Philipp Gruissem topped the 230 players who advanced from Day 1A of the partypoker MILLIONS Online. (WPT photo)

After months of hype for the largest online poker tournament in history, the partypoker MILLIONS Online finally started on Sunday with the first of five starting days and not only did it produce big numbers, but some of online poker’s best players shined brightest.

Day 1A attracted 1,332 players accounting for 1,574 total entrants thanks to 242 re-entries. That generated $7,870,000 towards the $20 million guarantee and makes Day 1A the largest ever prize pool offered on partypoker. Over the remaining four starting flights, partypoker will need a total of 2,426 players to make the guarantee (before fees).

Leading the way after Day 1A is partypoker Ambassador Philipp ‘Phil_Gruissem’ Gruissem with 26,865,379. Right behind Gruissem is Finnish player ‘hi_all’ with 24,126,018. Ben ‘bfzhang’ Farrell sits third with 22,549,892.

The top 10 also includes ‘omgitsgiraf‘ and Chris ‘Therealmoorm’ Moorman. Other notables amongst the 230 players to advance to Day 2 include ‘WWWpartyCOM‘, Anatoly ‘NL_Profit’ Filatov, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, and former #1-ranked Joao Simao.

Ronan ‘Sw33ney’ Sweeney, the #5-ranked player in Ireland who qualified for the MILLIONS Online for $109, bagged up 2,233,249 to advance to Day 2.

The average stack after Day 1A is 6,843,478.

How the PocketFives Top 10 fared on Day 1A:

  1. lena900 – 615th (Did Not Advance)
  2. C Darwin2 – Did Not Play
  3. hellohellohello – Did Not Play
  4. mczhang – 597th (Did Not Advance)
  5. DamageAP – 761st (Did Not Advance)
  6. probirs – 737th (Did Not Advance)
  7. Ramiro – Did Not Play
  8. Romeopro – Did Not Play
  9. Ariados – 857th (Did Not Advance)
  10. MrTimCaum – 1,188th (Did Not Advance)

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Phil_Gruissem – 26,865,379
  2. hi_all – 24,126,018
  3. bfzhang – 22,549,892
  4. M1KE1NBRAZIL – 18,884,694
  5. CASHEEEGAMEEE – 18,682,668
  6. marcosminini – 17,276,420
  7. party_KEKIMISU – 16,826,075
  8. omgitsgiraf – 16,648,546
  9. jochee – 15,792,679
  10. Therealmoorm – 15,374,484

partypoker MILLIONS Online Schedule

  • Thursday, Nov. 29 – Day 1B
  • Sunday, Dec. 2 – Day 1C
  • Monday, Dec. 3 – Day 1D
  • Tuesday, Dec. 4 – Day 1E (Turbo)
  • Tuesday, Dec. 4 – Day 2
  • Wednesday, Dec 5 – Final Day