On Tuesday, the 6th of November 2012, under new management, Full Tilt opened for business for the first time since Black Friday. The first Sunday Brawl took place on Sunday of that memorable week.

The tournament, with a re-entry and a buy-in of $200, saw more than a thousand participants and a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000 was exceeded more than three times. The first player to win the new Sunday tournament was Andre “Zebalhao” Andrade.

In February, 2013, a new major tournament was introduced into the schedule: first it had $350,000 GTD, four months later it had $250,000 GTD, and another year later it acquired the name “Sunday Major,” which it keeps nowadays. March of 2013 saw a debut of the Super Sized Sunday tournament.

It’s been three years since the relaunch of the Full Tilt and today we’re going to touch upon the best tournament players over those 138 weekends. 2CardsCollege will now raffle off a title of Sunday King at Full Tilt and sum up the results for the Brawl, Major, and Super Sized over those three years.

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The first nomination: the best in the Sunday Brawl.

The Brawl nowadays rarely sees more than 550 participants. The peak number of players was surpassed in the fall of 2013 and the following spring, Full Tilt management decided to turn the tournament into a freeze-out and reduce the guaranteed prize pool to $100,000. The same slump could easily be observed in the Sunday Major as well.

The dynamics of the Sunday Brawl’s participants since Nov. 2012

Not long ago, the Brawl transformed into a progressive knockout with a buy-in of $100.

The record-holders in terms of the number of final tables are as follows (each of them has five Sunday Brawl final tables):

· Jonas “donut604” Mackoff
· Jude “j_thaddeus” Ainsworth
· dante-sp
· Kask123
· Dearman2

Two-time Sunday Brawl winners:

· Rick “TheClaimer” Trigg
· Jonathan “xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis
· Justin “bird42042” Ouimette
· Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick
· Fanta Pomelo
· BedoliFE

And one of the first 2CardsCollege coaches: Andrey “harrrrmonica”

The last (but not the least) thing to help us define the best Sunday Brawl player would be the prize money distribution. The top 10 is as follows:

The prize money in the Sunday Brawl over the last 3 years

The winner in the nomination: Jareth “hteraaj2001” East. Three times he found himself at the Sunday Brawl final table, won the tournament in November 2013, and several weeks later captured bronze. He has earned about $90,000 in prizes over three years. Add to this a first place in the Sunday Major, an FTOPS gold jersey, and three Super Sized Sunday final tables. Does it make him the main challenger for the overall title? Well, no. But he deserves applause anyway!

Jareth East

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The second nomination: The best in the Super Sized Sunday.

The most expensive tournament of the main grid at Full Tilt represents a traditional reg vs. reg battle. The number of participants has constantly fallen since the very introduction of the tournament and it seems it was finally removed from the grid the last weekend.

The dynamics of the Super Sized Sunday’s participants from Mar. 2013 to Nov. 2015

The statistics of certain players is impressive.

We’ll name the record-holder in terms of the number of final tables (14) and at the same time who won in an overall category.

Known to us “Kask123” and “StephCute”, each has 11 final tables in his portfolio. Joao “joaoMATHIAS” Baumgarten and “IneedMoneyXX” have nine final tables each. Sebastian “p00cket00” Sikorski, “Beyond_Godl1ke,” and “Leqenden” account for eight final tables each.

“xa4ik800” and a German pro-player “56vn11”, aka “Mr.Ingenious” on PokerStars, captured gold in the Super Sized Sunday three times (also the mysterious champion did). The list of two-time winners is a long one and includes Nick “Grip” Grippo, Kyle “KJulius10” Julius, and Sam “IfHeDiesHeDies” Greenwood.

The following diagram shows 10 pro players who earned $100K+ in the Super Sized Sunday:

The prize money in the Super Sized Sunday for over 2.5 years

And the winner of the nomination is “xa4ik800”, the one known for making the Super Sized Sunday final table three times, winning it three times, and reducing the EV of other participants by $126,500. We would add that his nickname is somewhat indecent to the Russian ear.


Interesting data: 18 months of hurricane activity in expensive tournaments — and then nothing

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The third nomination: The best in the Sunday Major.

Old-timers remember the days when players had four entries to the Major. Then they had two. Now it’s a freeze-out and only last weekend it regained its rightful buy-in of $250.

The dynamics of the Sunday Major’s participants since Feb. 2013

“Mrluckypants” played at Full Tilt back in the 08/09 season, but after a short grind, he left tournament poker for four years. However, 2013 saw his comeback and in the following 2.5 years, he made it to the Sunday Major’s top nine six times, never taking the first place, though.

Surprising, but he wasn’t alone. The second six-time Sunday Major finalist, “UHAVESMALLPP”, never managed to hold the belt either. The same story happened to Pedro “Padilha10” Padilha and Jeremy “daisyxoxo” Fitzpatrick, with the only difference being they had five final tables each.

Then there was Peter “Belabacsi” Traply, who made the final table of the Sunday Major five times. Two-time winners at various times are:

· Alex “Not a Dane” Papazian
· Connor “Blanconegro” Drinan
· Fedor “BrickAndCRAI” Holz

It is notable that all three had a 100% result of two out of two final tables. It’s either you win the Sunday Major or reach the final table. The truth is that judging by the “Mrluckypants” experience, if handled properly, you can get more profit from six final tables than two victories:

The prize money in the Sunday Major for over 2.5 years

We shall call Maxim “MAMOHT_T” Mamonov the best player of the Sunday Major. He had the ultimate result just as his colleagues above: two final tables and two wins. He is in the top 10 in terms of prize money.

Maxim Mamonov

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The fourth nomination: Triple Crown (Full Tilt edition).

The fourth nomination is very simple. Juan Carlos “PrtyPsux” Alvarado was a one-time winner of all three major Sunday tournaments. He won the Sunday Brawl in November 2014, succeeded in the Super Sized Sunday in January 2015, and prevailed in the Sunday Major in May of the same year.

JC Alvarado (photo credit: pokerstars.com)

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The fifth nomination: The Sunday King at Full Tilt.

Prior to giving away the title let’s look at the results in general.

Eleven (and more)-time finalists of the Sunday tournaments:

· John “judge1034” Andress (18)
· “Kask123” (17)
· “StephCute” (16)
· Sebastian “p00cket00” Sikorski (14)
· “IneedMoneyXX” (14)
· Joao “joaoMATHIAS” Baumgarten (12)
· Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov (12)
· Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet (12)
· Sebastian “thereal_bandito” Saffari (12)
· Matt “Rocky2810” Wakeman (11)
· Matt “NoBadBeatsPlz” Kay (11)
· Pedro “Padilha10” Padilha (11)
· Juan Carlos “PrtyPsux” Alvarado (11)
· “Mrluckypants” (11)
· Roman “Romeopro33” Romanovsky (11)

Three (and more)-time winners:

· John “judge1034” Andress (4)
· “56vn11” (4)
· Juan Carlos “PrtyPsux” Alvarado (3)
· Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick (3)
· “xa4ik800” (3)
· Fedor “BrickAndCRAI” Holz (3)

Overall distribution of the prize money, top 10:

The prize money in the Brawl, the Super Sized and the Major for three years

Our champion is John “judge1034” Andress!

The essence of the tournament poker is reflected by the fact that since his first participation to the end of 2013, John Andress lost almost $120,000 at Full Tilt and in the following two years, he won the Super Sized Sunday, Sunday Major, and had 18 big final tables and $236,500 in prizes.

One wise poker professional used to say, “That’s poker folks.” You just gotta be patient.

The Sunday King at Full Tilt

This article was prepared by editorial office from 2CardsCollege Pro Poker Training. Join the club!