Mendes Grabs PokerStars Sunday Million’s 18th Anniversary Title and $1M

Summary:

• The three days of the PokerStars Sunday Million 18th Anniversary have come to an end.
• Brazil’s Mateus Mendes grabbed the champion title and $1M after defeating an entry field of 39,226  participants.
• The tournament had a $8 million guarantee.

PokerStars Sunday Million 18th Anniversary (SMA)’s three exciting days have reached the finish line with Brazil’s Mateus “CrossBreed17” Mendes taking home the champion title.

After besting the entry field that was slightly short of 40,000 participants, the smallest since 2012 onward, Mateus claimed the $1 million prize for first place.

The poker tournament’s entry field was required to hit the $8 million guarantee, which translated to the SMA featuring an overlay for the second time in the event’s history. 

PokerStars Ambassadors Ran Deep Into the Tourney 

Three PokerStars ambassadors also ended up running deep into the tournament.

Namely, Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg scored a 219th finish and grabbed $2,325, commentator James “J.Hartigan” Hartigan exited the event from the 101st position, netting $5,032 while Fintan “easywithaces” Hand ended his run in 78th, which brought him $5,032.

Spraggy, a British poker player who initially joined PokerStars as a member of Team Online in 2017, has grabbed many online titles.

The list includes World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles which he scooped up two years in a row, in 2020 and 2021.

The player, who has a 523 GPI ranking, has so far totaled $478,068 in Live Earnings. 

J. Hartigan is an Irish poker pro with a current total live earnings of $10,108. In contrast, Irish easywithaces is both a Twitch streamer and PokerStars Ambassador with a 3,546 GPI ranking and total live earnings of $138,167.

Heated Final Table

At the final table, Mendes ousted Juanki “B4NKR0LL3R” Vecino, collected the pot, and came onto the nine-handed final table second in chips.

“talking“ was the first to exit the table after their ace-seven couldn’t hold against “Sunday Melon”’s king-jack once the chips went in preflop. 

Not long after, chip leader “Sunday Melon” dominated “alxwhitty“ in a new all-in preflop encounter. 

A queen on the flop and a turn with no drama in it eventually locked the runner-up.

“n3v3rw1n88” left the final table from the seventh position. “FcProto10“ brought the tournament to the final six players. 

“Majo360“ ran ace-queen into big slick and left the table next, quickly joined the eliminated players on the rail after running ace-queen into big slick.

Mendes managed to eliminate “Sunday Melon” after his commanding lead. The Brazilian’s ace-seven also dropped off “FcProto10”, setting up a heads-up play.

Despite the deal that Mendes offered to his opponent, “Sunday Melon” decided not to take it and the two kept the battle alive for one more hour and a half, finally confirming Mateus Mendes as the winner of the PokerStars Sunday Million 18th Anniversary.