A starting stack of 30,000, relaxed structure, AUD $1 million first prize ... no need to rush. Right? God bless poker players and their insatiable desire for action!
The combatants were Aussies Ricky Kroesen and Con Angelakis. On a flop that read [9d] [4c] [7c], Angelakis tabled [qh] [qc] but was in a world of hurt against Kroesen's [ks] [kc]. The turn and river bricked out [7c], [8d] leaving Angelakis with just 150 in chips, which he moved into the middle a short time later but was busted at the hands of Emad Moaref. Meanwhile Kroesen is up to 60,000.
Worst of all for Angelakis, news of his bust out immediately appeared on Star City's Twitter feed. This innovation is being beamed straight on to one of high-definition television screens in the room, with some questionable contributions from our blog team.
Players were also quickly informed via the Twitter feed of a tough beat suffered by Melbourne young gun Julian Powell. There was betting all the way between Powell and Phillip Kober, with most of their chips in the middle on a board showing [ad] [kh] [qd] [jd] [9c]. Kober showed [kd] [10d] for the royal flush. Powell's cards went into the muck at the speed of a bullet.
"Royal? Think I'm beat": Tough start to day 1A for Julian Powell
In another big hand, Australian Ykmour Rami and Michael Teren checked down a flop and turn of [jh] [ah] [7c] [7d] but the action heated up when the dealer produced the river [qs]. Teren led out for 1000, Rami made it 6000 to go, Teren shoved the rest of his stack into the middle and Rami went deep into the tank before making a crying call.
Teren rolled up [ad] [7h] for a full house; Rami shot up out his chair, clapped, pumped his fist and slammed down [qh] [qc] for the higher full house. "Pass the sugar," he cried as the pot was shipped in his direction. Teren looked forlorn but shot Rami a filthy look as he continued to boast loudly before leaving the room.
Winners are grinners: Ykmour Rami on the move early on day 1A
Rami's constant chatter and behaviour isn't endearing him to his tablemates in the early going, but with a stack of 65,000 in chips heading into the day's first break, he doesn't seem overly bothered. When players return from the 10-minute smoko, blinds will be at 100/200 with an ante of 25.
Openings don't come much smoother - we're quickly down to business on day 1A of the PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final at Star City Casino in Sydney. After speeches from Star City's Michael Aherne and APPT President Jeffrey Haas, the order to "shuffle up and deal" was given by PokerStars.net Team Australia Pro Joe Hachem.
It's already been a busy morning for Hachem, who signed copies of his book Pass the Sugar for scores of fans prior to the start of play. No surprises on Christmas morning for the poker players of Sydney!
PokerStars.net Team Australia Pro, Sydney's own Eric Assadourian
Players seated for day 1A include PokerStars Sponsored Player Lee "Final Table" Nelson and PokerStars.net Team Australia Pro Eric Assadourian.
Nelson was one of the first players to make a move this afternoon when he showed pocket eights against an opponent's pocket sixes on a board showing 8-6-2-Q-2 to score an early double-up. Back in Auckland, Nelson was out in the first level when he walked a full-house into an opponent's quads ... good signs for the 2006 Aussie Millions champ.
Lee Nelson's APPT Grand Final has kicked off on the right foot
We've also spotted ANZPT Adelaide champion Karl Krautschneider, 2008 APPT Grand Final runner-up Jason Gray, Perth's Michael Pedley and Kent Hunter, Peter Aristidou and wily veterans Martin Comer, Mike Ivin and Graeme "Kiwi G" Putt.
The younger brigade is being represented by ANZPT Player of the Year third-place finisher Joel strongplay Dodds, Julian Powell, Julian Cohen, Tony bond18 Dunst, Daniel Kochan and Donna Ciric, who appeared as a contestant on Joe Hachem's reality television series The Poker Star.
Internationals lining up today include well-travelled author Dennis Waterman, Dutchman Roel Pijpers (who cashed in this event last year) and Dustin Dorrance-Bowman, fresh from his in-the-money finish in the APPT Cebu Main Event.
"Andy, did you here about this one?" Yes, Michael Stipe, we've indeed heard that this is the biggest week of sport in Sydney since the 2000 Olympic Games.
Welcome to Star City Casino on the shores of Darling Harbour for day 1A of the 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final. The culmination of the APPT's third season is part of a sporting cavalcade that is expected to attract more than 350,000 fans to the Harbour city.
Sydney will be the focal point for sporting, and poker, fans over the coming week
The Australian Open golf title will be decided at the NSW Golf Club (featuring Greg Norman, John Daly, Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Stuart Appleby) while Australia's best touring car drivers will be battle the final round of the V8 Supercars season around the Olympic Park complex.
One of the biggest fights in Australian history is also scheduled for this week, with Aussie hope Danny Green facing boxing legend Roy Jones jr for the IBO World Cruiserweight title.
Meanwhile, poker's top prizefighters have started to arrive for the heavyweight stoush that is the APPT Grand Final. But it was a more relaxed atmosphere at the stunning Astral Bar last night for the final welcome party of the season.
Astral Bar, atop Star City Casino, hosted last night's APPT Grand Final welcome party
Chatting about some of the highlights of the year over a cool beer and delicious array of hors d'oeuvres were PokerStars.net Team Australia Pros Joe Hachem, Lee "Final Table" Nelson, Emad Tahtouh, Grant Levy, Eric Assadourian and Tony Hachem, along with pros and qualifiers from across the world.
PokerStars.net Team Australia Pros Emad Tahtouh and Tony Hachem at the APPT Grand Final welcome party
We'll be underway in the next 15 minutes, with players holding 30,000 in chips to start the day, and blinds starting at 50/100. The structure for today's play is:
The Russian Poker is back and has crowned a brand new champion.
This weekend in Kyiv, Ukraine, 123 players sat down for the Main Event and played for the $220,720 prize pool. Some of the biggest names in Russian poker showed up to play, including Alex Kravchenko, Ivan Demidov, Alexander Dovzhenko, WCOOP bracelet winner Vadim Markushevsky, and ET Kyiv champion Maxim Lykov.
On the fourth day of play, the final table players worked their way through an eleven hours battle and down to a dead even heads-up battle between Vadim Markushevsky and Vadim Kursevich. Rather than fight a protracted battle, both players moved all-in on the first hand of play. Markushevsky held ace-seven to Kursevich's king-queen. Kursevich spiked two pair on the flop and held on to win the championship.
Kursevich walked away with the $63,123 first prize, well enough to buy him into the next event on the tour. That tournament will find RPT players headed south to Egypt to play in the Sharm El Shaikh event in two weeks.
Congratulations to Kursevich, and good luck to all the players in Egypt.
We love of a good game of What Does Johnny Lodden Think (although, we prefer a game of What Does (French EPT Commentator) Benjo Think?. So, after last night's Sunday Million, we would love to sit around and ruminate on what Lodden thinks about making the final table of the biggest weekly poker tournament in the world.
That's exactly what happened on the last weekend of November. Lodden took fifth place early this morning for $72,616. It happened in a monster 9,077-player field playing for a $1,815,400 prize pool.The biggest winner of the day was Brazil's caio_pimenta who banked a startling $259,243 for first place. To see how he did it, check out Jen Newell's 11-29-09 Sunday Million report.
While that was the biggest win of the weekend, it was not the only one. November brought back from hiatus the much-loved PokerStars Turbo Takedown, a FPP-tournament with a $1 million prize pool. The PokerStars Blog's David Aydt tracked that one from beginning to end and saw viebu win $38,991 and a brand new car.
It was also the weekend for the Battle of the Planets finalists to square off in the monthly Triple Shootout. Aydt was on top of that one, too, and has the story of makkie21's win.
Each stop on season three of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) has delivered something new for players. In Macau, it was a superb new venue at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino; in Auckland, a permanent home in New Zealand's largest poker room while the move from Manila to Cebu for APPT Philippines was greeted with universal approval from everyone who trekked to Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa.
The theme continues here in Sydney, Australia where Star City Casino will again host the AUD $6300 PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final. For the first time, this prestigious tournament will be played in a dedicated poker room.
Already one of the Asia-Pacific region's premier properties, Star City is being transformed into a world-class entertainment destination with improved gaming and entertainment facilities, new hotel and expanded restaurant and bar offerings under an AUD $575 million investment in the property.
A new home for the APPT Grand Final: Star City's new poker room
The brand new poker room in which the 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final will be played provides players with a taste of the "new" Star City. Located on Level 2, the new poker room has been purpose built for poker players by poker players.
It features a dedicated multi-function buy-in desk, 25 newly refurbished poker tables, a separate kitchen with dedicated food and drink table service while conveniently located near some of Star City's most popular dining destinations.
Many of Sydney's biggest names in sport and entertainment were on hand for the recent opening, during which three APPT Grand Final seats were awarded in a Grand Opening satellite event. In past days, big fields have filled the room to capacity the fiercely contested APPT Sydney preliminary schedule.
Local celebs Mike Goldman and Laura Csortan at the opening of Star City's new poker room
Sydney's finest poker players will be out to ensure the championship trophy stays in the city. In seasons one and two, local players dominated with PokerStars.net Team Australia Pro Grant Levy and Martin Rowe becoming the first two Australian players to win AUD $1 million prizes on home soil.
PokerStars.net Team Australia Pros headed by 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem will again spearhead the charge but for the first time, they'll face a stern challenge from PokerStars.net Team Asia in the battle for regional bragging rights.
And the APPT Grand Final schedule will again culminate in the annual APPT Tournament of Champions. This invitation-only Tournament of Champions features winners from the APPT as well as some of the biggest names in poker, all competing to help their favourite charity.
When the world thinks of Sydney, it thinks of that Opera House and that Bridge
PokerStars Qualifiers from across the world have also been jetting into Sydney over recent days. They're not hard to spot with those ear-to-ear grins!
Star City is located just a short walk from the CBD and overlooking Darling and Sydney harbours, and is just minutes from many of Sydney's most iconic landmarks. Indeed, many hotel rooms provide a commanding view across the adjacent waterways to the nearby Harbour Bridge, one of the most iconic landmarks in this city of almost 4.4 million people.
There've been a few quizzical looks at the sky from our overseas visitors - yes, it is summer in Australia although it's been unseasonably cool in Sydney over the past few days. However, it won't be long until it'll be time to dig out the "togs" and "thongs", pack the "esky", chuck on some "zinc" and hit the beach!
Australia's most famous strip of sand: Bondi Beach, just a short distance from Sydney's CBD
Over the next six days, we look forward to bringing you a taste of the host city and the country we proudly call home, along with all the action from one of Australia's most prestigious poker tournaments, and the culmination of another APPT season.
It promises to be a massive day tomorrow. Not only will players take their seats for the first of three day one flights in the APPT Grand Final, we'll also be keeping on eye on the field in the $15,300 buy-in APPT High Roller event.
Join us from 12.30pm tomorrow for day 1A of the 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Grand Final. The Main Event buy-in is AUD $6300 (or approximately USD $5750), and Sydney is currently GMT +11 hours.
There is no disputing that the Sunday Million can be construed as a popular tournament. Its $1.5 million guarantee attracts thousands of players from around the world each week. But there seems to be a trend that it is becoming even more popular than ever. Evidence? A nearly 500-player increase on November 29th from the previous week. While this is far from a scientific study regarding the growth of the Sunday Million, it can certainly be established that there have been recent increases in registration numbers.
With that said, it matters most to the players because the prize pool continues to soar each week above and beyond the $1.5 million guarantee set by PokerStars. This week, the 9,077-player field pushed the pool to $1,815,400, which was split amongst the final 1,350 players standing, according to finishes of course.
And it took more than nine hours to wade through the massive tournament tables to find the final two. Another hour of action took them down to ten players after Bernard "Dogger9" Lee left in 11th place and hand-for-hand play began. It took some time to find the bubble player, but it finally happened when short-stacked Gomer3d pushed preflop with [Ks] [Qs] and original raiser joaoMathias called with [Kh] [Ts]. The board looked good for a double-up with [Ac] [5d] [9h] [3h] until the [Tc] came on the river to send Gomer3d packing in tenth place with $9,440.08.
The final table was then set and ready to go without delay. It was just moments into Level 37, with blinds at 250,000/500,000 and a 50,000 ante that the chip counts started the action as follows:
Seat 1: caio_pimenta (14,853,931 in chips)
Seat 2: bo0ort (5,198,125 in chips)
Seat 3: BRzRoll (6,288,224 in chips)
Seat 4: joaoMathias (13,819,875 in chips)
Seat 5: johnnylodden (13,983,689 in chips)
Seat 6: LAPINKY (3,769,476 in chips)
Seat 7: buddahead9 (14,368,015 in chips)
Seat 8: floriverboy (11,332,456 in chips)
Seat 9: KillerMendez (7,156,209 in chips)
Play was off to a roaring start, and on the second hand, short-stacked bo0ort decided to push from the small blind with [As] [Td]. BRzRoll decided to call from the big blind with [Kh] [7h], but the flop hit that hand better than expected when it came [Js] [7s] [7d]. The [Ah] on the turn helped bo0ort with two pair, but the [Ks] on the river solidified the win for BRzRoll with the full house. That left bo0ort out in ninth place with $12,707.80.
It was then that we caught our breath and grabbed this screen shot of the table:
Moments (and only eight hands) later, another player was at risk. Action started with a preflop raise from ciao_pimenta, but BRzRoll reraised all-in for 10,456,349 chips. caio_pimenta called with [Ac] [Kh], which dominated the [Ks] [Qc] of BRzRoll. The first three cards on the board hit ciao_pimenta with [9h] [3c] [Ad], and the [Kc] turn and [3c] river ended BRzRoll's run in eighth place, which was worth a payout of $19,969.40.
Another five hands led to another all-in situation, and it began with LAPINKY leading out with a preflop raise. The call was made by floriverboy, and the two observed the flop come [3c] [3h] [Kc]. LAPINKY moved all-in with [Kh] [Th] for two pair, and floriverboy called with [Kd] [Jc] and the same two pair but a better kicker. The [7s] turn and [5h] river took it to that kicker, which eliminated LAPINKY in seventh place with $36,308.00.
Coming off the final table's first break, KillerMendez took the opportunity to double through floriverboy, putting the latter in the position of short stack. And soon after, joaoMathias was able to double through caio_pimenta with pocket aces.
But it was caio_pimenta who wasted no time getting into a dominating chip position. The hand that did it started with buddahead9 raising preflop and ciao_pimenta reraising from the small blind. buddahead9 called, and the flop came [Jc] [8c] [5s]. A bet and call led to the [7c] on the turn, and checks from both brought the [5c] river card. ciao_pimenta pushed all-in, and buddahead9 called for his tournament life with [Kd] [Kc] and the king-high flush. However, caio_pimenta was happy to show his [Ac] [8h] for the nut flush, which was good for the 37.5 million chip pot. buddahead9 was ousted in sixth place with $54,462.00.
The very next hand saw Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden in action and trying to get out of last place on the leaderboard. He took a 9.3 million chip pot from caio_pimenta to climb into fourth place out of five players remaining.
Lodden was ready to move again. Two hands later, he pushed all-in preflop, and original raiser caio_pimenta called with pocket kings. The hand dominated the [Ah] [Kd] of Lodden, and the board did him no favors when it produced [9c] [2c] [9d] [Td] [Qd]. And that was all we wrote for Johnny Lodden, who finished the tournament in fifth place with $72,616.00 in prize money. (At that point, we can all probably guess what Johnny Lodden was thinking. And pardon us for the obligatory reference.)
The four remaining players had no issues getting their money into the middle of the table. First, floriverboy was all-in against ciao_pimenta and chopped to stay alive. Shortly thereafter, an even wilder hand went down but ended with the lives of floriverboy and KillerMendez saved:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Action settled for a short time but only until floriverboy found another opportunity to move all-in. This time the call was made by joaoMathias, and the K-Q of floriverboy outdid the K-J of his opponent to give him the long-awaited double-up.
It didn't take long for newly short-stacked joaoMathias to find a spot to push the rest of his chips. He did it preflop with [Ah] [Jh], but floriverboy was able to call with pocket sevens. The board brought its own full house when it dropped [Kd] [Ks] [4s] [Kc] [4d], but floriverboy's pocket pair gave him the better full house, eliminating Joao Mathias "joaoMathias" Baumgarten of Brazil in fourth place, which came with a payout of $90,770.00.
The rough ride of floriverboy was far from over, though, as KillerMendez proceeded to double through him and leave floriverboy as the short stack once again. That prompted floriverboy to move all-in preflop with [Kh] [8h], but caio_pimenta called holding [Ah] [Tc]. The board came [3s] [As] [9d] [Jd] [Kd], and the flopped pair of aces sent floriverboy out of the tournament in third place with $135,156.53.
Heads-up play then began with the following chip counts:
Seat 1: caio_pimenta (67,749,806 in chips)
Seat 9: KillerMendez (23,020,194 in chips)
KillerMendez took a pot worth more than 18 million chips on the second hand of the duel, but it wasn't enough to gain much ground on his opponent.
The two finally tangled in a pot that started with a raise from KillerMendez and call from caio_pimenta to see a flop of [Qd] [Kh] [9d]. The lead-out bet from caio_pimenta prompted a raise from KillerMendez and an all-in reraise from caio_pimenta. KillerMendez called all-in for his last 18,786,860 chips and his tournament life with [9h] [5c] for bottom pair, but caio_pimenta showed [Ks] [9s] for two pair. When the [9c] came on the turn, it made trips for KillerMendez but a full house for caio_pimenta, and the [Ah] on the river ended the tournament. KillerMendez was forced to take $190,617.00 for second place.
RSS readers click through to see replay
Caio Cesar "caio_pimenta" Pimenta of Brazil, who took down a PokerStars Super Tuesday event in May of 2009, won the Sunday Million and the $259,243.98 that went with it. An enthusiastic congratulations came in the chat box from fellow Brazilian and Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari before the table was closed. Congratulations to the newest Sunday Million champion!
After a few months off the $1 million Turbo Takedown is back and bigger than ever. As you may have read earlier in the week from Otis first prize tonight for one of the 21,423 runners is not only $60,000.00 but this shiny brand new Audi TT RS (I'll repost the picture because that's one hot car and like Otis I'll need a ride to the airport as well that same day and hope you don't mind driving in snow).
In addition to the added prize to the pool there are some extra goodies also thrown into the pot. For instance, if you cash in consecutive Turbo Takedowns, the next month you will receive $100 in bonus money (with a set amount of VPPs necessary to clear). Each month you cash, the amount goes up by $100 all the way up to $1,000. Free money on top of free money especially since you cannot buy your way into the Turbo Takedown to begin with. The lowered 3,000 FPPs buy-in can be obtained either by grinding out those SnGs, MTTs, and cash games or with the multitude of satellites being played at all hours.
If that wasn't enough free cash, consider the bounties on the Team PokerStars Pros listed below that paid out $100 a piece for their elimination (shown with place of finish below):
Andre Akkari 19,912nd
Angel Guillen 7,849th
Dennis Phillips 4,376th
Emad Tahtouh 6,159th
George Danzer 1,974th
Marcin "Goral" Horecki 14,199th
Henrique Pinho 7,627th
Jan Heitmann 19,799th
Jason Mercier 14,186th
John Duthie 14,779th
Johnny Lodden 17,139th
Juan Maceiras 16,020th
Katja Thater 19,938th
Alexander Kravchenko 7,472nd
Lee Nelson 15,615th
Leo Fernandez 798th
Luis Medina 15,785th
Marcel Luske 17,739th
Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck 11,136th
Chris "Money800" Moneymaker 11,050th
Jose "nachobarbero" Ignacio 17,881st
Nuno Coelho 12,166th
Pieter De Korver 6,509th
Veronica "princesa" Dabul 15,461st
Hevad "RaiNKhaN" Khan 14,502nd
Steve "stevejpa" Paul-Ambrose 3,345th
Tom McEvoy 9,655th
Vicky Coren 9,112nd
Victor Ramdin 18,594th
Vlad Zguba 6,265th
William Thorson 293rd
Ylon Schwartz 2,826th
Yes, that's a long list of pros that dished out $100 a piece to those skillful/lucky enough to bust them but one Team PokerStars pro still remained in the running with just two tables left. Alexandre "allingomes" Gomes stood in 13th place out of 16 left as the tournament took a break before the eighth hour of play. With blinds sitting at 80K/160K ante 16K immediately after returning, the aggressive Gomes got caught on a steal after open pushing 2.4 million from middle position with [Th][Jc] and UGA_FELON woke up with pocket jacks [Jh][Js] on the button and made the call. By the turn the board read [3s] [Ac] [9d] [8c] giving Gomes an open ended straight draw, but the river [As] failed to fill the straight as the Team PokerStars Pro exited in 16th place ($4,000.00) and UGA_FELON took in the last $100 pro bounty of the tourney.
Dag Martin "dmmikkel" Mikkelsen's stack roller-coaster ride near the bubble came to the end after open-shoving for 3.7 million chips with [5h][Ac] and found a caller in dynoalot who covered and called with pocket nines [9h][9c]. Mikkelsen would turn an inside straight draw but couldn't find a four or an ace on the river [Td] [2c] [6c] [3s] [6h] and barely missed out on the final table but earned $8,000.00 in 11th place.
The official bubble was broken at the 150K/300K ante 30K blind level when a short stacked UGA_FELON, fresh off losing a sizable coin flip against crazyace443, was all-in for 287,712 chips in the big blind. superkiki52 called UTG as the table folded, and turned up [9c][Ad] as UGA_FELON had two live cards in [Js][3s]. superkiki52 would hit the nine on the [5c] [Td] [9h] flop and UGA_FELON failed to improve with the [7s] turn and [Kd] river to bust as the bubble boy earning $8,000.00 in tenth place setting up the final table below:
(Click image for larger picture)
Seat 1: Versace777 (1525051 in chips)
Seat 2: superkiki52 (12322159 in chips)
Seat 3: tiger604 (3344305 in chips)
Seat 4: crazyace443 (4078128 in chips)
Seat 5: dynoalot (18786606 in chips)
Seat 6: viebu (9780721 in chips)
Seat 7: Magic1550 (4202512 in chips)
Seat 8: anti-durrr (7412574 in chips)
Seat 9: kenny05 (2816944 in chips)
Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier and Andre Akkari were there to welcome the players to a final table that was sure to play to its turbo namesake. Starting out with 150K/300K ante 30K blinds several players were near or under ten big blinds and would need plenty of help to catch mega stacked Supernova dynoalot.
kenny05 would kick off the action quickly by shoving all-in from early position for 2.7 million chips with [Qd][Ad] on the final table's third hand. Folded around to dynoalot in the small blind who would call with big slick [Ac][Kh]. A king on the flop and fading an inside straight draw on the river [4h] [Ks] [Jc] [9c] [Ah] added six million chips to the chip leader's stack and sent kenny05 off with an extra $10,000.00 in ninth place. No stranger to big freeroll cashes, Supernova kenny05 has cashed twice in the final table of the Battle of the Planets month end $50,000 triple shootout (3rd place finish and fifth place here).
The very next hand Versace777 would double up off crazyace443 then Versace777 would ride the positive rush for another push. While UTG and blinds still at 150K/300K ante 30K, the second push would be for 3.5 million holding big slick [Ks][Ad] and was called by none other than crazyace443 holding pocket tens [Td][Tc]. This time is was crazyace443's tournament on the line. The king on the [9h] [Kh] [Qd] flop gave Versace777 the lead, and the pair would fade the jacks and tens on the [3d] turn and [Kd] river to ship the 4.7 million chip pot to Versace777 as crazyace443 exited stage left with $12,500.00 in eighth place.
Four hands later the biggest hand of the tourney to this point had zero board cards and only two raises involved. anti-durrr would open for 6.6 million in a slight overbet/major misclick for the 150K/300K ante 30K blind level and chip leader dynoalot would shove over the top putting anti-durrr's tourney at risk with over half his chips in the middle. As stated, no board cards came out when anti-durrr folded and dynoalot's stack bloated to 27 million as anti-durrr moved towards the back of the pack with 4.3 million chips. Six hands later anti-durrr would recover some of those chips from dynoalot by racing with [Qc][Jh] against dynoalot's pocket eights [8d][8c] all-in preflop. A jack on the river [Ah] [2h] [Ts] [5s] [Jd] gave the anti-durrr a 9.5 million chip pot as the blinds bumped up to 175K/350K ante 35K
Ten hands later anti-durrr would take on a resurgent Versace777 preflop. dynoalot would open the betting by min-raising from UTG+2 as it folded around to anti-durrr on the button would would 3-bet to 1.95 million, then Versace777 4-bet all-in for 3.6 million. dynoalot despite the massive stack declined to join the fray as anti-durrr would make the call holding [Ac][3c]. Versace777 was happy to see the pocket tens [Td][Th] were in good shape even after the [6s] [7d] [Kh] flop. The dreaded [As] ace waited till the turn to hit as Versace777 couldn't re-suck on the [2s] river earning $15,000.00 for seventh place.
Blind steals were the norm for a couple of orbits until the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K and superkiki52 decided to shove pocket eights [8s][8c] from UTG. Right into the pocket tens of Magic1550 in the small blind who's pocket tens [Tc][Th] would hold on the [Ah] [6c] [2c] [4d] [9h] board earning a sizable 9.5 million chip pot.
Three hands later tiger604, who had avoided major confrontations, found big slick [Kh][As] in the small blind and shoved for 4.8 million. dynoalot still holding a massive stack made the easy call with pocket jacks [Jd][Jc]. An ace in the middle of the flop [6d] [Ah] [8h] [Ts] [6c] would hold up to slide the 9.8 million chip pot to tiger604. The feline would roar again the very next hand this time against superkiki52. Watch it play out below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
With just 1.7 million chips left and blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K superkiki52 would 3-bet anti-durrr's original 925K chip raise, but tiger604 with a new found stack would shove over the top of both of them holding pocket eights [8s][8d]. Hoping for live cards, superkiki52 would only have one holding the dominated [Kh][8c]. The [2d] [6h] [Th] [3d] [As] board would run dry of royalty as superkiki52 would be left out of the chop talks in sixth place ($17,500.00).
Two hands after superkiki52's exit the five remaining players got down to some lengthy chop talks and with the help of Andre, they came to the below figures.
Leaving $5,000 and the lovely Audi (scroll up for the picture again, don't worry we won't judge you) to the winner play resumed with blinds at 225K/450K ante 45K and the following chip stacks with dynoalot still leading with tiger604 and anti-durrr recovering fully from the nasty misclick early-on :
Seat 3: tiger604 (13313257 in chips)
Seat 5: dynoalot (21561671 in chips)
Seat 6: viebu (7080721 in chips)
Seat 7: Magic1550 (8745024 in chips)
Seat 8: anti-durrr (13568327 in chips)
anti-durrr would continue the comeback by snagging the chip lead away from dynoalot after calling the former chip leader's shove with pocket nines [9h][9c]. dynoalot could only muster up pocket fives [5d][5s] as the pot was a massive one worth 22 million chips. No drama came about as there was a nine on the door of the flop and it held on the [4h] [7c] [9d] [3h] [Ks] board. Two hands later viebu scooped up dynoalot's scraps and the former chip leader took home the biggest piece of the chop, but no car in fifth place ($56,004.01) which added to a 4th place for $63K at the Sunday Million last year.
Facing massive blinds which moved up to 250K/500K ante 50K the shoves came often as the first victim was claimed in the four handed chip carnage. anti-durrr's stack roller-coaster job was trying to score a new high by shoving with pocket nines [9h][9d] from the cutoff for 8.8 million. tiger604 and viebu covered but declined to play but Magic1550 in the big blind and 7.9 million chips decided to gamble with [Ah][4h]. The flop was a tempting [5c] [8h] [Jh], the turn [4d] showed a little more leg but the [Kd] ended the night for Magic1550 as he couldn't conjure up a heart for the win earning $34,967.60 in fourth place.
Not sure if it was the aggressive nature of three-handed play or the ever increasing blinds but the final three played with absolutely no fear despite $5,000 and a pricy automobile on the line (scroll up to take another peek). The small stacked viebu acquired several double ups, gave a few away but had the chip advantage going into this 35 million chip pot against tiger604. Watch the results below:
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With 5.5 million in the middle and a board reading [7s][8d][9c][8c] viebu continued to fire at the pot with a 4.3 million chip bet, and tiger604 came over the top shoving all-in for 14.7 million while holding [Kh][7c]. viebu held anything but air catching trips on the turn with [Qd][8s] and tiger604 was drawing dead. Third place and $42,036.39 was all for tiger604 as we moved on to heads up play for the Audi and $5,000.
Seat 6: viebu (52440592 in chips)
Seat 8: anti-durrr (11828408 in chips)
A near 5:1 chip lead for viebu but anti-durrr has shown the ability to overcome such chip deficits earlier in the final table. Heads up play was evenly matched as both players took turns picking off the blinds but anti-durrr could not make any headway towards evening up the match. On the tournament's final hand a gutsy call won the champion a brand new car. With blinds still at 250K/500K ante 50K and started the tenth hour of play viebu would limp from the button as anti-durrr checked the option to see a [Kd] [5h] [Js] flop. Check by anti-durrr and a min bet by viebu was called by anti-durrr. [4s] aroused anti-durrr for a 1.5 million chip bet as viebu made the call. [4c] on the river and anti-durrr shoved all-in for 7.9 million leaving viebu to decide if [5c][6c] for a pair of fives was good. After some internal discussion, viebu would make the call and see that the Audi TT RS was being raked along with the 21 million tournament chip into his stack when anti-durrr turned over [Tc][3c] for the stone bluff.
Congratulations to all 5,000 people who cashed tonight and our champion viebu who will be enjoying that sweet ride for years to come.
The Sunday Warm-Up continued to blaze hotter and hotter as the weather got colder this November weekend, with a whopping $925,600 in the prize pool. 4,628 players bellied up to the virtual felt to take their shot at the massive payout, and the top 675 finishers got paid for their efforts. Of course, the big money was concentrated at the final table, so after a little less than nine hours of grueling poker, the nine survivors gathered 'round the final table.
Action was tentative to start off, with players avoiding any major confrontations in the first few hands, but as the blinds and antes grew, the short stacks had to take their shots to double up just to stay alive. Melano26 put his last few chips in the middle with [As]-[8s] and found a caller in CruSader1981. Big stack angevert then moved all in over the top to isolate, and CruSader1981 got out of the way. Angevert was ahead with [Jd]-[Js], and the flop of [Jh]-[7s]-[Qc] left melano26 needing to catch runner-runner perfect to stay alive. The [2h] on the turn meant that melano26 was drawing dead, and when the meaningless [6s] rolled off on the river, melano26 was busted in 9th place ($7,404.80).
Floes came into the final table as the second-shortest stack, and it was just a few hands after melano26's elimination when floes open-shoved from the small blind with [Ad]-[5c]. It was a good time for the move, with a bunch of dead blinds and antes in the pot, but Mr. Shanish woke up with [Ac]-[Jc] in the big blind and made the easy call. Already a dominant favorite, Mr. Shanish took final control on the flop as it came down [9d]-[3h]-[Jh]. Running nines on the turn and river gave Mr. Shanish a full house, and gave floes 8th place money to the tune of $11,750.00.
Bahneyyy lost most of his stack in a huge hand earlier at the final table, but held on for a few more orbits before he got it all in preflop with [As]-[5c] against CruSader1981's [Ac]-[9s]. The board did nothing to help Bahneyyy, running out [8c]-[Jc]-[2h]-[3c]-[9h], and CruSader1981 picked up some much-needed chips as Bahneyyy busted in 7th place ($20,826).
CruSader1981 played his short stack well, but he eventually found a number of outs he couldn't fade when he went out in 6th place ($30,082) at the hands of angevert in this hand.
After a lengthy period of five-handed jousting, one misstep by cspdealer left him watching the game from the sidelines after busting in 5th place ($39,338). The aggressive Mr. Shanish opened for a raise from the button, and cspdealer re-raised from the big blind with [Kd]-[Js]. Mr. Shanish moved all in over the top, and cspdealer called, only to find he was dominated by Mr. Shanish's [As]-[Jc]. The flop hit both players as it came down [Ac]-[Kc]-[9h], but Mr. Shanish's top pair was well ahead of cspdealer's middle pair. The [Qh] on the turn gave cspdealer few more outs to stay alive, but the [Qc] on the river ended his tournament.
After losing a big pot to double up the short-stacked $saxo$, Mr. Shanish came right back on the very next hand to bust rivermanl in 4th place ($52,296.40). Rivermanl moved all in preflop from the small blind on a steal with [Qs]-[5s], but Mr. Shanish found [Jc]-[Jh] in the big blind and made the easy call. The flop of [Tc]-[7h]-[7c] helped neither player, but the [5c] on the turn gave rivermanl a few more ways to survive. None of those ways included the [Td], so when that fell on the river, there were only three.
With the stacks exceptionally close, the final three survivors took a few moments to discuss a deal. With the stacks almost even, the players decided on an even chop of the remaining money, with $10,000 left in the middle for the eventual champion. That locked up $106,468.22 for each player, a pretty good day's work by almost any standard. With their six-figure payday in hand, the remaining three players settled in to duke it out for the last $10K.
It only took a few minutes of folding before a big confrontation brewed up between our three survivors. The ever-aggressive Mr. Shanish opened for a raise from the small blind with [Ad]-[9h], and $saxo$ moved all in over the top with [3h]-[3s]. The race was on as the flop came down [7h]-[8s]-[Qh], and $saxo$ had faded the overcards. The [2h] gave both players a flush draw, and the [4h] on the river gave Mr. Shanish the bigger flush to send $saxo$ home in 3rd place.
Heads up play lasted only three hands, and Mr. Shanish won all of them to secure his extra $10,000 and the Sunday Warm-Up title. The last hand went down like this -
When the dust cleared, Mr. Shanish's aggressive play had locked up the last $10K on the table and made a $116,468.22 payday for himself. Congratulations to Mr. Shanish and all our Sunday Warm-Up players!
The Sunday Warm-Up continued to blaze hotter and hotter as the weather got colder this November weekend, with a whopping $925,600 in the prize pool. 4,628 players bellied up to the virtual felt to take their shot at the massive payout, and the top 675 finishers got paid for their efforts. Of course, the big money was concentrated at the final table, so after a little less than nine hours of grueling poker, the nine survivors gathered 'round the final table.
Action was tentative to start off, with players avoiding any major confrontations in the first few hands, but as the blinds and antes grew, the short stacks had to take their shots to double up just to stay alive. Melano26 put his last few chips in the middle with [As]-[8s] and found a caller in CruSader1981. Big stack angevert then moved all in over the top to isolate, and CruSader1981 got out of the way. Angevert was ahead with [Jd]-[Js], and the flop of [Jh]-[7s]-[Qc] left melano26 needing to catch runner-runner perfect to stay alive. The [2h] on the turn meant that melano26 was drawing dead, and when the meaningless [6s] rolled off on the river, melano26 was busted in 9th place ($7,404.80).
Floes came into the final table as the second-shortest stack, and it was just a few hands after melano26's elimination when floes open-shoved from the small blind with [Ad]-[5c]. It was a good time for the move, with a bunch of dead blinds and antes in the pot, but Mr. Shanish woke up with [Ac]-[Jc] in the big blind and made the easy call. Already a dominant favorite, Mr. Shanish took final control on the flop as it came down [9d]-[3h]-[Jh]. Running nines on the turn and river gave Mr. Shanish a full house, and gave floes 8th place money to the tune of $11,750.00.
Bahneyyy lost most of his stack in a huge hand earlier at the final table, but held on for a few more orbits before he got it all in preflop with [As]-[5c] against CruSader1981's [Ac]-[9s]. The board did nothing to help Bahneyyy, running out [8c]-[Jc]-[2h]-[3c]-[9h], and CruSader1981 picked up some much-needed chips as Bahneyyy busted in 7th place ($20,826).
CruSader1981 played his short stack well, but he eventually found a number of outs he couldn't fade when he went out in 6th place ($30,082) at the hands of angevert in this hand.
After a lengthy period of five-handed jousting, one misstep by cspdealer left him watching the game from the sidelines after busting in 5th place ($39,338). The aggressive Mr. Shanish opened for a raise from the button, and cspdealer re-raised from the big blind with [Kd]-[Js]. Mr. Shanish moved all in over the top, and cspdealer called, only to find he was dominated by Mr. Shanish's [As]-[Jc]. The flop hit both players as it came down [Ac]-[Kc]-[9h], but Mr. Shanish's top pair was well ahead of cspdealer's middle pair. The [Qh] on the turn gave cspdealer few more outs to stay alive, but the [Qc] on the river ended his tournament.
After losing a big pot to double up the short-stacked $saxo$, Mr. Shanish came right back on the very next hand to bust rivermanl in 4th place ($52,296.40). Rivermanl moved all in preflop from the small blind on a steal with [Qs]-[5s], but Mr. Shanish found [Jc]-[Jh] in the big blind and made the easy call. The flop of [Tc]-[7h]-[7c] helped neither player, but the [5c] on the turn gave rivermanl a few more ways to survive. None of those ways included the [Td], so when that fell on the river, there were only three.
With the stacks exceptionally close, the final three survivors took a few moments to discuss a deal. With the stacks almost even, the players decided on an even chop of the remaining money, with $10,000 left in the middle for the eventual champion. That locked up $106,468.22 for each player, a pretty good day's work by almost any standard. With their six-figure payday in hand, the remaining three players settled in to duke it out for the last $10K.
It only took a few minutes of folding before a big confrontation brewed up between our three survivors. The ever-aggressive Mr. Shanish opened for a raise from the small blind with [Ad]-[9h], and $saxo$ moved all in over the top with [3h]-[3s]. The race was on as the flop came down [7h]-[8s]-[Qh], and $saxo$ had faded the overcards. The [2h] gave both players a flush draw, and the [4h] on the river gave Mr. Shanish the bigger flush to send $saxo$ home in 3rd place.
Heads up play lasted only three hands, and Mr. Shanish won all of them to secure his extra $10,000 and the Sunday Warm-Up title. The last hand went down like this -
When the dust cleared, Mr. Shanish's aggressive play had locked up the last $10K on the table and made a $116,468.22 payday for himself. Congratulations to Mr. Shanish and all our Sunday Warm-Up players!
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