It’s that time of year again…almost. PokerStars is preparing to celebrate its Sunday Million’s anniversary with a massive guarantee on March 20. The annual event garners attendance from around the world. This year, the Sunday Million has a bit of competition. While the Sunday Million remains a unique event, GGPoker wants to try to steal the spotlight. It set its GGMasters Overlay Edition tournament for the exact same day.
Sixteenth Anniversary
The Sunday Million celebrates its birthday/anniversary each year. PokerStars started the tournament in 2006 and continues to mark each year’s milestone with a special edition of the Sunday Million. The very first of this now-iconic tournament happened in 2006. It started with a $1M guarantee on the prize pool. But, as has become the norm, attendance of 5,893 players boosted the prize pool to $1,178,000.
From there, PokerStars celebrated the tournament each year going forward. As a reminder, here’s a quick rundown of the history those anniversaries.
1st anniversary in 2007: $1.5M GTD, 10,508 players, $2,101,600 prize pool2nd in 2008: $2M GTD, 14,181 players, $2,836,200 prize pool3rd in 2009: $2.5M GTD, 13,267 players, $2,653,400 prize pool4th in 2010: $4M GTD, 36,169 players, $7,233,800 prize pool5th in 2011: $5M GTD, 59,128 players, $11,825,600 prize pool + Lamborghini Gallardo6th in 2012: $6M GTD, 33,732 players, $6,746,400 prize pool7th in 2013: $7M GTD, 49,287 players, $9,857,400 prize pool8th in 2014: $8M GTD, 46,586 players, $9,317,200 prize pool9th in 2015: $9M GTD, 50,432 players, $10,086,400 prize pool10th in 2016: $10M GTD, 55,059 players, $11,011,800 prize pool11th in 2017: $10M GTD, 55,835 entries (first time with reentries), $11,167,000 prize pool12th in 2018: $10M GTD, 43,975 entries, $10M prize pool (first overlay)13th in 2019: $10M GTD, 61,342 entries, $12,268,400 prize pool14th in 2020: $12.5M GTD, 93,016 entries, $18,603,200 prize pool15th in 2021: $12.5M GTD, 69,876 entries, $13,975,200 prize pool
Last year’s anniversary was special but made even bigger headlines because of the player who won it. Canadian poker pro Vanessa Kade, who had just a week prior signed on as an ambassador for Americas Cardroom, won the tournament for $1,514,920.
https://twitter.com/PokerStars/status/1374485292535619587?s=20&t=s-Q42OM4hUpLdHwL8-XA-Q
This year, the 16th anniversary is set for Sunday, March 20, 2022. The $215 buy-in tournament will boast of a $10M guarantee.
Satellites for the tournament have been running since January 21 and will continue until the day of the event.
A Coincidence?
A few weeks after PokerStars set the date for its Sunday Million anniversary, GGPoker announced a tournament set for – you’ll never guess - Sunday, March 20. It is the GGMasters Overlay Edition, which will require a $150 buy-in and offer a $5M guarantee.
Of course, the tournament is not identical to the Sunday Million. Its lower buy-in and half-sized guarantee are different, as is the et of three flights. They will all be on the same day but at vastly different times to allow people in various time zones to play.
According to former Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, “There’s no way this tournament is not going to have an overlay!”
Wouldn’t you know, this will also be an anniversary-style tournament, celebrating two years “of the poker world’s richest weekly freezeout tournaments.”
March 20 will be a big day for online poker players in parts of the world where they can play.
https://twitter.com/GGPoker/status/1493330103329333251?s=20&t=6J9liGZSqO9MROPbT1bzrw
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