Sunday Million KO success and farewell to nanonoko

A lot of time has passed since the Knockout Special on Pokerstars: passions and emotions have subsided - it's time to take stock. The main takeaway from the mini-series tournament was that the guarantee was exceeded in all progressive knockout events on Sunday.

The tournament knockout test of the pen from Pokerstars was successful. Moreover, they managed to reverse the trend that had developed in the first months of 2019 - the number of participants in the Sunday Million fell every time and called into question the demand for one of the oldest and most legendary Pokerstars tournaments. The Sunday Million KO has managed to reach the third place in the tournament prize pool this year. This local success can be explained by several factors: the novelty and popularity of the relatively fresh format, which inspired curious players to take part in the tournament. The second factor is the ability to beat back the buy-in and even get a profit at the end of the tournament without even being in ITM. We will not discount the decrease in the entry fee from $ 215 to $ 109, which allowed expanding the audience of the tournament.

The victory in the tournament went to a poker player from Sweden with the nickname “42ayay”. His poker piggy bank at Pokerstars was replenished with $ 91,471. The bounty for the heads of the knocked out players was more than a quarter of the total winnings. It is unlikely that the progressive knockout format will become an integral part of the Sunday Million, Sunday Warm-up or Sunday Storm, but the number of major tournaments in the increasingly popular format will continue to grow. The record and anniversary Sunday Million is coming this week. The tournament guarantee is $ 10,000,000 and that's a damn impressive figure!

Randy "nanonoko" Lew makes a handle on Pokerstars

In the meantime, there is no need to worry about it. ”

The second most famous (after Mark Avrelij, of course) professional grinder Randy "nanonoko" Liu ends his partnership with Pokerstars. The multiple Supernova Elite winner declared “I'm tired, I'm leaving” and left the slender ranks of Team Online professionals. Well, the quote is not literal, but it conveys the essence most accurately. The reason for the breakup is the reduced amount of playable distance and a general reluctance to broadcast on Twitch. Let's assume that sooner or later nanonoko will appear among competitors represented by partypoker. It really fits into the general trend, where Partypoker strives to take all the best from Pokerstars. And the creation of a professional team of poker players broadcasting live streams adds to the appeal of this hypothesis.

Please note that unlike some other poker rooms (shortened from partypoker and Chico Poker Network), Pokerstars is well disposed towards grinder players and does not fight with auxiliary software. It is the friendliness towards the grinders that has allowed nanonoko, MarkAvrelij and many other players to inscribe their names in golden letters on the poker tablet of success. None of this would have happened without the use of poker software. A huge share of their achievements is based on the use of tracking software: Holdem Manager 3, Poker Tracker 4, Hand2Note - all these programs have become a formidable weapon in the fight against hobby players and other regulars. But trackers alone are not enough to successfully play dozens of simultaneous tables.

You will also need software that simplifies and speeds up multi-tabling. These include: the legendary Table Ninja 2, functional StarsHelper, ergonomic StarsCaption. And to avoid eye strain and unnecessary information overload, it is advisable to acquire a convenient layout for Pokerstars designed specifically for bloody grind. "Only by knowing your enemy can you find the key to victory" - almost Sun Tzu. However, it is foolish to deny the need for additional information in a game with incomplete information. You can be one step ahead thanks to a comprehensive handhistory for Pokerstars, carefully collected bit by bit by naked virgins in the beds of the room. A good place to start as a pusher to break basic limits quickly is Nathan Williams' book Modern Low Limits, which contains all the tips you need to dominate the micro stakes.