With the WCOOP on everyone's mind and players looking to grab some extra bankroll cash for the two and a half week long extravaganza starting September 3rd 4,100 showed up at the cashier's window for tonight's $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up. With a prize pool of $820,000.00 and $128,740.00 of that going out to first place that could buy you into all the events with enough left over for a trip to Vegas or Macau and some poolside drinks.

Right before the final table, heißtercamp had this author scrambling the search engines on how to insert the German letter into the page. Luckily, there were enough people out there on the internet with the kindness in their hearts to educate me on such matters. The reason it was important? heißtercamp came into tonight's final table as the chip leader after knocking out deamon10 after the two traded raises until deamon10 was all-in holding [Jc][Ac]. heißtercamp was looking great flipping up a suited big slick [Ah][Kh] and the dominant hand would hold on the [Qd] [4h] [As] [6d] [4d] board to ship the huge 7.5 million chip pot and the chip lead to heißtercamp and knock out deamon10 as tonight's bubble boy in tenth place ($4,920.00).

Seat 1: CuCbKu (4637081 in chips)
Seat 2: MarcMcFly (1956052 in chips)
Seat 3: gargamelesp (2896426 in chips)
Seat 4: heißtercamp (10905983 in chips)
Seat 5: J0hnny_Dr@m@ (6373880 in chips)
Seat 6: Morph2oo6 (1716156 in chips)
Seat 7: Monterpol (3429307 in chips)
Seat 8: apestyles (2861000 in chips)
Seat 9: Jarfish (6224115 in chips)

Morph2oo6 got the party started early going all-in just five hands from the start of the final table with the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K and riding big slick [Ks][Ad] to victory over the [Jd][As] of CuCbKu for the 3.4 million chip pot. Play would settle in for a bit as the chip leader heißtercamp took many pots uncontested preflop including one for 2.6 million after 4-betting J0hnny_Dr@m@ and taking it down without any board cards.

After two blind levels of mostly preflop poker, heißtercamp would stumble a bit running pocket queens into pocket kings twice and doubling up apestyles and CuCbKu in the process. Right before the second cooler, CuCbKu managed the first elimination at the final table taking out gargamelesp. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K gargamelesp would shove 2.3 million chips from UTG and got the table to fold around to CuCbKu in the small blind who made the call holding [Kh][Ac]. Big slick dominated the [Ad][Tc] held by gargamelesp and would hold on the [Qc] [Jh] [9c] [7h] [7s] board sending The Smurf's arch enemy home in ninth place ($6,560.00). The very next hand using the newly acquired five million chips from gargamelesp, CuCbKu would take the chip lead from heißtercamp when the pocket kings would hold up against heißtercamp's queens for a 12.6 million chip pot.

heißtercamp was not detoured by the bad luck as on the very next hand MarcMcFly tried to steal the blinds open pushing a short 1.9 million chip stack on the button with [Jd][Qs]. heißtercamp reeling from the large pot lost to CuCbKu was still sitting in the small blind with over four million chips made the call holding [Jc][As]. This time it was heißtercamp's turn with the dominate hand and it would hold on the [8h] [9s] [Kc] [Ad] [7s] to retain a few chips via the 4.2 million chip pot. MarcMcFly was sent back to Hill Valley without the DeLorean but will have $10,250.00 for the eighth place to help save the clock tower.

The players finally took a breather from the big pots for five hands when Morph2oo6 was facing a 511,000 chip raise from J0hnny_Dr@m@ holding only 2.2 million chip and a suited big slick [Ad][Kd]. The three bet all-in was made as J0hnny_Dr@m@ thought over the pot odds and made the call with [Tc][Qc]. All was a walk in the park towards a much needed double up for Morph2oo6 until the river card hit on the [7d] [5d] [6s] [2c] [Th] board as J0hnny_Dr@m@ hit the four outer on the river to send Morph2oo6 home in seventh place ($18,450.00).

Still in the 100K/200K blind level Monterpol would pick up a much needed double up against apestyles as pocket queens took another beating, this time Monterpol's [8s][As] found an ace on the [5c] [Jh] [Ad] [Jc] [Td] board to ship the 3.6 million double up to Monterpol.

apestyles would take some chips back as the blinds rose to 125K/250K ante 25K after shoving over the top of an UTG raise from JarFish and a three-bet from J0hnny_Dr@m@. The four-bet was not answered by either player as apestyles raked in the 4.3 million chip pot. The very next hand JarFish's [Kc][Jh] would double up off J0hnny_Dr@m@'s big slick [Ad][Ks] pulling out a three-outer on the river with the board showing [6s] [7d] [8s] [8c] [Js] for a 10.4 million chip pot.

Monterpol would let J0hnny_Dr@m@ back into the game as it was J0hnny_Dr@m@'s turn for some luck as J0hnny_Dr@m@'s [2c][Ad] hit versus Monterpol's dominating [9h][Ah] on the [4s] [2d] [4d] [Qc] [3s] board for a 3.4 million chip pot. Since the two were similarly stack Monterpol was left with fumes that JarFish would collect five hands later while rivering a straight sending Monterpol home in sixth place ($26,650.00).

With the newly acquired chips J0hnny_Dr@m@ tried to get out of the chip cellar taking on the chip leader CuCbKu all-in preflop. Watch below for the results:

This time J0hnny_Dr@m@ holding [Ah][5s] couldn't sneak the smaller kicker past the five card board as CuCbKu's big slick [Ad][Ks] held up on the [4s] [Jc] [9d] [Jh] [7c] board as J0hnny_Dr@m@ took home $34,850.00 in fifth place.

The next elimination came at the hands of part head-scratcher and part great instincts. With the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K watch the hand between heißtercamp and apestyles play out:

heißtercamp went for the three-bet bluff from the big blind holding [3h][2h] and apestyles put together the pieces of the puzzle enough to call with [As][5s]. Both players managed to hit two pair, but apestyles' was the mightier on the [8c] [2c] [Ad] [5c] [3s] board sending home the beginning final table chip leader in fourth place ($47,150.00).

After JarFish trimmed a six million chip pot off CuCbKu the players held very similar stacks and brief chop talks took place. apestyles wasn't 100 percent on board, looking for a six figure score so play resumed. A few hands later apestyles was already to relent and was ready to look at the figures after the current hand...

... and lost the all-in preflop battle against CuCbKu knocking the chip leading apestyles from 18 million chips to a little over six million and boosting CuCbKu to over 24 million when CuCbKu's [Ac][Jh] held over apestyles' [Th][Ah].

The wheels came off in a hurry for apestyles' as three hands later CuCbKu called apestyles' button push from the big blind with pocket eights [8s][8h]. apestyles could only produce [3c][Ad] and watched CuCbKu promptly hit a set on the flop and with apestyles drawing dead by the turn, a mocking ace hit the river on the [6s] [8d] [5s] [Jc] [Ah] board. Although it's not the six figure score, apestyles was looking for the $67,650.00 earned in third place is decent brag post material.

After apestyles left the tournament table, JarFish and CuCbKu got together to carve out a couple of six-figure scores as the two used the chip chop suggestions from the PokerStars host and agreed to the figures below:

JarFish: $101,693.63
CuCbKu: $112,986.37

With the big money off the board there was still a sizable $10,000 set aside for tonight's champion. JarFish was looking at a long road to recovery starting off with a 31 million to 9 million chip deficit as CuCbKu held a commanding lead.

JarFish would chiseled up to 13 million chips but tried snag a one million chip preflop raise from CuCbKu with an overshove holding [Kh][7c]. The aggressiveness did not pay off here as CuCbKu snap called with pocket jacks [Jh][Jd] and rode the [8s] [4h] [2c] [8c] [3c] board to victory in tonight's Sunday Warm-up!

CuCbKu's win earned the extra $10,000.00 set aside from the deal bringing the total win to $122,986.37 as JarFish took home six-figures as the runner up tonight with $101,693.63 from the two person deal.

Be sure to check out all the hole cards with commentary tomorrow from the staff PokerStars.TV's Online Poker Show.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (08-30-09)
*denotes part of two-way deal
1. CuCbKu (Augsburg) *$122,986.37
2. Jarfish (Port Moody) *$101,693.63
3. apestyles (Austin) $67,650.00
4. heißtercamp (Neverscared) $47,150.00
5. J0hnny_Dr@m@ (Athens) $34,850.00
6. Monterpol (Police) $26,650.00
7. Morph2oo6 (Oudenbosch) $18,450.00
8. MarcMcFly (Windhagen) $10,250.00
9. gargamelesp (Singapore) $6,560.00

Some nights the $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up final table is a close battle with extra thin value bets determining the winner. Other nights, like tonight, the players bust out their sledgehammers and go to work on the weak. After starting out with 10,000 chips and 4,075 other players signed up for the $215 buy-in tourney it was plz be live or maybe read "please believe",that received a big bankroll boost after taking home the entire first place check of $127,986.41

plz be live can thank the guarantee busting crowd in assembling the $815,200 prize pool that was divided among 585 players tonight.

PiMaster sliced up Manta_Rays to set up the final table by riding a suited big slick [Ad][Kd] to victory over Manta_Rays' [As][Ts] when the board ran out [Qd] [Ah] [2h] [8h] [4c] to set up the final nine below:

Aftret was the one to watch tonight, having some past success in the Sunday Million with two final tables in the past year (see the PokerStars blog write ups here and here) and looking for first place after finishing 7th and 3rd in the Sunday Million in the past year.

Seat 1: cailloulefou (3109574 in chips)
Seat 2: Bojinator (5489418 in chips)
Seat 3: GAKingChaser (6126495 in chips)
Seat 4: Dago40 (7668711 in chips)
Seat 5: BenDana-1 (1973408 in chips)
Seat 6: PiMaster (4306153 in chips)
Seat 7: Aftret (1867182 in chips)
Seat 8: plz be live (3307510 in chips)
Seat 9: hugo1006 (6911549 in chips)

With the blinds starting at 65K/130K ante 13K hugo1006 would waste no time claiming the first big pot of the evening, calling down Bojinator on a board showing [Kc] [Th] [Ks] [7s] [2h] and was happy to find that second pair of tens [9d] [Tc] was more than enough for the 5.3 million chip pot.

Five hands later it was the aforementioned Aftret started the final table with the low end of the leaderboard but got a much needed double up after pushing all-in with big slick into the middle [As][Kh] while UTG and getting some action from Bojinator holding pocket tens [Tc][Th]. Slick would hit an ace on the flop and hold on the [Ac] [Js] [2d] [Qd] [4s] for the 3.8 million chip pot sending Bojinator under one million chips. Bojinator would last for a few more hands but ultimately hand those remaining chips over to GAKingChaser when Bojinator's [Tc][Ks] couldn't suck out versus the [Ts][As] on the [9c] [6h] [8d] [5c] [9h] board. After starting fourth chips, Bojinator would have to settle for ninth place and $6,521.61 tonight.

BenDana-1 called out for the PokerStars One Time Chip after getting low on chips with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K finding [Tc][Ac] all-in preflop against the big slick of PiMaster [Ad][Ks]. The [As] [8c] [7d] gave both a pair of aces but the king kicker still ruled. [2c] on the turn brought the flush draw, with filled up on the [5c] river as BenDana-1 swept the much needed 2.7 million chip pot.

The blinds rose again to 100K/200K ante 20K as short stacked PiMaster took [Ac][8d] in the cutoff for a raise to one million. Folded to hugo1006 who would 3-bet it putting PiMaster all-in in the big blind holding [Jc][Ks] and enough chips to gamble. PiMaster made the call and the brief preflop favorite got a rude [Jh] [Kh] [6c] flop, and was drawing dead by the [2c] turn. The [Ah] on the river was too little, too late and sent my favorite geometrical symbol home with $10,190.01 in eighth place.

The very next hand cailloulefou would wrestle the chip lead away from hugo1006 after flopping trip tens as hugo1006 did not believe the three-bet after the flop and called to see pocket threes on the [6h] [Th] [Tc] were not going to cut it. No trey on the [8c] turn nor [Kd] river and the huge 13 million chip pot was shipped to cailloulefou as hugo1006 slipped to 4.3 million. Two hands later cailloulefou found another big pot to tangle in, this time with GAKingChaser. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K folded around, cailloulefou would raise to 500K from the button and GAKingChaser would give action with a three-bet to 1.225 million. The chip leader would make the call in position to see a mono-tone [2h] [7h] [Qh] flop. With a stop-and-go play, GAKingChaser tried pushing [Js][4h] for 3.4 million. But, cailloulefou held [Qs] [Ks] good for top pair and just had to fade the flush draw. Two clubs later [3c] and [Jc], the 9.8 million chip pot flowed into cailloulefou's stack as GAKingChaser was chased from the table in seventh place ($18,342.01).

BenDana-1 would capture another short stacked double up courtesy of Aftret immediately after GAKingChaser's departure. Taking down a 4.7 million chip pot as the two were all-in preflop and BenDana-1's [Kd][Qd] held up over Aftret's [9h][Jh] on the [8c] [2h] [6d] [2c] [Qs] board.

Eliminations would slow down for awhile as the blinds held steady at 100K/200K ante 20K when plz be live would take a 5.8 million chip pot from cailloulefou as plz be live's big slick [As][Kc] was very much alive against the [Jd][Kh] of the chip leader. cailloulefou didn't catch up on the [Ts] [6h] [3d] [5h] [Td] board and plz be live was back in action with the double up.

Three hands later with no change in the blinds, Dago40 and hugo1006 would push their similar stack into the middle preflop for a sizable 11.2 million chip pot. Watch the action play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Dago40's pocket sevens would hold against the [Qd][Ac] of hugo1006 on the [Jd] [9c] [8d] [4c] [4s] board as hurricane hugo was downgraded to a light spring rain shower exiting in sixth place ($26,494.01) as Dago40 was only looking up at cailloulefou in the chip counts.

After the blinds bumped up to 125K/250K ante 25K plz be live took the role of aggressor and pushed 549,775 into the middle from UTG. Folded around to Aftret who chose to call in the big blind to see the [3d] [7d] [5s] flop. Aftret would check, prompting plz be live to bet out for 3/4th of a million. Aftret wasn't done with the hand and check-raised to two million. plz be live liked those pocket aces [As][Ad] enough to shove all-in as Aftret would call with [Td][9d]. It was Aftret who was hoping to be live, and was until the [2s] and [Ts] came down on the board missing the flush draw and sending fifth place money ($34,646.01) to Aftret who adds yet another big finish in a PokerStars Sunday major.

Two hands later BenDana-1's run of getting low in the chip counts and doubling up would find its end. Down to 1.75 million chips and blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K BenDana-1 would push from the cutoff holding pocket sevens [7s][7c]. But, the other three table mates all held over 10 million chips, and one of them would make the call. Dago40 liked [Ah][8d] enough to make the call in the big blind creating the 3.7 million chip pot. The flop [6s] [6c] [Ks] was clean for BenDana-1, but the turned [Ad] gave Dago40 a pair of aces which would fade the two sevens on the river [5d], showing BenDana-1 where to pick up the fourth place cash of $46,874.01

Three-handed play was fairly even as the blinds notched up to the 150K/300K ante 30K level. cailloulefou took a near five million chip hit against plz be live when plz be live shoved out a 4.5 million chip bet on the river with the board showing [Qc] [2c] [5d] [3c] [Qd] that cailloulefou couldn't answer as the former chip leader slipped to 8.4 million as plz be live enjoyed the big stack with over 18 million. That hand would set up the biggest hand of the tournament worth 17 million chips below as the same two online rounders would tangle:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After both players liked the [Jh][Jc][7c] flop enough to shove all-in, it was the pocket eights [8d][8c] of plz be live that were well ahead of the second pair of cailloulefou holding [Ks][7s]. The king nor seven would hit on the [Qs] turn nor [2h] river as cailloulefou would have to settle for third place ($67,254.01) after a strong start to the final table.

The shallow blinds of 150K/300K ante 30K with our two final combatants both holding a wall of chips had all the makings for a long heads-up battle right?

Faster than eighth place PiMaster could count out Pi to the 10th place we had our Sunday Warm-up Champion.

In the third hand of heads up play with plz be live holding 29 million chips to Dago40's 11.6 million the two would trade bets preflop until all of their chips were in the middle creating a 23.3 million chip pot:

Dago40: [2d][2h]
plz be live: [4h][4c]

Already ahead with the higher pocket pair plz be live's dominating hand got a bigger bump on the [Kh] [Ac] [4s] flop. Dago40's tournament live was down to a perfect-perfect situation and the 989:1 shot did not come in as the turned [Ts] ended Dago40's tourney receiving nearly six figures ($95,378.41) as tonight's runner-up.

With the set of sailboats, plz be live casted off nearly ten hours ago to sail off into the sunset with an extra $127,986.41 as this week's Sunday Warm-up Champion!

Congrats to all of our winners tonight and be sure to check out PokerStars.TV tomorrow for the Sunday Warm-up wrap up show.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (08-16-09):
1. plz be live (Beavercreek) $127,986.41
2. Dago40 (Leipzig) $95.378.41
3. cailloulefou (limelette) $67,254.01
4. BenDana-1 (Muenchen) $46,874.01
5. Aftret (Trondheim) $34,646.01
6. hugo1006 (Häder) $26,494.01
7. GAKingChaser (watkinsville) $18,342.01
8. PiMaster (Glen Carbon) $10,190.01
9. Bojinator (Port Kembla) $6,521.61

The summer is almost over with retailers hawking their Back-to-School wares and getting parents like myself to make a double-take at the calendars wondering where the sunshine and beach trips went. One constant besides death and taxes is the Sunday Warm-up at PokerStars with its $750,000 Guarantee and habit of making someone's bankroll gain six figures. Tonight's tournament was no exception as 4,288 players combined to bloat the prize pool to $857,600.00 and 630 of those players took a little something for their flush draws getting there but only one would go away with tonight's $134,540.29 first prize.

With about 50 players left tonight, there was a familiar name sitting atop the leaderboard. Team PokerStars Pro Maridu Mayrinck was leading the pack and looking to equal or pass the third place finish fellow Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle "NoMercy" Mercier had in the Sunday Million just three ago (read the write up here) Unfortunately in a blind versus blind battle, she would run into the flopped straight by The- Toilet 0 after turning trips and could not fill up on the river to finish in 22nd place ($2,144.01).

But, Maridu was not the only storyline coming from Rio de Janerio tonight as Friend of PokerStars race car driver Gualter "stockcar99" Salles was heading for the final table himself standing on the penultimate table but ran [7d][Ad] into the pocket queens [Qs][Qh] of vluff and couldn't find an ace or diamonds on the [6h] [Js] [2s] [Qc] [Ks] board to finish in 15th place ($3,859.21).

Maridu's adversary The- Toilet 0 would grace the final table after kingpin023's [Kd][Qc] outran the [Ah][Th] of purjo1 after the two got all their chips in the middle preflop. purjo1 was looking great for a double up to nearly three million chips on the [Tc] [5c] [7d] [6h] board, but the rivered [Kh] shipped the pot to kingpin023 and set up the final table below:

Seat 1: PetjeXL (3428072 in chips)
Seat 2: RichyPal (2482518 in chips)
Seat 3: DAFLYINGKIWI (2781632 in chips)
Seat 4: The-Toilet 0 (2665792 in chips)
Seat 5: kingpin023 (9560652 in chips)
Seat 6: gokveld (7454736 in chips)
Seat 7: Hobbes200 (7548222 in chips)
Seat 8: vluff (4505164 in chips)
Seat 9: jdog_fl (2453212 in chips)

Starting off with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K tonight for our final nine just eight hands into the big money PetjeXL made the first reach for the top cash of $134,540.29 by raising it up to 382,900 and getting kingpin023 to shove with pocket fours [4s][4d] over the top forcing PetjeXL to make an easy decision with pocket queens [Qd][Qh]. [Ah] [6s] [5d] [5h] [2h] spilled out on the board and PetjeXL doubled up with the 5.5 million chip pot.

Six hands later we would have our first loss of the final table when shortstacked jdog_fl would raise a middle position limping Hobbes200 from the button with blinds still at 80K/160K ante 16K. On the [3s] [6s] [5h] flop Hobbes200 tried to be the aggressor and led out for 1.06 million, but jdog_fl holding an overpair of jacks [Jd][Jh] was going nowhere and pushed the remaining chip stack of 2.01 million over the top and into the middle. Hobbes200 would make the call holding two overcards (actually only one that mattered) and the flush draw [Ts][Ks]. The turn was all that was needed as Hobbes200's flush draw got there with the [As] landing jdog_fl ($6,860.81) in ninth place as the jacks became useless.

RichyPal would trim a 3.5 million chip pot off Hobbes200 slowing down Calvin's sidekick reign as the chipleader temporarily. But, six hands later holding [Ah][Qh] in the small blind and looking down the barrel of The-Toilet 0's shove for 3.3 million, Hobbes200 would make the call. The- Toilet 0's [7h][8h] wasn't looking too hot after the [Ad] [9d] [3h] flop, the [7d] gave everyone's favorite bathroom utensil for reading the Sunday paper some life, but the [9h] on the river flushed The- Toilet 0 out of tonight's final table in eight's place ($10,720.01).

DAFLYINGKIWI would get a much needed double up four hands later as the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K taking pocket jacks to the house against the pocket nines of gokveld's for a 3.1 million chip pot.

But, gokveld would those chips back and more in the following hand against the RichyPal:

RSS readers click through to see replay

RichyPal's pocket queens [Qh][Qs] were no match for gokveld's big slick [Kh][Ac] in the night's first eight digit pot as gokveld took down the 11.2 million chip pot and RichyPal added $19,296.01 to the family vault in seventh place.

vluff started a run at the chip lead get a timely double up off Hobbes200 when [7c][As] was good enough against Hobbes200's [Ks][Jd] for a 6.8 million chip pot. As the players finally took a breather for several hands until DAFLYINGKIWI got gokveld for a double up taking the road to value town after flopping a full house with big slick and earning 6.7 million chips in the process.

Three hands later as the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K kingpin023 and Hobbes200 would knot up preflop for a huge 14 million chip pot. Hobbes200 turned up big slick [Kh][As] and kingpin023 pocket nines [9s] [9d] for a race for the tournament chip lead at this point. The [Ac] [3s] [5d] [Th] [Kd] board gave big slick another victory tonight as the Apple Valley native kingpin023 took home $27,872.01 in sixth place.

Seven hands later vluff would double up in the first 20 million chip pot when the [6d][Ah] out flopped Hobbes200's pocket eights [8d] [8s] on the [Ac] [2d] [Kd] [Qs] [9s] board, knocking the former chip leader down to 7.6 million chip with the blinds still at 125K/250K ante 25K. Hobbes200 would take another hit two hands later as PetjeXL got an extra large river card when pocket sixes looked dead in the water against Hobbes200's pocket tens. But the final card rained down [5s] [4h] [Qd] [4d] [6s] and with the six of spades PetjeXL was back in business with that 8.4 million chip pot.

Even though Hobbes200 was against the ropes, it would be gokveld's turn a few hands later with his tournament life on the line against DAFLYINGKIWI. This one ended before the excitement started as both players got their four million chip stacks into the middle preflop only to see DAFLYINGKIWI's pocket aces [Ac] [Ad] casting a huge shadow over gokveld's [As][Td]. No surprise four flushes or straights on the [5d] [6s] [9c] [Js] [9s] board as gokveld was awarded $36,448.01 in fifth place.

Hobbes200 would hold on to the short stack for several hands but ran into an extremely hot vluff who was in the mist of taking down nine out of ten hands in a row as the blinds held at 125K/250K ante 25K. Both players got their chips in the middle preflop, vluff with the tonight's popular hand, big slick [Ac][Kc], and Hobbes200 looking alive with [Td][Qs]. The [Tc] [3c] [8d] hit both players as Hobbes200 held top pair and vluff with the two overcards and flush draw. The overcards became worthless on the [Ts] turn giving Hobbes200 trips, but the [9c] on the river awarded the 9.9 million chip pot to vluff and fourth place money ($48,454.41) to Hobbes200.

A brief pause by Team PokerStars Pro Tom McEvoy http://www.pokerstars.net/team-pokerstars/tom-mcevoy/ shot out the potential chop number for the remaining three, but they didn't like the near six figures split up three-ways so a return to the battle was swift.

As opposed to the first six knock-outs of the final table the three handed battle would go across an entire blind level as no one was eliminated during the 150K/300K ante 30K level but vluff and PetjeXL would meet up all-in preflop when the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K. PetjeXL's short stack and tournament life was on the line after pushing 6.7 million chips on the button with pocket fours [4s][4h] only to run into vluff's pocket nines [9h][9c] in the big blind. PetjeXL would get need an extra small four on the board this time, and didn't get it on the [Ad] [As] [7s] [6h] [Qh] board. The not-so-small third place prize of $70,752.01 was transferred to PetjeXL's account after the pocket fours missed and set up heads-up play between vluff and DAFLYINGKIWI.

vluff would start out heads-up play with a 2:1 chip lead (seen below) forcing DAFLYINGKIWI into defense mode most of the head-to-head battle with constant raises.

Seat 3: DAFLYINGKIWI (14395381 in chips)
Seat 8: vluff (28484619 in chips)

DAFLYINGKIWI was up to the challenge, briefly taking the chip lead at one point after a lengthy 20 minute war that final ended shortly after the introduction to the 250K/500K ante 50K blind level with the below hand:

This time the pocket queens [Qd][Qs] of vluff hold over DAFLYINGKIWI's [Ah][8c] after vluff turned on the gas and won 17 of the final 18 hands in succession and claimed this week's Sunday Warm-up crown for $134,540.29!

DAFLYINGKIWI unfortunately ran into the aggressive vluff and couldn't alter the tide but did take the tidy sum of $99,910.41 back to Auckland as tonight's runner-up.

PokerStars.TV will have the running commentary of tonight's tournament along with all the exposed cards during their video recap tomorrow. Congrats to all of our winners this evening!

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (08-02-09)

1. vluff (Quebec) $134,540.29
2. DAFLYINGKIWI (Auckland) $99,910.41
3. PetjeXL (De Meern) $70,752.01
4. Hobbes200 (Podnart) $48,454.41
5. gokveld (Jørpeland) $36,448.01
6. kingpin023 (Apple Valley) $27,872.01
7. RichyPal (dagenham) $19,296.01
8. The-Toilet 0 (Chicago) $10,720.01
9. jdog_fl (Deltona) $6,860.01