After taking a break of varieties throughout the recently completed Spring Championship of Online Poker, the Sunday Million was back again this week, online poker's most well liked weekly tournament. The general table featured plenty of tough challengers, including the Brazilian Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Ferreira and Uruguay's Alex "komarolo22" Komaromi. But finally it was Viking8844 of Israel outlasting everyone to take the title and $178,173.58 first prize.

Viking8844 thus adds a Sunday Million title to a set of wins that incorporates taking down a perfect Tuesday back in 2013, coincidentally doing so just after that year's WCOOP had concluded. 

A big field of 5,696 turned out for this week's Milly, thereby building a $1,139,200 prize pool that exceeded the tournament's $1 million guarantee, to be divided a number of the top 810 finishers.

The tournament was well into its eighth hour when the sector shrunk down under 100 players, at which point Viking8844 had assumed the chip lead because the only player with greater than 2 million chips. 

Nearly three hours after that they were all the way down to the overall 18, with Viking8844 still within the mix with a regular stack and Ronak "hellrokr" Agarwal and tudobem88 then battling for the chip lead, both hovering across the 6.3 million-chip mark.

El Pulgoso (18th), jonjoe97 (17th), and Aqual89 (16th) were next eliminated, each earning $3,360.64. They were followed by danger0us (15th), ThePrusha (14th), and myleftfoot33 (13th), with those three earning $5,069.44 apiece. OffpoZition (12th), BARBARVSSA2 (11th), and v587nt (10th) were next knocked out, picking up $6,778.24 each from the prize pool.

With Viking8844 having building up a stack again and tudobem88 the brand new leader with over 15.2 million, the general table was underway.

Seat 1: Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Ferreira (Brazil) -- 2,030,512  Seat 2: Ronak "hellrokr" Agarwal (India) -- 8,893,054  Seat 3: tohazzz (Belarus) -- 1,716,870  Seat 4: vidi.pkr (Romania) -- 5,707,821  Seat 5: Viking8844 (Israel) -- 12,555,142  Seat 6: tudobem88 (Mexico) -- 15,256,880 Seat 7: VicFiorese (Brazil) -- 2,146,929 Seat 8: Alex "komarolo22" Komaromi (Uruguay) -- 3,786,982  Seat 9: lulaka68 (Russia) -- 4,865,810

Not quite an orbit into the overall table, the blinds were 100K/200K when lulaka68 raised to 400,000 from middle position, and it folded around to Viking8844 who three-bet to 976,876 from the small blind. lulaka68 called the reraise, then after the 7♣2♣A♦ flop Viking8844 bet 796,876. lulaka68 responded with an all-in push for 3,448,934, and Viking8844 called.

lulaka68 showed A♠Q♠ for and Viking8844 A♥8♠, meaning both had aces however the at-risk player had the easier kicker. However the turn brought the 8♦ to offer Viking8844 two pair, and after the 9♦ river lulaka68 was out in ninth.

They continued on and with the blinds as much as 125K/250K it was tohazzz open-raising all-in for 681,870 from the cutoff seat and getting a caller in tudobem88 playing from the massive blind. tohazzz had K♦T♦ and the preflop edge over tudobem88's T♥8♥, and was still in front after the 9♠4♥J♣ flop and A♠ turn. However the river was the 7♠ to finish a straight for tudobem88, and tohazz was down in eighth. 

The tournament pushed forward into the latter half its twelfth hour, and with the blinds up again to 150K/300K it was vidi.pkr open-pushing for 2,294,341 from the button and Viking8844 calling from the small blind. vidi.pkr had Q♦T♦ and had to improve to overcome Viking8844's A♦7♥, however the 7♣4♠6♦3♦4♥ runout provided no such improvement and vidi.pkr was sent railward in seventh.

Just a few minutes later LAPT4 Uruguay champion Alex "komarolo22" Komaromi open-raised all-in for 2,771,982 (about nine BBs) after posting the small blind, and Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Ferreira called from the large blind. Komaromi had A♣9♥ and Ferreira K♠Q♦, and while the 8♥8♠7♠ flop was safe for the all-in player, the Q♣ was not because it gave Ferreira a number one pair. The river was the 8♣, and Komaromi had fallen in sixth.

Alex "komarolo22" Komaromi

Just four hands later, tudobem88 opened for 669,000 from the button, Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Ferreira three-bet all-in for 4.54 million from the large blind, and tudobem88 called. This time Ferreira needed help with A♥5♦ versus tudobem88's Q♣Q♠. The board rolled out 4♣T♥J♦J♠Q♥, improving tudobem88 to a whole house and ending Ferreira's run in fifth.

Gustavo "PIUlimeira" Ferreira

The final four continued onward, reaching the tournament's 12-hour mark with Viking8844 having built a large lead with greater than 33.3 million, about twice tudobem88's almost 17.3 million while Ronak "hellrokr" Agarwal and VicFiorese were both short with just over 3 million.

Then came a hand that saw tudobem88 open-pushing from the small blind with K♣T♥, and VicFiorese calling all-in for 2,631,272 total with A♥6♠ after posting the massive blind. The community cards came T♣6♥3♠, then 4♥, then 5♠, which gave tudobem88 a winning pair and stopped VicFiorese in fourth.

"Numbers??" asked Ronak "hellrokr" Agarwal within the chat box as three-handed play commenced, but Viking8844 fired back "I WILL BE ABLE TO look but I WOULD LIKE 185 k" (that is, a figure representing greater than the $178,173.58 scheduled to visit the winner). "loool" answered Agarwal, with tudobem88 adding "lol... not gonna happn."

"You both can split the remainder :)" added Viking8844, perhaps indicating the proposal was partly tongue-in-cheek. In any event no deal was done, and play continued.

Ten minutes later, it was Ronak "hellrokr" Agarwal pushing from the SB for 3,459,510 (about eight-and-a-half bigs) and Viking8844 calling from the BB. Agarwal had picked up K♦Q♣ and had two live cards versus Viking8844's 4♣4♠, however the T♣5♦2♥A♦A♣ board missed Agarwal's hand they usually were right down to two.

Viking8844 started heads-up play with a greater than 2-to-1 chip advantage with 39,034,629 versus tudobem88's 17,925,371. They'd finally end up battling for just over half an hour, pushing the tournament deep into its 14th hour overall, with Viking8844 keeping the lead throughout that extend except a brief, fleeing moment.

Back on top and with about 41.4 million, a hand finally arose that saw Viking8844 limp in from the button for 500,000, tudobem88 shove for 15,449,880 total, and Viking8844 call.

tudobem88: K♠9♥Viking8844: Q♦Q♥

Viking8844's big pair was best before the flop, and five cards later -- 4♦7♣2♣7♥8♥ -- it was still best, giving Viking8844 the pot and the title.

Congratulations to Viking8844 for successfully navigating the difficult Sunday Million waters to victory and collecting the massive $178K-plus first prize.

5/29/16 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) resultsEntrants: 5,696Prize pool: $1,139,200Places paid: 810

1. Viking8844 (Israel) $178,173.582. tudobem88 (Mexico) $132,716.803. hellrokr (India) $93,813.124. VicFiorese (Brazil) $64,364.805. PIUlimeira (Brazil) $48,416.006. komarolo22 (Uruguay) $37,024.007. vidi.pkr (Romania) $25,632.008. tohazzz (Belarus) 14,240.009. lulaka68 (Russia) $9,113.60

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Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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