PokerStars is celebrating 100 million players this month. Today, we hear from one who took part in our 100 billionth hand.

The odds were huge. As PokerStars geared up to deal its historic 100 billionth hand, nearly 390,000 players were online trying to hit it. Many of those were multi-tabling, and so the chances of being dealt into the big one, and a shot at the $100,000 on offer for winning it, were remote in the extreme.

But Clayton Tomkulak, 28, already felt lucky. See, for three years straight he was called into work each day, and therefore assumed his chances of playing in the 100 billionth hand promotion climax, predicted to hit on a weekday afternoon, were gone. Then, out of the blue, his boss rang at 6.30am as he prepared to leave home, telling him things were slow and he could take the day off.

"It was the first time I had got a call like this in three years of working at the place," the Canadian said. And he didn't waste the golden and unexpected opportunity. He fired up 26 tables of microstakes no-limit and began to grind.

"I played 28,000 hands that day, which was a record for me by far, in the hope hitting one of the smaller million hand milestones leading up to the 100 billionth hand. Then, as the big one got nearer, I closed some of my $0.02/$0.05 tables and opened up a $0.05/$0.10, a $0.15/$0.25 and a $0.25/$0.50 table because PokerStars would pay a bonus to any player playing the same stakes as the 100 billionth hand when it hit."

Clayton Tomkulak

The million hands came and went with no success. Then the 100 billionth hand, which was one of the milestones in PokerStars history that we are revisiting as part of our 100 Million player celebration, came around.

"I wanted to sit out on my 26 tables so I could watch the 100 billionth hand unfold. I clicked the table ID in the lobby, and the table popped up on my screen but then instantly got pushed somewhere into my stack of tables so I didn't at that point see what was happening.

"Then my girlfriend, who was watching on her laptop, yelled, 'You won!' I totally thought she meant I had won a stake share prize for playing on the same level as the 100 billionth (a $0.02/$0.05 table). But she said, 'No, it's you! Look!' and she showed me her screen and I saw myself sitting at the paused 100 billion hand table!"

The action had been stopped to allow tens of thousands of players the opportunity to watch the huge milestone hand play out.

Clayton, who plays with the screen name HeyitsClay, and who lives in Burnaby, British Columbia, explained: "At this point I was in a huge panic because I didn't know how long the table would be paused for, and I had lost it on my screen! I had 26 tables open and needed to find that one. I was scared the hand would start, and that I might be auto folded because my time bank had been used up during the day!

"Thankfully I found it in time, and then I started getting messages on Skype, Twitter and Facebook, asking, 'Dude, is that really you?' Eventually the hand was played out, and I knew it was a snap all-in for everyone at the six-handed table.

"I was dealt [kh][6c], which I wasn't thrilled about but I knew it could have been a lot worse. Once everyone duly moved all in, all the hands were shown, and I liked my spot even more. The flop came [Ac][2c][Jc] and someone had paired their jack. At first I was like damn! No king! Then I thought I had one over card and a flush draw as outs until I saw someone had the [7c] so my [6c] was useless. So after that flop I was hoping for a miracle."

Clayton never caught up. The hand ran out with a [9d] turn and [Th] river, meaning microulis69 won with the paired jack, taking the $103,800 prize. Just for being on the table, however, still meant a $13,440 purse for Clayton. The hand, and all the milestones leading up to it were captured in a special live blog run by this writer and colleague Rick "Corporate" Dacey.

The 100 billionth hand in all it's glory

"It was a crazy mix of emotions, that's for sure," he said. "It's hard to say how much was shock, poker discipline, or sadness at missing out on the added $85,000 - then happiness at winning £13,440.

"I realise how lucky I was to be in the hand. It felt like I had used my life one-time on this, so it's too bad I didn't bink that 100k. But a 14k one-time is solid use, I think!"

Of course, his luck was multiplied by being turned away from work that day for the first time in three years. The money was put to good use. As well as leaving extra cash in the bank for everyday provisions, Clayton splashed out on a luxury festival and camping trip. "It made the trip 100 times easier and more fun. It paid for our tickets, rental car, and nice camping equipment. I had the best time of my life there, and winning that money really helped make that happen."

Clayton may think he has already used his "one time" - but he plans to be around when PokerStars celebrates its 200 billionth hand. "I'll be there going for two in a row," he joked.

But he was quite serious when asked what it was he liked about PokerStars. "When Stars does something it always does it right, with high quality. If there were any issues, you knew it would get sorted.

"A huge part would be PokerStars' interaction with the community. At times it seems like it is building something together as a team rather than a pure customer/client relationship - and that builds loyal players, I think."

PokerStars is celebrating 100 million players this month. Today, we celebrate those players who like to go fast.

What's the most boring part of playing poker? Folding. Nobody sits down in a casino or poker room eagerly awaiting the opportunity to pass their hand and wait a couple of minutes before they get dealt more cards. When playing on PokerStars that process is much quicker - you'll play at least three times as many hands per hour online than you will live - but it's still frustrating.

However, folding and waiting for another hand is just part of the DNA of the game of poker. There's no way around it and it will always be an element of the game that justifies the idiom 'patience is a virtue'. Well, that was the theory before PokerStars changed the game on March 16, 2012; the day when Spaniard 'Doña Blasa' won the first ever hand of real money Zoom poker. A new, faster poker game was now here and it effectively eradicated the boredom of waiting for the next hand forever.

As you probably know by now, Zoom poker places you in a pool of players, instead of fixed opponents on one table. Every time you complete a hand - or fold - you'll be taken instantly to a new hand at a new table with new players. Speeding the game up even more is the ability to 'Fast Fold', where you can pass before it's your turn to act. So if you get dealt 7-2 off suit you don't have to wait for the heroes before you to raise, three-bet and four-bet before throwing your hand into the muck. Just do it straight away and move on to pastures new.

It's fair to say that Zoom poker has taken PokerStars by storm since it was launched four years ago. A substantial amount of cash game traffic is now played on Zoom tables, Zoom tournaments have been introduced and, just this month, PokerStars withdrew all of its regular heads-up ring games and replaced them with heads-up Zoom tables.

Zoom poker is an established part of the PokerStars experience now but expectations were mixed upon the launch of the format back in 2012. Team Online pro Roy 'GodlikeRoy' Bhasin says, 'I was intrigued at a new and different style of poker, and a bit sceptical. I didn't think your average recreational player would enjoy the extremely fast action and non-traditional feel of the tables.' It took Bhasin a bit of time to adjust to the different strategies required for Zoom poker too. As he says, 'I was very hesitant to move on [from normal poker]. I would play a small amount of Zoom poker here and there to try it out but my results were always far worse at Zoom, and I had trouble concentrating on the action.'

Within Team PokerStars Bhasin was a bit of an outlier - the general feeling towards Zoom poker was one of excitement and anticipation. Long-time Team Pro Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier thought, 'It would be really cool, because Zoom is perfect for when you are on the move and don't have much time.' Lex Veldhuis echoed a similar sentiment, saying, 'I loved it immediately. It felt like an innovative way to re-approach a game that is loved.'

Of course, with any new variant of poker comes a whole new set of tactics and strategies to learn too. On the surface, Zoom poker isn't too different to traditional poker but there are definite adjustments to consider. Due to the Fast Fold option Veldhuis says, 'recreational players play tighter because they want to get on to the next hand. You also need more dynamic ranges [play a wider selection of hands] because the tables are so different every time.' Overall though, Roy Bhasin found out that Zoom poker was more similar to a standard poker game than he expected. Bhasin says his playing style, 'didn't change significantly since it was always based on the players at the table and making my decisions based on them - I do that now, and just assign slightly tighter ranges to my opponents in certain spots.'

Zoom poker was always going to appeal to a certain audience of adrenaline junkies, but any time that an established game like poker undergoes a seismic shift it has to be considered a surprise. The launch of Zoom poker coordinated perfectly with PokerStars moving to mobile via its official app - see this story for more details on that milestone - and suddenly allowed players to get in dozens of hands while they were on their daily commute, bored at work or making an extended visit to the bathroom. According to ElkY Zoom poker was a case of perfect game at the perfect time; 'We live in a world where fast action is always prized, and it will be more and more [in the future].'

In the modern mobile world poker players are always striving for a combination of fast and exciting action that they can play on-the-move. It's one reason why Spin & Go's are so successful, why Duel poker is so eagerly anticipated in 2016 and why Zoom poker has continued to grow in importance since its launch four years ago. By removing one of the major obstacles of poker - the boredom of folding - a new and improved version of the game arrived and it shows no signs of slowing down now.

PokerStars is celebrating 100 million players this month. See how you can join in the celebration and win some big money here.

Other stories from this series:

Meet PokerStars' longest-serving player of all time
The ghosts of WCOOP
The Moneymaker Boom that almost wasn't
Alexander Stevic and the start of a new era in poker
The PokerStars Sunday Million Two-Timer Club
Smile! You're on Kid Poker Camera!
Biggest poker tournament ever? Check!
So who was that first winner on PokerStars mobile?

Ross Jarvis is a writer for PokerStars

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

Weekend highlights

* Stardust167 wins the Sunday Million
* Vlad "dariepoker" Darie wins the Warm-Up
and...
*Dzmitry Urbanovich wins the EPT Dublin Main Event

Round up of latest results

There's no doubting that the main news this past weekend was that of Dzmitry Urbanovich, who won the EPT Dublin Main Event late Saturday night. But we'll get to that in just a moment. First a short recap on everything that happened online over the weekend.

That account starts with Sunday Million winner stardust167, who picked up a first prize of $179,120 in a deal free final table a few hours ago. As Kristin Bihr wrote in her report, the final was a "murderer's row of online poker success stories", not least in stardust167's heads up opponent Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos, the 2013 SCOOP "Medium" Main Event winner. But then what line up would you expect in the biggest weekly online tournament?

Over in the Warm-Up Romanian player Vlad "dariepoker" Darie took the $71,406 first prize after a heads-up deal with runner up Ben "bennybunny18" Richardson from Australia, who, as David Aydt wrote in his report, had his attempt at a remarkable comeback cut short.

Check the results in full below.

PokerStars Sunday Million results (2-21-2016)
Players: 5,778
Prize pool: $1,155.600.00
Places paid: 855

1. stardust167 (Ireland) $179,120.79
2. Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos (Brazil) $132,894.00
3. KumariOy (Russia) $93,603.60
4. feldegani.ps (Brazil) $64,886.94
5. capodelon (Switzerland) $48,535.20
6. IMDaBuster (Australia) $36,979.20
7. DEdgge (Israel) $25,423.20
8. Gordinho90 (Brazil) $14,445.00
9. Patrick "pmahoney22" Mahoney (Mexico) $9,013.68

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Results (02-21-16)
Entrants: 2,417
Prize pool: $483,400.00
Places paid: 360

1. Vlad "dariepoker" Darie (Romania) $71,406.54*
2. Ben "bennybunny18" Richardson (Australia) $62,336.17*
3. 1_conor_b_1 (Netherlands) $41,089.00
4. Mogelwette (Germany) $28,278.90
5. masterc50 (Poland) $21,511.30
6. zzwwzzwwzz (China) $16,677.30
7. majkl1812 (Czech Republic) $11,843.30
8. tig wired (Canada) $7,009.30
9. Goudvis_90 (Netherlands) $4,108.90
* denotes a two-way deal

The weekend's top online tournament winners

Here's a look at this week's big winners.

You'll find the complete list of major results on PokerStars here for the weekend of February 20-21, 2016.

And that Urbanovich story

Few people who have watched Dzmitry Urbanovich play had any doubts that when he reached the Main Event final table with the chip lead in Dublin that he was the absolute favourite. We thought it. BetStars thought it. Then Urbanovich himself proved it.

It was no easy ride for the 20 year old Pole (twenty!), who found himself the short stack with four players left. But despite a table appearance which rests some between ambivalence and irritation, he demonstrated a prowess that had surprised no one, least not after a past year spent winning almost everything, including those four titles at EPT11 Malta last year.

For poker fans it was a final table to remember. For we reporters watching court side it was one of those enjoyable treats. Read Howard Swains' full report of the final table, along with everything else from the Dublin festival.

That's all for now. Congratulations to all of this weekend's winners, whether online or in Dublin. As always you can keep in touch with us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.

This week, the Sunday Million produced yet another final table that was a virtual murderer's row of online poker success stories. Among them was 2014 ANZPT Perth champion Patrick "pmahoney22" Mahoney, who only last month captured a TCOOP title and over $144k. Russia's KumariOy is a 2013 SCOOP champion and that same year, finished third in the SCOOP "high" Main Event for a monstrous $700k score, while Brazil's Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos took down the 2013 SCOOP "medium" Main Event for $472k. Nicofellow started out on the short stack and miraculously survived to heads-up play, but ran out of gas as Ireland's stardust167 swooped in and went on a perfectly timed heater. One of three Brazilians at this final table, nicofellow had to settle for second place while stardust167 rose to the top and claimed his first major online title.

This week's Million drew 5,778 players with the prize pool topping out at $1,155,600.00. 855 places were paid with first place set to earn $179,120.79.

The blinds were up to 65,000/130,000 with ten players remaining. The action folded to short stack Bigdaft in the small blind, and he moved in for his last 687,951 with [Jh][Td]. Pmahoney22 called with [7h][8h] from the big blind. The [Kh][9d][8c] flop hit both players-- pmahoney22 made middle pair while Bigdaft picked up an open-ended straight draw. The [7s] turn made pmahoney22 sevens and eights, but gave Bigdaft the lead with a jack-high straight. However, the river fell the [7c] and pmahoney22 improved to sevens full of eights, ending Bigdaft's run on the final table bubble.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: capodelon (5,788,056 in chips)
Seat 2: Gordinho90 (4,586,037 in chips)
Seat 3: KumariOy (12,526,049 in chips)
Seat 4: nicofellow (2,020,821 in chips)
Seat 5: stardust167 (12,912,097 in chips)
Seat 6: pmahoney22 (8,098,470 in chips)
Seat 7: IMDaBuster (4,748,602 in chips)
Seat 8: feldegani.ps (5,282,710 in chips)
Seat 9: DEdgge (1,817,158 in chips)

Both short stacks got new life in the early going at this final table. Nicofellow doubled to 4 million when his [Ah][Ks] flopped aces and kings vs. pmhaoney22's pocket fives. Moments later, DEdgge three-bet shoved preflop with [6c][6h] and Gordinho90 called with [Ad][Qs]. Although Gordinho90 made trip queens on the [Qd][5c][Qh] flop, DEdgge turned the [6s] to make sixes full and doubled to 2.7 million.

Pmahoney22 fell to 3.74 million in chips and with the blinds up to 100,000/200,000, he three-bet shoved preflop from the small blind. Button raiser stardust167 called, his [Ks][Jd] dominating pmahoney22's [Qh][Jh]. Stardust167's king kicker played on the [Jc][6c][2s][8h][6s] board and pmahoney22 hit the rail in ninth place.

Gordinho90 suffered another hit when he again doubled up DEgdde, whose pocket aces prevailed over Gordinho90's [Ac][Kd]. Soon thereafter, chip leader stardust167 further solidified his position by winning a 14.8 million pot off KumariOy. Stardust167 opened for 400,000 with [9h][9s] and both DEdgge and KumariOy called. The flop fell a boffo [9c][3d][3h] and KumariOy led out for 671,600. Stardust167 called and DEdgge got out of the way. KumariOy bet 3 million when the [Ks] turned but checked the [Ah] river, leaving the door open for stardust167 to bet 3 million, KumariOy looked him up, only to muck in the face of his nines full of threes. Stardust167 rocketed to 24 million and became the dominant chip leader, leaving KumariOy on 10.8 million.

Meanwhile, nicofellow was down to only 1.75 million and open-shoved with [Kd][9s] only to run into IMDaBuster's [Jh][Jd]. However, nicofellow got a reprieve when the flop came down [Kc][9c][2s], making him two pair. The [6s] turn was a blank, but the [9h] river improved nicofellow to nines full and he doubled to 3.86 million.

Gordinho90 was down to only 620,000 by this point and open-shoved from UTG+1 he got two callers, stardust167 and DEdgge, who checked down the flop and turn on the [Kd][Tc][Kc][Qd] board. The [2d] came on the river and DEdgge checked to stardust167, who bet 1,000,000. DEdgge made the call, but could not beat stardust167's [Ad][7d] for the nut flush. Gordinho90 mucked and was eliminated in eighth place.

DEdgge soon followed Gordinho90 to the rail. He open-shoved for 3.35 million with [8s][Ts] and KumariOy called with pocket sevens in the small blind. The sevens held up and DEdgge went out in seventh place. Then, with the blinds up to 125,000/250,000, IMDaBuster moved in for 1.4 million from the cutoff with [As][2d] and both capodelon and KumariOy called from the blinds. Capodelon check-folded to KumariOy's 1,000,000 bet on the [9s][8s][6d] flop and KumariOy turned up [Qd][8c] for middle pair. KumariOy's pair of eights turned into trips on the river and IMDaBuster exited in sixth place.

Capodelon picked up [Qs][9c] and with the action folded to him in the small blind, he open-shoved. KumariOy called with [Kh][Jh] in the big blind and turned Broadway on the [As][Th][5s][Qh][6s] board, ending capodelon's run in fifth place. A few orbits later, feldegani.ps took a significant hit when stardust167 flopped top pair nines, turned nines and deuces, and rivered nines full. Stardust167 check-called the flop and bet 2.4 million on the river, feldegani.ps looking him up and losing over half his stack on the hand. Meanwhile, short stack nicofellow continued hanging on when he doubled through KumariOy, his pocket nines flopping a set against KumariOy's pair of kings.

Feldegani.ps was down to 7.3 million with the blinds up to 200,000/400,000 when he limped in from the small blind with [Ah][Qs] and KumariOy shoved for 19.3 million from the big. Feldegani.ps snap-called and KumariOy turned up [5d][9d]. However, KumariOy flopped a nine and his pair held up on the [9s][6d][2s][8s][Td] board, ending feldegani.ps's run in fourth place.

When three-handed play commenced, KumariOy held the chip lead with 26.7 million, stardust167 was second with 16.5 million and nicofellow was the short stack with 14.5 million.

KumariOy, nicofellow, and stardust167 battled it out for nearly forty minutes three-handed. Nicofellow moved into the chip lead after going to the river without a showdown vs. stardust167. Both players limped in from the blinds and checked a [Kd][2d][4h] fop. When the [2s] turned, nicofellow made it 600,000 to go, stardust167 raised to 1.8 million and nicofellow called. When the [9h] rivered, nicofellow checked, stardust167 bet 2.4 million and nicofellow moved all-in for over 18 million. Stardust167 gave up his hand and nicofellow raked in the 9.8 million pot, taking his stack up to 25.4 million. Shortly thereafter, stardust167 was down to 5.9 million, but doubled through KumariOy to survive, his [Jh][4h] flopping trip fours and rivering fours full vs. KumariOy's [Kh][Jd]. KumariOy fell to 12 million and a few hands later, he three-bet shoved with [8s][8d]. Stardust167 trailed preflop with [Qh][8h], but rivered a king-high flush on the [Kh][6c][4h][9s][6h] board to win the 22.1 million pot. KumariOy was left with only 1.43 million and was eliminated in third place on the next hand.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 4: nicofellow (32,812,300 in chips)
Seat 5: stardust167 (24,967,700 in chips)

Nicofellow and stardust167 traded the lead several times before stardust167 hit a hot streak and started pulling away. Stardust167 won 13 out of 14 pots and moved up to 43.6 million, while nicofellow fell to 14.1 million.

Then, with the blinds up to 400,000/800,000, stardust167 opened for 3.2 million and nicofellow moved in for 9.6 million from the big blind. Stardust167 called.

nicofellow [Ah][2d]
stardust167 [Jc][Td]

Stardust167 made two pair on the [Ts][9h][9c] flop and made tens full of nines with the [Tc] turned. The [Ac] river was irrelevant and stardust167 locked up his first Sunday Million win.

Congratulations to stardust167 on joining the ranks of Sunday Million champions! He took home $179,120.79 for the win, while runner-up Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos earned $132,894.00.

PokerStars Sunday Million results for 2-21-2016

Players: 5,778
Prizepool: $1,155.600.00
Places paid: 855

1. stardust167 (Ireland) $179,120.79
2. Nicolau "nicofellow" Villa-Lobos (Brazil) $132,894.00
3. KumariOy (Russia) $93,603.60
4. feldegani.ps (Brazil) $64,886.94
5. capodelon (Switzerland) $48,535.20
6. IMDaBuster (Australia) $36,979.20
7. DEdgge (Israel) $25,423.20
8. Gordinho90 (Brazil) $14,445.00
9. Patrick "pmahoney22" Mahoney (Mexico) $9,013.68

While attending the recently concluded PCA is on my bucket list, this added perk to the PokerStars VIP Store tops it all. As Brad Willis mentioned a few days ago tickets to the Grand Slam tennis tournament are now available with StarsCoin. A ways off Wimbledon's Centre Court, the ending to the $425K Sunday Warm-Up proved to be similar to a five-set finale. Beginning at the top of the tenth hour of play the heads-up match between Ben "bennybunny18" Richardson and Vlad "dariepoker" Darie looked like it would quickly end in straight sets. Instead Richardson would match the pressure of Darie's towering stack, as the two made a deal 40 minutes into their battle.

But after the 11th hourly break Darie would smash Richardson's comeback attempt, taking away $71,406.54 as this week's champ. Read on below to see how Darie became king of the Sunday Warm-Up court.

After eight and half hours of play zzwwzzwwzz would stand close to top of the chip counts with two full tables of nine remaining. With a final table in this year's TCOOP and a runner-up finish in SCOOP 2015's Event #25-H, zzwwzzwwzz may finally clear the business of nailing down a Major win.

Grinder1992's demise in 13th place would leave 12 players taking the five minute break at the nine minute mark as 1_conor_b_1 assumed a sizable chip lead on the field. Holding 8.3 million chips and blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K 1_conor_b_1's stack was over double of second place's dariepoker and the best chance of taking away the $76K up top. Like zzwwzzwwzz, 1_conor_b_1's was also a SCOOP runner-up in 2015, nearly claiming the Event 18-M tournament.

Shortly after the break, back-to-back knockouts of hownorez (Czech Republic) and AlmostSure (Russia), in 11th and 12th place respectively, would bring hand-for-hand play.

Ten minutes after the hour with the blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K shortstacked deagledan took a shot with king-queen [Kh][Qh] trying to out-flip the pocket fives [5h][5s] of majkl1812. Zero hearts and wrong kind of paint on the [3c] [8h] [6s] [9c] [Jc] board to start up the final table below:

Seat 1: bennybunny18 (3297489 in chips)
Seat 2: majkl1812 (1473658 in chips)
Seat 3: masterc50 (780862 in chips)
Seat 4: 1_conor_b_1 (7670635 in chips)
Seat 5: tig wired (1495423 in chips)
Seat 6: Mogelwette (1612363 in chips)
Seat 7: Goudvis_90 (1078825 in chips)
Seat 8: dariepoker (3293432 in chips)
Seat 9: zzwwzzwwzz (3467313 in chips)

It would take ten minutes but another back-to-back knockout by dariepoker would leave only seven left. First, with the blinds moving up to 65K/130K ante 13K Goudvis_90, who made a Sunday Million final table last year earning $24K in seventh, would shove 626K from the small blind as dariepoker called with [9d][Ad]. Goudvis_90's [9c][8s] nailed the flop, but dariepoker's turned flush [8d] [6d] [8h] [7d] [Jc] sent Goudvis_90 away in ninth place ($4,108.90).

On the next hand 1_conor_b_1 would lead out for a small raise as tig wired shoved for 2.77 million. Dariepoker was not going anywhere and re-shoved for 4.1 million holding aces [Ac][Ad]. Bad news for tig wired's [Qh][Kd] as the long shot picked up out on the flop and more on the turn [3s] [9d] [Js] [Qc] [2h], but could not complete on the river earning $7,009.30 in eighth place.

Four minutes later with the blinds holding and dariepoker assuming the top of the chip count, 1_conor_b_1 went looking to grab that lead back. Majkl1812 would shove all-in for 526,235 as 1_conor_b_1 re-shoved for 6.2 million. The shortstack had kicker problems turning up [2c][As] to 1_conor_b_1's [Ac][7c]. Those kicker problems did not go away [Qs] [Td] [3h] [7d] [8s] as majkl1812 took away $11,843.30 in seventh place.

Vlad "dariepoker" Darie already has a Super Tuesday victory for $120K and a runner-up finishing at the 2015 WCOOP Event #60 earning $178K and up to this point at the final table nothing looked it would stop him from adding a Sunday Warm-Up win. With the blinds up to 80K/160K ante 16K Darie would min-raise from early position as a depleted zzwwzzwwzz shoved for 1.3 million. Vlad made the call with a mid-ace [8d][Ac] to trump the little ace [As][3s] held by zzwwzzwwzz. The [5d] [Ts] [9c] [7c] [9d] board was no help to either player as zzwwzzwwzz was out in sixth place ($16,677.30).

The leaders would take a little break as later in the same blind level bennybunny18, who earned $22K in sixth place on the last trip to this final table in 2014, would shove 3.1 million from the small blind. Masterc50 found [Js][Ah] and called all-in for 1.88 million. Bennybunny18's pocket sevens [7s][7d] would safely reach the river [6h] [Th] [2h] [Kc] [Td] shipping $21,511.30 to masterc50 in fifth place.

A few minutes before the tenth hourly break with the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K Mogelwette, coming off a runner-up finish in the $109 Sunday Rebuy last month, was looking for double a shortstack off Vlad's mountain of chips. Darie however was not in a giving mood calling the shove from the big blind with [Ah][7h]. Mogelwette's [6c][9c] failed to catch anything on the [As] [Tc] [4s] [7s] [Ad] board, taking home $28,278.90 in fourth place.

The break did not slow things down as 1_conor_b_1 came out firing by shoving 1.74 million over a min-raise by bennybunny18. [Ad][Td] at this point was more than enough to warrant a call but 1_conor_b_1 turned up queens [Qh][Qc] hoping for the much needed double-up. Queens were good on the flop, but not the turn [3c] [8h] [4s] [Ac] [Kc] as 1_conor_b_1 earned $41,089.00 in third place.

After over ten hours of play it would be Ben "bennybunny18" Richardson vs. Vlad "dariepoker" Darie for this week's title. Both have experience playing high stakes in Super Tuesday but Darie is taking a sizable advantage (17 million to 7.1 million) into heads-up play.

Give credit for the grit of Richardson after falling behind 22.3 million to 1.8 million after five minutes of play, as the shortstack managed to stay alive from the that horrible start and continue play half past the hour.

That grit turned into cash for Richardson as 40 minutes into heads-up play Vlad conceded into making the deal below after Richardson nearly overtook the lead:

dariepoker: $63,406.54
bennybunny18: $62,336.17

After the deal was made Richardson would take over the lead and retain that lead going into the 11th hour of play (13.7 million to 10.4 million) and blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K.

Despite Richardson's comeback run during the first hour of heads-up play, two big hands for Vlad would make the difference.

First, with the blinds moving up to 250K/500K ante 50K and the board showing [6d] [4s] [3s] [3d] Richardson would lead out for 2.52 million as Vlad shoved for 7.3 million. Unable to answer, Ben made the fold thus conceding the 11.6 million chip pot (and chip lead) to Darie.

Six hands later Vlad would complete the button as Richardson shoved for 6.7 million holding [Qd][Jc]. Darie's [7d][Ad] made the call and a flopped flush [2d] [Td] [Kd] [8d] [9h] put this match away as Vlad "dariepoker" Darie took away $71,406.54 as this week's Sunday Warm-Up champion!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Results (02-21-16)

Entrants: 2,417
Prize pool: $483,400.00
Places paid: 360

1. Vlad "dariepoker" Darie (Romania) $71,406.54*
2. Ben "bennybunny18" Richardson (Australia) $62,336.17*
3. 1_conor_b_1 (Netherlands) $41,089.00
4. Mogelwette (Germany) $28,278.90
5. masterc50 (Poland) $21,511.30
6. zzwwzzwwzz (China) $16,677.30
7. majkl1812 (Czech Republic) $11,843.30
8. tig wired (Canada) $7,009.30
9. Goudvis_90 (Netherlands) $4,108.90
* = denotes a two-way deal

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