$112,642.80
That amount went to our winner tonight as the skillfully lucky player that parries and fought through the 4,366 player field. Those players ponyed up $215 for the entry fee to the $750,000 Sunday Warm-up Guarantee this evening, thus no overlay as the guarantee from PokerStars was not needed once again. 630 players managed to take away at least $349.28 and the final table participants shown below were going home with no less then $7,072.92
Looking to repeat tonight is Snookerfun, who's back at the final table after winning $98,930.00 in his November Sunday Warm-up victory
(read about it here)
doktor007 couldn't operate his way out of a huge chip deficit when he lost a huge coin flip against Iteopepe88 and was left with under a big blind. His final bow with Jh-9h was no match for the trip fours of spiderfrank on the board of 3h-8s-4s-Th-4d to set up our Sunday Warm-Up final table tonight.
(Click on image for larger size)
Seat 1: Iteopepe88 (9242162 in chips)
Seat 2: harima (4658533 in chips)
Seat 3: ToBeTheMan (2236256 in chips)
Seat 4: SexSeen (4066615 in chips)
Seat 5: Snookerfun (2945221 in chips)
Seat 6: emyjim (7894887 in chips)
Seat 7: J0hnny_Dr@m@ (2621260 in chips)
Seat 8: spiderfrank (5564812 in chips)
Seat 9: 21aek21 (4430254 in chips)
Everyone started off the final table with at least ten big blinds in front of them, and the first player to make a move was J0hnny_Dr@m@ narrowly taking his KQo to victory over harima's call of J0hnny's three-bet all-in with J9o. harima missed his open ended straight draw and pair draws on the river on the board of 4s-8h-Ad-Th-5h to double up J0hnny into the four million chip mark, and dropping harima to the back of the pack with 1.4 million.
harima's fortunes did not change as six hands later he tried raising to 500,000 with blinds at 100,000/200,000 ante 20,000 leaving just 600,000 behind and found himself facing a three-bet by SexSeen for the rest of his chips. The math called for a call, and harima complied with Ks-9s creating a 2.7 million chip pot. SexSeen flipped up Ah-Qc for the brief lead before the flop showed Kh-Jd-6s to give harima the lead with a pair of kings and leaving SexSeen needing an ace or ten for the straight. The 3c was a dud, but the Tc on the river made a broadway straight for SexSeen and harima took home $7,072.92 in ninth place.
SexSeen wasn't done there as he would double up off of Iteopepe88 five hands later when his pocket jacks held up to the Ad-Qs of Iteopepe88 for a sizable 9.8 million chip pot. He also claimed the chip lead over emyjim who held 8.1 million.
ToBeTheMan you need to beat the man, and you need some cards. Manliness wasn't enough tonight for ToBeTheMan as he lacked stack size and card size against Snookerfun on his final hand. After calling Snookerfun's min-raise in the big blind and leaving just 488,000 behind both players saw the 3d-9h-4c flop. ToBeTheMan attempted a stop-and-go with Jh-Qc but Snookerfun was going nowhere getting 4:1 to call with Ts-Kc. 5h on the turn and 2s on the river neither player improved and ToBeTheMan was left with a no tournament chips but $10,915.00 in eighth place to regain his swagger away from the virtual felt.
The very next hand Snookerfun's attempt to repeat as Sunday Warm-up champ got a big boost courtesy of good cards and Iteopepe88. J0hnny_Dr@m@ opened the betting UTG+2 to 540,669 and was met by Iteopepe88's push for 4.1 million chips on the button. Not to be out done Snookerfun waited in the big blind having Iteopepe88 covered and made the insta-call with pocket rockets. J0hnny got out of the way as Iteopepe88 meekly flipped up Tc-Ac. Calling for clubs he only got one as the board spilled out 4d-5d-Qs-3h-4c to ship the 9.1 million chip pot to Snookerfun. Iteopepe88's starting final table chip lead spelled out into an unfortunate seventh place finish but a nice $17,464.00 consolation prize.
J0hnny_Dr@m@ provided no drama to 21aek21 in showing him the door in sixth place. After raising UTG to 669,666 J0hnny watched 21aek21's 2.2 million chips slide into the middle from the cutoff, with the blinds at 125,000/250,000 ante 25,000. J0hnny would make the call with Jh-Ad while leaving 2.9 million behind and 21aek21 would find himself well-behind holding Tc-Ah. As stated above, no drama here from J0hnny as the board ran out Qd-2s-2c-9d-5d to send 21aek21 home with $26,196.00 in sixth place.
Twelve hands later SexSeen wanted back into the mix and made an UTG raise to 685,485 only to run into spiderfrank's push from the big blind for 5.9 million. Since SexSeen covered by over six million chips he made the call with a suited big slick (Ac-Kc) but found himself well ahead of the Ah-Tc of spiderfrank. The 12.6 million chip pot was the largest of the tourney thus far and once again the favorite held up as the board showed Qs-Jc-6d-8d-6h to push SexSeen's chip lead to over 19 million chips. spiderfrank would get $34,928.00 to spin his traps another time for his fifth place effort.
J0hnny_Dr@m@ got himself in good position to double up with pocket aces against the 8s-9s of Snookerfun and caught a lot of drama when the board read Js-8c-Td-9d holding Snookerfun ahead for the suckout. But the Qd on the river gave both players the same straight chopping up the 8.2 million chip pot and putting J0hnny back in the rear chip position while Snookerfun still enjoyed his 18 million chip lead.
Seven hands later J0hnny would try again to double up his small stack against one of the large stacks. This time J0hnny faced off against SexSeen when he completed his small blind as SexSeen check his option. The flop came down Jh-2s-8h and J0hnny lead out for the minimum as the blinds were at 150,000/300,000 ante 30,000 and was met by a raise to 765,885. J0hnny responded with a shove to 3.1 million chip which was instantly called by SexSeen who was holding bottom two pair (8c-2h) and left J0hnny looking for a seven or Jack holding 8d-7c. The 2d on the turn left one out for a chop, but the 2s did not materialize on the river (Td) and J0hnny_Dr@m@ will have $43,660.00 extra to hang with his entourage after this fourth place finish.
After playing three handed for quite some time the chips were gradually drifting from SexSeen to emyjim. A double up and a couple of steals gone wrong, SexSeen found himself scratching for chips when the blinds moved up to 200,000/400,000 ante 40,000. A button raise to 1.2 million from emyjim prompted SexSeen to push his 7.5 million chips from the small blind. Snookerfun found himself in the middle of the chip splashing but holding a couple of black tens. He would make the call as emyjim abandoned his raise to see SexSeen's red fours. 8h-7d-8c-5d and no six or four on the river (5h) gave Snookerfun the huge 16.8 million chip pot. SexSeen will have $52,392.00 waiting for him next time he chooses to fire up PokerStars as the Sunday Warm-up heads-up battle begins!
Chip counts for our final two this evening as they battle it out for the $112,642.80 first place prize:
Seat 5: Snookerfun (28455933 in chips)
Seat 6: emyjim (15204067 in chips)
And done.
Yeah, one hand of heads-up play and we had our victor, besting the two hands of heads-up play just finished at the $1 Million Turbo Takedown final table.
A standard 1.2 million button raise from Snookerfun got emyjim thinking steal and he pushed for 14.7 million. But, once again Snookerfun had pocket tens (a new favorite hand perhaps?) which found himself well ahead of emyjim's Ad-8s. The 7c-9c-8d gave emyjim some more outs but gave Snookerfun an open ended straight draw. The Jh on the turn filled that draw and left emyjim looking for the last ten in the deck for a chop.
It did not come.
$78,588.00 runner-up check to emyjim for taking the three-handed small stack and making something big out of it against a tough field. To our two-time champ, Snookerfun, added another Sunday Warm-up title this time claiming $112,642.80 in addition to the $93K he earned in November!
Sunday Warm-Up Results (01-25-09)
1. Snookerfun $112,642.80
2. emyjim $78,588.00
3. SexSeen $52,392.00
4. J0hnny_Dr@m@ $43,660.00
5. spiderfrank $34,928.00
6. 21aek21 $26,196.00
7. Iteopepe88 $17,464.00
8. ToBeTheMan $10,915.00
9. harima $7,072.92
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