^

On October 21st, Stefan "mindgamer" Jedlicka was one elimination clear of winning the Sunday Million. Heads-up with semaj2 at a three to at least one chip disadvantage, Jedlicka was about to attain the double-up he so desperately needed when semaj2 rivered a flush, ending Jedlicka's run just in need of the highest spot. Way to a four-way deal, Jedlicka took home a hefty $129,000 for his second six-figure score of 2013. The primary was a $278,130 haul for an additional runner-up finish, this one within the TCOOP $2,100 NLHE High Roller event. Who can have possibly expected the third one to come back so soon? But as we all know all too well in our game, confidence breeds confidence and mindgamer had it in spades today, running over the general table en path to a spectacular Sunday Million win.

Double Vision Sunday drew 7,431 players to today's first running of the Million, the prize pool topping out at $1,486,200. 1,080 places were paid with first place set to earn $222,934.18. Sixteen Red Spades joined the sphere including Vanessa Selbst, Nacho Barbero, Victor Ramdin, Eugene Katchalov, and Andre Akkari. Two finished within the money-- Maxim Lykov (1,008th) and Liv Boeree, whose [Qh][Js] fell to [Ah][Jh] to send her to the rail in 339th place.

Blinds were as much as 125,000/250,000 with ten players remaining. With 4.6 million behind, athar222 opened for a min-raise to 500,000 and Doommy three-bet to 1,000,000. Athar222 called and so they went heads-up to a [Ad][8d][4s] flop. Both players checked and the [7s] came at the turn. Athar222 shoved for 3.61 million and Doommy called, turning up [As][3h] for high pair. Athar222 had an open-ended straight draw with [6c][9c] but missed it when the river fell the [9s]. Doommy raked within the 9.7 million pot, eliminating athar22 at the final table bubble.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: mindgamer (11,873,052 in chips)
Seat 2: marbog12345 (5,171,527 in chips)
Seat 3: Joe Santana (10,790,860 in chips)
Seat 4: king2173 (3,605,417 in chips)
Seat 5: Doommy (16,569,623 in chips)
Seat 6: leggieblufs1 (10,859,465 in chips)
Seat 7: MagicMan254 (3,484,621 in chips)
Seat 8: Henwii22 (3,979,092 in chips)
Seat 9: Boxrod (7,976,343 in chips)

MagicMan254 pulls out a miracle

It only took six hands to lose our first player. From UTG+1, MagicMan254 open-shoved for 4.02 million and king2173 called all-in for 2.98 million from the small blind. Although king2173 had MagicMan254 dominated with [Ad][Ks] vs. [Ac][Qs], a queen hit the [Qd][8s][3s] flop, pairing MagicMan254's kicker. King2173 whiffed the [6s] turn and the [2d] river and was eliminated in ninth place, earning $11,518.05.

mindgamer's K-K KOs two.

Less than an orbit passed before mindgamer opened for a 600,000 min-raise from UTG. The action folded to Henwii22 within the small blind and he moved all-in for 3.3 million only to have Boxrod reshove for 6.8 million from the massive blind. Mindgamer called and the cards went on their backs.

mindgamer [Ks][Kh]
Henwii22 [Ac][Qs]
Boxrod [Td][Ts]

Mindgamer's pocket kings held up, the board running out [9d][7c][2d][4c][4d]. Henwii22, the shorter stack to begin the hand, was eliminated in eighth place ($17,834.40) while Boxrod took seventh ($31,953.30).

mindgamer makes it three in a row, Doommy outruns Joe Santana

Mindgamer moved as much as 22.9 after the double elimination and got his chips within the middle again only three hands later. Holding [2d][5s], mindgamer min-raised to 600,000 and leggieblufs1 called from the large blind. Mindgamer hit an open-ended straight draw at the [Jh][4s][3c] flop and bet 504,900 when leggieblufs1 checked to him. Leggieblufs1 raised to 1,543,034 and mindgamer called. The [7c] turn didn't improve mindgamer's hand, but nevertheless, he called leggieblufs1's 1.85m bet. However, the [6c] river filled out mindgamer's seven-high straight. Leggieblufs1 did his bidding for him and moved all-in for 5.85 million, and midngamer snap-called. Leggieblufs1's [Kc][Jd] went up in flames and he was eliminated in sixth place, good for $46,072.20.

Then, at the very next deal, Joe Santana opened for 600,000 with pocket tens within the cutoff and Doommy three-bet to fifteen. million at the button. Both blinds folded and Joe Santana four-bet shoved for 14.2 million. Doommy called, revealing [As][Kh]. Doommy hit an ace at the flop, the board finishing [Ad][Qs][Jc][8s][6d] to finish Joe Santana's run in fifth place ($60,934.20).

Doommy dominates marbog12345

The breakneck pace continued as blinds rose to 200,000/400,000. With 4.04 million remaining, marbog12345 moved all-in from the cutoff with [Ad][7c] and Doommy called at the button with [As][Jh]. Doommy's dominating hand-held up at the [Ac][8d][5c][2c][3d] board and marbog12345 departed in fourth place, earning $78,768.60.

Hard bargain

As play turned three-handed, mindgamer, Doommy and MagicMan254 all agreed to pause the action and discuss a possible deal. Here's how they stacked up on the time.

mindgamer - 35,672,952
Doommy - 33,117,010
MagicMan254 - 5,520,038

Final table host Jorge "Baalim" Limon ran chip count chop numbers for our trio, producing the next shares.

HostJoshuaC (Administrator): mindgamer:$180,906.77
HostJoshuaC (Administrator): Doommy:$176,463.74
HostJoshuaC (Administrator): MagicMan254:$128,491.56
HostJoshuaC (Administrator): Left To Play for place 1: $20,000.00

Short stack MagicMan254 desired to boost his share to $135k, saying he did not want to accept only $10k greater than third-place money when he could gamble and potentially win another $100k if he took first place. Mindgamer was unhappy with the proposal as well, citing his lock up no less than $185,000.

"LOL guys, you wanna take all that from me?" Doommy wrote.

With negotiations at a stalemate, cards went back within the air and action resumed.

mind gamer makes MagicMan254 disappear

As three-handed play resumed, MagicMan254 quickly doubled through mindgamer, his [Ks][Ts] rivering a king against pocket sevens. A COUPLE OF MINUTES later, Doommy did his part when his [Th][7h] fell to MagicMan254's pocket eights. MagicMan254 doubled again, this time to 19.7 million. After picking up a 13.4 million pot with a three-bet at the flop, MagicMan254 moved as much as 26.1 million, good for second in chips, while Doommy fell to 16.3 million.

MagicMan254 held on to second place as mindgamer turned his attention to Doommy, whittling his stack right down to 10.8 million. However, only some hands later, MagicMan254 picked up [Ac][Js] within the big blind and three-bet shoved for 20.4 million. Initial min-raiser mindgamer snap-called with [Qc][Qs], the board running out [8h][7s][5s][5h][9h] to finish MagicMan254's run in third place ($118,896.00).

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 1: mindgamer (63,845,386 in chips)
Seat 5: Doommy (10,464,614 in chips)

Down but not out, Doommy scored a double up to be had #6, his [Kd][3d] flopping a 3 against mindgamer's unimproved [Ac][Js]. Doommy moved as much as 16 million, but got those chips within the middle again at the next hand. Doommy opened for 1.2 million, mindgamer three-bet to 2.7 million and Doommy shoved for 15.94 million. Mindgamer called and his [Ah][Qs] held up against Doommy's [Ks][Qh] to fasten up the win.

Congratulations to Stefan "mindgamer" Jedlicka on an implausible victory! He banked $222,934.18 for the win while runner-up Doommy collected $164,031.89.

PokerStars Sunday Million results for 12-1-2013

Players: 7,431
Prizepool: $1,486,200.00
Places paid: 1,080

1. Stefan "mindgamer" Jedlicka (Austria) $222,934.18
2. Doommy (Lithuania) $164,031.89
3. MagicMan254 (Ireland) $118,896.00
4. marbog1245 (Sweden) $78,768.60
5. Joe Santana (Brazil) $60,934.20
6. leggieblufs1 (Australia) $46,072.20
7. Boxrod (Canada) $31,953.30
8. Henwii22 (UK) $17,834.40
9. king2173 (Austria) $11,518.05

Kristin Bihr is a contract contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Sunday Million]