I wanted one million” - Milestone Sunday Million kicks off
ONCHAN, Isle of Man – April 3, 2017 – PokerStars created its landmark 200th poker millionaire when Panamanian ‘Xavi666’ won the $10m Guaranteed Sunday Million 11th Anniversary for $1,093,204. The marathon tournament lasted over 15 hours, and was watched to the final hand by many, including Team PokerStars Pro Online member Randy ‘nanonoko’ Lew. A total of 44,017 unique players totalling 55,835 entries congregated online to challenge for a share of the $11,176,000 prize pool at PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand.
‘Xavi666’ has been playing on PokerStars for 13 years and calls it “my favourite site – I love the prizes and the guarantees. Viva PokerStars!” This is the biggest win of ‘Xavi666’s’ poker career. ‘Xavi666’ spoke to PokerStars immediately after the player’s first big win, as it was still sinking in. The Panamanian said: “I still don’t believe it. Finally everything came together.”
TAKING DOWN THE BIG ONE
There was a deal proposed at the final table, but ‘Xavi666’ wasn’t interested: “I said to myself, at the start of the tournament, that I wouldn’t look at numbers. When there were four of us left, it seemed that taking the deal was the smart thing to do, but I declined; I wanted one million!”
This comes hot on the heels of the recent PokerStars Championship Panama where the Main Event was won by American Kenneth Smaron. ‘Xavi666’ was pleased to add another Panama name to the list of PokerStars big winners however: “I felt that it was time someone from Panama won a big one.”
There was additional reason to celebrate as during the tournament 99 free tickets to the €530 Monte Carlo Mega Satellite were awarded to lucky players, giving them the chance to win one of 50 packages worth €8,500 to PokerStars Championship presented by Monte Carlo Casino.
‘Xavier666’ is the first of 10 millionaires that PokerStars expects to make from now until June. Players can win the huge sums of money through a variety of online and live routes, including special $1 million Spin & Go’s, Millionaire Challenges, SCOOP events taking place in May and at PokerStars Championship presented by Monte Carlo Casino® at the end of the month.
BUMPER PRIZES ALL ROUND
In all, 9,206 places were paid in the Sunday Million 11th Anniversary, a 12% increase from the Sunday Million 10th Anniversary in 2016. ‘Mouzen’, from Sweden, won a huge $785,999 for finishing in second place while ‘TranBrothers’ finished in third for $565,140.
MORE MILLIONAIRES THAN EVER BEFORE
The first Sunday Million millionaire created with PokerStars was in September 2011, one of only two online PokerStars millionaires that year. Compare that to 2016, when PokerStars created 10 poker millionaires online, or 2015 when 20 millionaires were created. And that’s just looking at poker – PokerStars Casino has also created four millionaires – three in 2017 so far. During the previous incarnation of PokerStars Makes Millionaires, which ran in 2015, PokerStars created six of those millionaires over six weeks. This time, the series is bigger than ever, aiming for 10 in 10 weeks.
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About PokerStars
PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker sites, serving the global poker community. Since it launched in 2001, PokerStars has become the first choice of players all over the world, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best online security. More than 165 billion hands have been dealt on PokerStars, which is more than any other site.
PokerStars is the flagship brand of Rational Group, which is ultimately owned by Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) and operates gaming-related businesses and brands, including PokerStars, PokerStars Casino, BetStars, Full Tilt, StarsDraft, and the PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival live poker tour brands (incorporating the European Poker Tour, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker Tour and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour). Amaya, through certain subsidiaries, is licensed, approved to offer, or offers under third party licenses or approvals, its products and services in various jurisdictions throughout the world, including in Europe, both within and outside of the European Union, the Americas and elsewhere. In particular, PokerStars is the world’s most licensed online gaming brand, holding licenses or related operating approvals in 17 jurisdictions. PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate globally under licenses from the Isle of Man and Malta governments, respectively.
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