In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the popular Sunday Million, PokerStars is increasing the guaranteed prize pool of the tournament from $1.5 million to an amazing $5 million.
Kicking off at 4:30pm ET on Sunday, March 6th, the oversized Sunday Million will not only guaranteed a prize pool of $5 million, but also guarantee a first prize of at least $1 million. Not only will the last player standing win cash, but he will also be the envy of the neighborhood driving around in a new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 sports car.
The base MSRP for the Gallardo is $205,000. The speedster has a 5.2-liter V10 engine that allows it to reach 62 miles per hour in just 3.7 seconds. Doubling that speed takes only 11.8 seconds. While it is definitely not a gas sipper, it could be worse, as Lamborghini has improved the Gallardo’s fuel efficiency to 12 miles per gallon in the city and 20 on the highway.
Back to the tournament, the direct buy-in will be $215 and players can qualify via hundreds of different satellites. Buy-ins to the satellites run as low as $1 or only 100 Frequent Player Points (FPPs) and all of them award seats directly into the fifth anniversary Sunday Million.
Last February, PokerStars ran a modified Sunday Million to celebrate its 40 billionth hand. The guaranteed prize pool for that one was $4 million, but with 36,169 players paying the $215 buy-in, the prize pool ballooned to $7,233,800 and 5,400 players made the money. After over 13 hours of play, the aptly named “RichieRichZH” won the final hand and a first prize of $1,141,510.31.
Most people seem to expect this weekend’s Sunday Million to have a similar sized field. As of Tuesday morning, over 2,200 players had already registered, but there are still hundreds of satellites left to go, including one that will begin an hour before the Sunday Million and award 1,000 seats.
The reaction to the upcoming tournament has been one of excitement. One player, after four years of lurking on the TwoPlusTwo forums without making a single post, was finally inspired to write something: “Somebody somewhere is going to be very happy on the morning of March 7th! Would be a dream come true to take it down.”
Another poster said that while he had always heard good things about PokerStars, he was happy with the site he had been playing on and so had never created a PokerStars account. “This, however,” he said, “will get me signed up!”
Interestingly, the main topic of conversation was not the tournament itself, but the Lamborghini. And most of that discussion revolved around the negatives of winning. Per the terms of the tournament, the winner of the event is not permitted to take a cash alternative to the car. If he does not want it, it is awarded to the second place finisher. Therefore, poker players have been talking about the drawbacks of potential taxes and fees one would have to pay on such a luxury automobile.
One person wrote, “I am mostly positive Stars won’t cover any of the taxes. So you’re looking at import tax, state and federal income taxes, sales tax, licensing taxes, etc. Sell it and you’re looking at more taxes on top of that. And this isn’t even getting into the money you’ll spend on insurance, security, etc. for the car while you arrange to sell it. I think it’s seriously in question whether you can even break even selling the car.”
Naturally, many scoffed at those complaining about the possibility of winning a million dollars and a $200,000 Lamborghini. Regardless, the super-sized Sunday Million has already been generating plenty of buzz and will undoubtedly be one of the most talked about online poker events of the year. Sign up now.
