In the August 22nd running of the PokerStars Sunday 500, Jonas Klausen Klausen (pictured) outlasted a field of 1,001 players to take down his first Sunday Major. However, it was far from his largest online poker payday, which came by virtue of finishing second in a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event for $322,000 last year. He also has a third place showing in a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) tournament for $160,000.

Also part of the chop was PocketFives.com member David phatchoy888 Cheng (pictured), who walked away with $61,000 after taking second place. The chip-based deal awarded Klausen $69,000 and left $5,000 on the table to play for. Despite not being as large as several of his other cashes, the Sunday 500 marked a monumental victory for the European, who told PocketFives.com, “At this point in my career, it’s still a really nice win, so I’m happy about it. I’ve had a really bad year, so it was nice to see that it was possible to actually make a big cash.”

Klausen is one of the top ranked players in all of Denmark, a country whose poker products include Gus Hansen and 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Peter Eastgate. On whether he pays attention to his spot on his homeland’s leaderboard, Klausen told us, “I don't think too much about that. In the beginning when I started playing, though, that was one of my goals.”

At the 2009 WSOP, Klausen was the runner-up to fellow community member Eric basebaldy Baldwin (pictured), a UB.com pro, in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. Baldwin walked away with $522,000 and his first gold bracelet, while Klausen settled for a $322,000 consolation prize: “The fields are so big at the WSOP, so you can’t expect to have a year like I did in 2009 every time you are over there, but I’m still very satisfied with the way I played. I think the fields were about the same as last year and there were a lot of easy spots, but people are getting better.”

The final table of the August 22nd running of the Sunday 500 featured a gauntlet of talent. Cheng, for example, is a former winner of the Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee. On the same day as he took down the marquee Sunday Major, he finished second in the PokerStars Sunday Million. Fourth place in the Sunday 500 belonged to Sam siola Iola (pictured), a former Monthly PLB champion who sits at #39 in the Rankings. Joining them at the final table were former Sunday Mulligan winner Frank Frank1The1Tank Calo, PokerStars pro Steven stevejpa Paul, and Triple Crown winner szusza84.

On the competition Klausen faced at the final table of the Sunday 500, he remarked, “Those are all great players, but when you play in the big tournaments, you have to expect to run into some really good players. So, if you don’t like that, you shouldn’t play.” In 2007, Klausen burst onto the online poker scene after finishing third in the Sunday Million for $127,000.

In 2008, he followed up his performance by taking down a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) jersey in a $100 rebuy event for $90,000. He owns over $1 million in tournaments that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings and peaked at 67th worldwide in mid-2008.

Here were the results for the third Sunday 500 of August:

1. Tulkaz - $74,185 (Klausen)
2. supadphat - $61,323 (phatchoy888)
3. FIREintheSUN - $63,090
4. siola - $35,536 (siola)
5. xthesteinx - $25,025
6. RaineTech - $20,020 (Frank1The1Tank)
7. Seanlawn - $15,015
8. stevejpa - $10,010 (stevejpa)
9. szusza84 - $5,756 (szusza84)

Visit PokerStars to sign up for this week’s installment of the $530 buy-in tournament.