What better way to top off a weekend of online tournaments then the $750,000 guaranteed $215 Sunday Warm-up? With a first prize usually over $100,000 it gives a good excuse to go through 4,223 runners and nearly ten hours of intense poker it takes to reach that big prize.

In pre-final table action online and live tournament pro Eric "Rizen" Lynch made a fine run tonight finishing in 48th when his Ad-9d failed to get by the pocket eights of DomDal on the 3h-6c-Js-5c-3s board when the two threw in the chips preflop. JackOPoker scared his way to the top of the leaderboard with 32 remaining after getting pocket aces and kings back-to-back and having them hold which lined up his deep run. He would remain in the top three as we crushed down to the final two tables with miw700 and homner sitting atop the leaderboard as the big money sitting on the final table waited with nine more eliminations. Each player was assured $2,111.50 at this point and with the $108,953.40 first place prize within grasp after outlasting 4,205 players of the 4,223 that started, the players were looking for that chip boost to grab that six figure payday.

cwalsh6's smoking Yoda avatar failed to grasp the Jedi ways while his As-Qs didn't hit the Jc-3d-Kh-8d-8c board against grebnrets86's pocket sevens as he returned to Dagobah in 13th place. Previous chip leader JackOPoker slow played pocket aces in a blind versus blind battle against flex212derde and paid the price when flex's 2s-3s snagged a flush on the turn despite flopping a set of aces, shipping the very large 8.5 million chip pot flex's way when the river didn't pair the board and finishing in 12th place. odiesage's tournament would end as the final table bubble boy when his top pair-top kicker looked good enough to shove his remaining 1.23 million chips in, but homner flopped the nut straight ending odiesage's night in tenth place with $4,223.00

Here's how the players lined up in the final table race for the $100K+:

Seat 1: viksha (6090772 in chips)
Seat 2: cobusie (3187815 in chips)
Seat 3: flex212derde (7913194 in chips)
Seat 4: grebnrets86 (4886844 in chips)
Seat 5: 00psiedaisy (2043583 in chips)
Seat 6: homner (6753308 in chips)
Seat 7: miw700 (6790073 in chips)
Seat 8: LunchTime645 (1796538 in chips)
Seat 9: Brughtality (2767873 in chips)

00psiedaisy would make the first significant move at the final table, flopping a set of tens after shoving preflop against homner who's pocket sixes rivered a useless set, taking in the four million chip pot and giving himself some breathing room with the blinds at 65,000/130,000 ante 13,000.

Brughtality would be the next to find some air as he lured homner into his chip net after flopping top two pair on the board of Qc-As-5d-9s-Qh. His all-in bet of 1.1 million chips was called by homner on the turn leaving him drawing dead and shipping the Minnesota Wild fan Brughtality the 4.3 million chip pot. homner would retrieve some of those chips back as Brughtality min-raised with blinds at 80,000/160,000 ante 16,000 from middle position and was called by viksha to his left, then three-bet by grebnret86 to 1.1 million chips. homner pushed his remaining 1.6 million into the middle getting rid of Brughtality and viksha, but grebnret86 had a math call to make and did with Kc-8h. homner's pocket nines were plenty for the 2c-3d-Td-5d-5h board and welcomed the 4.4 million chip pot to his stack.

The very next hand while folded around and sitting on the button, 00psiedaisy pushed his smallish stack of 2.6 million into the middle preflop with hopes to get the blinds. Unfortunately, miw7000 had a hand and the chips to make the call with As-Js. Holding 9d-4c while all-in makes for an "oopsie-daisy" part of poker and with the 3d-8d-Jc-Ad board on the turn he still had a shot of turning the that "oopsie" into a "great play". But, no flush fell with the 8h river and $6,841.26 was 00psiedaisy's in ninth place.

"All you can eat" a famous line from a poker pro could have been the choice words of LunchTime645 as he shoved his under a million chips stack into the middle preflop with Ah-Ts. viksha gave the action he wanted holding pocket eights on the button as the blinds took off for a snack elsewhere. The Jh-4d-Th flop firmly swung the percentages in LunchTime645's favor with middle pair. Queen of spades on the turn opened up the gutterball straight draw for viksha that would hit on the 9s river sending $10,557.50 to LunchTime645 in eighth place as viksha claimed the 2.3 million chip pot.

cobusie and homner would trade back-to-back all-in pots while remaining alive on the short end of the chip board. But, four hands later one of them would succumb to the rising blinds. Facing a raise to 500,000 button raise from grebnrets86, homner made his move with a three-bet to 1.2 million in the small blind leaving 1.4 million behind with the blinds at 100,000/200,000 ante 20,000. No bluff on the button here as grenbnrets86 shoved his covering stack into the middle with pocket aces and got the call from homner holding Ks-Jc. This one ended early, as by the turn on the 2h-8s-6s-9d-6h board homner's fate was sealed in seventh place ($16,892.00).

At the break here's how our remaining six looked:

Seat 1: viksha (7465088 in chips)
Seat 2: cobusie (3803444 in chips)
Seat 3: flex212derde (8675195 in chips)
Seat 4: grebnrets86 (7747619 in chips)
Seat 7: miw700 (10235908 in chips)
Seat 9: Brughtality (4302746 in chips)

Brughtality would improve his position quickly get his 3.8 million chips into the middle preflop against miw700 and having his pocket queens hold against miw700's As-Js on the Tc-Kh-2c-4s-5d board winning the 8.4 million chip pot.

cobusie however did not fare as well on his attempt to move up. Four hands after the Brughtality double-up, cobusie tried to shove his 3.2 million into the middle preflop from the cutoff after Brughtality min raised to 500,000 and was called by viksha. The blinds and Brughtality gave up their donations but viksha called and turned up pocket jacks. Bad news for the pocket sixes of cobusie and instead of rooting for a six, he found himself rooting for a chop as the board read Td-9s-8s-Jc on the turn leaving the sevens and queens open for a chop of the 7.5 million chip pot. But, the 8h came up and cobusie went down in sixth place, earning $25,338.00 in the process.

viksha would then go on a chip tear winning five hands in a row (chopping one pot with grebnrets86). He would take those chips and build the first twenty million chip stack at the table. miw700 would fall to that huge stack, as his demise started in a hand against viksha with an eight million chip pot and the board reading 2h-6d-5c-Qs-4c and holding just 2.1 million behind. viksha bet enough to put miw700 all-in on the river and his two cards (which will be shown on PokerStars.tv's review show like this one from last week) were not good enough to call and viksha added to his chip leading stack without showing.

While on fumes with the blinds at 125,000/250,000 ante 25,000 miw700 made his move on the button, shoving his remaining 1.6 million into the middle preflop and getting a call by his nemesis viksha in the big blind. Ah-2d for miw700, dominated by the As-Tc of viksha, the 5d-9c-9s-3d-6h board would offer no help as $33,784.00 was deposited in miw700's account for his fifth place finish.

After trimming some chips off flex212derde in a nearly nine million chip pot, viksha would push his chip stack to 25 million and easily covered the table. Eight hands later the viksha express made no effort to slow down for flex212derde as he min-raised to 600,000 from the cutoff and flex212derde decided to try his luck again against the chip leader and shoved from the button for 3.4 million with As-Js. The blinds went away as viksha called with ducks and quack-quack-quack on the flop as he hit deuces full of fives leaving flex212derde with a need for miracle running aces, jacks, or fives. The turned Qc stopped all wishes and the $42,230.00 in fourth place money was flex212derde's to keep.

Now sitting on 32 million, viksha would push those chips and squeezed grebnrets86 and Brughtality while getting up to 37 million chips while grebnrets86 and Brughtality would trade a couple of all-ins between them but after the smoke cleared still hovered around the three million mark with blinds at a pre-flop push necessary 200,000/400,000 ante 40,000.

grebnrets86 would win the battle of the short stacks taking the majority of Brughtality's chips as Brughtality's button push with Kd-5d was met by grebnrets86's call in the big blind with Ks-Th. 6s-4h-9s-Kh-Jd later and Brughtality was left with enough to barely pay the big blind and ante. He would manage one double up on the very next hand, but two hands after that grebnrets86 claimed Brughtality's remaining scraps as the Jd-6h of grebnrets86 caught top pair on the flop of Js-4d-5d as Brughtality's Qd-2d had some life with a flush draw and an over card. The pair draw would go away on the 6s turn, and the pot would go to grebnrets86 on the queen of spades river. Brughtality's bankroll was immediately increased by $50,676.00 for his third place finish and maybe enough to afford season tickets at the Xcel Energy Center for the next hockey season.

Seat 1: viksha (36360842 in chips)
Seat 4: grebnrets86 (5869158 in chips)

Seven to one chip deficit and nary a whisper of chop talks? Ok, we'll forgo the sarcasm as grebnrets86 had viksha's huge chip mountain to topple before discussing a deal.

The heads-up play went quickly as grebnrets86 would take the blinds on the first two hands, then give them back the next two. On the fifth hand of heads-up play viksha would finish off his final opponent. viksha would start the betting with a min-raise from the button with blinds at 200,000/400,000 ante 40,000. grebnrets86 would make the call to see a Tc-4d-Ks flop. Check from grebnrets86 got a min bet of 400,000 from viksha and a quick check-raise to two million from grebnrets86. The turn 4c elicited no responses as we moved on to the 3h river. viksha would check again, and sorely needing that 5.6 million in the middle, grebnrets86 would push his remaining 3.2 million hoping viksha did not have anything that could call his 6c-7c bluff. Pair of tens was enough for the dominating chip leader to make the call with Qh-Th as the remaining 12 million in tournament chips slid viksha's way along with the $108,953.40 he earned as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

For not giving up against the steamroller of viksha, grebnrets86's runner up check of $76,014.00 will help soothe any hard feelings after the loss.

Sunday Warm-up Results (03-08-09)

1. viksha $108,953.40
2. grebnrets86 $76,014.00
3. Brughtality $50,676.00
4. flex212derde $42,230.00
5. miw700 $33,784.00
6. cobusie $25,338.00
7. homner $16,892.00
8. LunchTime645 $10,557.50
9. 00psiedaisy $6,841.26

Ah, back to quiet way of life in these poker parts. After the dash for the 25 billionth hand promotion had people multi-tabling like never before, and over 6,000 players playing the juiced up promotional $1.25 million guarantee Sunday Warm-up last week it's time to roll back to simpler times.

Or not.

With the Spring Championship of Online Poker on the horizon, players are hoping for a big score to head into the April 2nd-12th competition with a shot at the $30 million in guarantees being offered. Tonight 4,452 players ponyed up the $215 to vie for the $113,971.20 first prize.

Among those in the final nine, a fixture on the Tournament Leader Board, Roothlus was heading towards another big pay day in tonight's Sunday Warm-Up. Last big splash he made on these pages, was a sixth place finish in event #29 (write up here) at the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker for a sizable $37,815 and don't forget the penny. lrdvoldemort will kick off the final table with the big stack, and has a WCOOP bracelet to his credit (2008 Event #13, live blog here) he will also be looking for another six figure score to add to his $207,772.50 he won in September. He was also responsible for securing the final table after knocking out ROCKEY975 in tenth when his pocket kings held up to ROCKEY975's quiet pocket sevens.

Seat 1: strahhh25 (3309102 in chips)
Seat 2: lrdvoldemort (13193270 in chips)
Seat 3: omasa81 (2518730 in chips)
Seat 4: Naropa (6933632 in chips)
Seat 5: Christos911 (8779585 in chips)
Seat 6: UnXplainable (2890707 in chips)
Seat 7: Noctus (1108060 in chips)
Seat 8: Roothlus (4827794 in chips)
Seat 9: CaAngels2002 (959120 in chips)

Wasting no time, lrdvoldemort needed no black magic to decrease the size of the final table from nine to eight. strahhh25 raised to 320,000 from UTG with the blinds at 80,000/160,000 ante 16,000 and got a flat call by lrdvoldemort to his left as the blinds folded. Flop of Qd-8h-Qc got a 320,000 chip continuation bet from strahhh25 and another call by lrdvoldemort. 480,000 chip bet by strahhh25 on the 2d turn got another flat call by the chip leader. The Ts river was enough for strahhh25 to push his remaining 2.1 million into the pot, and was promptly called by slow-played the pocket rockets of lrdvoldemort. Ninth place and $6,945.12 for strahhh25 as his ace-high hand (Ah-7h) shipped the 6.9 million chip pot to the huge chip leader.

With under ten big blinds to their credit, the two shorties decided to take their wars preflop. First, it was CaAngels2002 taking a shot with Ah-8s from the cutoff, pushing his 623,120 chips in the middle and getting a call from omasa81 in the small blind, but Naropa in the big blind had other ideas. Naropa would push his 6.2 million stack, prompting omasa81 to abandon his bet. Pocket ducks for Naropa was enough to outrace the ace and eight of CaAngels2002 on the Qc-6s-7s-Jc-3d board. Eighth place and $10,684.80 for the Anaheim baseball fan.

Nine hands later the other short stack, Noctus, took his shot to improve. Pushing his 772,060 chips with Ks-Jd from UTG+2, the big blind having already invested 160,000 chips made the call with 7d-6c. The math call was the right one, as the flop provided a pair of the sevens (7s-2d-Ad) and the turn 6d locked up the 1.7 million chip pot with two pair. The Canuck will be warmed up by the $17,808.00 being shipped to his PokerStars account tonight for his seventh place finish.

At the first final table break here's how the dark wizard loomed over the heads of the rest of the table and they returned to 125,000/250,000 ante 25,000 blinds:

lrdvoldemort (15,707,372 in chips)
omasa81 (3,931,220 in chips)
Naropa (5,401,110 in chips)
Christos911 (5,969,296 in chips)
UnXplainable (6,697,414 in chips)
Roothlus (6,813,588 in chips)

Big pot after the break between lrdvoldemort and UnXplainable saw the chip leader's stack take a big hit when UnXplainable raised to 750,000 on the button and lrdvolemort shoved from the big blind only to be shown the pocket aces of UnXplainable. Kc-Qd for lrdvolemort could not scratch the rockets and the chip lead was shipped in a southern direction towards UnXplainable

Naropa and omasa81 could not get anything going after the break and were sent home in consecutive hands. With blinds at 150,000/300,000 ante 30,000 omasa81 tried to snag the blinds from the button with a shove for 2.3 million with Qd-Ts, but found a customer in Christos911 who covered easily in the big blind. Christos911 turned over Ks-Th for the dominating hand that would hold up on the 9d-9c-8c-2c-4c board for the 5.1 million chip pot and sent omasa81 home in sixth place ($26,712.00).

The very next hand Naropa would get to race off his remaining 2.4 million chips against the hot-hot lrdvoldemort. Big slick for Naropa and pocket tens for lrdvoldemort, no love on the 9s-Qd-8h flop for the short stack. The Tc on the turn shortened the outs list to just four for Naropa, and the river 8c left Naropa off the final table guest list in fifth place ($35,616.00).

Attempts to make a deal despite the similar stacks were thwarted at each turn and four handed play went on with the blinds reaching a sizable 200,000/400,000 ante 40,000.

Short-handed, and escalating blinds in the 250,000/500,000 ante 50,000 still did not open up chop talks but did open up the aggression as several preflop raises were met with all-in over shoves but no calls. No flops were played until Christos911 tried to pick off Roothlus' big blind with a shove for his remaining 3.4 million from the button. Roothlus made the correct call with Kc-Js and found himself well ahead of the Jc-Td of Christos911. The all low board of 2d-5h-6s-6c-8c caught no one's broadway cards and with king high we were down to three as Christos earned $44,520.00 in fourth place.

About ten hands later, it was Roothlus' turn to fell the wraith of lrdvoldemort. As Roothlus completed the small blind, lrdvoldemort pounced on the weak bet with a shove that covered Roothlus' stack. With some thought, Roothlus made the correct call with Ah-7s and found himself well ahead of the As-2s of lrdvoldemort. The master of the dark arts found the right spell as a deuce hit the Kd-2d-4c flop. After taking the lead, the 9h and Td fell on the turn and river harmlessly for lrdvoldemort and sent the MTT crusher Roothlus home in third place ($53,067.84).

While he was willing to deal earlier, lrdvoldemort turned down the offer to make a deal with UnXplainable while under a two million chip difference. Maybe the WCOOP bracelet holder had a premonition of the next two hands. After lrdvoldemort gave up his preflop raise in the next hand after Roothlus left in third place, the two remaining players got all the chips into the middle preflop for the $34,000 difference between first and second:

UnXplainable: Tc-Th
lrdvoldemort: Ah-Qs

The flop was an UnXplainable-y safe 4h-8s-8h, but the dark chip wizard did it again as the As dropped on the turn to leave UnXplainable with just two outs and didn't get there as the 7s fell and left the formerly slight chip leader with just 819,312 chips and 250,000/500,000 ante 50,000 blinds. Those scraps would be eaten up on the very next hand when UnXplainable's 9s-2s couldn't overcome lrdvoldemort's Ad-Js and find neither a third spade, nor a pair on the board of 8s-Qd-4c-3s-4d and UnXplainable finished as tonight's runner-up earning $79,690.80 in the process.

Two six figure wins in six month's time for the young Swedish pro is a huge accomplishment, as lrdvoldemort did it again winning $113,971.20 as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

Sunday Warm-up Results (02-22-09)
1. lrdvoldemort $113,971.20
2. UnXplainable $79,690.80
3. Roothlus $53,067.84
4. Christos911 $44,520.00
5. Naropa $35,616.00
6. omasa81 $26,712.00
7. Noctus $17,808.00
8. CaAngels2002 $10,684.80
9. strahhh25 $6,945.12

This maybe a bold prediction, but the Sunday Warm-up may become the Sunday Warm-up Million by the end of the year with more and more players entering this "early" $215 buy-in tournament. Tonight 4,394 players lined up to take their shot at a six figure score, creating a $878,800.00 prize pool (easily crushing the $750,000 guarantee), of which 630 players carved out a piece for themselves. The final table treated themselves to the below amounts:

1. $113,365.20
2. $79,092.00
3. $52,728.00
4. $43,940.00
5. $35,152.00
6. $26,364.00
7. $17,576.00
8. $10,985.00
9. $7,118.28

With about 100 players left, Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul held the overall chip lead with the 2nd in chips sitting on his immediate right. Both players held nearly 1.5 million in chips when par was set at 400,000 and the set up hand of pockets aces for Saul in the small blind and pocket queens for Wargos got it all in preflop. After a bland 3s-6c-6h-9s-Th board, Saul had assumed the chip lead by nearly two million chips. Saul, who is coming off a big cash (8th place for $234,000 see PCA coverage here) at the recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, is hoping to take that chip lead to the final table.

Sadly, his tourney did not end there with the top spot, but rather in 19th place when Saul got tangled up in a game of post flop chicken with Hasie65. Hasie65 would make a gut twisting call of a 2.5 million chip shove by Saul with the board reading 4s-8d-2h-Js holding just ace high with AKo. Saul turned over the bluff with Qd-Td and missed the gutshot straight draw and pair draws to exit in 19th, while Hasie65 took a quick road to the chip lead with that 6.8 million chip pot.

Hasie65's stack would take more dives and climbs then a rough trading day on the New York Stock Exchange floor and end up in 11th place after a preflop KK vs. AA for Watte cooler that shipped Watte the chip lead. Immediately after Hasie65 took his last bow, kamizen and dom0424 knotted up for a 2.7 million chip preflop coinflip. kamizen with pocket eights and As-Qd for dom0424 and with dom's tournament life on the line the board 5h-9d-Td-3s-2d found no pair and set our final table below:

Seat 1: KrownKickin (1615080 in chips)
Seat 2: D1rtyR1v3r (5250753 in chips)
Seat 3: wynnkid (1718985 in chips)
Seat 4: cballs25 (4588974 in chips)
Seat 5: Big4aday (9744156 in chips)
Seat 6: kamizen (5616954 in chips)
Seat 7: pro-tilt77 (4156500 in chips)
Seat 8: bergeroo (2818914 in chips)
Seat 9: Watte (8429684 in chips)

D1rtyR1v3r returned to the Sunday Warm-up final table tonight with hopes on improving his third place finish good for $46,788.00 in December (read the final table write up here). With blinds starting at 100,000/200,000 ante 20,000 Big4day enjoys the starting big stack courtesy of the winning side of a ten million chip pot from Hasie65 but is closely followed by Watte who also took a few a chips off the aggressive German as shown above.

Bang! Bang! Big4aday got huge after a three-way all-in preflop involving bergeroo who pushed for 2.2 million from UTG+2, called by wynnkid for 1.4 million in the cutoff, and both were called by the chip leader Big4aday in the small blind.

Big4aday: As-Jc
bergeroo: Ac-Qd
wynnkid: Ah-Kd

wynnkid was looking great for a much needed triple up, until the flop rained down 5s-Js-7h giving Big4aday top pair. 3d and Ts on the turn and river and the first big pot of 6.4 million was shipped to Big4aday as wynnkid received $7,118.28 for ninth and eighth for bergeroo ($10,985.00).

Five hands later, KrownKickin tried kick starting his small stack of 1.5 million chips with a preflop shove from the cutoff with As-2c. But, unfortunately D1rtyR1v3r also wanted those 440,000 chips sitting in the blinds and called leaving 1.9 million behind with pocket sixes (6h-6s). No kick start to his heart or chip stack would come down the Qh-9c-7d-Th-4c board and the 3.5 million chip pot belonged to D1rtyR1v3r who rebounded since losing a sizable pot to kamizen to 5.4 million in chips. More then $1,000 an hour made tonight by KrownKickin in seventh place, just slightly more than my wages here to bring you the action as he takes home $17,576.00 tonight.

kamizen would dodge a huge bullet fired by Big4aday when he was facing elimination after all his chips got into the middle with the board showing 3c-5s-4h and holding pocket tens to Big4aday's pocket rockets. The 16 million chip pot was further locked for Big4aday on the 2c turn giving him a wheel and leaving six outs to a chop. The Ah river gave kamizen life again as they chopped it up. Five hands later he would use that resurgence to take down D1rtyR1v3r. D1rtyR1v3r would start the hand raising to 600,000 with blinds at 150,000/300,000 ante 30,000 and was met with a re-raise by kamizen on the button to 1.25 million. Back to D1rtyR1v3r and his response was "all-in" for 5.8 million more, insta-call by kamizen holding black pocket aces to make a 13.3 million chip pot. D1rtyR1v3r held Kc-Qd for two semi-live cards but neither one connected on the 6c-Js-8d-5d-2h board to shift the chip lead from Big4aday to kamizen and prevent the Supernova D1rtyR1v3r from improving on his previous Sunday Warm-up finish. Sixth place tonight for D1rtyR1v3r and another $26,364.00 tacked onto his bankroll.

When the blinds bumped up to 200,000/400,000 ante 40,000 play slowed down for the players as pro-tilt77 and cballs25 shook their small stacks for as much as possible preflop with their pushes clearing the remaining players for the blinds and antes as both had under ten big blinds in their stacks. But, having the short stack means you open up any two cards to call by the big stacks. Big4aday had those two cards as pro-tilt77 pushed from the cutoff for his remaining 2.2 million chips and was called by Big4aday in the big blind holding Th-4h. pro-tilt77 was leading with Kd-9h and looked good for a double up with the board showing Ad-8h-3d-3c by the turn. The Td river hit for Big4day with a pair, good enough to rake in the 4.8 million chip pot and send pro-tilt77 off on river tilt with $35,152.00 in fifth place.

Ah, pocket kings. They sparkle in the sun, but can provide some dark days when they don't hold up as the case when cballs25 shoved his remaining 2.6 million into the pot from the button with Kh-Ks. He was called by kamizen in the big blind who easily covered and held Ah-8s. The sunset would come early as the flop 9h-Ad-Td sent kamizen into the lead and left cballs25 clinging for a runner straight or a third king. Neither would drop on the 9d turn and 3c river as kamizen would nearly catch up to Big4aday's 20 million chip stack holding 18.6 million after raking in the pot. cballs25 would need to "settle" for fourth place and the tidy $43,940.00 that came with it.

Shortly after cballs25's departure, it was Watte's turn to make a move, doubling up off of Big4aday in a race, then taking a 13.4 million chip pot off kamizen when he rivered a four to eight straight. This was the beginning of the end for kamizen as his chips went into the middle on the good side against Big4aday. With blinds at 250,000/500,000 ante 50,000 holding just 3.5 million, kamizen got his chips into the middle preflop with As-Jh dominating Big4aday's Ad-7h. kamizen's luck ran out on this hand however as the door card was a seven as was the river on the board of 7d-3s-8s-3h-7c giving Big4aday a full house, sending $52,728.00 to kamizen's PokerStars account in third place.

Immediate Watte and Big4aday engaged in a short negotiation with the help of HostAlex and agreed with the chip chop counts from the PokerStars staff member:

Big4aday: $95,778.65
Watte: $86,678.55

Agree.

Agree.

Play on for $10K to the winner.

Here's how our final two looked going into heads-up play:

Big4aday: 30,206,614 in chips
Watte: 13,733,386 in chips

First blood belonged to Watte as he turned a flush versus Big4adays' flopped top pair and took over the chip lead. He would increase that chip lead two hands later after flopping trip fives value betting his way to a 17 million chip pot.

This tidal wave of chips would rush Watte into a huge 40 million to 4 million chip lead, but Big4aday was not done as he caught a little luck while pushing Kd-9d into the middle preflop against the red pocket queens of Watte who could taste victory when the flop came down Jd-3d-2h but the flush came with the 6d on the turn and extended Big4aday's tournament for another hand as the contestants went on a brief break.

Very brief break, as the next hand saw Watte calling a push by Big4aday holding a big pocket pair once again. This time it was pocket aces for Watte (Ac-Ad) versus the ducks of Big4aday (2h-2s). And unlike the last hand the preflop favorite would have no bumps on the road to receiving the riches. 9d-Qc-Ks-3s-Td shipped the remaining 17.4 million chips to Watte who now held 43,940,000 in tournament chips which translate to the $10,000.00 the Sunday Warm-up Champion receives after a deal!

02-08-09 Sunday Warm-up Results
(*Based on two-way chip chop deal)

1. Watte *$96,678.55
2. Big4aday *$95,778.65
3. kamizen $52,728.00
4. cballs25 $43,940.00
5. pro-tilt77 $35,152.00
6. D1rtyR1v3r $26,364.00
7. KrownKickin $17,576.00
8. bergeroo $10,985.00
9. wynnkid $7,118.28

$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.

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

As the excitement of the recently completed 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (see Poorya Nazari's winner's interview here) is packed back up until next year, it's back to the virtual tables for the big weekend tournaments. The $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up opened its doors for over 4,032 players this evening, some who may still be lapping up the remaining festivities on Paradise Island in their rooms with this $215 buy-in tourney with a shot at the $104,832.00 first place prize. 585 players went home with at least $403.20 and the final nine was assured $6,935.04 for at least eight hours of work. Supernovas tmmy2win, throwinphins, and crisbus81 were showing their well-earned frequent player stars as they made it to the final three tables, one of which would go on to chop up first place.

A super short stack with three tables remaining, a fortunate river card with fifteen left helped BigRed0000 hit the final table running. Here's the remainder of the group that played for that six figure sum shown above after unfortunate bubble boy JopperHarryN ran into the BigRed chip truck when his flopped top pair couldn't match up to BigRed0000's top two pair:

Seat 1: tmmy2win (4291604 in chips)
Seat 2: Vienna Bundy (4415244 in chips)
Seat 3: davrow (3931685 in chips)
Seat 4: throwinphins (917511 in chips)
Seat 5: JPette333 (4512976 in chips)
Seat 6: aligator67 (4444710 in chips)
Seat 7: ramon123456 (2346528 in chips)
Seat 8: BigRed0000 (12532314 in chips)
Seat 9: killbillyboy (2927428 in chips)

Supernova throwinphins wasted no time as he started the final table with an all-in before the PokerStars host even welcomed everyone to the table! On the very first hand with blinds starting off at 65,000/130,000 ante 13,000, throwinphins shoved his remaining 839,511 chips into the small blind hoping to claim the 299,000 sitting in the middle. But, patiently waiting was JPette333 in the big blind with 4.5 million in chips, plenty to make the call with As-Jc. throwinphins did have two live cards with Kc-9d. The flop hit both players showing 9s-5h-Ad, leaving throwinphins tossing at five outs for trips or two pair, neither of which arrived on the 3h turn or 8s to save the short stack from our first elimination. $6,935.04 for a ninth place finish by throwinphins tonight perhaps to help him earn his way towards Supernova Elite.

BigRed0000's stack would take a fairly decent knock against the other Supernova at the table, tmmy2win. With the board showing Qd-Td-Jc-Ks-3c, tmmy2win shoved his remaining 2.6 million chips into the pot on the river and got a call from BigRed0000 who held pocket nines for the short end of the straight. As-Jd good for the nut straight shipped the 8.2 million chip pot to tmmy2win as BigRed0000's chip lead was pared down to a sleek 9.3 million, but still good for the chip lead.

Just five hands later Vienna Bundy's demise would begin quickly. First a raise to 640,000 from the cutoff got davrow on his right to three bet to 1,525,555 chips with the blinds escalating to 80,000/160,000 ante 16,000. Vienna Bundy called to see a flop of 8d-6c-Kh, and played a little stop-and-go by shoving immediately. davrow was quite happy to place his remaining 1.6 million into the pot with a top set of kings which held up over the pocket treys of Vienna Bundy for the 6.7 million chip pot. Unlucky fives would strike again for Vienna Bundy as five hands later he ran head first into another premium pocket pair against BigRed0000. With under ten big blinds, Vienna Bundy choose to three-bet all-in from the big blind for his remaining 1.3 million chips against the cutoff raising BigRed0000. Pocket queens for BigRed0000 were well ahead of the Ah-6d for Vienna Bundy and stayed that way thru the board of Ks-4s-Tc-9c-3c. Five figures, $10,080.00 to be exact for Vienna Bundy's eight place finish.

One split pot, then a race for all his chips again. The next two hands of the final table sealed the fate of killbillyboy. The short stack at the table pressed his 1.9 million in chips the next two hands after we saw off Vienna Bundy. He would split with tmmy2win as both turned up ATo for no love, then with the popular number five would make a come back as he would raise to 555,555 the very next hand. JPette333 would put the pressure on with a shove for five million out of the small blind. killbillyboy made the call to race his As-Jc against JPette333's pocket black tens. Small numbers on the flop of 2c-5s-7c helped neither player. The 3d on the turn took flush possibilities out but opened an inside wheel draw and the Ks on the river slayed killbillyboy in seventh place. He'll be sure to rise again however with the $16,128.00 received tonight for his efforts.

Preflop play for the next fifteen hands was the only game in town as zero flops were seen until ramon123456 and davrow decided the board was getting cold with no cards being laid down on it. ramon123456 was down to nine big blinds with the blinds at 100,000/200,000 ante 20,000 in middle position holding Ac-Js and open shoved. davrow however was not backing down in the small blind holding Ah-Qd and covered by 6.2 million. The flop Qs-Kc-7c gave davrow top pair and shifted ramon123456's direction to needing a ten for a straight. 6c on the turn got the rest of the clubs in the deck on ramon123456's flight plan for success, but the 9d shot down our sixth place finisher before takeoff. ramon123456 added a few more numbers to his bankroll with the $24,192.00 received in sixth place.

Right after the break and a double up by tmmy2win here's how our final five looked with davrow nipping at BigRed0000's heels for the chip lead:

Seat 1: tmmy2win (7375372 in chips)
Seat 3: davrow (10868404 in chips)
Seat 5: JPette333 (6914003 in chips)
Seat 6: aligator67 (4053234 in chips)
Seat 8: BigRed0000 (11108987 in chips)

aligator67 would take the first ten million chip pot in the tournament off BigRed0000 when his preflop shove blind steal would net more then the 500,000 in the middle preflop. His Kh-Td was slightly behind BigRed0000's Ad-9h until the flop Kc-Th-8s gave alligator67 top two pair which held up thru the 3h and 4d river sending the 11.1 million chip pot to aligator67 for the chip lead. BigRed0000 did cover by 6.5 million and still held a comfortable chip position with blinds at 125,000/250,000 ante 25,000.

But, not being in the chip lead must have uncomfortable for BigRed0000 as a steal went wrong in a hurry against tmmy2win. tmmy2win lead out UTG for 750,000 with blinds at 150,000/300,000 ante 30,000 and folded around to BigRed0000's big blind. BigRed0000 would make a big shove for a little under six million chips. Pocket aces made tmmy2win's call much easier as BigRed0000's face blushed a little, showing Th-8s for an ill-timed bluff. No miracles would appear on the 7h-3s-Qc-Kd-6h board and the once dominant chip leader was left with table lint and $32,256.00 in fifth place.

tmmy2win would take his newly acquired chip 12.2 million chips and start building his tower with several preflop raises and re-raises to get to 16 million when he button raised to 750,000 into a short stacked JPette333's big blind. With only 2.8 million behind after paying the blind dues, two face cards look more then inviting to shove. Qd-Jc for JPette333 and tmmy2win made the correct call with As-9s for a slight advantage. The board would not comply for JPette333 as tmmy2win's ace high would hold on through 5h-6c-8s-2s-8d board. After tmmy2win pushed his stack over the 20 million mark and $40,320.00 was pushed to JPette333 in fourth place, the three competitors got down to deal making.

The Supernova tmmy2win was firm on his chip lead and table experience, and aligator67 had a dollar amount in mind that was a little bigger then what the table could chew as HostScott restarted the tournament after five minutes of negotiations we began three-handed with blinds at 200,000/400,000 ante 40,000. No deal was the battle cry as the three players sat back in.

Not back in for long as just three hands later alligator67 and davrow took their nearly equal stacks and shoved them into the middle preflop:

aligator67: Jh-Jd
davrow: Ac-Th

aligator67 snapped out of the gate with a commanding lead once the Qd-Kc-9s fell with no ace. The 7c on the turn left davrow with the same five outs for a straight or pair of aces. Td on the river paired up davrow but still not enough to overcome the jacks that now made a straight. davrow was now on the outside, finished in third place with $48,384.00, looking in as the final two went back to chop negotiations immediately.

The chip difference of 61,000 may have been huge five hours ago, but now it was enough to split up the remaining $166,352 (minus the $10,000 to the winner) right down the middle and award $83,704 to both players.

aligator67 would score the first big strike with an 18 million chip pot on a river shove with the board showing 3h-Kc-7c-5d-6d for 12 million chips. tmmy2win took his time but decided to keep his nine million chips for later use. Neither player was willing to give up the remaining $10,000 easily, and after a few preflop shoves from aligator67 they settled down to a more passive game with the small blind receiving the chips many times after the button folded. On the other side of the coin when min-raises were made from tmmy2win, seeking easy blind steals, aligator67's 30 million went into the middle instead netting him even more chips.

Until tmmy2win had a hand to call aligator67's shove with. Pocket sixes proved to be the hand and it held up over aligator67's 5d-6d for a chip equalizer on a board of Ac-As-2s-3c-2d as the blinds moved up to 250,000/500,000 ante 50,000.

The two would tussle for control of the 40 million chips in play until alligator had opened up a 28 million to 12 million chip lead going into this preflop four-bet all-in battle:

aligator67: Ah-8c
tmmy2win: Qc-Jc

A coin flip for the title and $10,000 that sided with with the chip leader as the board rained down 4d-9s-2d-7d-4s to make aligator67's ace high good enough to claim this week's Sunday Warm-Up champion!

Congratulations to all our final table contestants tonight and here's how the money was divided out:

01-11-09 Sunday Warm-Up Results
(based on two-way deal)

1. aligator67 $93,704.00
2. tmmy2win $83,704.00
3. davrow $48,384.00
4. JPette333 $40,320.00
5. BigRed0000 $32,256.00
6. ramon123456 $24,192.00
7. killbillyboy $16,128.00
8. Vienna Bundy $10,080.00
9. throwinphins $6,935.04