It was an all-Brazilian affair in this weekend’s installment of the PokerStars Sunday Million. The richest tournament on the internet saw Caio Cesar caio_pimenta Pimenta grab first place for a commanding $259,000. Coming in fourth was another Brazil native, Joao Mathias joaomathias Baumgarten (pictured at right). Fourth place in the 9,077-entrant field was worth $90,000, Baumgarten’s largest online poker cash to date. PocketFives.com virtually traveled to Porto Alegre to catch up with Baumgarten.

The first memorable hand for Baumgarten in the in the PokerStars Sunday Million occurred on the bubble. A three-way all-in pre-flop saw his A-Q defeat pocket nines and pocket kings after he made a straight on the river. Later on in the $215 buy-in poker tournament, he came out on the winning end of a set over set situation to build his stack to more than eight million. He bluntly told PocketFives.com, “I ran very well the whole tournament and won about 80% of my flips.”
The $90,000 take from the Sunday Million marked his largest cash in an online poker tournament to date, eclipsing a $79,000 payday for winning the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday in July. Baumgarten admitted, “The big Sunday tournaments were owing me money. I have been playing them for a year and never had a good score.” So which would you rather have, a final table in a Sunday major worth $90,000 or a win in a weekday tournament worth $11,000 less? For Baumgarten, the choice was a no-brainer: “I think a win is far more important to a poker player.”

Pimenta sits in the top 50 of the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings. His tournament resume includes a “W” in the Super Tuesday, a runner-up effort in the Sunday 500, and a third place showing in the PokerRoom (now bwin) Grand. This week, Pimenta can add a $259,000 effort in the Sunday Million to the list, boosting the GDP of Brazil in a big way. On the tournament’s eventual champion, Baumgarten told PocketFives.com, “Caio (pictured at right) is very strong. He’s very tricky and he likes to run over the table. He has a lot of sharp moves in his game and is the most famous online poker player in Brazil.”

At the time of writing, Pimenta and Baumgarten sat in first and third, respectively, in the Sliding PLB for Brazil. Here’s a look at the top five in the South American nation:



For Baumgarten, the future is also bright. Besides the Sunday Million, other top-tier results include a final table appearance in a $129 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Knockout event during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) in August for $25,000 and a win in the site’s $40,000 Guaranteed in October for $10,000. He got his start in the game after catching a glimpse of poker on television and sought out the internet to learn more about the pastime.

Baumgarten registered for PartyPoker and hit the felts in small-stakes sit and gos. He built his bankroll up to $120 and, ignoring bankroll management, registered for a $22 buy-in tournament. I bet you can guess how the story ends; Baumgarten took down the tournament for $1,800 and the rest is history. He told PocketFives.com, “After that score, I started to take the game of poker very seriously.” He has played professionally for the last year and a half.

The Brazilians were the only two members of the PocketFives.com online poker community to reach the final table of the Sunday Million over the weekend. The event boasted a $1.8 million prize pool and, in the end, the final table shook out as follows:

1. caio_pimenta - $259,244 (caio_pimenta)
2. KillerMendez - $190,617
3. floriverboy - $135,157
4. joaoMathias - $90,770 (joaomathias)
5. johnnylodden - $72,616
6. buddahead9 - $54,462
7. LAPINKY - $36,308
8. BRzRoll - $19,969
9. bo0ort - $12,708

Congratulations to Pimenta and Baumgarten for cracking the top four in the high-stakes tournament.