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When we looked ahead to events this past weekend on Friday, we had a hunch that things would be big. But you never really grasp just how big until the numbers are counted, and the dial finally stops turning.

And so, I’m happy to report, numbers were enormous. With the prizes so big, and satellites running up until the last minute, the billionth tournament was a draw for amateur and professional players alike. Some 34,081 players — or put another way the entire population of Pohnpei Island in the Pacific – took a seat, most on time to take part in two and a half hours of random perks and bonuses, amounting to some $200,000 worth of tournament tickets and cash prizes.

Those who didn’t find any of that loot landing in their accounts still had a bumper prize pool to think about, as much as you can think of a number like $3,408,100 without drifting off into some sort of blissful reverie.

Billionth_Tournament_carnival_1dec14.jpg

It meant a first prize of $329,586.71 to the eventual winner, who in this case was Kofi89 from Uruguay. His reverie might last for some time yet, but you can read how he got there in Martin Harris’s report on the PokerStars Blog.

Tourney Number One Billion ($109 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants:
34,081
Prize pool: $3,408,100.00
Places paid: 4,212

1. kofi89 (Uruguay) — $329,586.71
2. kaveh001 (Germany) — $241,566.12
3. zardy912 (Ukraine) — $177,050.79
4. Joas “No Limit NL” Mudde (Netherlands) — $129,780.44
5. svendottke (Denmark) — $95,120.07
6. dzambur (Germany) — $69,729.72
7. BlindRazorJJ (United Kingdom) — $51,121.50
8. KiepDoDen007 (Vietnam) — $37,455.01
9. StepaPupkin (Ukraine) — $27,469.28

As you’d expect, that figure eclipsed the usual numbers that feature in the Sunday headlines, with both the Sunday Million and Warm-up benefitting from the bustle of the weekend’s online activity.

In the Warm-Up CMRolfes1990 of Germany got things started. With “The Billion” attracting so much attention the Warm-Up seemed a good enough place to, well, warm up, or at least find consolation.

poker_chips_pile_1dec14.jpg

But as far as consolation goes it was pretty tough to get your hands on, being against 3,428 like-minded folk. With an expanded field came an expanded prize pool of $685,600. As David Aydt wrote, the largest share was eventually won by Germany player CMRolfes1990.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results
Entrants:
3,428
Places Paid: 495
Prize Pool: $685,600.00

1. CMRolfes1990 (Germany) *$99,398.64
2. ModzillaPL (Canada) *$88,456.75
3. K1ngdomCome (United Kingdom) $56,562.00
4. gardze_wami (Poland) $39,422.00
5. Simon “ministerborg” Ravnsbaek (Denmark) $29,138.00
6. O”Pazzzo” (Netherlands) $22,282.00
7. Nelis020 (Netherlands) $15,426.00
8. Sergio “trujustrus” Cabrera (Portugal) $8,570.00
9. QuadVQuadMe (New Zealand) $5,484.80
* denotes part of two-way deal

That left the Sunday Million, with a cast of supporting extras 500 stronger than the week before. It produced a winner not usually attuned to life in the high stakes shark pool. Leonid6691 of Russia was that man, jumping out of his regular low stakes games. A leap of faith it may have been but it was worth $221,674 to the Russian. And for us it meant a great story, and one well worth reading, as told by Kristin Bihr.

PokerStars Sunday Million results for
Players:
7,389
Prizepool: $1,477,800.00
Places paid: 1,080

1. leonid6691 (Russia) $221,674.92
2. BOLDONEALLAN (Sweden) $163,104.78
3. Lubczyk88 (Poland) $118,224.00
4. Michael “SilentPurple” MacHugh (Canada) $78,323.40
5. JhonyFonseca (Brazil) $60,589.80
6. LuckyDave83 (Austria) $45,811.80
7. joquannez (Norway) $31,772.70
8. Solidthought (United Kingdom) $17,733.60
9. Epkathy0901 (China) $11,452.95

Those were the biggest events of the weekend, but they were by no means the only highlights. With the last days of the Billionth Tournament Carnival take place there were more plenty of titles to be won, all of which can be found listed on our weekend results page below.

Tournament results from the weekend November 29-30, 2014.

Congratulations to all the weekend’s winners.


Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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