There are some unsung heroes at poker tournaments. They require stamina, strength, patience, skill and have to be good listeners. I'm not talking about the reporters (!), but rather the massage girls and odd boy (not odd as in, er, odd, but odd as in occasional). These people provide a soothing service for poker players needing to relax or get some light ache relief from being hunched over the felt all day and night.

I'm sure the money is not great, although occasionally they work for a 'big tipper', but even so the effort these dedicated professionals put in is never in question. I know of one massage lady on the EPT circuit who has been reduced to tears because her hands hurt so much after hours of working constantly on knotted muscles. But no matter how long they've been rubbing pimply backs and shoulders, they always have a smile and never grumble. Hats off to them.

Most players never bother to pay for an at-seat massage; others seem to spend most of their days with their chair turned back-to-front and head buried in a cushion as they plot their way to world poker domination. Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie is one, and it was during a massage session earlier this year, at the PCA, that one of my favorite pics of him emerged ...

... and that was Duthie on a good hair day!

Another serial massage man is Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. We've seen countless pictures of him so far this WSOP with a massage girl hard at work. Yesterday, during day two of the $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Six-Handed, he was at it again. The blonde massage girl was sitting cross-legged on the floor behind him, working relentlessly on his lower back. These people must have the best personal knowledge of male under garments in the world. They work within inches of exposed, and hopefully clean Calvin Klein. Other top underwear is also available.

Daniel Negreanu

Yesterday, the relaxing massage paid off substantially for the Canadian, although he will be a little peeved he did not make it to the real big money. After carving through most of the 1,245-strong field, he bust in 16th place, the last faller of the night, for $23,537 - his second cash of this year's Series. With first place dishing out a hefty $630,031, Negreanu will probably see his cash as money lost rather then gained.

This event was a decent one for Team PokerStars Pro. As well as Negreanu, there were cashes for Florian Langmann ($6,156), Maria Mayrinck ($5,669), Johannes Steindl ($5,211), and an impressive 23rd-place finish from Team PokerStars Online player Dustin Schmidt for $18,612. Steve Cowley leads the field heading in to day three of this one.

Florian Langmann

Maria Mayrinck

Moving around the Rio yesterday there were mixed fortunes for Team Pro. Holland's Marcel Luske, resplendent in his usual smart suit, was looking to push deep in day two of the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, but was unable to make the cash.

Marcel Luske

He had been struggling and was then crippled in a hand against Mark Janeczek:

Luske: [8d][7s] X/[8c][4h][jc][3c]
Janeczek: [as][2d][3h]/[3s][6d][5c][5h]

Luske called bets from Janeczek on sixth and seventh streets but was unable to beat Janeczek's two pair or his six low. The Dutchman was flying out of the door soon after.

The big starting tournament of the day was the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship. 171 players dug deep to enter this one, including a large group of Team PokerStars Pros. Barry Greenstein, Lex Veldhuis, Noah Boeken, Anh Van Nguyen, Greg DeBora, Vanessa Rousso, Alex Kravchenko, Chad Brown, Jason Mercier, Andre Akkari, Pat Pezzin, Negreanu, Team PokerStars Online's George Lind and Friend of PokerStars Bill Chen. Breathe out.

Of that lot, a fair few made it to the overnight chips counts, topped by a certain Jeffrey Lisandro on 130,900. Canada's Van Nguyen has 82,500, DeBora (68,000), Akkari (49,300), Greenstein (40,900), Chen (36,600), Rousso (32,300), Pezzin (15,800), Brown 15,500) and Veldhuis (13,100).

Vanessa Rousso

Negreanu went out after not playing much - he was concentrating on the aforementioned $2,500 No Limit event. His stack was blinding off and he popped over to lose the last of it in a hand with Veldhuis.

"Take it, fish!" he joked as he shipped the chips over.

Lex Veldhuis: not a fish

Event number 28, the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha also began yesterday, with 596 walking through the door. Among them, a first sighting of the WSOP so far this year of former World Champion and Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem. He bagged up 23,700 and will be joined for day two today by fellow Team Pros ElkY (41,300), Thomas Bichon (40,000), Sandra Naujoks (17,200) and Humberto Brenes (13,700). Top of the pops is Loren Klein with 187,300.

Two new events kick off today: a $1,500 No Limit Hold'em, and $1,500 HORSE. Good luck to all our PokerStars players.

* * * *

Tweets of the Day
@FossilMan (Greg Raymer): Ate with Cheryl at Mint Indian per recommendation of Augie from 2+2.com. Mango chicken is good, but Kathmandu chili chicken is better. But both pale in comparison to my beautiful wife! I love you, honey!!!

@RealKidPoker (Daniel Negreanu): I just made. A. Flush. Yeeeeeeeesssss! (He'd been complaining all week that he never made a flush).

@MarcinHorecki: In Tallinn for PokerStars Baltic Festival. Plan to take it down and go to WSOP ;)

* * * *

Thought of the Day
Back rubs for the win

* * * *

Previous WSOP Diary entries
WSOP Diary: Maria Mayrinck, something in the water
WSOP Diary: Who needs a rest anyway?
WSOP Diary: An apology
WSOP Diary: George Danzer just misses first bracelet for PokerStars
WSOP Diary: Negreanu, Danzer eye $10K Lowball bracelet
WSOP Diary: Hold me, darling - this is going to be BIG
WSOP Diary: Why Peter Eastgate is missing from the World Series
WSOP Diary: Ville Wahlbeck joins Team PokerStars Pro
WSOP Diary: Durrr misses biggest-ever poker payday, pros overjoyed
WSOP Diary: Poker's clean-up operation begins again
WSOP Diary: Manchester United soccer star Darren Fletcher tackles World Series of Poker
WSOP Diary: $10,000 Stud Championsip draws big names
WSOP Diary: Nh, gg, wp Daniel Negreanu, k?
WSOP Diary: Grinding out $1.5million with perfect timing
WSOP Diary: Team Pro Maridu needs Baker, Baker needs dough
WSOP Diary: Viva la revolution in Las Vegas
WSOP Diary: Safari, so good for Noah Boeken
WSOP Diary: Barry Greenstein mixes it up in the $50K
WSOP Diary: Going supersize in Las Vegas

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Summer nights in Las Vegas provide so many options. There are amazing restaurants, theater presentations, Cirque productions, comedy and music shows, and bars and nightclubs. Oh, and there is a little series of poker tournaments called the World Series of Poker happening over at the Rio. But no matter what the possibilities, serious online poker players will do their best to make time for their favorite weekly tournaments. And lest we forget those who are not in Sin City; they had lives to lead as well, we presume.

But no matter what corner of the world or possible distractions, the players did manage to put those aside in order to participate in the Super Tuesday this week, as a solid bunch of 326 players bought in for $1,000 + $50 (or satellited in for much less) to bypass the $300K guarantee to set the prize pool at $326,000. That's the kind of money that makes the big Tuesday event even more interesting.

The top 45 players cashed in the tournament, though none of the Team PokerStars Pros made it to that section of the leaderboard. Alex "Allingomes" Gomes was the last team member standing but finished in 73rd place. As play continued, it was well into the seventh hour when the final table bubble saw hand-for-hand play slow things down a bit, and finally, it was Godfatti who moved all-in from the big blind with [Ac][7h] against the pocket deuces of HighNetWorth. The board came [3s][2h][Ah][6c][Td] to give HighNetWorth the set, and Godfatti exited in tenth place with $4,890.00.

High in action

The tournament was running later than Super Tuesday events in the past week, as it was into Level 28 that final table action got underway. With blinds at 2,000/4,000 and a 500-chip ante, players got into it with starting chip counts as follows:

Seat 1: bEatNicK"OG" (210,482 in chips)
Seat 2: RAZA14 (279,801 in chips)
Seat 3: TheCronic420 (238,839 in chips)
Seat 4: Stammdogg (183,318 in chips)
Seat 5: Da_Ruffneck (85,751 in chips)
Seat 6: REDDYBABY902 (235,703 in chips)
Seat 7: fergwrx (89,467 in chips)
Seat 8: viirusss (31,029 in chips)
Seat 9: HighNetWorth (275,610 in chips)

Normally, players are highly cautious at the start of the Super Tuesday final table, but this week found almost immediate action.

On the third hand, one of the shorter stacks decided to try for an all-or-nothing play. Da_Ruffneck raised preflop, and when Stammdogg reraised from the big blind, Da_Ruffneck called all-in with [As][Qd]. But it just so happened that Stammdogg had [Ah][Ks]. The board brought nothing of significance with [4h][2c][8s][4c][7s], and Da_Ruffneck was gone quickly with $5,705.00 for the ninth place finish.

Two hands later, it was the decision of fergwrx to push all-in after HighNetWorth opened with a raise and Stammdogg called. But HighNetWorth got out of the way and Stammdogg was the only caller. Stammdogg showed [Ah][Kd], and fergwrx was going to need to improve the [Qs][Js]. The virtual dealer did not cooperate, though, and only provided a [5d][5c][7d][3h][4s] board. That left fergwrx out in eighth place with $7,824.00.

More action ensued. BEatNicK"OG" took a 168K pot from HighNetWorth, and TheCronic420 proceeded to take one worth 300K from the same player. HighNetWorth went from the table's chip leader to a short stack in a matter of a few hands, which led to a much-needed double-up through TheCronic420 to stay alive. The other critically short stack, viirusss, doubled through REDDYBABY902 to stay in the game.

But viirusss was working a short stack for quite some time, and the decision was made to attempt another double-up. This time, the hand started with HighNetWorth moving all-in, TheCronic420 calling, and viirusss raising all-in to prompt another call from TheCronic420. The hands:

HighNetWorth: [6s][6d]
viirusss: [Ac][Ks]
TheCronic420: [Ah][Qh]

Board: [6c][8c][9c][2s][Qs]

TheCronic420 took the side pot with the rivered pair of queens, HighNetWorth grabbed the main pot for his set of sixes, and viirusss left the tournament in seventh place with $11,084.00.

Five-handed action went on for quite some time, during which HighNetWorth worked hard to climb back to the higher half of the leaderboard. One hand that helped involved a 253K pot from bEatNicK"OG".

Then HighNetWorth went into battle with TheCronic420 to see a flop of [8s][7d][8d]. A bet and raise prompted TheCronic420 to reraise all-in for 226,582 chips with [4h][4c], but HighNetWorth called with [8c][6d] for the flopped trip eights. The [2d] on the turn and [3c] on the river ended the hand with the big pot shipped to HighNetWorth, and TheCronic420 was smoked in sixth place, for which he was awarded $14,344.00.

Reddy for the takeover

During five-handed play, one pot changed the entire makeup of the table. REDDYBABY902 waited for the right opportunity to make a move, and with the following hand, that player then soared to a massive chip lead over the rest of the pack:

RSS readers click through to see replay

One player making a run at the chip leader was HighNetWorth. After doubling through bEatNicK"OG", HighNetWorth challenged RAZA14, who moved all-in from the small blind with [Kc][Jd]. HighNetWorth called with [Ad][Qd], and the board came [2h][9s][4d][5d][Ac]. HighNetWorth collected the chips, and RAZA14 exited in fifth place with $18,582.00.

HighNetWorth then took on bEatNicK"OG" several times, and the two continued to double through each other, though one of those times it was bound to have a different conclusion. And it did. BEatNicK"OG" moved all-in preflop with [Ad][Kh], and HighNetWorth called with [9h][8c] as the underdog in the hand. But the flop was [8h][8s][8d] for quads! The [Th] turn and [2h] river were virtually ignored as everyone was reeling from the quads moment. And the result was that bEatNicK"OG" was eliminated in fourth place with $26,895.00.

Though HighNetWorth climbed into the chip lead for a moment, REDDYBABY902 claimed that lead soon after. And when those two tangled, it got intense.

A raise and reraise led them to a flop of [4s][Kc][7h], which prompted a bet from REDDYBABY902 and call from HighNetWorth. The [Ts] on the turn brought the reverse action, with a bet from HighNetWorth and check-call from his opponent. The [8c] on the river prompted the all-in move from HighNetWorth for his last 316,496 chips with [Qc][5s], but the bluff didn't work, as REDDYBABY902 check-called with [Ks][Kd] for the flopped set. HighNetWorth, one of the 2010 SCOOP winners was gone in third place with $35,860.00.

Stammdogg fights for back-to-back win

Just past the ten-hour mark of the tournament, there were two players seated at the virtual table, and though REDDYBABY902 was the dominating chip leader, last week's winner Stammdogg was motivated by the notion of winning back-to-back Super Tuesday titles. Their starting chip counts were:

Seat 4: Stammdogg (484,791 in chips)
Seat 6: REDDYBABY902 (1,145,209 in chips)

Stammdogg was relentless. He was aggressive and took down many pots, but some significant enough to push him toward and eventually into the chip lead. But as the two battled, they came into contact during one hand that changed it all. On a [6d][5c][Kc][As] board with a big pot already brewing, REDDYBABY902 bet, Stammdogg raised, and REDDYBABY902 shoved. Stammdogg folded and allowed the 861,554-chip pot to go REDDYBABY902's way. And that put Stammdogg in a position to want to move.

Three hands later, Stammdogg pushed all-in preflop for 331,290 chips. REDDYBABY902 called with [6h][6d], and Stammdogg turned over [Ac][2c]. The board came [4d][7s][3d][Jh][9c], and nothing could save Stammdogg. Keven "Stammdogg" Stammen, winner of last week's Super Tuesday, took second place this week for $47,270.00.

REDDYBABY902 claimed a hard-fought victory to grab $63,081.00 in prize money to go with the Super Tuesday title.

Super Tuesday Results for 06/15/10:

1st place: REDDYBABY902 ($63,801.00)
2nd place: Stammdogg ($47,270.00)
3rd place: HighNetWorth ($35,860.00)
4th place: bEatNicK"OG" ($26,895.00)
5th place: RAZA14 ($18,582.00)
6th place: TheCronic420 ($14,344.00)
7th place: viirusss ($11,084.00)
8th place: fergwrx ($7,824.00)
9th place: Da_Ruffneck ($5,705.00)

The Sunday Million has the millions, the ¼ Million has the most players, but the folks over at @PokerStars Twitter page hope a new Sunday tradition will catch on with Twitter Poker League tourneys giving PokerStars players the most to talk Tweet about, writes Joanne Haslam.

Portugal's bra boy84 won the second league event on Sunday besting 2,370 Twitter users to win $376.36 and take top points. Spain's Germán dj won week 1 of the league and now shares first place on the league leaderboard.

The league will run for eight-week seasons awarding $25,000 of prizes annually. The Grand Final is scheduled to coincide with WBCOOP and will see PokerStars dish out special prizes for the best Twitter updates and Player of the Year.

With a $1.10 buy-in the league tournaments aim to entertain rather than make poker fortunes. @PokerStars provides live updates for each event, and sociable players provide comments using the #tpoker hashtag - you'd be surprised how much hand history you can squeeze into a 140 character update.

Bounty-licious
Team PokerStars Online Chiren80's girlfriend @TaniaUncensored is something of a YouTube starlet and she live streamed her Twitter League play with PokerStars putting a bounty on her head to add to the fun.

@TaniaUncensored I'm out :( KQ suited against 77 and AJs... good luck to all the people who are still in #tpoker!!!! I will keep watching!

TaniaSux may have busted in 635th place but she and others were happy to rail the #tpoker tourney as it headed towards the final table.

The Final Table
Seat 1: Pimir (532951 in chips)
Seat 2: Danilo1012 (64274 in chips)
Seat 3: JeanGrae (771668 in chips)
Seat 4: TRex160466 (526632 in chips)
Seat 5: bra boy84 (1073941 in chips)
Seat 6: Pavel 1035 (246262 in chips)
Seat 7: FHMack (296196 in chips)
Seat 8: aq27 (900660 in chips)
Seat 9: Igor388 (329416 in chips)

JeanGrae was first to bust in unlucky 9th with [Ad][Ks] beaten by Pimir's [Ah][Ts] when he hit a river [Th]. Not much later Pavel1035 made a move, re-raising bra_boy84 with [10c][9c] but bra boy84 was not for folding his [Ah][Tc]. Ace high was all it took to eliminate Pavel1035.

Bra boy84 was the busiest player at the table so it was no surprise to see him re-raise Danilo1012 from the big blind. Danilo1012 called for a flop of [Jc][7c][10d]. When Bra boy84 bet Danilo1012 pushed all in with [Kc][Tc], only to be called by bra boy84 who showed [As][Ts]. Danilo1012 hit the flush card [Ac] on the turn to double up.

Dinosaur's fight back
TRex160466 had a monster scare in a blind battle, pushing all-in from the small blind with [Qc][6s] he ran into bra_b0y84 big blind hand [Ad][Qs]. TRex160466 hit a [6h] and was not extinct.

Bra boy84 briefly lost his lead to Pimir when the pair tussled each holding a pair, but just a few hands later bra boy84 found his only moment of final table danger when all-in with [Ac][8c] he beat Pimir's [3s][3c] He was all set to dominate the final table again.

Aq27 was unlucky to run his [Ah][Kd] into FHMack's [Ac][As]. Most of the chips went in pre-flop, aq27 would miss the [7h][5c][8c] flop but came out betting, FHMack wasn't giving up to a re-raise and when cards were on their backs Aq27 would be unsurprised to be out 7th.

Dinosaur trouble
TRex16blah was next out, not believing FHMack could have the cards to beat his [Ad][Jd] on a board showing [Ah][10d][7c][7s]. FHMack must have liked the re-raise holding [7d][6d]. The [3d] river saw more aggressive play by TRex160466 and the player with the dinosaur name exited without much of a roar in 6th place.

This gave FHMack the chip lead, although in the next hand bra boy84 would try his best to catch up. Pimir went all-in with [As][Qh] and bra boy84's [Td][Tc] won the coin flip with Pimir out 5th.

Then there were 4
Seat 2: Danilo1012 (549913 in chips)
Seat 5: bra boy84 (1646168 in chips)
Seat 7: FHMack (2341755 in chips)
Seat 9: Igor388 (204164 in chips)

Bra_broy84 has good reason to change his name to bra boy62. With [6d][2d] in the big blind he found a full house and was gifted chips from Danilo1012, then next hand his small blind [6c][2d] hit two pair versus FHMack's [Th][Td].

Igor388 played few hands and was forced all-in on the big blind with [Js][9s]. FHMack's small blind [Ad][5c] was too good for him and he was out in 4th.

Blind panic
With 84,913 chips and blinds of 20000/40000 Danilo1012 couldn't hang about and pushed all-in from the small blind. Bra boy84 liked the look of his [Kd][Jh] to take him on. Bra boy84 probably liked the [Ks][Jd][10h] flop even more. Danilo1012 might have liked a queen but it was not to be, he was out in 3rd and places 5th in the leaderboard for his efforts.

There was barely time to note heads-up chips before they were all-in for a hand, but thanks to the magic of PokerStars' Instant Hand History we did manage to preserve them for posterity :

Seat 5: bra boy84 (3,111,081 in chips)
Seat 7: FHMack (1,630,919 in chips)

In just the second hand of heads-up play FHMack raised and was re-raised by bra boy84, but on a [3c][5c][Jc] flop FHmack pushed and bra boy84 quit. The hand levelled things out between the two.

Even stevens
Seat 5: bra boy84 (2,401,081 in chips)
Seat 7: FHMack (2,340,919 in chips)

bra boy84 inched his way to a chip lead yet again while avoiding showdowns or post-worthy hands. Then a raise from bra boy84 and a re-raise from FHMack boosted a pot and the players saw a [8c][7s][Td] flop. FHMack bet and bra boy84 pushed all-in. FHMack called with his [As][Qd] and bra boy84 showed [7d][9d]. A pair of sevens was enough to win the game for bra boy84.

Points mean prizes
Bra boy84 took the lead early on and seemed determined not to give that up until he'd won all the final table chips. Congratulations to bra boy84, who will need to convert the win to more points in the next league game, staying top of the leaderboard by week eight means a $700 Step ticket and a seat in the main event.

Twitter Poker League Week 2 results (6 -13-10)
1 bra boy84 santo andre Portugal $376.36
2 FHMack Florip Brazil $281.36
3 Danilo1012 Nauen-GERMANY Germany $201.53
4 Igor388 п.Озерновский Russian Federation $138.70
5 Pimir Russia Волжский Russian Federation $105.50
6 TRex160466 einbeck Germany $81.79
7 aq27 Chaves Portugal $58.08
8 Pavel 1035 Letohrad Czech Republic $34.37
9 JeanGrae Toronto ON Canada $20.15

The Twitter Poker League may have a smaller prize pool than the Sunday Million and fewer players than the ¼ Million, but at just a fortnight old the Twitter Poker League has found plenty of fans. Want to join them? The next game is Sunday June 20th at 14:00 ET.

Tweet with #tpoker and I'll wish you luck.