Celebration is in the air as Canadian pro Vanessa “Niffller” Kade impressively bagged her largest career score just yesterday. PokerStars’ Sunday Million 15th Anniversary crowned its newest champion to the tune of $1,514,920 for the victory. An epic heads up battle went down on Tuesday night as Kade defeated player “Talibenes” for the title and roughly a $500K pay jump. For the second time in its 11-year history, no deal was made and the biggest chunk of the $13,975,200 prize pool successfully went to Kade.
We just beat a field of 69,876 to win $1.5 Million.
It feels impossible.
This is the best day of my life.
It’s not close.All the pain was worth it, the dream is real. ♥️ pic.twitter.com/D0GKZSRhNl
— Vanessa Kade (@VanessaKade) March 23, 2021
Out of the 69,876 entries gunning for the title, only 65 players made it to the final day with each guaranteed a payout of at least $10,757. While the profit of over $10K from the $215 buy-in was already a sweet deal in itself, the remaining players all had their eyes on the top payouts of over a million dollars. Only two of the fortunate winners received a seven-figure score for their outstanding run.
With a lot at stake, talks of a deal were brought up when the final table saw four-handed play. No response however, was received from Bulgaria’s “PanchoVetin” forcing the action to continue on with no conclusion in hand. Luckily for Kade, cards started rolling in her favor and quickly eliminated final day chip leader “Transylvanian” and “PanchoVetin” soon after. Having gained a significant majority of the chips in play, Kade carried on a 7:1 chip advantage on the heads up duel against Poland’s “Talibenes”. Two hands was all it took for Kade to seal the deal and secure the coveted title, leaving “Talibenes” to settle for the runner-up finish and $1,035,358 in winnings.
The $1.5M moment. 👇
Congratulations to @VanessaKade on winning the #SundayMillion 15th Anniversary. 👏 pic.twitter.com/F5i2PRrPaK
— PokerStars (@PokerStars) March 23, 2021
2021 PokerStars Sunday Million 15th Anniversary Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
| 1 | Vanessa “Niffller” Kade | Canada | $1,514,920 |
| 2 | Talibenes | Poland | $1,035,358 |
| 3 | PanchoVetin | Bulgaria | $707,640 |
| 4 | Transylvanian | Romania | $483,652 |
| 5 | peu3ep | Russia | $330,564 |
| 6 | malinga | Norway | $225,930 |
| 7 | ikkedus | Netherlands | $154,416 |
Kade, an established poker streamer was in the spotlight as 2020 ended with the issue of GGPoker’s newly signed ambassador Dan Bilzerian hit social media. Representing women in an industry led by males, Kade publicly responded to the news saying “Sponsoring a sleazy, sexist tool with toxic followers as poker’s biggest ambassador lends validity to the idea that he’s an accurate representation of our sport. Not unlike supporting a president with similar traits because he would benefit our bottom line. Not worth the price.”
Bilzerian, known as “the King of Instagram” did not hesitate to reply, calling Kade a “hoe” in the process.
Quiet hoe, nobody knows who you are
— Dan Bilzerian (@DanBilzerian) December 4, 2020
Ironically, things have a way of working itself out with the whole poker community now knowing the name Vanessa Kade from her most recent win. Having also moved on from the GGPoker issue, Kade has signed on to be part of Americas Cardroom’s Team Pro joining the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Jon Van Fleet, Ebony Kenney, and Jeff Boski.
📣We’re thrilled to announce @VanessaKade as our newest ACR Team Pro. You can read her full bio here.🙌https://t.co/HTXKTdu8pm#ACRPros #TeamPros #Streamers pic.twitter.com/3qgUSvZwft
— Americas Cardroom (@ACR_POKER) March 18, 2021
“Vanessa is a strong advocate for women. She’s not afraid to hold players accountable for the sort of misogyny and bullying that undermines the spirit of the game. Although poker is largely dominated by men, with powerful voices like Vanessa’s, the game is changing for the better”, read her onsite bio.
Following her huge win, Kade will reportedly join her fellow ACR Team pro members for the upcoming World Poker Tour event in Florida. It is highly likely that the poker industry will be seeing more of Kade in the near future as she takes more stabs in international tournament circuits.
