An international online poker tournament is setting records in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The "Sunday Millions" tournament this week broke a record for entries and generated a $18.6 million prize pool. That makes it one of the largest online tournaments in poker history.
PokerStars revealed that the $18,603,200 prize pool was the largest in the organization's history. Over 60,000 players created 93,016 entries, with each entry into the tournament costing $215. The 93,016 entries shattered the previous record from 2011, which was 62,116.
A player from Brazil with the username "AAAArthur" ended up winning the tournament. The final four players agreed to split up the $3.67 million in prize money. "AAAArthur" took home $1,192,802, while runner up "CrAzY_sTeFaN" won $921,328, "Salonteskis" won $826,919, and "Caroline2963" won $786,873.
PokerStars president Matt Primeaux told ESPN that guaranteed prize pools in the tournaments have increased around 40 percent in the last two weekends. That's particularly surprising considering that online poker is only legal in Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the United States.
Pennsylvania has seen a huge increase, with PokerStar's Sunday showcase prize pool rising from $50,000 just two weeks ago to $105,000 this coming weekend. The popularity can likely be attributed to the fact that the World Series of Poker had to put a hold on live tournaments in Atlantic City and Los Angeles in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
