PokerStars will celebrate the 14th anniversary of the Sunday Million with a special event on Sunday, March 22, 2020 with a $12.5 million guaranteed prize pool, which will be the largest single tournament in PokerStars history. The 14th anniversary Sunday Mill is a re-entry event (up to three re-entries) has late registration open until Day 2. First place will win at least a cool million. China's Wang 'wangli0402' Li won last year's record-setting Sunday Million 13th Anniversary event.
The Sunday Million... has been around for 14 years now on PokerStars. It's amazing to see that it is all grown up and a teenager! So much has happened since 2006 in the poker world, gaming world, and the real world.
The Sunday Million was birthed back in 2006 at a time of pure joy in the poker community. We didn't realize we had it so good as it was back in 2006. The world seemed so much simpler and easier. Only a couple of people had Facebook account and most people didn't have access to Twitter yet. Blogs were the dominant social media outlet and the online poker realm was still hitting the apex of the tremendous online poker boom after Chris Moneymaker shocked the world in May 2003 by defeating Sammy Farha heads up in Benny's Bullpen at the Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas.
Sundays seemed like the one day of the week in which amateurs flocked to their favorite online poker websites. A tournament was a great way to wind down the weekend and PokerStars was at the right place and at the right time to provide a platform for a weekly Sunday event that attracted donkey, fish, sharks and other aquatic life.
Since the first installment of the Sunday Million in the spring of 2006, PokerStars celebrated various birthdays and milestones for their anchor event on Sunday. And as the Sunday Million grows older, it's a great time to take a moment and think about how far the online poker world has grown since the gravy days when the Sunday Milly started in 2006.
Since its tenth anniversary, the birthday versions aka anniversary parties of the Sunday Million had guaranteed prize pools worth $10 million. The guarantee only kicked in once during that time.
According to a recent post on PokerStars Blog, the folks at PokerStars HQ crunch the stats and data from 13 previous years of the Sunday Million and its festive anniversary parties. They broke down the best of the best in the history of Sunday Million bashes. It's like looking back in time and remembering your best birthday party or best birthday gift. Heck, I was popular for a quick minute in first grade when I was the first kid in the class to have a birthday party at McDonald's.
Last year, the 13th birthday bash for the Sunday Million attracted 61,342 entrants (with 15,413 re-entries) for its $10 million guaranteed prize pool. The 2019 Sunday Million Anniversary set a record for largest Sunday Million in history. It also set a record for richest tournament with a $12.27 million prize pool.
In addition, Wang 'wangli0402' Li became the first player from China to ship the Sunday Million with a victory at the 13th anniversary bash.
In 2018, the Sunday Million 12th Anniversary had an overlay with the $10 million guarantee kicking in when only 43,975 runners took a shot. That lackluster turnover inspired a second special event called the Sunday Million Mulligan. Heck of a way to spin around a bad turnout. You know the saying, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
In 2017, Xavi666 shipped the largest single prize with a first-place booty worth over one million smackeroos with a $1,093,204 score.
Back in 2011 in the pre-Black Friday era, the 5th Anniversary event was a huge hit with $11.8 million prize pool for a $5 million guaranteed prize pool. They had over 59,128 entries who were fighting for the cash and the LAMBO! Yes, remember that time PokerStars handed out a Lamborghini Gallardo? The final nine chopped and Luke 'Bdbeatslayer' Vrabel binked the Sunday Million 5th Birthday Extravaganza.
So, what's up with birthday #14 for PokerStars and the Sunday Million?
The 14th Sunday Milly Anniversary will take place on Sunday March 22, or two weeks from today at 13:00 ET. This year will feature a $12.5 million guaranteed prize pool to create the largest online tournament in PokerStars history. First place will win at least $1 million.
The Sunday Milly Anniversary will be a re-entry affair allowing up to three additional entries with a late registration that ends at the start of Day 2. Yes, that's correct... Day 2!
For more details, head over to PokerStars Blog.
