While thousands of players were competing for top prizes in the Sunday Majors last weekend, the final round of the Masters golf was concluding at Augusta National. 

Undoubtedly there were nightmares endured at the tables, but so too in Georgia, where the reigning champion Jordan Spieth underwent a collapse some say he'll struggle to put behind him. 

For those who were too distracted at the tables to watch, Spieth's trouble came about at Amen corner, specifically the 12th hole, a par three 155 yard short-iron shot, and a water hazard that would cost him four shots. That turned his leading score of five under par (accumulated over three and a half days) into that of a runner-up, and all in just ten minutes. 

Daniel Negreanu somewhere in the middle of the poker/golf venn diagram

To his credit Spieth pulled a shot back on the next hole, but he'd never come close to the lead again. He walked off the final hole bewildered. British player Danny Willett took full advantage to claim his first winner's jacket. 

Having reporting on the EPT for nearly ten years, I've often asked whether another sport or activity mimics poker for its inconsistency, and for that random element that frustrates even the most talented of player. 

The best I could do, if it was a tad anthropomorphic, was horse racing (a big "player pool", different winners each time. But comparing people to horses doesn't quite fit. A better analogy, as one high stakes player explained, was golf.

Golf has that same unpredictability. Players are troubled as much by those things they can't control as what they can: conditions, the bounce of a ball, the slope of a green, all of which they must absorb as being part of the game. 

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of professional golfers around the world, many of whom win one week then fail to make the cut the next. They have periods of good form, but are only ever a single mistake away from ruining an otherwise faultless display.  One bad hole, not unlike one bad hand, asks difficult questions of your character as you endeavour to get back on level terms. 

Spieth experienced something like this on Sunday, ditching what appeared to be a sure lead until the 12th. "It was really one swing," he told ESPN. How many poker players leave a tournament prematurely, thinking "It was really one hand"?

Well, it's an exhaustive list. 

Take Dzmitry Urbanovich in the EPT Grand Final high roller last season. He led almost to the bell until mistakes handed victory to Eric Seidel (Urbanovich has since proved it's possible to recover). 

Philip Hilm famously blew up on the 2007 WSOP Main Event final table, bluffing off a chip lead to eventual winner Jerry Yang. 

Even last weekend, Daniel Palsson of Iceland was stacked at UKIPT London and on course to reach the final table. Then a mistake (which you can read about here at 8:29pm) cost him everything, and handed an enormous lead to eventual winner Usman Siddique. 

Benefactor Usman Siddique

It can strike anywhere. 

But, like all great players Spieth, still just 22, will recover. All you can do is dust yourself off and set about rebuilding, and just like in poker, you must do so alone. 

Plenty of similarities then to make golf arguably poker's spiritual cousin? Just don't mention all the fresh air sunshine. 

A look at all the major stories from this past weekend on PokerStars. 
 

Weekend highlights

* Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez wins the Sunday Million for $183,000
* Usman Siddique wins the UKIPT6 London Main Event at the Hippodrome Casino
* greengrass67 is the Sunday Warm Up winner, earning more than $76,000

Round up of latest results

Everything just seemed big this weekend, mountainous even. Whether it was the size of the field, the prize pool or the amount taken away by each of the weekend's major winners, it was simple enough to label it all "big". 

How so? 

Well, for a start the Sunday Million is still running hot, several weeks after it's tenth anniversary. This week's winner, as Martin Harris reported, was Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez, who logged off with the first prize of $183,708, which is some way beyond the average (unless this is now the new average?). Meanwhile in the Sunday Warm-Up, reported on by David Aydt, there was a similar bump, with winner greengrass67 taking away $76,124 for first place.

Then there was the Mountain Series, which by definition was supposed to be big. That paused also atop Mount Kilimanjaro yesterday although the series itself concludes on Mount Everest later today. You don't get much bigger than that. 

Then there was the UKIPT concluding in London. They'll be more on that below. First here are those online results in full.

$215 Sunday Million results (April 10, 2016)
Entrants: 5,926
Prize pool: $1,185,200.00
Places paid: 855

1. Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez (Finland) $183,708.88
2. salta44 (Argentina) $136,298.00
3. DerRaeuber (Austria) $96,001.20
4. pujarooo91 (Hungary) $66,548.98
5. calamitas (Ireland) $49,778.40
6. acumen plus (Canada) $37,926.40
7. oOwL (Germany) $26,074.40
8. goldfish108 (Canada) $14,815.00
9. dffg (Canada) $9,244.56

$215 Sunday Warm-Up results (April 10, 2016)
Entrants: 2,409
Places paid: 360
Prize pool: $481,000.00

1. greengrass67 (Hungary) $76,124.73
2. TISSO1709 (Austria) $57,175.20
3. OverTheTop43 (Austria) $40,953.00
4. BaNe.TrEnD (Serbia) $28,185.30
5. kimokh (Lebanon) $21,440.10
6. menglong (China) $16,622.10
7. lulDocuments (Mexico) $11,804.10
8. mmetsla (Estonia) $6,986.10
9. MaxBMM (Ukraine) $4,095.30

The weekend's top online tournament winners

Click here for the complete list of major results on PokerStars for the weekend of April 9 to 10, 2016.

A winner in London

Things were big here too. An enormous field strained the very confines of the Hippodrome Casino playing area, as 644 played combined to create a prize pool in excess of £440,000. Some 95 players were paid, with the greatest share going to winner Usman Siddique. He collected £84,100 for the win, and Marc Convey and Jack Stanton were on hand to cover every moment, which you can read here.

The result in full:

$700 UKIPT6 London Main Event results
Entrants: 644
Prize pool: £440,671
Places paid: 95

1. Usman Siddique (United Kingdom) £84,100  
2. David Gassian (France) £51,930  
3. Joe Hindry (United Kingdom) £37,110  
4. Warren Russell (Canada) £28,450  
5. Daniel Harwood (United Kingdom) £22,540  
6. Jack Salter (United Kingdom) £17,550  
7. Morten Halvorsen (Norway) £12,780  
8. David Docherty (United Kingdom) £8,731

Stateside

You might say it's in the fledgling stage, but regardless, the world of New Jersey online poker still produces some noteworthy prizes each weekend. For the first time in our Monday morning wrap up of the weekend's events we bring news from Stateside - new names long overdue some recognition.

Here's a look at the big winners:

That's everything from this big weekend on PokerStars. As always send your questions and comments to us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.

Way back in June 2009, the Luis "Turko_Man" Rodriguez claimed a Sunday Million title, one of many deep runs the Finland-based player would claim on PokerStars over the years. This week Rodriguez made it back to the Sunday Million final table, and almost seven years later managed to win the Sunday Million again, this time for a cool $183,708.88 first prize.

With 5,926 entrants in this week's $215 no-limit hold'em tournament, the prize pool was $1,185,200, again besting the Milly's $1 million guarantee, with the top 855 finishers splitting the winnings.

After just over nine hours of poker, just 27 players remained with Rodriguez the leader, Friend of Team PokerStars Pro Felipe "mojave" Ramos sitting in the top third of the counts, and Andrew "RunThisTable" Lichtenberger also still in the mix.

Ramos would fall, however, losing a big preflop all-in with ace-king versus the pocket nines of calamitas to finish in 21st. And shortly afterwards Lichtenberger put his short stack at risk with pocket tens against the same calamitas who held ace-seven, and when an ace came Lichtenberger fell in 19th, like Ramos earning $2,785.22.

Those pots helped calamitas take the chip lead with 18 players left, having built a stack of more than 9 million when no one else had as much as 5.5 million.

Conor "Earl Hindman" Shelly (18th), S Hawking (17th), and ova dawg (16th) were the next to go, picking up $3,318.56 each. B14ckSh4rk (15th), mashenka86 (14th), and Dylan "DylzSkillz" Garland (13th) followed, earning $5,096.36 apiece. Then $harkFlo (12th), BerGermano (11th), and Iam1966 (10th) were successively knocked out, taking away $6,874.16 each from the prize pool.

With Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez again the big chip leader with more than 21 million, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: acumen plus (Canada) -- 2,725,660
Seat 2: Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez (Finland) -- 21,973,654
Seat 3: dffg (Canada) -- 1,344,926
Seat 4: salta44 (Argentina) -- 9,827,187
Seat 5: pujarooo91 (Hungary) -- 2,968,943
Seat 6: oOwL (Germany) -- 2,794,634
Seat 7: calamitas (Ireland) -- 2,912,159
Seat 8: DerRaeuber (Austria) -- 12,504,311
Seat 9: goldfish108 (Canada) -- 2,208,526

A few minutes into the final table, the blinds were 150,000/300,000 when leader Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez opened for 645,000 from middle position, then a short-stacked dffg called all-in for just 114,926 from the next seat. It folded to calamitas who called from the big blind, then checked after the [5h][4c][3c] flop. Rodriguez then shoved all-in, and calamitas called with the 1,412,159 left behind.

calamitas: [Ac][5s]
Turko_man: [Kh][9s]
dffg: [Ks][5d]

The turn was the [Ad] and river the [6h], making calamitas' two pair best and knocking dffg out in ninth.

Shortly after that the blinds had increased to 200,000/400,000 when oOwL open-pushed for 795,766 from under the gun with [Ac][Jc] and got one caller in goldfish108 sitting a couple of seats over with [Ah][Qd]. The board came [9s][5c][4c][Qs][8c], giving goldfish108 a pair of queens but a flush for oOwL to send goldfish108 out in eighth.

On the very next hand salta44 open-shoved a stack of more than 8.3 million from the button and oOwL called all-in from the big blind for 1,967,052. oOwL had picked up [Ac][Jh] again and this time was up against salta44's [Ks][Ts]. The community cards came [3s][Ad][2h][4s][2s], making a flush for salta44 to beat oOwL's two pair and knock the latter out in seventh.

The remaining six players didn't even get through another orbit before another knockout occurred. It was acumen plus open-shoving this time from the cutoff for 2,871,320 (about seven big blinds) and salta44 reshoving from the small blind to isolate, turning over [Ts][Tc] versus the [Kc][Th] of acumen plus. The board came [4d][Qd][7h][9c][6s], and acumen plus was sent railward in sixth.

Just a couple of minutes later calamitas opened with an all-in raise to 5,755,301 from under the gun and after Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez reraised all-in over hte top from the button the blinds got out. Rodriguez had [9h][9d] while calamitas showed [Kc][Qc], and once the board came ten-high -- [Th][4s][5s][Jd][5h] -- calamitas was finished in fifth.

A few more hands passed, then with the blinds at 250,000/500,000 the new leader salta44 open-raised to 1,140,000 from UTG, then pujarooo91 three-bet all-in for 4,303,658 from a seat over and all folded back to salta44 who called. salta44 had [Ks][Jc] and pujarooo91 [As][7s], and when the board came [9h][Th][4h][8h][7c] salta44 had made a straight and pujarooo91 just a pair of sevens, ending the latter's run in fourth.

A few minutes later they were approaching the tournament's 12-hour mark when DerRaeuber open-shoved for 7,869,709 over the small blind (about 13 BBs) and Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez called. DerRauber had [Jh][8h] and Rodriguez [Ah][Qh]. The [Ad][4h][2d] flop gave Rodriguez top pair, and by the [9s] turn DerRauber was drawing dead to finish third.

That pot gave Rodriguez the edge to start heads-up play with 30,588,465 to salta44's 28,671,535 -- a difference of just over two big blinds. Rodriguez swiftly chipped up to build a big lead, and even after salta44 managed a small double-up with pocket aces Rodriguez was well in command when the final hand took place.

That last one began with an all-in shove by Rodriguez followed by salta44 calling all-in with the 7,757,804 left after posting the 800,000 big blind. salta44 had [As][2c] and Rodriguez [Qc][5s], and the [Qh][4h][5h] flop swiftly gave two pair to the leader. The turn was the [4d] to keep salta44 drawing live, but the [7c] river sealed it for Rodriguez.

Congratulations to Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez who years after his first Sunday Million win has taken down another, this time for over $183K.

4/10/16 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants: 5,926
Prize pool: $1,185,200.00
Places paid: 855

1. Luis "Turko_man" Rodriguez (Finland) $183,708.88
2. salta44 (Argentina) $136,298.00
3. DerRaeuber (Austria) $96,001.20
4. pujarooo91 (Hungary) $66,548.98
5. calamitas (Ireland) $49,778.40
6. acumen plus (Canada) $37,926.40
7. oOwL (Germany) $26,074.40
8. goldfish108 (Canada) $14,815.00
9. dffg (Canada) $9,244.56

Haven't gotten a PokerStars account yet? Join the world's biggest site now.

One of the best golf tournaments in the world finalized in Augusta, Georgia this afternoon as Jordan Speith tried to hold on for a wire-to-wire victory. The final table of the $425,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up featured OverTheTop43 trying to run over the table with five players left much like Speith holding a sizable lead at the turn. But, much like Spieth who looked human after walking through Amen's Corner, the big chip leader would get caught, as greengrass67 came back to take it down this week winning $76,124.73.

Read on below for greengrass67 run at this week's title.

While the start of the eighth hour of play started action-filled with several eliminations, the carnage slowed enough towards the end that 12 players would carry their chips stacks into the ninth hour.

Among those not continuing on, sava-lenivec, a past Warm-Up champion from 2013, took a one-two punch to the chin getting aces cracked then losing a flip to go from a healthy stack to out in 16th place ($1,782.66).

Ten minutes into the ninth hour Omon_Ra_AA perished in 11th place bringing up hand-for-hand play. Then the next hand with the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K kimokh would min-raise getting calls from TISSO1709 and bartek901. A coordinated [8c] [Th] [9s] flop got bartek901 to lead out for 346K as kimokh shoved for 2.87 million. Flopping the straight [Jd][7d] made calling all-in easy for bartek901 as kimokh was not dead yet after notching top set [Ts][Tc]. Sure enough the board paired on the turn [9d] and with the moot river [5h], the final table started up below:

Seat 1: BaNe.TrEnD (1688751 in chips)
Seat 2: mmetsla (937771 in chips)
Seat 3: menglong (1895751 in chips)
Seat 4: MaxBMM (1012956 in chips)
Seat 5: OverTheTop43 (4535853 in chips)
Seat 6: TISSO1709 (3801016 in chips)
Seat 7: kimokh (5462119 in chips)
Seat 8: lulDocuments (2189659 in chips)
Seat 9: greengrass67 (2566124 in chips)

Seven minutes into the final table with the blinds moving up to 65K/130K ante 13K MaxBMM would shove 1.24 million UTG as TSSO1709 joined in by re-shoving 3.58 million. No one else dove in as MaxBMM turned up pocket eights [8s][8d] while TISSO1709 would looking to win the flip with [Ah][Kd]. Took until the river to get there [4h] [Tc] [3c] [5h] [2d] to notch a wheel as MaxBMM was asked to leave in ninth place ($4,095.30).

Still in the same blind level ten minutes later, mmetsla, who took fourth here last year earning $26K, would lead off with a shove for 1.1 million. Folding all the way around to greengrass67 in the small blind who shoved 3.48 million to ward off BaNe.TrEnD. It worked as BaNe.TrEnD folded and greengrass67 showed two queens [Qs][Qc], slightly better than mmetsla's sevens [7c][7h]. Also slightly better than sevens? Another queen on the flop [9c] [Qh] [Jd] [4h] [6h] signifying mmetsla's end in eighth place ($6,986.10).

On the next hand OverTheTop43 would raise to 292,500 as lulDocuments would three-bet to 520K. Aptly named OverTheTop43 four-bet to 5.39 million. LulDocuments signed off the rest of the short-stack, calling all-in with 308K and pocket sevens [7h][7c]. OverTheTop43's [Qh][Ks] emerge victorious with a king on the river [8c] [8h] [Td] [2d] [Kd] as lulDocuments wrote the last memo of this tournament in seventh place ($11,804.10).

Moving on to the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level menglong would shove 1.8 million. Menglong also took fourth place here back in January looking to improve on that finish with pocket fives [5d][5h]. Unfortunately, OverTheTop43 held a sizable chip lead and pocket tens [Th][Ts] which made it through the [7h] [3s] [Tc] [8d] [7d] board to end menglong's night in sixth place ($16,622.10).

Shortly after the ninth hourly break with the blinds moving up to 100K/200K ante 20K kimokh would push all-in from the hijack seat as it folded to TISSO1709 in the big blind. Holding big slick [Kd][Ac] TISSO1709 made the call as kimokh turned up nines [9c][9h]. Not a good night for pocket pairs as the king hit the turn [Jh] [Qd] [Js] [Kc] [4d] earning kimokh $21,440.10 in fifth place.

On the next hand BaNe.TrEnD tried a similar strategy as kimokh by opening the betting with a shove for 1.95 million and sure enough the big blind, this time greengrass67, would make the call. The odds would not be even going to the flop as greengrass67 showed sevens [7d][7s] facing BaNe.TrEnD's [2s][As]. The two would connect, but a lack of aces and spades [9h] [2h] [6s] [5c] [3h] would send BaNe.TrEnD away in fourth place ($28,185.30).

Three-handed play would last awhile as all three enjoyed the wiggle room between their stacks and the blinds. Then with the blinds up to 200K/400K ante 40K it would all be over after two hands in-a-row.

First, with greengrass67 holding nearly two-thirds of the chips in play, the chip leader would shove 15.1 million from the button as OverTheTop43 made the call with 2.68 million and [6h][As]. OverTheTop43 would hold a slight advantage pre-flop against greengrass67's [Ts][Qd] but the hand is not over until the five cards are laid across the table as a ten [8d] [8h] [Td] [3h] [2h] hit the middle handing $40,953.00 to OverTheTop43 in third place.

Then, TISSO1709 wanted to forego any long-winded heads-up match by shoving immediately for 5.5 million with [9d][Qc]. Greengrass67 was down for gambling and made the call with [5h][Ad]. Both players would pair their top cards as greengrass67 notched an exclamation point [Ah] [4h] [Qh] [4s] [Ac] on the river to win $76,124.73 as this week's Sunday Warm-Up champion!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (04-10-2016)

Entrants: 2,409
Places paid: 360
Prize pool: $481,000.00

1. greengrass67 (Hungary) $76,124.73
2. TISSO1709 (Austria) $57,175.20
3. OverTheTop43 (Austria) $40,953.00
4. BaNe.TrEnD (Serbia) $28,185.30
5. kimokh (Lebanon) $21,440.10
6. menglong (China) $16,622.10
7. lulDocuments (Mexico) $11,804.10
8. mmetsla (Estonia) $6,986.10
9. MaxBMM (Ukraine) $4,095.30

With promotions such as this week's Mountain Series it is a great time jump into the game! Click here to get your PokerStars account.

Very few people come to play poker at Hippodrome Casino and don't fall in love with the place. The UKIPT has made its London home here and it'd be hard to imagine playing anywhere else in this fine city now. At midday today there would've been 10 players who agreed with those sentiments. Seven hours later, at least one person would still agree.

That's all it took for start of day chip leader Usman Siddique to dismantle the hopes of nine very capable opponents. Siddique might've allowed himself to dream of the title from as early as midway through yesterday's play when he won a 2 million chip pot courtesy of an obvervational mistake by an opponent. That pot alone was good for a final table average stack and it gave the 23-year-old the ammunition to boss every table he was at from then on. He ended Day 2 as chip leader and, despite a short while today when Warren Russell overtook him, never let go of his grip on the tournament.

On his huge pots yesterday, Siddique had this to say, "Yes it was really important but there were two stages. Firstly someone 5-bet ripped pocket jacks into my kings for 500,000 so that put me up to a million - then another player decided to get it in versus me in that huge pot."

The last man he had to get through was the main who started off the day on fire. French primary school teacher David Gassian pocked up kings in the opening moments of the day and used them to oust Anatolis Jevtejev in tenth place. The Lithuanian was unlucky as he had picked up a hand as well with jacks. That exit meant all players resided on one table and it was soon the official final table of eight when Gassian used pocket kings once more to Jack Hardcastle in ninth. That hand was also a cooler as the Portmouth native held ace-king but failed to find the three-outer he needed.

Gassian won another two big hands - once with aces and another with quads - and that helped keep him alive as Siddique destroyed all players around him. His luck ran out when he was heads up though. He was very short and moved all in with king-deuce; Siddique looked down at ace-six, made the call and went on to make two pair.

The official final table kicked off with the exit of Scottish pro David Docherty. This was the second time he's made a UKIPT final table (the other being Dublin, Season 2) and the second time he's been first out. Not much he could do with pocket aces though. Jack Slater had raised with queen-ten and called the three-bet shove before warning Docherty he was very lucky. He wasn't wrong and had the aces destroyed by the turn with a straight.

The only Norwegian to feature on the final day was next to go. He flopped overs and a straight draw, made his move, but was called by Siddique who had flopped top pair and an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river bricked to see six remain. Siddique also took out the next player - the dangerous Salter - and that, along with the seat draw, was key for him as he alluded to later.

"The table draw was really important - having Jack Salter and the other big stack on my right meant I had the nut table position. That and coming in as a big stack meant I was able to apply pressure at the right stages.

Also the big stack I had meant I could pass up some marginal spots and look for some bigger edges."

Winning the flip versus Jack, who I thought was the most dangerous opponent, was crucial. " Salter had a big hand with ace-king but couldn't hit to dislodge Siddique's pocket fives.

The one hand that Siddique seemingly wasn't involved in saw Daniel Harwood go in the fourth. The Cheltenham lad had been making lots of moves all day but wasn't getting called when he had it, and then when he made a move with a middling hand he ran into a big hand - his eights failing to come from behind to crack the jacks of Gassian.

The tournament ticked over into Level 29 and a dinner break was scheduled at the end of it, but Siddique had it all wrapped up in 30 minutes. First he took out the dangerous Warren Russell, who was the only man who really threatened him today, playing his first ever tournament in Europe after relocating to London five weeks ago for work reasons. He held ace-ten but Siddique wasn't planning on losing any races today and his sevens navigated a bricky board with ease. Moments later Joe Hindry was his next victim. He pushed with ten-nine and Siddique called with ace-five, which went on to make two pair. That gave him an almost insurmountable leads heads up and he made light work of Gassian before enjoying all the post victory formalities.

Siddique played well and ran really well - a dangerous combination. "It was just golden like a dream really. I ran really pure throughout the tournament. I kept expecting to get a beat somewhere along the line but it never really happened!" he said.

Here's the official final results:

Spring is in full flow here in the UK with summer around the corner, and you know what that means? Yep, summer holiday time! For the fourth year in a row the UKIPT is going on its summer holidays, once more meeting up with it's Spanish cousin, the Estrelles Poker Tour (ESPT). Qualifiers are running online at PokerStars now, so get involved and join us June 14-19 in Marbella for sun, parties and a little bit of poker.

For now, this is us signing off from the centre of London. Thanks for reading all week and see you all in June!

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 London: Marc Convey and Jack Stanton. Photos by Mickey May. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog