Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt is among the chip leaders heading into the final day of PokerStars’ $5M guaranteed Sunday Million 20th Anniversary event with a significant bounty and a shot at one of the year’s largest online poker payouts
With just 49 players left and a $176,310 payout on the line, the PokerStars Sunday Million 20th Anniversary event is set for a dramatic finish. Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt, widely recognized as the most successful online tournament player in history, enters the final session with a top-six chip stack and a bounty that could push his total winnings even higher. The Swedish pro is now positioned to add another major title to a career already stacked with records.
Final day stakes and payouts
The tournament’s $5 million guarantee has already seen a significant portion distributed through progressive bounties, but the remaining prize pool still offers a rare payday. The next player eliminated will receive just $924, while both first and second place are set at $176,310 from the main pool. However, the real difference comes from the progressive bounty system: 50% of each player’s bounty is paid instantly to their eliminator, with the other half added to the winner’s own bounty. Heading into the last day, the largest bounty stands at $8,400, with Astedt holding the fourth biggest at $6,700. The final knockout will deliver a substantial bounty boost, making the last hand potentially worth tens of thousands more than the posted payout.
How the field narrowed
After weeks of daily $109 Phase 1 flights, the field converged on September 6 for Phase 2, starting with 1,763 players. Only 49 survived to reach the final day, led by ‘RageReaperf’ from Finland, a previous Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP) winner, who brings 28.3 million chips to the 175K/350K blind level. Astedt sits in sixth with 19.6 million, well within striking distance. The structure and bounty format have already paid out much of the pool, but the remaining prizes and bounties ensure the finale will be high-stakes for every hand played.
Niklas Astedt’s record and recent results
Astedt’s online resume is unmatched, with an estimated $50 million in online tournament winnings and multiple SCOOP and World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles—sometimes won on the same day. His live tournament record is nearly as impressive, with close to $10 million in earnings, including a third-place finish in the 2024 WSOP Main Event for $3 million. In 2026 alone, Astedt has added a super high roller win at EPT Paris (€625,000), a WSOP Europe Super High Roller final table (€245,000), and a runner-up finish at EPT Barcelona (€522,000). His ability to consistently reach the final stages of the world’s toughest events is well documented, as highlighted in reported earlier by AZAR NEWS.
What happens next for players
The Sunday Million 20th Anniversary final resumes at 9:05pm CEST on Monday, September 7. The event’s unique progressive bounty structure means that even players with short stacks can see their payouts jump dramatically with a single elimination. For those looking to enter future editions, the guarantee will revert to $1 million next week, but the current field is playing for one of the largest online prizes of the year. The outcome will not only impact the winner’s bankroll but also reinforce the role of progressive bounty formats in shaping modern online poker strategy.
Progressive bounty tournaments differ from traditional prize pools by awarding a portion of each player’s bounty immediately to their eliminator, while the rest is added to the winner’s own bounty. This creates dynamic incentives for aggressive play and can lead to outsized payouts for players who accumulate multiple knockouts. The format has become a staple in major online series, rewarding both survival and risk-taking, and is now a defining feature of high-profile events like the PokerStars Sunday Million Anniversary.
