The 2019 PartyPoker MILLIONS Online tournament is complete, and four players won more than a million dollars on its final day. The tournament was once again a success, surpassing its guarantee and producing an online event to rival some of the largest in history.
Announced and solidified earlier this year, the PartyPoker MILLIONS Online was set for the beginning of December, complete with a $10,300 buy-in and $20 million prize pool guarantee.
The hope was to meet and surpass the guarantee, as the online poker operator did last year. The 2018 MILLIONS Online offered a $5,300 buy-in and ended up with 4,367 entries, which boosted the prize pool to $21,385,000.
Increasing the buy-in in 2019 was a risk, but one that worked out in the end.
Building the Field
Action for the PartyPoker MILLIONS Online got underway on December 1 with Day 1A, the first of four starting flights for the tournament. The second was set for December 8, with a regular and turbo flight both scheduled for December 9.
When all was said and done, and the numbers were calculated:
https://twitter.com/partypokerlive/status/1204111990211383296?s=20
That delivered the final tally of 2,109 players and a prize pool of $21.09 million.
Reducing the Field
Day 2 then brought 383 players back to the virtual tables, but only 300 players cashed. That happened pretty quickly after the restart. “MCvisitor busted in 301st place, guaranteeing at least $21,900 for the rest of the finishers.
When the madness stopped for the night, there were still 27 players in action, with Team PartyPoker member Isaac Haxton and PartyPoker LIVE President John Duthie among them. “Rank 1 Global” was the overall chip leader, with “nomeansyes” in second on the leaderboard.
The start of Day 3 saw Dan “Junglemandan” as the first casualty with a payout of $63,270. Haxton soon exited in 25th place for the same amount. Play then continued until “BAPPA” busted in ninth place for $184,537, which set up the final table.
Playing for the Win
Play continued as several players exited, including “Cloudking” in sixth place, who also won the Team MILLIONS promotion for a prize package to the 2020 Caribbean Poker Party. And Duthie hung on with a fairly short stack before finally busting in fifth place.
“Rank 1 Global” exited in fourth place but became the first millionaire of the tournament with his payout. The final three players discussed a potential deal for the remainder of the money, but “nomeansyes” decided not to do it. That player ultimately busted in third place.
“Frenchsniperrr” and “Lucio” then paused the tournament again to try again for a deal, and the two agreed on one. The former had a slight chip lead, but both wanted the tournament title. “Frenchsniperrr,” revealed to be Benjamin Chalot, prevailed and took home more than $2.2 million and the title.
1st place: Benjamin “frenchsniperrr” Chalot ($2,259,113)2nd place: Lucio ($2,222,511)3rd place: nomeansyes ($1,370,850)4th place: Rank 1 Global ($1,107,225)5th place: John_Duthie ($869,962)6th place: Cloudking ($659,062)7th place: PalPal012015 ($474,525)8th place: BilLKluka ($316,350)
https://twitter.com/partypokerlive/status/1204703209618657280?s=20
These were the fourth and fifth largest payouts in all of online poker tournament history.
According to Pokerfuse’s calculations, the top two payouts were results of the 2018 MILLIONS Online, for which Manuel Ruivo won $2,329,943 for first place and Pim de Goede received $2,309,994 for second.
PokerStars comes in with the third highest, dating back to 2010 when the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) paid $2,278,097.50 to winner Tyson Marks.
On to the Next One?
It seems very likely that PartyPoker will host another one of these next year. The biggest clue is on its MILLIONS Online page, where it reads, “Stay tuned for information on the next MILLIONS Online!”
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