With seven players left, Legadzo held pocket aces against pocket queens for half the chips in play–only two cards away from potentially cruising to the finish of this Sunday Million final table. Then, like a boulder hurled into in his once-clear path, a heart landed on the turn, four-flushing his opponent. Legadzo’s chip lead evaporated, his journey now a far more arduous endeavor than it appeared only minutes ago. Legadzo had a history of close calls– second in the Warm-Up, fifth in a SCOOP– and although he had experience in big money tournament endgames, he had yet to win a major online title. Tonight, that all changed. This tough Brit never gave up and after a three-way deal, Legadzo came away with a career-high $182,214.33 score and a Sunday Million title.

An even 7,000 players bought in to this week’s Million, creating a $1,400,000.00 prize pool. 1,080 places were paid with first place set to earn $210,000.00.

When two tables remained, Schnuffelkus had a slight edge over Legadzo for the top spot. However, Legadzo took a commanding chip lead in a three-way pot when KING BAIT open-shoved for 2.78 million and Jokerovios reshoved for 5.87 million on the button. Legadzo looked down at Q♥ Q♣ in the small blind and moved in for 8.68 million and was up against Jokerovios’s K♠ K♣ and KING BAIT’s A♠ J♥ . Although KING BAIT hit a boffo J♣ J♦ 6♠ flop to make trips, Legadzo turned his two-outer with the Q♦ and hit queens full, eliminating both Jokerovios (14th) and KING BAIT (15th).

Legadzo moved up to 17.7 million on that hand and by the time 11 remained, he had crossed the 20-million chip mark. Legadzo also took advantage of having four short stacks at his table during hand for hand play, where he applied relentless pressure. Ultimately, alexserge moved in for his last 6.5 big blinds with pocket eights just as Legadzo woke up with Q♣ Q♥ in the big blind. Alexserge did not improve and the final table was set.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: Legadzo (26,849,466 in chips)
Seat 2: KingAlikMJ23 (8,288,417 in chips)
Seat 3: leoc00 (3,566,641 in chips)
Seat 4: spenny32 (4,217,435 in chips)
Seat 5: Schnuffelkus (7,588,300 in chips)
Seat 6: adrrian1989 (1,853,394 in chips)
Seat 7: OneH1tWonder (12,582,331 in chips)
Seat 8: DuTTiFruTTi9 (3,084,354 in chips)
Seat 9: Charliegore8 (1,969,662 in chips)

Short stack adrrian1989 put the squeeze on in the first hand at the final table, moving in for 1.82 million from the big blind behind Legadzo’s 627,000 open and spenny32’s flat-call. Legadzo reshoved and spenny32 called off his remaining 3.56 million, setting up a three-way showdown.

Legadzo 10♣ 10♦
spenny32 Q♠ Q♣
adrrian1989 K♦ Q♦

Spenny32’s queens held up on the A♣ 9♥ 6♠ 9♣ 5♣ board, ending adrrian1989’s run in ninth place.

Charliegore8 got a reprieve on the next hand, doubling to 4.5 million when his A♦ 5♦ made a wheel vs. leoc00’s K♥ J♥ . Down to less than five big blinds, leoc00 moved in from the button with A♥ 10♥ and Schnuffelkus called from the big blind with J♣ 10♦ . Although leoc00 had Schnuffelkus dominated, Schnuffelkus turned a king-high straight on the K♠ K♦ 9♦ Q♥ 4♠ board and sent leoc00 home in eighth place.

Legadzo still held fast at the top of the counts with seven players remaining, his 24.2 million in chips more than twice that of second place. And when he was dealt A♣ A♠ against Schnuffelkus’s Q♥ Q♦ , Legadzo had better than a 4 to 1 shot at holding 50% of the chips in play by the end of the hand. Unfortunately for Legadzo, Schnuffelkus pulled out another miracle and turned a queen-high flush on the 8♥ 6♥ 2♥ K♥ 9♦ board, doubling his stack to 19.4 million and leaving Legadzo in second place.

OneH1tWonder suffered a setback when he made a small blind shove with 4♣ 7♠ , only to run into DuTTiFruTTi9’s A♥ Q♠ in the big. DuTTiFruTTi9 doubled to 9.72 million while OneH1tWonder fell to 6.75 million. Meanwhile, Legadzo had climbed back into the chip lead, but fell back to 12.4 million when he doubled up spenny32. Spenny32 called all-in on a J♣ 5♥ 6♥ 9♦ board, his A♣ J♠ trailing Legadzo’s 6♠ 9♥ … until the 5♦ paired the board on the river, giving spenny32 the 14.4 million pot.

OneH1tWonder went out in seventh place when his J♥ 8♠ fell to spenny32’s pocket kings. KingAlikMJ23 followed him to the rail in sixth place only a few hands later when his K♣ J♣ did not improve against DuTTiFruTTi9’s A♣ 10♣ . Next to fall was Charliegore8, who open-shoved for his remaining 11 big blinds with A♠ 4♠ . Spenny32 called from the small blind with K♣ Q♣ and made trip kings by the turn, ending Charliegore8’s run in fifth place.

Spenny32 held a comfortable chip lead with 32.7 million, but Legadzo roared back, shoving his last 7.8 million with pocket eights. Spenny32 called with K♦ J♦ but lost the race to Legadzo’s flopped set of eights.

On a 10♠ 9♠ 6♥ flop, DuTTiFruTTi9 three-bet shoved with A♠ 7♥ and Schnuffelkus called with Q♠ J♣ for an open-ender.DuTTiFruTTi9’s ace-high held up when the turn and river blanked with the 2♠ and the 3♥ , good for a 19 million pot. Schnuffelkus was left with only 5 million chips at the 400,000/800,000 level and hit the rail six hands later when his K♥ J♣ did not improve vs. Legadzo’s A♠ 3♣ .

At this juncture, Legadzo, spenny32 and DuTTiFruTTi9 agreed to pause the action and discuss a potential deal. Here’s how they stacked up:

Legadzo 29,165,791
spenny32 22,721,035
DuTTiFruTTi9 18,113,174

Naturally, chip leader Legadzo gravitated toward a chip chop deal while his two opponents preferred ICM. But thankfully for everyone, the two sets of numbers were not too far apart. Legadzo got his way as both DuTTiFruTTi9 and spenny32 agreed to the chip count chop numbers and cards went back in the air with $20,000 still at stake.

It only took 15 more hands to find a winner. DuTTiFruTTi9 open-shoved for 11.4 million on the button with A♠ 5♠ and Legadzo called with a dominating A♦ 9♦ . DuTTiFruTTi9 didn’t catch up on the K♣ 10♣ 4♠ 9♦ K♥ board and went out in third place.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 1: Legadzo (47,756,598 in chips)
Seat 4: spenny32 (22,243,402 in chips)

Legadzo won all five of the heads-up pots, four trades of the blinds and this final hand.

Holding Q♣ 10♣ , Legadzo limped in on the button and spenny32 checked his option with 4♠ 8♥ . Legadzo made top pair on the Q♠ 8♣ 3♥ flop while spenny32 hit middle pair. Spenny32 led out for 1,760,000, Legadzo raised to 3,786,666, spenny32 shoved and Legadzo called. The 3♣ turn and 3♠ river filled up both players, Legadzo’s threes full of queens the superior of the two houses.

Congratulations to the U.K.’s Legadzo on his first Sunday Million title! He banked $182,214.33 for the win, while runner-up spenny32 took home $151,118.48.

PokerStars Sunday Million results for 3-29-2015

Players: 7,000
Prizepool: $1,400,000.00
Places paid: 1,080

1. Legadzo (United Kingdom) $182,214.33*
2. spenny32 (Australia) $151,118.48*
3. DuTTiFruTTi9 (Germany) $143,185.19*
4. Schuffelkus (Germany) $74,200.00
5. Charliegore8 (Hungary) $57,400.00
6. KingAlikMJ23 (Israel) $43,400.00
7. OneH1tWonder (Austria) $30,100.00
8. leoc00 (Canada) $16,800.00
9. adrrian1989 (Poland) $10,850.00

*= reflects the results of a three-way deal that left $20,000 in play for the winner

Kristin Bihr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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