Small Jackpots Keeping Online Casino Players Busy This Week CashSplash
Normally, it is the large jackpots that attract online casino players to the slots and table games, but this past week, it has been the smaller jackpots that have kept players coming back. Jackpots ranging from $2,000 to $100,000 have stolen the spotlight at online casinos.
As recently as this afternoon, players were walking away from their computers happy. One player hit a $6,144 jackpot on the Aladdin's Gold: Sapphire slot. The Marvel Extra Power slot jackpot has been hit four times in the past fourteen hours.
The jackpots have not been held to only the slot games. In fact, one of the bigger grand prize wins of the weekend came today, courtesy of the Let 'Em Ride poker game. The game paid out a lucky player $126,943. It was the only poker jackpot hit on the day.
Small jackpots are nice, and they keep players coming back, but it is the major jackpots that excite the masses. Three days ago, a Lotto Madness jackpot was hit for $122,990. One day earlier, a $153,003 jackpot was hit on the Queen of the Pyramids $.25 game.
"I know these jackpots are hit often, but it does seem like there have been more of them lately than usual," said one online player who wished to remain anonymous. "I always like to play right before the summer because I just feel that the slots play looser at that time."
There is no evidence to suggest that the player's preference is anything more than a personal opinion. Online casinos have dozens of jackpots hit on a daily basis, regardless of whether it is the middle of the summer or deep in winter.
Sunday Million: twirlpro takes second Sunday Million title, $213K ^
Amid PokerStars' "December Festival" full of promotions and boosted guarantees, a "regular" Sunday Million played out this weekend with the usual $1 million guarantee for a $215 buy-in. The field was big nonetheless, with 8,316 coming out to create a huge $1,663,200 prize pool. It would take nearly 13 hours for the tourney to complete, with Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy managing to outlast the field to win his second Sunday Million and take away a $213,479.97 first prize after a five-way final table deal.
It took almost exactly five hours for the money bubble to burst, and with 1,260 players left it was BEGEMOT13, vadanas, and chokdee1980 sitting in the top spots on the leaderboard with stacks 5-6 times the average.
A couple of Team PokerStars Pros had spots inside the top 100 at that point, with Johnny Lodden in 47th and Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara in 91st and their teammates Maxim Lykov and Matthias "mattidm" de Meulder both still in the hunt as well.
Short-stacked, de Meulder was soon all in before the flop with [Kd][9s] against two players including stickbean who had pocket kings, and five cards later was out in 1,109th ($316.00). Kihara would last more than an hour more before risking his last eight big blinds with [As][Jd] versus be_awesome1's [8d][8c] and failing to improve, thus finishing in 421st place ($548.85). And Lykov went out shortly thereafter with a similar stack after running [Ah][6c] into komarolo22's pocket aces to finish 370th ($598.75).
That left just Lodden to sport the red spade, and the Norwegian was still there with a below average stack as the tourney crossed the eight-hour mark and just 100 players remained. Peaksone had risen to the top spot in the counts at that point with just over 4 million chips while the nearest challengers vadanas and Reggie10000 hovered around the 2.6 million-chip mark.
Lodden continued to hang on for another 45 minutes, then shoved a seven-BB stack with [Kc][10h] and got looked up by kylef89 with [Kd][Qs] in the big blind. The board brought no help for Lodden, ending his tourney run in 47th ($2,827.44).
By the time the tourney was approaching the 10-hour mark just 18 were left with Peaksone still leading with more than 9 million but the chasing pack starting to close the gap. It would take a little less than an hour more for the field to be trimmed to nine.
Nosferatoon (18th), pellompogos (17th), and birddy420 (16th) were the next to go, each earning $4,324.32. BEGEMOT13 then won a huge preflop all-in with [Ah][As] against VyruAlus's [Ks][Kh] to take the chip lead, after which jmiami36 (15th), LAJG (14th), and HeRoCaL4HiGh (13th) went out to earn $6,569.64 apiece. And as Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy pushed into the top spot, bustoville (12th), DSmunichlife (11th), and DJG1989 (10th) saw their tourney runs end with each taking away $8,814.96.
The final table -- featuring players from nine different countries -- was underway.
Not long after the final table began, the blinds were 200k/400k when leader Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy min-raised to 800,000 from under the gun, then chokdee1980 reraised to 1,825,200 from a seat over. It folded around to SAS6677 in the small blind who four-bet all in for 7,659,490, after which it folded back to chokdee1980 who called the shove with the 3,371,572 left behind.
chokdee1980 had [Qh][Qd] but was behind SAS6677's [Kc][Kh]. The board came [7s][4h][8s][6d][Ks] to improve SAS6677 to a set, and chokdee1980 was out in ninth.
About five minutes later Turmezy was again min-raising to 800,000 -- from middle position this time -- and Aleksandras "VyruAlus" Rusinovas reraised all in for 3,443,663 from the small blind. It folded back to twirlpro who called, showing [Qc][Js] to Rusinovas's [As][Jd]. The flop came [6c][8c][Qs] to pair Turmezy's queen, and after the [5s] turn and [4h] river Rusinovas was done in eighth.
Peaksone would be the next to go in seventh just a few minutes later in a hand that began with Peaksone shoving all in for 3,085,217 (a little less than eight big blinds) from early position then watching SamTeymour reraise-shove from a seat over to clear the field. Peaksone had [Qh][Js] and SamTeymour [Ac][Ks], and after the [5s][Qd][6c] flop Peaksone had seized the lead for the moment. But the turn was the [Kc] to give SamTeymour a better pair, and after the [2c] fell on fifth street they were down to six.
Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy was extending the lead further when the next elimination took place to bring BEGEMOT13 a bit closer. By then the blinds were 300k/600k, and when GoodStoryBro open-pushed from the cutoff for 5,549,984 with [Ah][3c], BEGEMOT13 was quick with a call from the big blind with [Ac][Qc]. The board rolled out [7h][2c][Js][2d][As], and GoodStoryBro hit the rail in sixth.
Not long after that the remaining five stopped the tourney to discuss a possible deal, with Turmezy sitting with just over 35.6 million, BEGEMOT13 next with a tiny bit under 27 million even, and the other three -- SAS6677, SamTeymour, and AAKaliber1 -- all between 5.7 and 8.1 million.
Both "chip chop" and "ICM" numbers were produced (leaving $20K for which to play), with the former set of figures guaranteeing twirlpro over $214K and the latter a little more than $181K. Eyeing both figures, twirlpro began the negotiations thusly:
twirlpro: I'm happy to meet in the middle and take 200k. I am the most experienced here and I have won this before. I don't minde what you guys do with rest but I'm going to need 200k to settle
As mentioned before, Turmezy indeed had an earlier Sunday Million title under his belt, having won the tourney back in 2008. He also picked up a TCOOP title in early 2012.
The ensuing discussion would take nearly half an hour, during which the others were able to negotiate twirlpro down to a guaranteed payout of a little under $193,500. Terms finally being reached, play at last resumed with that extra $20K still up for grabs.
On just the second hand back, SamTeymour open-pushed from the cutoff for 6,545,222 (a little over eight big blinds) with [Ks][Qh] and BEGEMOT13 called from the big blind with [Js][Jd]. The board rolled out nine-high -- [5d][7s][7c][4h][9d] -- and SamTeymour was out in fifth.
Shortly after that hand AAKaliber1 won one preflop all-in to double through SAS6677, then on the next hand pushed again to knock SAS6677 out in fourth. With the blinds 400k/800k, AAKaliber1 shoved from under the gun and SAS6677 called for just 370,038 from the button, showing [Ts][3d] to AAKaliber1's [As][3c]. The community cards came [Jc][4s][5c][6h][Js], and SAS6677 was out.
Play continued and before long the three remaining players were roughly even, all within the 25-30 million-chip range. Then as the blinds increased to 500k/1m it was AAKaliber1 pushing out ahead of the others, widening the gap before a hand took place involving the other two that saw the next elimination.
It began with Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy opening for the minimum with a raise to 2 million from the button, then it folded to BEGEMOT13 in the big blind who shoved for 17,642,018. Turmezy called instantly, showing [Kd][Kc] while BEGEMOT13 was hoping to hit an ace with [Ac][Qh].
Hit an ace BEGEMOT13 would -- in fact two of them -- as the flop came [Ad][Ah][7s], and after the [4s] turn it appeared BEGEMOT13 was about to double up while twirlpro would be left crippled. Then came the river... the [Ks]! Turmezy had spiked the two-outer, and BEGEMOT13 was done in third.
RSS readers click through to view replay
Heads-up play began with AAKaliber1 still in front with 43,790,020 versus Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy's 39,369,980. But 10 hands into their match a decisive hand arose that saw twirlpro four-bet shoving before the flop with [3c][3s] and AAKaliber1 calling with [Ad][Qs]. The small pocket pair managed to hold for twirlpro when the board came eight-high with a trey to help improve Turmezy to a set.
That hand put Turmezy up over 75 million and knocked AAKaliber1 down below 8 million, and just a couple of hands later with the blinds at 600k/1.2m it was twirlpro open-raising all in from the button and AAKaliber1 calling all in for 7,580,040.
Turmezy had [4d][4c] and AAKaliber1 [Ac][7c]. The flop brought an ace but a four as well, coming [4s][9d][Ah], and so by the [2c] turn AAKaliber1 was already drawing dead as twirlpro had secured his second Sunday Million title.
RSS readers click through to view replay
Congratulations to Peter "twirlpro" Turmezy for surviving another oversized field to win another Sunday Million and take away the lion's share of this week's prize pool.
12/15/13 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) results (*reflects five-way deal)
The European Poker Tour Prague Main Event is playing out this week with a field of 1,007 working its way to a final table in just a few days. Check all of the reports from the Czech Republic here to see who takes down the next EPT title.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
LAPT8 Uruguay: Teixeira bubbles, Moustapha leads final table
Our final table is set.
Brazil's Renata Teixeira --who finished 2nd in LAPT8 Chile earlier this year-- won't be making another final table here in Uruguay.
In the final hand of the day, a short-stacked Teixeira moved all-in for 102,000 from middle position and German Christiansen called from the big blind.
Teixeira tabled 5♣5♦ and was flipping for her tournament life after Christiansen showed Q♥T♦.
The flop came A♠A♦J♥ to give Christiansen a few more outs and then he paired his queen when the Q♠ came on the turn.
Renata Teixeira, sad she won't make another final table
A 7♥ sealed Teixeira's fate and she was eliminated in 9th.
Teixeira won $16,240 but missed out on another LAPT final table.
Leading the final eight into the final table is Chadi Moustapha, with 1.52 million. Moustapha finished Day 1 with the chip lead but then Mario Lopez took it over and held on to it until the penultimate level of the day.
Our final table chip leader, Chadi Moustapha
It was the only elimination-less level we've had in the last two days.
It was far from quiet though as Moustapha took giant pots off of Lopez and Ariel Eghi to take the lead.
Lopez was the first to lose a chunk to Moustapha.
In a battle of the blinds, Moustapha and Lopez were faced with a raised pot on a 7♦6♠A♣ flop. Lopez bet from the small blind and Moustapha called.
Mario Lopez
A 4♣ came on the turn and Lopez bet 54,000. Moustapha thought for a few moments and called. The river brought a K♣ and Lopez bet again. This time he put out a pile of chips worth 128,000.
Moustapha leaned back in his chair and grabbed his bottle of water.
"You guys can go home," Moustapha said. "This is going to take a while."
Moustapha thought for some time and counted the bet out from his stack.
"I should call," he added.
Then he did.
Moustapha called and Lopez was reluctant to show his hand. Lopez turned over a single T♠ and Moustapha took down the pot with A♦T♣.
A few minutes later, Ruben Barros raised to 28,000 from middle position and Lopez called from the cutoff. Moustapha called from the big blind and Ariel Eghi did the same from big blind.
The flop came 5♦4♠6♣ and Lopez bet 43,000 when checked to. Moustapha raised to 108,000 and Eghi called. Barros and Lopez folded and an A♦ came on the turn.
Both players checked and the 7♠ completed the board.
Eghi bet 175,000 and after some thought, Moustapha moved all-in.
Ariel Eghi
Eghi leaned back in his chair and turned away from the table. He mumbled something to himself and then looked at his stack, Moustapha had him covered.
After a few minutes of deliberation, Eghi folded and Moustapha took down the pot.
The tournament ticked into the next level and we lost Renata Teixeira in the first hand of level 22.
Players celebrated and will return tomorrow at noon to play down to a champion.
FPS Monaco: Salter, MacPhee, Pfutzenreuter out; Taibi on top as field shrinks
Following the slow, lengthy -- though exciting -- period during which the France Poker Series Monaco Main Event field when from 145 to 144, it has swiftly shrunk to less than 90 players now as the march to the cashier has begun in earnest.
Jack Salter was among the first to go following the bubble bursting, earning a min-cash for his 143rd-place finish
Jack Salter
Not long after Salter was being eliminated, one of the chip leaders from Day 1B, Abduffatif Attia went out at another table in 140th. A little after that Kevin MacPhee went out in 128th in a hand versus Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari.
Kevin MacPhee
After entertaining us considerably on the bubble a little while ago, Jacques Guenni saw his tournament run conclude in 113th. 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Dimitar Danchev followed in 105th, with Ben Warrington (101st) and Timo Pfutzenreuter (94th) on the rail soon after that.
Timo Pfutzenreuter
Meanwhile Dean-Henri Taibi has ascended in the counts to grab the top spot, now sitting with more than 800,000. Sonny Franco looks to be his nearest challenger at present with just about a half a million.
With just a level to go the field has swiftly shrunk under 100 players. Stay tuned to see who makes it through to tomorrow's Day 3.
Key FPS Monaco Main Event Facts: - At the end of Level 19, 79 players remain from the starting field of 993 -- all have made the cash - Jean Taleb (133rd), Matias Ruzzi (130th), Simon Petit (120th), Amos Ben (117th), and Ben Warrington (101st) have also recently busted. Click here for a full list of payouts for those eliminated in the money - The tournament is scheduled to play one more one-hour level today (Level 20)
To get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts, don't forget to download the EPT App on both Android or IOS.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
Eureka5 Hamburg Day 1D: Will the real Ole Schemion please stand up
Ole Schemion, the EPT 10 Player of the Season and two-time GPI Player of the Year, has held the unofficial title as the hottest young player on the planet for a good while now. Here's the thing though: his reign may be over.
There's a new kid on the block. Not even 20 years of age and tearing up the poker world just like Schemion did, and is still doing. The name's Urbanovich, Dzmitry Urbanovich. The young Pole's first cash was fewer than two years ago and he's already top of Poland's All Time Money List and is the current EPT Player of the Season (11).
Ole Schemion
Both are registered here today so we thought it'd be interesting to compare their first 22 months on the live circuit, the time since Urbanovich's first cash. (For those viewing on a mobile device, Urbanovich's stats are the first one in each category)
Stats for first 22 months of live career
Dzmitry Urbanovich
Ole Schemion
Number of wins
8
5
Highest cash
$1,595,368
$ 1,474,671
Different countries cashed in
9
12
Number of cashes
38
39
Average cash
$73,012
$67,491
Total Earnings
$2,774,446
$2,632,131
As you can see, their stats are remarkably similar, making it hard to choose who's been the best "Rookie" this decade. What is known is that Schemion has gone on to earn another $5.4 million in his third and fourth year on the circuit, and if Urbanovich can match that, he'll be following his German competitor on the road to poker greatness.
Urbanovich winning one of four events at EPT11 Malta
Urbanovich hasn't taken his seat yet today so is letting Schemion get a head start on him in the Main Event. The latter has already past the 60,000-mark through the first three levels.
In one hand, he min raised to 300 and picked up two callers en route to a 4♦6♦A♥ flop. He made a continuation bet and both his opponents folded in flash. Maybe Schemion's aura is in a relatively small buy-in event for him.
Here are some chip counts after three levels:
Alan Lang holds even 67,000 Stefan Ragalie - 57,000 Timo Schneider - 39,000 Commander Warrior - 28,000 January Heitmann - 27,000 Ismail Kalkan - 26,000 Natalie Hof - 25,500 T-zone - 17,000 Claudio Celenza - 7,000 Ronny Voth - 6,500
Kevin Barkow, Oliver Neimann and Kai Hinrichs were the only three players to bust through the first three levels.
Eureka Hamburg Key Facts: - Players begin with 25,000 chips (an increase from Season 4's 20,000) - Blinds start at 25/50 - Twelve 45-minute levels make up Day 1D - Day 1D is a sell 200-player out
PokerStars saddened by 'avoidable' NJ casino closure ^
As an eventful year draws to an end, we are saddened by the news that the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City will be closed in the coming weeks after being sold through a bankruptcy court auction.
It's always sad when hard-working people lose their jobs, especially during the holiday season. This is particularly sad, though, because it simply didn't have to happen.
At this time last year, PokerStars reached an agreement that would secure a new future for the casino, save the jobs of 1,800 employees and inject new blood, new technology and new finances into the Atlantic City casino economy.
It was a leap of faith and commitment of significant investment for PokerStars to do this considering there was not yet an online bill in New Jersey and we faced a challenging regulatory approval process. Nevertheless, in good faith we immediately began funding the Atlantic Club operations, which provided the current owners with a lifeline and secured jobs in the dark days following Hurricane Sandy and the seasonally slow winter months.
As spring approached, the economic prospects for the Atlantic Club appeared to brighten even more with the newly-enacted iGaming legislation and the promise of summer tourism business on the horizon. That's when the casino's then-owners gambled with their employees' future. In hopes that the improved economic picture could lead to more rewards for them they walked away from our contract rather than wait another few months for the regulatory approval process to be completed.
Now, the Atlantic Club will be stripped for parts and its employees will be put out onto the boardwalk in search of new jobs in 2014.
We continue to share the vision that online gaming will be a boon for New Jersey. Unfortunately, PokerStars is no longer in a position to help the Atlantic Club employees and the local economy in general. The continued delays in our regulatory review prevent us from entering the market at this time and bringing the marketing and operational investment we have planned for the past year. Those investments included establishing a U.S. office in NJ which would employ 250-300 people in the first two years and launching extensive marketing programs to energize our loyal customer base in the area and grow the online gaming market in the state.
We've delivered on similar commitments in newly licensed markets around the world and these investments and management practices established us as an industry leader and we've been recognized as a Great Place to Work in 2012 and 2013.
PokerStars does not share the vulture-like management practices that led to the coming job losses and disappointment of thousands of people in New Jersey with the closure of the Atlantic Club. Instead, PokerStars will continue to pursue our goals and remain confident that we will have a strong presence and positive economic impact in the American market in 2014, whether that is in New Jersey or another state seeking the benefits of being home to a world-class online gaming company.
Eric Hollreiser is Head of Corporate Communications for PokerStars.
They say that one measure of a person is the company they keep. A corporate version of this could be that one measure of a company is the people they keep. Here at PokerStars people have a passion for their work and an ethos that celebrates success and - equally important - celebrates the way we achieve success. Our players know us for the unrivalled customer support we deliver. Our employees know us for the support we give each other.
Companies are primarily judged by their external results: the quality of their product, their sales, profitability and number of customers. Increasingly, they are also being judged by how they achieve results. One of the best reflections of this is the culture that they foster within the walls and what employees say about the company.
These are some of the reasons it's so gratifying that PokerStars has been named as one of the UK's Best Workplaces by The Great Place to Work® Institute. The institute annually surveys employees and performs a cultural audit of some 5,500 organizations around the world representing 10 million employees.
Always ready for a challenge, PokerStars decided to invite the Institute's UK branch to put us through the rigorous review process, including a management cultural audit and a survey of our 1,200 worldwide employees, half of which are based in our London and Isle of Man offices. The results of the audit and the UK employee survey are then measured against such workplace values of credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.
Last night, GPTW announced the results and PokerStars was among the top companies in the UK.
This achievement is especially satisfying given the extraordinary challenges our company and the online poker industry have faced in the past year. But, then again, being a Great Place to Work is one of the reasons why PokerStars has maintained our industry leadership even in the face of turbulent times.
Here's a taste of what our staff think about working at PokerStars:
