Argentinians Win Both PokerStars Bounty Builder Series Main Events

The PokerStars Bounty Builder Series wrapped up on February 17 with the crowning of the festival’s Main Event champions. In a stroke of coincidence, players hailing from Argentina triumphed in both the $109 and $1,050 buy-in Main Events. Between them, “Sucess005” and “EVOllOVE” took home $226,894.

The $1,050 edition of the Bounty Builder Series Main Event drew in 988 entrants, resulting in a minor overlay on the $1 million guarantee. Popular PokerStars Team Pro Sam “SamSquid” Grafton was one of the first players to collect a prize from the regular prize pool. Others who finished in the money included Alexandros “Pwndidi” Theologis, Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman, and Oliver “Sk2ll_m0dR” Weis.

With progressive bounty payments included, everyone at the nine-handed final table locked in a five-figure payout, with the eventual champion likely to bag more than $100,000.

“NicoGodoy93” of Argentina was the first finalist relieved of their stack at the final table. Their ninth-place finish came with $11,080.

Romanian “Serebity_p” and Austria’s “BigM_King17” were the next to bust, collecting $18450 and $18,848, respectively. Sixth place and $21,708 went to “Dimisi777″ before HardiZ1” turned their $1,050 investment into $34,490 courtesy of a fifth-place finish.

The surviving players breathed a sigh of relief after Christian “WATnlos” Rudolph crashed out in fourth. Rudolph has millions in online poker tournament cashes; he boosted his earnings by another $37,547 following this latest deep run.

Heads-up was reached after “svende21” of Denmark was eliminated in third for $46,387. That heads-up clash saw “Sucess005” take on “Binance.com” with both guaranteeing at least $70,843 for their efforts. “Sucess005” got the job done in the one-on-one battle and added $66,598 to their regular prize pool haul for a total prize of $137,442. The runner-up, although disappointed not to come away with the victory, still has $84,126 reasons to be happy with their performance.

$1,050 Bounty Builder Series Main Event Final Table Results

PokerStars Sunday Million Goes Phased; 17 Flights Across the Week

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Third Time’s a Charm for EVOllOVE in the $109 Main Event

If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again is how the old adage goes. It appears Argentina’s “EVOllVE” took the saying to heart because they fired a trio of bullets in the $109 Bounty Builder Series Main Event, a special edition Sunday Million, and ultimately came out on top.

Some 10,548 entries were processed, resulting in a guarantee-busting $1,054,800 prize pool. The Argentinian champions received $89,452 of that princely sum. “EVOllVE” had been busy accumulating progressive bounties as they marched toward an epic victory. Those bounties, including the one on their head, weighed in at $29,606, almost the same as fourth-place prize money. It goes to show why PKOs can be extremely profitable if approached in the correct way.

Seven of the nine finalists took home five figures for their efforts. They included runner-up “tutuia20” who scooped $73,255. The Brazilian was the only player, other than the champion, to collect five figures worth of scalps before busting. The next highest total after “tutuia20″‘s $13,417 haul was sixth-place finisher “F$M_0205” of Austria, with $5,700 in bounties.

$109 Bounty Builder Series Main Event Final Table Results

Don’t Miss the Inaugural Phased Sunday Million

This week’s $1 million guaranteed Sunday Million is the first time Pokerstars has made online poker‘s most iconic weekly tournament a phased event. Multiple Phases run throughout the week, each playing 23 levels. Have chips in front of you at the end of the 23rd level, and you’ll progress to Day 2, or the final phase, on February 23, where the tournament plays to a conclusion.

Satellites run around the clock and PokerNews will bring you a recap of the inaugural Phased Sunday Million once the final hand is dealt. Will we be writing about your epic victory? Only you can make that happen.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.