PokerStars.com premiere weekend tournament, the Sunday Million, pulled in 7,415 entrants this past weekend. The event fell 585 entries short of hitting its $1.5 million guarantee on just buy-in’s alone (Which would have required a total of 7,500 entries), so the site put up an additional $17,000 of prize money in order to match the guarantee.

When the tournament winded down to four-handed play at the final table, the remaining four players of Numb Nutzzzz, sms9231, salvo58 and darkillermax, tried unsuccessfully to reach a deal to split a portion of the prize money to a extent where all four remaining players would walk away with a large share of the prize pool.

Finally a deal was struck between darkillermax and salvo58 when the two got down to heads-up play. The agreement guaranteed chip leader darkillermax approx. $145,000 in winnings, with Salvo guaranteed around $135,000. $30,000 was then left on the line for the two to play for heads-up. Darkillermax eventually felted savlo58, for a total win of $174,656.

The final table results were:

1. darkillermax — $174,656
2. salvo58 — $134,793*
3. sms9231 — $84,000
4. Numb Nutzzzz — $69,000
5. Lounatic0815 — $54,000
6. moabut — $39,000
7. kadi100 — $26,250
8. cashadvance7 — $17,250
9. BackDoorovic — $10,500

For more information on the Sunday Million and other PokerStars tournaments, visit their website.

After some long-awaited anticipation, the next stop on the PokerNews.com flagship event has finally been announced, and the new destination was definitely worth the wait.

The next event will be held atop the Austrian Alps in Saalbach-Hinterglemm in a five-star luxury ski resort, the Alpine Palace. The 2009 PokerNews Cup Alpine is set to feature of total of eight events running through March 21st-28th, with a €1,500 Main Event as the priority attraction.

PokerNews hopes to attract players with the promise of over €400,000 in prize packages that include private helicopter transfer from the airport to the resort, main event entry, hotel accommodations, ski and spa passes, and spending money for their pleasure travels.

“It is our aim to take poker tournaments to the next level by providing qualifiers and guests with more than just a poker tournament,” says PokerNews Ltd CEO, Damon Rasheed. “As such, PokerNews is delighted to have the next leg of the PokerNews Cup held at The Alpine Palace, the most exclusive venue to ever host a poker tournament.”

Players looking for a cheap ticket to the event should look into entering one of the many Freeroll tournaments hosted by media-partner Mansion Poker.

Last week, students attending the University of Nevada Las Vegas were given a special treat when famed poker and blackjack expert Andy Bloch stopped by the campus for a lecture on the life of a professional gambler and card counter.

Bloch, who first gained notoriety as a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team, relived some of his stories during his card-counting days during the 1980’s, 1990’s, and into the 21st century. Currently an on-staff poker pro for FullTiltPoker.com, Andy also delved into the realism of card counting as portrayed in such movies as the recent hit “21”, starring Kevin Spacy.

Bloch also discussed trade secrets of the MIT card-counting team, such as common hand-signals the group would use to communicate with each other without alerting the casino security staff, and even broke down the intricacies of how much to tip a dealer so that you could give off the illusion that you were merely random tourist, not a professional gambler.

Certain scenes from “21” were then showed to the audience, which Bloch would dissect and critique based on realism on what parts were true to his real life experiences, and which were movie drama that were added in for extra effect.

Afterwards, Bloch moved on to discussions of his career as a professional poker player and gave insights into his self-admitted analytical style of play.

For more info on Andy Bloch you can visit his blog over at FullTiltPoker.com

I had the opportunity to head back to the Bicycle Casino this past weekend to enter in one of their famed October “Deep Stack” tournaments.  During these special events players are given about triple the amount of starting chips as usual, with the blinds only going up every 30min., allowing for plenty of time to settle in and pick your battles.

Well I picked my battle and got involved early during my big blind with Q J .  The player seated to my left raised me pre-flop and I called.  The flop comes KQ10.  The pre-flop raiser, who had a bigger stack than I did, immediately moves all-in and I call with my pair of Queen’s and  straight-flush draw.  He turns over AK.  Fourth street brings J , giving me two pair, but my victory is short lived when he rivers the K, eliminating me.

Despite my bad luck, I can’t wait to play in another one of these Deep Stack events and if you’re in the area I suggest you do the same.  Hopefully next time I’ll be on the other side of the coin flip.  Learn more about the Bicycle Casino at www.thebike.com

In international poker news, famed American tournament player John Juanda has added another impressive victory and bracelet to his collection.  Juanda bested an all-star final table that included fellow American’s Scott Fischman and Daniel Negreanu, as well as European pro’s Ivan Demidov and Stanislav Alekhin to win his fourth WSOP bracelet and a prize package totaling £868,800.

Juanda was pitted against Alekhin in a grueling heads-up match that lasted over eight hours.  In the final hand, Alekhin, short-stacked, moved all-in pre-flop with A9 and was called by Juanda who held  K6.  The flop came 662, giving Juana trip sixes.  Finally, the 6 fell on the river, giving Juanda quads and the 2008 championship.