Soccer Ace Neymar Among the PokerStars Bounty Builder Series Opening Week Entrants

The $15 million Bounty Builder Series is in full swing at PokerStars, with the first tournaments of a 150 numbered events schedule kicking off last weekend. Forty events have crowned their champions, and it has not taken long for the top-tier players to get their hands on titles and vast sums of money.

Dimitar “KuuL” Danchev got the series off to a playing start by taking down the $5,200 PKO edition of the Titans Event. A compact 43-strong field meant only the top four finishers received cash from the regular prize pool. Danchev took home a total prize worth $78,787 after defeating Daniel “SmilleThHero” Smiljkovic heads-up, leaving the runner-up to receive $63,787.

Ognyan “cocojamb0” Dimov and Andrey “Anjeyyy” Novak were other players who finished in the money. They collected prizes of $22,769 and $14,030, respectively.

Brazilian soccer ace Neymar was one of the 43 entrants, but he could only muster a 20th place finish, busting without helping himself to a bounty. We could see more of Neymar in the coming weeks and months because he has returned to his native Brazil after signing for his boyhood club, Santos, after an injured-plagued spell in Saudi Arabia.

Dalton “daltonhb” Hobold Falls Agonisingly Short in the Sunday Million PKO

The $109 buy-in, $1 million guaranteed Sunday Million PKO drew in 10,244 entrants, resulting in a $1,024,000 prize pool. Two Team PokerStars pros reached the money places. Fintan “easywithaces” Hand bowed out in 1,287th place with Sebastian “peace&loove” Huber going super-deep and finishing 66th.

With bounty payments included, seven of the nine finalists turned their $109 investment into a five-figure score; all nine players at the final table only fired one bullet at this tournament.

All eyes were on Brazil’s Dalton “daltonhb” Hobold at the start of the final table due to his vast experience in high-pressure poker events. A Hobold victory looked likely until he crashed out in third for a $47,984 score. Hobold’s demise left “FromARGWL” heads-up against “Phanteidos1,” with the latter coming out on top and taking home $79,456.

Other Notable Bounty Builder Series Results

Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo, Joao Mathias “joaoMathias” Baumgarten, and Ramiro “ramastar88” Petrone reeled in PokerStars Bounty Builder Series titles recently. Outside of the biggest scores mentioned earlier, “anaconda12345” and seasoned grinder “tekelson221” scooped the largest hauls; both players padded their bankrolls with more than $39,000.

*all prizes include bounty payments

Huge Events on the Horizon

The remaining Bounty Builder Series events have substantial guarantees compared to their buy-ins, but a handful of tournaments stand out from the crowd.

On February 9, at 5:30 p.m. GMT, you can turn $55 into a share of a guaranteed $250,000 in the Bounty Builder Series #70-L: Mini Bounty Builder HR. The equivalent event last week saw “CaptainKort” outlast 6,187 opponents on their way to helping themselves to a $27,115 payout.

Thirty-five minutes later, the latest Sunday Million shuffles up and deals. Costing $109 to enter, unless you satellite in for a fraction of the cost, the Sunday Million has a cool $1 million guarantee on its prize pool, leading to some massive payouts.

A week later, at 6:05 p.m. GMT on February 16, the $109 and $1,050 Bounty Builder Series Main Events shuffle up and deal. Both come with a seven-figure guarantee. PokerNews will be featuring these Main Events, including detailing the cheapest way you can play them, in the coming days, so stay tuned.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.