It’s not just the tournament winner’s name that made last night’s Million Dollar Sunday so legendary. As JohnLegend conquered the $1 million guaranteed online poker tournament with a pair of Aces, the poker world also witnessed the largest-ever poker payout broadcast on Twitch.
“Congratulations to JohnLegend on his huge win and to all the players who participated in Sundays big $1 million guaranteed,” said Americas Cardroom spokesperson Michael Harris. “This one was definitely for the history books and we look forward to setting new records in October, four times over.”
The Million Dollar Sunday is Americas Cardroom's signature tournament that runs throughout the year. The US-facing online poker site first introduced the $1 million online poker tournament earlier this year, bringing back a Sunday million-dollar tournament to US shores for the first time in four years. Thanks to Americas Cardroom's growing popularity in the United States, the online poker site was able to increase the frequency of the Million Dollar Sunday. Get a free entry here
While $200,000 was guaranteed for first place, late-night tournament play into early Monday morning encouraged a final table deal among the remaining players. JohnLegend finished first with $104,883, plus an additional $20,000 for winning the first-place deal hand with bullets. HollAtYaBoi followed in second with $81,848. Whitelime, RGarrido8 and EpicStation rounded out the top five with $109,605, $96,035, and $88,629 respectively.
The online poker tournament attracted some big-name players, including Joshua Beckley, a member of the 2015 WSOP November Nine. All eyes were on the would-be champion throughout the course of the evening. While he didn’t quite make the final table, he did manage to cash, securing $1,200 for finishing in 150th place.
It’s worth noting that while the Million Dollar Sunday offers players the opportunity to get back into the tournament, JohnLegend managed to secure the tournament title with one single entry. EpicStation also steamrolled his single entry into an $88k prize.
The next Million Dollar Sunday gets underway on Sunday, October 4th and features the same $1 million guarantee. Americas Cardroom is hosting a Million Dollar Sunday every weekend in October, putting an additional $4 million in guaranteed prize money on the line. If this week’s significant overlay of over $200,000 repeats itself in October, players will have the opportunity to contend with a smaller-than-expected field as they vie for a $200,000 first place prize.
While some online poker rooms would cancel big guarantees due to 6-figure overlays, Americas Cardroom believes in honoring all guarantees, even while contending with DDOS attacks. On Sunday, players at Americas Cardroom experienced short disconnects during play due to distributed denial of service attacks, something that has occasionally plagued popular websites. DDOS has affected not just the poker industry, but also government agencies and big technology players like Sony and Microsoft.
Commented Harris, “On Sunday night, we did a great job of managing those attacks and making sure our tournament was successful. We got to the end of the tournament and crowned another big winner, so overall our players are thrilled.”