UK Online Poker Pro Rob Tinnion takes down PokerStars Sunday Million

Ever since the Black Friday of online poker that extinguished American player accounts at all the major European online poker rooms, UK poker pros have dominated the virtual felt in terms of big-money tournaments. That fact was proven again over the weekend as Rob “robtinnion” Tinnion whittled his way through a massive field of 7,133 to take down the Sunday Million on PokerStars, adding £129,729.53 (USD $213,994.70) to his wallet.

The $200+$15 Sunday Million always draws an enormous crowd, as was evident by last weekend’s 7k+ crowd. The total entries built a massive prize pool of $1,426,600 (GBP £864,844.55), well above the guaranteed prize of $1 million (£606,227.78).

Hailing from Somerset in South West England, Tinnion has been grinding the online poker felt for years, having cashed in more than 4,300 tournaments across PokerStars, Full Tilt, 888 Poker and beyond. Up until last Sunday, his largest online poker tournament cash was £30,182 (USD $49,788); an impressive number to be sure, but a mere fraction of his new 6-figure career high.

It took Rob 11 hours to make his way to the final table of 9 in the Sunday Million after fellow UK poker player “adam978” was ousted in 10^th. From there, Tinnion shared the virtual felt with one other British native, “Picasso 2”, whose adventure ended with a 7^th place finish worth £18,594.16 (USD $30,671.90). A bit later, with three players remaining, it was clear that “robtinnion”, “fuddebuf” and “kalidonios” were suggesting the possibility of a three-way deal, but the talks weren’t serious enough to halt the game for an official deliberation.

A short time later, Tinnion was personally responsible for eliminating “fuddebuf” of Denmark in third place for £69,187.56 (USD $114,128). Dealt a favorable K© J© from the button, fuddebuf tossed out a min-raise of 1.6 million, but Tonnion raised right back with 4 million. The Dane made the call, and the flop dropped Aª Kª J§. Fuddebuf wasted no time in shoving the remainder of his 15mm stack. Tonnion didn’t hesitate to make the call, showing A¨ K§. The 8© turn and 6© river were of no use to fuddebuf, sending him directly to the rails. As a result, the UK online poker pro took a substantial lead in the chip counts with 50k to 20k over his Greek competitor, “kalidonios”.

It took just nine more hands for the Brit to emerge victorious. On what would become the final hand, looking down at A§ Q¨, Tonnion raised 2 million. Kalidonios 3-bet shoved, tabling A¨ 8¨. Well behind his UK counterpart, the Greek would need an 8, a triad of diamonds or a strain of sequenced mid-cards to come from behind. Instead, the board offered 4© 2§ Kª 7© 3ª. Tonnion took the pot and the top prize of £129k for winning his first PokerStars Sunday Million. For his valiant efforts, Kladonios earned £95,452.89 (USD $157,453.84) in 2^nd.