From $11 Satellite to $1.1M: 'AAAArthur' Wins 14th Anniversary Sunday Million
Table Of Contents
They say deuces never loses, and that certainly proved to be the case for "AAAArthur" who won the PokerStars 14th Anniversary Sunday Million with that exact hand. The Brazilian flopped a full house, cracking the pocket fives of runner up Stefan "CrAzY_sTeFaN" Piele Dragos to emerge triumphant over a field of 93,016 players.
A four-way deal had already guaranteed "AAAArthur" would be the only player to walk away with a seven-figure score, a fact made all the more extraordinary by the fact that his previous biggest cash was $90 and that the Brazilian satellited into the Sunday Million for just $11.
14th Anniversary Sunday Million Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AAAArthur | Brazil | $1,192,802.46* |
| 2 | Stefan "CrAzY_sTeFaN" Piele Dragos | Romania | $921,328.12* |
| 3 | caroline2963 | United Kingdom | $786,873.65* |
| 4 | salonteskis | Lithuania | $826,919.68* |
| 5 | AlexHoldz | Croatia | $329,356.63 |
| 6 | Marios "Jully-19" Mansour | Cyprus | $225,108.02 |
| 7 | tweny1 | Romania | $153,854.04 |
| 8 | pokerfrance | Germany | $105,154.58 |
| 9 | Paulius "D3cor" Vaitiekunas | Lithuania | $71,869.74 |
*denotes four-way deal
Final Day's Play
It was "meandmyarrow" who led the final 91 at the start of play, but it didn't take long for "heitorqueiro", "Arlingtona" and "AlexHoldz" to challenge them at the top of the charts. In fact, "AlexHoldz" was the first player over 100 million in chips and would increase his chip stack to 250 million when start-of-day chip leader "meandmyarrow" triple-barrel bluffed with just seven-high into the queens of the Croatian to bust.
At this point, "AlexHoldz" was 100 million chips clear of his nearest competitor, and despite the gap narrowing they still topped the leaderboard with two tables left. However, the lead blew out again after "flukeybob1" got it in with what he thought was a Royal Flush draw, only for "AlexHoldz" to be holding the ace of hearts and sending them to the rail.
It looked like the Croatian was going to hold the lead ally he way to the final table, were it not for a surge from "salonteskis" that meant it was the Lithuanian out in front.
14th Anniversary Sunday Million Final Table Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Counts | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AlexHoldz | Croatia | 404,315,107 | 51 |
| 2 | Paulius "D3cor" Vaitiekunas | LIthuania | 96,760,235 | 12 |
| 3 | salonteskis | Lithuania | 415,596,020 | 52 |
| 4 | Marios "Jully-19" Mansour | Cyprus | 122,054,176 | 15 |
| 5 | tweny1 | Romania | 83,910,614 | 10 |
| 6 | pokerfrance | Germany | 128,403,299 | 16 |
| 7 | Stefan "CrAzY_sTeFaN" Piele Dragos | Romania | 127,327,738 | 16 |
| 8 | AAAArthur | Brazil | 33,031,132 | 4 |
| 9 | caroline2963 | United Kingdom | 150,921,679 | 19 |
Action at the final table was frantic, with "AAAArthur" eliminating Paulius "D3cor" Vaitiekunas before "salonteskis" padded their chip lead with the elimination of "pokerfrance".
The eliminations were spread around the final tablists, with "caroline2963" eliminating "tweny1" and Stefan "CrAzY_sTeFaN" Piele Dragos eliminating Marios "Jully-19" Mansour.
Now five-handed in the blink of an eye, "salonteskis" still stood firm atop the chip counts, but after the elimination of "AlexHoldz" in fifth place it looked like a deal was on the cards.
Final Four Agree ICM Chop
| &Player | Chip Count | ICM Payout* |
| salonteskis | 306,137,405 | $826,919.68 |
| Stefan "CrAzY_sTeFaN" Piele Dragos | 423,570,200 | $921,328.12 |
| AAAArthur | 866,447,809 | $1,142,802.46 |
| caroline2963 | 264,164,586 | $786,873.65 |
The four players each agreed to the above numbers, setting aside $50,000 for the winner. "salonteskis" was third in chips at the deal but was first to go, falling foul of"AAAArthur"'s runner-runner flush as the Brazilian moved over a billion chips.
It looked like "AAAArthur" wanted to finish things off himself, but after Stefan "CrAzY_sTeFaN" Piele Dragos eliminated "caroline2963" in third place, the Romanian looked poised to steal "AAAArthur"'s thunder.
In what was a remarkable final table hand, Dragos doubled with quads against his opponent's full house to take the chip lead heads-up. However, "AAAArthur" battled back and cracked the fives of his opponent with pocket deuces to secure thewin and the seven-figure prize for winning the biggest PokerStars online tournament ever!
That concludes our live reporting of the 14th Anniversary Sunday Million. We hope you've enjoyed following along. Be sure to keep an eye out for future online live reporting, and to check out our exciting promotions page for information on how you can get involved in an online poker tournament very soon!
