Tonight brought out 24,445 players to different twist on the monthly $1 Million Turbo Takedown. For 2,000 Frequent Players Points (FPPs) players could take their seats against the slew of Team PokerStars Pros sitting with various bounties on their heads. Various because depending on when the player signed up for the tournament is how much they would get for knocking out the pro. Read below's explanation on the payouts from the PokerStars promotion page:

Exactly how much goes into the prize pool depends on you. The earlier you register for the tournament, the bigger the bounties will be - $20 for each day. So, if you register on the day of the tournament, the cash prize for busting a Team PokerStars Pro will be $20. But if you register one day before** it's $40, two days before it's $60, and so on. If you register on the day the tournament appears in the PokerStars lobby, you could win more than $400 for eliminating a Team PokerStars Pro.

Below is how the pros fared this evening.

Henrique Pinho 3,405
Marcel Luske 3,749
Marcin Horecki 4,741
Ylon Schwartz 6,599
Humberto "Humberto B." Brenes 6,872
Hevad "RaiNKhaN" Khan 6,917
Tom McEvoy 8,206
Jason Mercier 8,825
Dario Minieri 10,132
Johnny Lodden 10,792
Alexandre "Allingomes" Gomes 12,022
Gavin Griffin 12,189
Barry "barryg1" Greenstein 15,045
Isabelle "NoMercy" Mercier 15,260
Vicky Coren 15,859
Andre aakkari Akkari 17,931
Katja Thater 19,382
Maridu Mayrinck 19,493
Raymond Rahme 19,697
Steve "stevejpa" Paul-Ambrose 21,588
Alexander Kravchenko 21,799
Leo Fernandez 21,638
Greg "FossilMan" Raymer 22,642

cyberpeogh sat holding only six big blinds trying to make something happen for a push to the final table. The short stack would push over the top of votin's raise to 600K with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K, not even able to double the chip leader's raise holding 1.1 million and [8h][6h]. Votin made the call with [Ks][Qs] and promptly hit the queen on the flop [3c] [5d] [Qc], and with top two on the turned king [Kd] cyberpeogh became a spectator in tenth place ($3,200.00) setting up the final table below.

Seat 1: badgergav (8041538 in chips)
Seat 2: Resolfen (7977397 in chips)
Seat 3: ch0ppy (10700057 in chips)
Seat 4: votin (20359222 in chips)
Seat 5: CheddaStackz (4459287 in chips)
Seat 6: saimon24 (3982022 in chips)
Seat 7: Ajtak (7023469 in chips)
Seat 8: ervinbet (3509281 in chips)
Seat 9: kejseranders (7282727 in chips)

Some people's tournament final tables last several hours, others, approximately 20 seconds. In the time it took for the auto message from Stars to congratulate our final table contestants tonight we had our ninth place finisher named. The only player over 10 million chips, votin, opened to 550K from middle position with blinds starting off tonight at 100K/200K ante 20K. CheddaStackz smelled something funky and pushed over the top for 4.4 million holding [As][Qh]. There was nothing stinky about the pocket tens [Td][Tc] held by the chip leader and the call was made creating a 9.3 million chip pot. Two pair would show up on the [7c] [Kh] [9s] [7s] [Kc] board matching neither of the players card's as votin's pocket tens held and CheddaStackz chips were eaten and downed perhaps with a nice chardonnay in ninth place ($4,000.00).

About ten minutes after votin successfully took care CheddaStackz, the chip leader took an early break and did not play a hand by sitting out as the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K. Twenty minutes later the "sitting out" spell was broken losing only two million chips in the process and promptly getting a third of those back taking down the blinds on the first hand back.

As the players went to the break before the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K badgergav and ch0ppy started to creep up on votin's mega stack as the remainder of the field needed some help quickly...

Seat 1: badgergav (15184015 in chips)
Seat 2: Resolfen (5692397 in chips)
Seat 3: ch0ppy (15961056 in chips)
Seat 4: votin (20691599 in chips)
Seat 6: saimon24 (3431268 in chips)
Seat 7: Ajtak (4218376 in chips)
Seat 8: ervinbet (4218562 in chips)
Seat 9: kejseranders (3937727 in chips)

... and right out of the gate ervinbet attempted to make that something happen on the first hand returning from the break. While UTG, badgergav stuck with raising in increments ending in 9 with a raise to 999,999 with [Ah][Qs]. Folded around to ervinbet who saw pocket eights [8d][8s] as a great opportunity to double up and shoved as badgergav made the quick call. The flop [Ks][Js][Jh] was "safe" for ervinbet but the dreaded counterfeit came with the turned king [Kh] meaning ervinbet needed a eight for a boat as badgergav's ace now played for a higher kicker. The [5c] did not full up ervinbet as our eighth place finisher left with $5,000.00 in free money tonight.

The very next hand saimon24 tried to swim upstream with pocket eights [8c][8d] as well after pushing over the top for 3.3 million of votin's 1.2 million chip raise. votin made the call turning over [Qd][Kc] to race off the 7.5 million chip pot. Once again the flop [7d] [6c] [Tc] was safe, and like déjà vu the turn was not safe as a queen fell [Qc] with the river [3s] ending saimon24's dive for cash in seventh place ($6,020.00).

kejseranders would finally win one for the little guys out racing ch0ppy with [Qc][Kc] and hitting queens full for a 7.2 million chip pot on the third consecutive all-in preflop hand. Luck would help on kejseranders next all-in attempt as this time the dreaded pocket eights, responsible for the first two eliminations, would crack votin's pocket aces with a turned set awarding a 12 million chip pot to kejseranders.

One hand before kejseranders trimmed those chips off votin, ch0ppy and short stacked Ajtak tangled preflop. Check out the coin flip for Ajtak's tournament life below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Both flopped a pair but ch0ppy's queens bested the pair of tens held by Ajtak and sixth place money ($8,000.00) was coming to Elztal-Dallau for Ajtak.

Action would cool off a bit until the blinds rose to 225K/450K ante 45K when votin raised to 1.35 million from UTG as both Resolfen and ch0ppy called out of the blinds. With the flop of [2c] [2h] [5d] both the blinds checked as votin followed through with a 900K bet. Resolfen tried to bump votin off those pocket fours [4d][4h] with a check-raise all-in to 5.2 million total holding just queen high [Td][Qd]. votin caught wind of the bluff and made the call as the remainder of the board produced an unnecessary straight for votin. Resolfen earned the first five-figure payday of the night in fifth place ($12,000.00).

votin's downward spiral from massive chip leader to out in fourth place started with ch0ppy knocking the big stack for a 14 million chip pot when votin could not answer an eleven million chip check-raise with the board reading [5c] [2h] [Qs] [3s]. Then, an unfortunate river card gave kejseranders a straight over the two pair of votin sent a 21 million chip pot out of the previous chip leader's stack. Seven hands later the bottom came out as votin limped from the cutoff with badgergav completing from the small blind and ch0ppy check the option. A flop of [2d] [9h] [Js] was checked thru the blind as votin bet 1.35 million. badgergav check-raised to 4.5 million total and votin went for broke holding [Tc][8h] and shoved for 14.2 million. badgergav paused just for a moment then called holding two pair [2h][Jc] creating a 30 million chip pot. The board couldn't find votin's straight as the [6s] and [3s] rained down to send votin home with $16,000.00 in fourth place.

badgergav was the next big stack to go down hard as ch0ppy put on a clinic for value betting and got badgergav to call down all bets on a [Kd] [4c] [Kh] [Ts] [9s] board after turning the nuts with [Tc][Kc]. The 17 million chip pot might have set the tone for the overshove by badgergav on the hand below again kejseranders:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Pocket kings [Kh][Ks] for kejseranders finished off badgergav's [Ac][9s] as the 32 million chip pot slid to kejseranders and $20,000.00 third place money found its way to badgergav's den setting up heads-up play.

ch0ppy wasn't feeling choppy tonight as the chat box went vacant the throughout heads-up play that started with the following chip counts:

Seat 3: ch0ppy (38736703 in chips)
Seat 9: kejseranders (34598297 in chips)

First blood would go to kejseranders who would win seven straight hands including one for 21 million after ch0ppy fired two barrels with queen-high and both checked the river to see kejseranders' turned pair of jacks on a [9h] [Tc] [4d] [Jd] [5d] board.

Several hands later ch0ppy's chip stack found the middle with just [6c][Qs] after a preflop raising war broke out but kejseranders called ch0ppy's bluff shove on the end holding big slick [Ac][Ks]. Six on the flop, and well we'll let the tape show you the rest:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The rivered six overcame the turned king as ch0ppy took the pot with trip sixes as the chip counts returned to counts at the beginning of heads-up play.

Twenty or so hands later ch0ppy would go on a tear winning nine of ten pots, ending with getting kejseranders to commit the remainder of a depleted stack holding [Td][Ks] after the [Qh][7d][Kc] started raises between the final two. This time it was ch0ppy holding big slick and the [6c] on the turn nor [2h] turned the tide for kejseranders as ch0ppy took home the whole $40,000.00 after winning tonight's $1 Million Turbo Takedown Team Pro Edition!

This wasn't ch0ppy's first success with turbo tournaments as Waterloo native notched a sixth place showing in the $1,575 buy-in Event #4 SCOOP 6th place for $53,167.50 which was a 2X Turbo format (check out the SCOOP write up here).

kejseranders was one card away from victory tonight but will have to settle for the runner-up check worth $24,000.00 after the near 10 hour tournament completed.

Congrats to all of our winners this evening and to those who trimmed the bounties off the Team PokerStars Pros that participated tonight.

$1 Million Turbo Takedown - Team Pro Edition (07-26-09)
1. ch0ppy (Waterloo) $40,000.00
2. kejseranders (Ølstykke) $24,000.00
3. badgergav (Essex) $20,000.00
4. votin (Odintsovo) $16,000.00
5. Resolfen (Germany) $12,000.00
6. Ajtak (Elztal-Dallau) $8,000.00
7. saimon24 (Minden) $6,020.00
8. ervinbet (Oradea) $5,000.00
9. CheddaStackz (Fort Collins) $4,000.00

Since the buy-in for the monthly $1 Million Turbo Takedown was lowered from 5,000 FPPs to just 2,000 Frequent Players Points (FPPs) players have flocked to take advantage of this no cash buy-in tournament. Last month we gave away an extra bonus in the form of four wheels when bigjbecker drove off with a Porsche Cayman and $40,000.00 after taking down last month's Turbo Takedown.

While there's not an extra addition the already free prize pool tonight, a massive 21,143 players lined up their FPPs via satellites, cash play, SnGs, and MTTs for a shot at the $40,000.00 first prize. Nearly HALF of the players who entered went home with at least $35.00 for their points, but all eyes were on the final table where placing at least ninth tonight would net you $4,000.00 in this "freeroll".

After eight hours of play kinkonk88, the massive chip leader, would collect the last pelt on the way to the final table. In the blinds kinkonk88 would put clickandwin to a decision preflop for the small stack of just 851,950 chips with blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K. [Jd][Ad] for kinkonk88 and clickandwin held [2d][Ac] and found the [Kd] [9c] [6c] [Jh] [Td] board to be absent of the deuce necessary to turn the tide, and clickandwin, clicked but had to settle for 10th place ($3,200.00) as kinkonk88 set up the final table below:

Seat 1: Armageddon98 (7977350 in chips)
Seat 2: aleksandras (8449754 in chips)
Seat 3: Pitbull24 (5799558 in chips)
Seat 4: xoxol73 (4325306 in chips)
Seat 5: Bo$$playa425 (6921892 in chips)
Seat 6: moe86 (1858981 in chips)
Seat 7: JohnnyPorn (1119907 in chips)
Seat 8: stepi80 (8548924 in chips)
Seat 9: kinkonk88 (18427328 in chips)

Blinds were still at 125K/250K ante 25K when severe short stack JohnnyPorn pushed 644,907 into the middle hoping to release the middle position limping aleksandras' chips. But, aleksandras made the easy call for 394,907 more with pocket eights [8s][8h]. [Qd][As] for JohnnyPorn set up the race to finish, but the board trickled down [Js] [9d] [4h] [5c] [8c] sending JohnnyPorn behind the table in ninth place ($4,000.00).

With the blinds increasing to 150K/300K ante 30K moe86 small stack of less than four big blinds went into the middle on the button with [Th][Kh] hoping to steal the blinds. Fortunately stepi80 was there in the small blind to provide some action and called with [Qh][8d]. A safe flop of [6c][9c][As] had moe86's king high ruling the day. The turned [5c] changed nothing, but the [Qs] river did as the stepi80 walked over moe86's king with a pair of queens. moe was, well, 86'd after the river and will enjoy the $5,000.00 earned in eighth place.

After taking a hit from Bo$$playa425 when pocket kings [Kc][Kd] could not hold up against the [Ac][Qh] of Bo$$playa425 for a 14 million chip pot, kinkonk88 went right back to work three hands later in another 14 million chip with tournament life on the line against aleksandras in the hand below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

kinkonk88's quad nines snuck past the big slick of aleksandras and the dominate chip leader was back and aleksandras was left with scraps that would be fed to stepi80 a few hands later to exit in seventh place ($6,020.00).

Shortly afterwards the final six settled in to take a well deserved five minute break with 200K/400K ante 40K blinds on the horizon. Here's how they shaped up with kinkonk88 still leading the way:

Seat 1: Armageddon98 (9552350 in chips)
Seat 3: Pitbull24 (2394558 in chips)
Seat 4: xoxol73 (7510306 in chips)
Seat 5: Bo$$playa425 (11158784 in chips)
Seat 8: stepi80 (13117130 in chips)
Seat 9: kinkonk88 (19695872 in chips)

kinkonk88 would continue to pressure the other players with bets putting them all-in or contesting their raises with three-bets preflop getting the leading stack up to 26 million without showing cards as the blinds rose again to 225K/450K ante 45K. The constant blind steals and raises got to Armageddon98. After raising to 1.35 million from UTG, stepi80 would re-raise putting Armageddon98 in deep thought for the remaining stack. Armageddon98 called showing [Ad][3d] but stepi80 wasn't being a bully and turned over the dominating [Ac][Qd]. The [8d] [8h] [9c] [4d] [Tc] board ran out with nary a trey and Armageddon98 blew up in sixth place earning $8,000.00 in the process.

Seven hands later began a succession of kinkonk88's big stack clubbing the table into submission. Starting with taking out xoxol73's in fifth place when xoxol73 call a 8.1 million chip button raise from kinkonk88 while holding just 5.8 million in chips left with [Ah][8h]. Once again kinkonk88 showed the goods and flipped up big slick [Ad][Kh]. Both would flop a pair of aces, but xoxol73 couldn't catch the kicker on the [As] [2h] [5s] [Td] [Qc] board to kiss those chips goodbye in fifth place ($12,000.00).

The very next hand kinkonk88 would hand other place their walking papers in fourth place. Watch the hand play out below:

With the boat of nines full of kings, kinkonk88 would show Bo$$playa425 who's the boss of the final table sending Bo$$playa425 home with $16,000.00 in fourth place.

Blinds remained the same at 225K/450K ante 45K when the small stacked Pitbull24 pushed again with two million in chips left after paying the blinds. [As][5s] was the choice of weapon for Pitbull24, but the big slick [Ah][Kd] of stepi80 in the big blind took the teeth out of Pitbull24's ace. No love for the short stack here as the board ran dry of a five and couldn't quite catch a six on the river to stay out of the dog pound. Pitbull24 instead will have to chew on the $20,000.00 received in third place.

Going into heads up play kinkonk88 would hold a nearly 5:1 chip lead over stepi80 in the all-European final:

Seat 8: stepi80 (13346466 in chips)
Seat 9: kinkonk88 (50082534 in chips)

stepi80 would manage a double up and pull within 26 million to 36 million chips but kinkonk88 would pull away the victory with the hand shown below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After treading lightly around the heart flush draw, kinkonk88's king kicker with [Kd][9d] grabbed the pot when stepi80's [9h][Qh] failed to find a third heart or second queen on the [8h] [9s] [5h] [6c] [2s] board to become this month's $1 Million Turbo Takedown champion earning $40,000.00 in the process!

Despite having the aggressive kinkonk88 on the left the entire final table, stepi80 persevered for a $24,000.00 payday as the runner-up.

10,000 players cashed, 36 went home with more than $1,000.00 and five earned five-figures all for a couple of FPPs. Congratulations to all of our cashers tonight.

$1 Million Turbo Takedown Results (06-28-09)
1. kinkonk88 (salzburg) $40,000.00
2. stepi80 (Stuttgart) $24,000.00
3. Pitbull24 (medford) $20,000.00
4. Bo$$playa425 (Las Vegas) $16,000.00
5. xoxol73 (Moskow) $12,000.00
6. Armageddon98 (Richmond Hill) $8,000.00
7. aleksandras (Kaunas) $6,020.00
8. moe86 (Milton) $5,000.00
9. JohnnyPorn (Winnipeg) $4,000.00

29,999 players in the $1 Million Turbo Takedown will go home tonight without a Porsche Cayman S. 29,999 players also will not go home with $40,000 in cash to put in a decent sound system into their new four-wheeled toy that can tear up the highway from 0-60 in 5.1 seconds, which incidentally is the same amount of time it took me to bust out of a tournament tonight or my daughter to escape from her room again after being put to bed.

Yes, a packed house of 30,000 players brought their reduced buy-in of 2,000 Frequent Players Points (FPPs) to play in the 1-year anniversary edition of the $1 Million Turbo Takedown. Normally set at 5,000 FPPs both the buy-in was reduced while the cap on the participants was raised to allow even more players trade in a handful of FPPs for a shot at some big cash...

... and tonight a car

As mentioned above the winner walked drove away with a brand new Porsche Cayman S, the tenth one given away by PokerStars via FPPs. Just like Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri got his Porsche back in 2007 the winner tonight received the $40,000 in cash plus a brand new ride. One-third of the total field walked away with at least $35.00, and the final table will be fighting it out for these amounts below:

1. Porsche Cayman S + $40,000.00
2. $24,000.00
3. $20,000.00
4. $16,000.00
5. $12,000.00
6. $8,000.00
7. $6,020.00
8. $5,000.00
9. $4,000.00

Aegis877 got the ball rolling for the final table tonight with blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K after min-raising from the button got Judith_SF to push all-in with pocket fours [4c][4d]. Covering and sitting with pocket aces [Ac][As] Aegis877 made the easy call and watched the [2d] [9c] [6h] [Th] [Qs] rain down a winner for those aces and set up the final table below:

Seat 1: bigjbecker (8461710 in chips)
Seat 2: Luckyb555 (7855308 in chips)
Seat 3: pairsetboat (6435296 in chips)
Seat 4: tason1101 (6862180 in chips)
Seat 5: rageniv (11770647 in chips)
Seat 6: Aegis877 (8815359 in chips)
Seat 7: jabariwoki (7769166 in chips)
Seat 8: 1 REALDEAL 1 (20390125 in chips)
Seat 9: mas_da_masta (11640209 in chips)

1 REALDEAL 1 comes in tonight with a huge chip lead, nearly double the amounts of bigjbecker and rageniv. The blinds will start off at 175K/350K ante 35K and Luckyb555 was the first to make significant moves. On the second hand of the final table Luckyb555 would nearly trim nearly four million chips off tason1101 after 3-betting and pushing all-in off an all-heart flop of [Jh] [3h] [4h] for a 7.6 million chip pot. Nine hands later Luckyb555 would get all those 8.4 million chips into the middle preflop against rageniv who covered by only 579K holding pocket kings [Ks][Kc]. rageniv produced [Ad][Qd] and the [9c] [2s] [6h] [3h] [Tc] board failed to provide diamonds or an ace as Luckyb555 raked in the 17.4 million chip pot and rageniv was down to just over one big blind. Two hands later mas_da_masta would use pocket fours to show rageniv the door in the ninth place ($4,000.00) when the [Ts][2s] could not find a flush on the [Qc] [3s] [5s] [Jc] [7c].

Four hands later pairsetboat got lined up in Luckyb555's sights after 3-betting Luckyb555's UTG raise for a 6.6 million chip stack. Luckyb555 made the call and covered with [9d] [Ad]. pairsetboat did not have a pair but in this situation big slick [Ac][Kh] looked a lot better. The [4h] [6d] [5d] flop loaded up some flush outs for Luckyb555, and on the [9c] turn Luckyb555 got lucky and hit leaving pairsetboat with two outs. No black kings on the river and pairsetboat sailed away with $5,000.00 for eighth place.

The very next hand Luckyb555 was all-in AGAIN, this time against jabariwoki preflop while holding pocket jacks [Js][Jh]. jabariwoki turned over [Qc][Ac] for the coin flip as [9s][Th][5d] came down on the flop. The [Jc] on the turn gave Luckyb555 a set leaving just the four kings left on the river. River [Kd]. A straight and 19.4 million chips for jabariwoki as Luckyb555's run was briefly stopped, but still held 15 million chips good for third place in the chip count.

YES! NO! YES! A run through the hold em' board can make you more jittery then a five year old on his third grande cappuccino. With the blinds at 225K/450K ante 45K tason1101's near four million chip stack needed to make a stand. Watch below the fun play out below after bigjbecker make the call of tason1101's push in the small blind:

With the rivered set of tens bigjbecker picked up the 8.5 million chip pot and tason1101 will not be driving home that Porsche but received $6,020.00 in seventh place.

Another eight hands later, 1 REALDEAL 1 who started as the big chip leader got ground over to 6.4 million and made a move for the blinds from UTG+2 by shoving all-in with [7s][9d]. Awaiting in the big blind was similarly stacked Aegis877 who made the call with [Td][As] leaving just 842K behind. The flop [Kc] [2h] [Qs] heavily favored Aegis877, and the [5s] on the turn helped no one. But, the [9s] river delivered yet another crushing blow to a favored hand tonight as 1 REALDEAL 1 collected the 13.3 million chip pot. The next hand jabariwoki would collect Aegis877's scraps as pocket aces [Ad][Ah] were more than enough to beat Aegis877's [9s][Js] on the [7h] [2h] [6d] [7c] [6s] board to send another car contender out of the dealership in sixth place ($8,000.00).

In a hand that may raise a few eyebrows, we'll let the video sort out the biggest pot to this point, 31.5 million chips between bigjbecker and mas_da_masta:

The reoccurring theme continued, the rivered wheel straight for bigjbecker holding just [2d][5h] snagged the huge pot and sent mas_da_masta off with a probable headache in fifth place ($12,000.00).

With the rising blinds to the final 250K/500K ante 50K level play got very fast, very quickly playing four-handed. Preflop play contained many hands there was a raise and folds around, or raise-shove-fold sequence. 1 REALDEAL 1's stack was worked back up to 21 million from the aggression, but eventually aggression gets called. Holding [Ts][Ks] after winning 4 out of the last 5 pots, 1REALDEAL 1 shoved again from the cutoff, but this time was called by jabariwoki in the big blinds with [Js][As]. Since the players were hogging the spades, only one made its way to the [4c] [3c] [6d] [Qc] [5s] board and the big starting chip leader was no more, out in fourth place ($16,000.00).

Eight hands later Luckyb555 pulled the handle on the slot machine one more time holding pocket sevens [7c][7h] and 3-bet shoved 10.7 million chips on bigjbecker's small blind raise. bigjbecker had a decent [Ac][Th] and made the call covering by 18 million. The [2d] [Jh] [6h] flop helped no one and kept Luckyb555 in the lead. But, the [As] hit the turn leaving Luckyb555 to root for a jackpot triple seven on the river, instead the final reel came up a lemon. [3d] on the river and Luckyb555 had $20,000.00 for the third place finish as we headed into the biggest prize differential of the tournament.

First place receives $40,000 plus the frequently mentioned Porsche Cayman S.

Second place will get to smell the fumes from the exhaust, but will still be $24,000.00 richer.

Here's how the two finalists stacked up to start heads up play:

bigjbecker (40018222 in chips)
jabariwoki (49981778 in chips)

jabariwoki would enjoy a near 10 million chip lead but that would quickly change as GoldStar bigjbecker carved out a couple of 14 million chip pots including getting a flopped boat with pocket eights [8d][8s] paid off on a million chip turn bet and five million chip river bet to haul in 14.6 million chips.

jabariwoki wasn't done by a long shot, getting near the ten hour mark of the tournament and fighting back to nearly even after taking 27.1 million chip pot when an all-in bet on a flop of [5c] [Qd] [Jd] was not called by bigjbecker. At the break the players merely switched chip positions from when they started:

bigjbecker (49818222 in chips)
jabariwoki (40181778 in chips)

The two would spar again for nearly 15 minutes with bigjbecker getting enough jabs to knockdown jabariwoki into a 3:1 deficit leading up to this big finish. Watch the video below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Flopped quad kings for bigjbecker and the Porsche Cayman S will be primed for delivery as jabariwoki could do nothing after drawing dead on the flop but will walk away tonight turning 2,000 FPPs into $24,000.00 cash as the runner-up.

bigjbecker picked the right month to win the $1 Million Turbo Takedown as $40,000.00 in cash along with the title to a brand new Porsche Cayman S will be signed over for defeating 29,999 players tonight!

May 2009 $1 Million Turbo Takedown (05-31-09)

1. bigjbecker (Barbourville) $40,000.00 + Porsche Cayman S
2. jabariwoki (Guimaraes) $24,000.00
3. Luckyb555 (Győr) $20,000.00
4. 1 REALDEAL 1 (UKPB poker forum) $16,000.00
5. mas_da_masta (Diamond Bar) $12,000.00
6. Aegis877 (Englishtown) $8,000.00
7. tason1101 (fort collins) $6,020.00
8. pairsetboat (singapore) $5,000.00
9. rageniv (Roma) $4,000.00

Each month PokerStars puts up $1 Million for players with a few Frequent Players Points lying around (5,000 to be exact) to potentially turn those hard earned points from ring games, MTTs, and SnGs into $100,000.00 which goes out to the winner of this tournament. Today 8,949 players "bought" their ways into the $1 Million Turbo Takedown for a shot at the six figure payday for the "price" of a couple of t-shirts or stress balls from the FPP store.

Nothing wrong with a stress ball, but personally I'd rather be squeezing bricks of cash while playing here at PokerStars. 4,000 players made it into the cash but only the below nine would be left standing after eight hours of play with a shot at that hundred grand.

Seat 1: wtfichigo (4147048 in chips)
Seat 2: Judius (472740 in chips)
Seat 3: willempy (358584 in chips)
Seat 4: 1488311 (2024959 in chips)
Seat 5: UHave_3_Outs (1790360 in chips)
Seat 6: JustFriendsF (6945987 in chips)
Seat 7: Soitanai (773458 in chips)
Seat 8: heelman247 (984804 in chips)
Seat 9: gwaag (9349060 in chips)

willempy came into the final table holding just three big blinds but managed to get some play in before succumbing to the pressure of the blinds. With just 183K in chips left willempy would make another open push and calls from UHave3_Outs and JustFriendsF. The [4d] [4h] [2d] [Tc] [3c] must not have helped willempy's cause as those cards were mucked after UHave3_Outs tabled [Kd] [Th] for the winning hand. $5,500.00 in ninth place for willempy is far from going away empty handed.

Big three way hand had the numerically fun 1488831's tournament life on the line against JustFriendsF and gwaag for a 3.4 million chip pot. Watch the fun below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The flopped set of fours was more than plenty to see off 1488311 in eighth place ($10,000.00).

Judius took a nasty beat before the final table when tabled pocket jacks to gwaag's ace-seven, and the river delivered a straight for gwaag crippling Judius from the tournament chip lead down to just a few blinds. Judius would recover enough to place seventh tonight, sitting with 835K in chips with blinds at 70,000/140,000 ante 14,000 facing a 330K raise from Soitanai, Judius would push the small stack into the middle with [Kc] [Js]. Soitanai would call with [Qh] [Ah] creating a 1.8 million chip pot. Judius would never catch up as the board ran out [6h] [9s] [9c] [Qd] [8h], tough night for the seventh place finisher but $15,000.00 for a bunch of FPPs is a well-spent investment.

After repeated attempts to make a six handed deal broke down, we lost heelman247. JustFriendsF had been running over the table with nearly nine million more chips than 2nd place wtfchigo. Unfortunately, heelman247 stuck out a virtual foot to trip up the chip leader with pocket kings [Kd] [Kc] against JustFriendsF's [8s] [As]. After the ace flopped on the [4c] [Ah] [Ts] [2c] [9c] board, JustFriendsF took in another 4.8 million in chips as heelman247 walked towards the door in sixth place ($20,000.00).

Five-handed attempt at a deal got some nods and the mods to offer a chip chop count, but too many nays as they played on.

Just eleven hands later JustFriendsF would strike again this time after raising from UTG into UHave_3_Outs' big blind, the shorter stack push 1.7 million into the middle with [6c] [Ac]. It was JustFriendsF's turn to hold the commanding pocket pair, jacks to be exact [Jd] [Js]. True to the name UHave_3_Outs had only three outs, but picked up two outs on the [Ks] [Qs] [Th] flop. UHave_3_Outs couldn't connect with the [7c] turn and [Kh] river, and with zero outs left UHave_3_Outs collected $25,000 for fifth place tonight.

Next, it was Soitanai's super short beginning stack getting healthier throughout the night and with this hand knocking wtfchigo down to 339K which would go to chip vacuum JustFriendsF on the very next hand ending wtfchigo's night in fourth place ($32,500.00):

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Once a severe short stack, now up to 7.1 million chips as Soitani lept in front of gwaag in chip count but still held half as many chips as JustFriendsF.

Three handed play would see the chip lead and possibly the remaining player's sanity take a turn for the worse as the short stack would always find a way to double up for almost a half hour.

But, with blinds at 125,000/250,000 ante 25,000 gwaag would finally succumb. After gwaag raised from the button to 510K with [3s][4s], Soitanai would call from the big blind with [Ac][5c] to see a [2c] [3c] [6s] flop. Soitanai would check the straight flush draw as gwaag followed-through with a 500K bet. No hesitation was made on the all-in check raise that coverage gwaag. But, gwaag made the call with middle pair and an inside straight draw as well. [As] on the turn gave the official lead to Soitanai but also gave gwaag a flush draw to go with a straight draw. [2h] on the river ended gwaag's roller-coaster ride to the final table as well as at the final table in third place ($40,000.00).

Nearly a three to one margin lead for Soitanai going into heads up play:

Seat 6: JustFriendsF (6722076 in chips)
Seat 7: Soitanai (20124924 in chips)

Soitanai wouldn't hold that lead long as JustFriendsF would strike for a double up seven hands into the heads-up match when both players hit trips on this board [2h] [Kc] [Tc] [6s] [Ts], but JustFriendsF's [Td] [9s] outpiped Soitanai's [5s][Th] to scoop up the 13.2 million chip pot and even out the match.

After trading the blinds back and forth with the chips nearly even, the players got the mods back online for an very quick negotiation of an even split of $70,000.00 and $20,000.00 left on the table to play for.

No sooner than JustFriendsF offering a "gl man" after the chop agreement in the chat box, both of them got their chips into the middle preflop. Watch the winner rake in the chips below:

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Pocket kings of Soitanai no match for the nut flush of JustFriendsF. This win all but wrapped up the tourney for JustFriendsF leaving Soitanai with just 18K in chips. He would manage a double up, but the scraps would eaten on the second hand as JustFriendF shook his big stack for all its worth in claiming this month's $1 Million Turbo Takedown tournament and $90,000.00 after the chop agreement. Adding $10K to the runner-up check, Soitanai's never give up attitude took that beginning short stack and turned it into a big payday.

April $1 Million Turbo Takedown Results
(*based on two-way chop)
1. JustFriendsF (Nashville) *$90,000.00
2. Soitanai (Cph) *$70,000.00
3. gwaag (einsiedeln) $40,000.00
4. wtfchigo (Voitsberg) $32,500.00
5. UHave_3_Outs (Phoenix) $25,000.00
6. heelman247 (Pierre) $20,000.00
7. Judius (Columbus) $15,000.00
8. 1488311 (Moscow) $10,000.00
9. willempy (weert) $5,500.00

Can you make the adjustments necessary to win the $1 Million Turbo Takedown?

First, you must overcome the massive field of 10,614 players who "paid" the 5,000 Frequent Players Point (FPPs) buy-in.

Second, this is a turbo tournament meaning less time to wait for those premium hands.

Third, after level 18 the blinds still change after every ten minutes, but the blinds do not increase at the rate they have before reaching this deep into the tournament. The pace of the blind change makes adjusting back to slower play a key to winning the tournament.

Fourth, do you like $100,000 enough to play for nearly ten hours (I think most people could put up with a $10,000 per hour job rate unless you play professional football for a living)?

4,000 players tonight walked away with at least $90.00 in exchange for their FPPs or satellite wins, 45 players got at least $1,000, and eight players once again will take home a fat, five-figure score upon reaching the final table.

KNIEM7 rubbed his four-leaf clover for all its worth and while he was low on chips like eleventh place biggels41, KNIEM7 raised from UTG, and called biggels41's three-bet only to be facing [Ac] [Ah]. KNIEM7's [Tc] [Qd] was actually in better shape after biggels41 hit a set on the [8d] [Ad] [5d] flop. The [4d] turn smacked KNIEM7's flush draw and he dodged pairing the board with the [7c] river. Then, four hands later KNIEM7 would find himself behind only to go ahead when he open shoved from the cutoff with [Td] [Qc] and was called by similarly stacked RonIrishMofo holding [Ks][As]. Another quick turn of luck in KNIEM7's favor as he would grab two pair on the [5d] [5c] [Tc] [Qd] [9s] board and RonIrishMofo would have to settle for the $4,000.00 he received as the final table bubble boy in tenth place.

Here's your final nine for the March $1 Million Turbo Takedown:

Seat 1: KNIEM7 (2803282 in chips)
Seat 2: fcfarfan04 (1942507 in chips)
Seat 3: hoops886 (1783333 in chips)
Seat 4: AL-AL66 (2463954 in chips)
Seat 5: pateenno1 (7134496 in chips)
Seat 6: licyeus (5979452 in chips)
Seat 7: Callisto 5 (3557688 in chips)
Seat 8: elcheapo23 (2963172 in chips)
Seat 9: Electricute (3214116 in chips)

The first big pot of the final table went to Callisto 5 as she would double up off the chip leader licyeus. Pocket kings [Kc][Kh] for licyeus and pocket aces [Ah][Ad] in a hand that played itself out with the blinds starting at 50,000/100,000 ante 10,000. The flop gave both players sets, but they weren't necessary as the remainder of the [Jh] [As] [Ks] [8d] [3c] board failed to produce the last king in the deck and Callisto 5 took home the 7.1 million chip pot, and licyeus remained healthy with 5.4 million chips.

Someone has to be the first out and get the bottom money at the final table, and that person tonight was hoops886. From UTG he went for a blind steal with [8c] [Jh] but fell well short of the goal as AL-AL66 picked up pocket kings [Kh] [Ks] on his immediate left and called his one million chip bet. The rest of the table got out of the way although hoops886 made the first free throw by pairing his eight, but couldn't sink the second on the [8h] [Th] [Ts] [5h] [2c] board and hoops886 was benched in ninth place ($5,500.00).

pateenno1 commented in the chat box that he didn't know if they were playing for FPPs or real money. Gamesmanship perhaps, but there were $10,000.00 real dollars going out to fcfarfan04 after his eighth place finish when pateenno1 knocked him out of the tournament. fcfarfan04 started the betting by raising to 480,000 with the blinds at 60,000/120,000 ante 12,000 and was re-raised by pateenno1 on the button all-in as pateenno1 covered. fcfarfan04 would make the call with [Ad] [Jh] and saw the bad news as pateenno1 turned over pocket kings [Ks][Kh]. panteenno1's kings were never threatened as they made kings full of fives on the [Td] [5s] [4h] [5h] [Kc] board. No matter what pateenno1 might be thinking, PokerStars will be awarding real dollars to fcfarfan04 tonight for his eighth place finish.

The very next hand the roller coaster of KNIEM7's chip stack would come to abrupt halt when he shoved his 1.8 million chips from UTG+2 into the middle with [Qh][Qd] as the blinds remained at 60,000/120,000 ante 12,000. Unfortunately, pateenno1 shipped his kings over to AL-AL66 who quickly called with [Kh][Ks] on KNIEM7's left. There would be no clover, rabbit foot, or any other strokes of luck as the board ran off [Jd] [5s] [5c] [Tc] [2c] as neither player improved, KNIEM7 would have $15,000.00 added to his bankroll in seventh place.

About five minutes later the players tried to get together for a deal but everyone's eyes seemed a little bigger than their chip stack as they could not come to terms and the tournament started back up with the blinds at 70,000/140,000 ante 14,000 and chip stacks looking like this:

Seat 4: AL-AL66 (7051062 in chips)
Seat 5: pateenno1 (7032510 in chips)
Seat 6: licyeus (3496764 in chips)
Seat 7: Callisto 5 (7852366 in chips)
Seat 8: elcheapo23 (3405172 in chips)
Seat 9: Electricute (3004126 in chips)

13 million chips. A pot this big meant big hands which could be found in the hands of AL-AL66 and pateenno1 as the hand replayer will show you below:

With AL-AL66's big slick out running the pocket kings of pateenno1, he would gather up those 13 million chips and assume the chip lead with 14.2 million chips, twice the amount of second place Callisto 5 as the blinds were moving up to 90,000/180,000 ante 18,000 very shortly.

licyeus and elcheapo23 would exchange places on the leaderboard as elcheapo23 caught a four flush on the river after getting his [Qs][Ah] outflopped by licyeus' [Ac][Jd] on the [2c] [Jh] [Kh] [8h] [2h] board for a 5.2 million chip pot that left licyeus with just 1.6 million. licyeus would push his way back to 2.4 million after a few steals, but as the blinds went up to 100,000/200,000 ante 20,000 he locked horns with elcheapo23 again. A push from UTG with [Qs][Ts] was met by a call on the button by elcheapo23 who thought the price was right with pocket nines [9c][9d]. By the turn licyeus had plenty of outs but ultimately could not connect on the [Jd] [5d] [8c] [As] [3c] board and the once big stack had to settle for fifth place ($25,000.00).

Fizzled out. Shocked by AL-AL66. Gone in a flash.

Pick a headline for Electricute as he was card dead with a short stack and got blinded down to under one million when he chose to take his [3d][Ad] up against the preflop raise of the chip leader AL-AL66's pocket fours [4s][4h]. A flopped set of fours for AL-AL66 would end up as a full house as Electricute would miss his gutshot straight draw on the [Jc] [5s] [4c] [9c] [5h] board. 2.4 million chips for AL-AL66 and $32,500.00 for Electricute as he was short circuited in fourth place. Ok, that last punny headline was bad but I couldn't resist.

As we dropped into three handed play and the blinds at 150,000/300,000 ante 30,000, it was Callisto 5 looking for chips and AL-AL66 still with a commanding lead:

Seat 4: AL-AL66 (18137698 in chips)
Seat 7: Callisto 5 (3782496 in chips)
Seat 8: elcheapo23 (9921806 in chips)

Callisto 5 would gain some breathing room as she caught a pair of kings [Kh][Kc] in the big blind as AL-AL66's [Ah][Jd] fell short on the [9s] [5s] [8s] [9c] [3c] board when both shoved pre-flop. With the 7.5 million chip pot going to Callisto 5, and the players having evened out the chip stacks, they attempted some chop dialog again that never caught any fire as the blinds moved up to 175,000/350,000 ante 35,000.

One bet, two bet, three bet, four! Callisto and elcheapo23 would take their stacks into the middle preflop for the biggest pot of the tournament, and only one would face AL-AL66 heads up. Watch the hand play out below to see who:

With the coin flip win, elcheapo23 would take the chip lead into heads up play against AL-AL66 while Callisto 5 would get to enjoy the $40,000.00 earned in fourth place.

At the start of heads up play the chip counts looked like this:

Seat 4: AL-AL66 (13846197 in chips)
Seat 8: elcheapo23 (17995803 in chips)

But, elcheapo23 would win the first game of chip chicken as he bet out 5,555,555 chips on the river of an 8.4 million chip pot with the board showing [Kh] [5d] [Ac] [Ts] [Ks]. AL-AL66 couldn't find a call or a raise as elcheapo23 opened up a 21 million to 10 million chip lead.

The chip lead would flip around when both players put their stacks in the middle preflop:

AL-AL66: [Ah] [Jh]
elcheapo23: [8c] [8h]

The all-club flop [2c] [4c] [7c] cut off a bunch of outs for AL-AL66 but the turn came through with the [As] and the [6h] sealed the win. The 22.8 million chip pot slid AL-AL66's way while elcheapo23's stack sat a little below nine million chips.

Eleven hands later they would get it all in preflop again, but there would be no race this time as elcheapo23's [Ah][2c] was a big underdog to AL-AL66's [As][9d]. AL-AL66 would flop top two, as elcheapo was left looking for one of two fives left in the deck on the river for a chop. It did not come as the board read [9s] [Ac] [5d] [5h] [8d] to favor AL-AL66 as this month's $1 million Turbo Takedown champion and winner of the $100,000.00 first place prize. elcheapo23 also collected a monsterous ROI with his $60,000.00 won as the runner-up for that 5,000 FPP buy-in.

March $1 Million Turbo Takedown Results (03-29-09)
1. AL-AL66 $100,000.00
2. elcheapo23 $60,000.00
3. Callisto 5 $40,000.00
4. Electricute $32,500.00
5. licyeus $25,000.00
6. pateenno1 $20,000.00
7. KNIEM7 $15,000.00
8. fcfarfan04 $10,000.00
9. hoops886 $5,500.00