The first Sunday of every calendar month brings the running of the $600+40 PartyPoker Monthly Million. Although its host site does not accept players from the United States, the PartyPoker Monthly Million still drew 1,584 runners over the weekend and featured a top prize of $200,000. The honor of taking down the February running of the PartyPoker Monthly Million, which took place on Super Bowl Sunday, went to PocketFives.com member Kevin scarface2911 Howe, a native of the United Kingdom.

Although Howe noted that the reality of winning the Monthly Million hadn’t yet sunk in, he was able to recap a key hand that set him up for success down the stretch. In the first level of play, Howe picked up pocket jacks, put in a raise in early position, and received two callers. The flop came a golden J-2-8 with two diamonds, giving him top set, and he once again fired out a bet. Both of his opponents called and the turn failed to bring a third diamond. Howe bet again and received just one caller, whom he was certain was on a flush draw.
The river was an action card, the deuce of diamonds, which gave him a boat. Howe shoved for 17,000 into a pot of just 6,500 and his opponent used up his time bank before making the call with the top flush. His mammoth pile of chips helped him weather the storm down the stretch: “After that, I was card dead for two hours and kept myself afloat by stealing and the odd 3-bet, while not showing any hands down. I turned up the aggression when the antes kicked in and chipped up nicely.” He plans to treat his family to a nice holiday with some of his newly-found riches. Here’s how the final table shook out:

1. KASABIAN_LSF - $200,000 (scarface2911)
2. tuandpham - $110,000
3. deadfizh - $69,000
4. nakkipirtelo - $54,500
5. mahtipeluri - $46,000 (Roman)
6. Brummieboy1 - $34,500 (brummieboy)
7. Trifster - $26,500
8. vasi86 - $17,500 (vasika)
9. Janet_A - $13,500
10. TATAPCTAH73 - $9,500

For Howe, the PartyPoker Monthly Million victory marked his second six-figure score on the site. The other came in May 2005, when he finished second in the PartyPoker Million for $120,000. On the significance of the win this time around, Howe claimed, “I was a sit and go player for over a year 20-tabling low-stakes games on PokerStars, so it's a relief not to have that grind every day.” He qualified for the $640 buy-in tournament by winning an $88 satellite.

Howe began his journey in the game of poker five years ago while in the Royal Navy. The U.K. native began grinding $22 10-man speed sit and gos full-time beginning in 2008. He then started playing in mid-stakes MTTs on three or four sites. Howe commented, “These were mainly Euro sites to take advantage of the weaker competition. I won a satellite into the PartyPoker cruise a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.” Last July, Howe made a deep run in the PokerStars Sunday Million, banking $1,900 for his 36th place effort. Last week, he finished third in the $33 rebuy on PartyPoker for $1,000.

Howe wanted to recognize fellow online poker players THEKID_88, glasvegas, and Liquid_Eyes, the latter of whom hails from Lancashire. He added, “I also wanted to thank all of my family and friends who have been supportive of me playing poker.” Also on Howe’s thank you list was the PocketFives.com community: “I know I don't post much. However, I’ve spent hours reading hand histories of players much better than I am and learned a lot from them.” He joined the site in early 2007.

Visit PartyPoker for more information on how to qualify for the Monthly Million. Congratulations to Howe for winning the Party Poker Monthly Million.