July 16, 2024 – PokerStars held a $1 million guaranteed progressive knockout tournament with a $215 buy-in and special edition Sunday Million this past weekend. Since the 2024 European Championships final was held while many elite pros were still in Las Vegas for the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP), such an event was not without major risk. Any concerns about an overlay were allayed, though, when 5,451 entries yielded a prize pool that broke the guarantee ($1,090,200).

Through a PokerNews campaign, tickets were won by fifty of the participants. A few days before this significant event, the PokerNews-only freeroll event took place where the event runner gave away 50x $215 seats thanks to the cooperation between PokerStars and PokerNews.

Six ticket winners cashed in the PokerStars Sunday Million Special Edition, sharing $545,100. Notably, Lithuania's "peledziukas17" finished 37th, earning $2,550, while Canada's "Azzurro550" secured 10th place, winning $6,663 including bounties. These players turned free tickets into impressive prizes, demonstrating the potential value of such promotions. Stay tuned for more opportunities like this in the future.

Brazil Dominates

Six of the nine finalists being Brazilian, the final table represented Brazil through and through. Aside from "marllonpinto," who came in ninth place with $9,474, every candidate received payments totaling five figures. Brazilians faced off against "prOvinzia1" from Poland and "EDY14101" from Andorra with four players remaining. "prOvinzia1" placed fourth with $36,164, while "EDY14101" secured the third place finish with $46,445, guaranteeing the victory of a Brazilian.

With the exception of the two tournaments mentioned above, "RicoMinibAby" emerged victorious on PokerStars this weekend, taking home $24,177 after winning the $1,050 Sunday High Roller PKO.

Veterans Simon "C. Darwin2" Mattsson and Peter "Belebasci" Traply also emerged victorious; the latter most likely did it while supporting fellow Swede Niklas Astedt in the 2024 WSOP Main Event.