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Archive for the ‘sundaytournaments’ Category


PokerStars Sunday tournament results (7-19-09)

Monday, July 20th, 2009

ps_news_thn.jpgIf you're anything like us, you've just spent the last three days sleeping. You're eyes are puffy, your internal organs are coming up for air, and your early0onset arthritis is pleading with you to take a month away from a computer keyboard. The World Series of Poker is over until November.

Of course, most of you aren't anything like us. You just want to get on with the news of the day, like, for instance, what happened in this week's PokerStars Sunday tournaments. Well, alright then. Back to the grindstone.

This was one heckuva weekend on PokerStars. First off, in case you didn't notice, PokerStars once again set the Guinness World Record for number of people in a poker tournament. Sunday afternoon, 65,000 people (greater than that population of most American cities, by the way) all sat down at the same time to play the same tournament. When it was over, The United States' "004 license" had won the biggest tournament ever played.

Elsewhere, PokerStars was still running its bread and butter tournaments, including the big Sunday Million which handed nearly a quarter million bucks to winner danilov153. That's not to mention the weekly Sunday Warm-Up where leclash took home $132,000.

If you'd like to see what everybody else was doing this weekend, check out our full list of 7/19/09/ PokerStars Sunday tournament results.

In the meantime, we're off to ice down our fingers.


danilov153 springs traps enroute to Sunday Million victory

Monday, July 20th, 2009

sunday-million-thumb.jpgThe Sunday Million this evening had slightly less players than the successful Guinness Book of World Records attempt earlier in the evening when the capped 65,000 players piled into the dollar tournament with PokerStars doubling the prize pool to $130,000 (won by 004 license after ten hours who took home $13,000 for the win).

Nonetheless, 8,027 players found the slightly higher $215 buy-in at the Sunday Million more to their liking, especially when the $1.6 million prize pool was paying out 1,170 players with $240,810 and don't forget the penny going to man or woman who takes it down.

With blinds sitting at 150K/300K ante 30K and facing the massive stack of Hanamichi23's small blind raise into the big blind and holding just six big blinds left, williams46 made the call holding [8h][Ks] and hoping to pick off a blind steal. Unfortunately, the raiser had an ace, as Hanamichi23 flipped over [As][7c] and both players would catch a piece of the [3d] [8s] [Ad] [4s] [4h] board, it was Hanamichi23's pair of aces that would send home tonight's final table bubble boy, williams46, in tenth place ($8,588.90).


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Seat 1: Hanamichi23 (14888962 in chips)
Seat 2: cardlo69 (3049834 in chips)
Seat 3: Dusnumbri (17458843 in chips)
Seat 4: Lenny _1964 (5617156 in chips)
Seat 5: kartalli (6593735 in chips)
Seat 6: demistocles (2366024 in chips)
Seat 7: morbo1 (12207184 in chips)
Seat 8: danilov153 (10058802 in chips)
Seat 9: aprilsfool (8029460 in chips)

In the first significant hand of tonight's final nine, aprilsfool opened for 777,000 from UTG + 1, folded around to Dusnumbri who three-bet to 2.1 million. Lenny_1964 sitting on Dusnumbri's immediate left decides its go time and shoves from the cutoff for five million total, aprilsfool calls as Dusnumbri rightfully allows these two to settle the pot. Pocket queens for aprilsfool [Qd][Qh] and big slick [Ks][Ac] for Lenny_1964. The [Js] [2c] [2d] [9s] [4d] board remained vacant of aces and kings as aprilsfools' ladies survived to ship Lenny_1964 ninth place money ($12,441.86) as tonight's first prank victim of the final table.

demistocles down to less than two big blinds at one point, managed a slight resurgence right before the players took a five minute break as the blinds increased to 250K/500K ante 50K. Here's how they stacked up with even the big stacks having to watch their waistlines:

Seat 1: Hanamichi23 (9322984 in chips)
Seat 2: cardlo69 (10359336 in chips)
Seat 3: Dusnumbri (15761476 in chips)
Seat 5: kartalli (7358524 in chips)
Seat 6: demistocles (6352288 in chips)
Seat 7: morbo1 (10579305 in chips)
Seat 8: danilov153 (5020730 in chips)
Seat 9: aprilsfool (15515357 in chips)

As if on cue, the first two hands back from the break two different players found their tournament lives on the line. In the first hand danilov153 was all-in preflop holding [Tc][Ac] versus the pocket kings [Ks][Kd] of Dusnumbri for an eleven million chip pot. The kings would not survive the flop as [Ad] [Js] [Qh] hit the board putting danilov153 in the lead and leaving Dusnumbri drawing thin. [4d] on the turn and an unnecessary third ace [Ah] on the river and danilov153 was given a second life. On the flip side the comeback story of demistocles came to an abrupt end at the hands of kartalli. While danilov153 was still raking in the chips from the previous hand kartalli and demistocles would get 13 million chips into the middle. Pocket eights [8d][8s] for demistocles and big slick [Ac][Kd] for kartalli. demistocles rise back into the tourney was safe on the [4d] [5d] [3s] flop but the turned [Kc] spelled disaster as the river [Ts] lacked one of the two eights in the deck and demistocles would have to settle for eighth place ($18,462.11).

Note to aprilsfools: Doyle Brunson just called and wants credit for this hand that led to the elimination of our seventh place finisher. With blinds still at 250K/500K ante 50K and folded around to aprilsfool in the small blind a choice to push with [Td][2s] was made to grab the blinds. Which is fine the big blind folds and you don't have to show it, but Hanamichi23 did make the call with [Jh][Qd]. The call for the 13.5 million chip pot was not rewarded as aprilsfool would make two pair on the [2h] [Ks] [7c] [Th] [Qc] board and left Hanamichi23 head scratching while counting out the $32,108.01 seventh place money.

The new chip leader aprilsfool wasn't done there as eight hands later he would take down five hands in a row, including the hand below that showed cardlo69 the door in sixth place:


RSS readers click through to see replay


No luck needed this time, just the better hand will do as aprilsfools' [Qs][As] holds against cardlo69's [Kc][Qc] on the [2h] [5s] [6d] [4d] [Ac] board to shoot aprilsfool past the 32 million chip mark and leave $48,162.01 in real money for cardlo69 in sixth place.

Dusnumbri got a little short as the blinds moved up to 300K/600K ante 60K, but pocket aces [As][Ah] against the [Ac][9s] of aprilsfool helped Dusnumbri become solvent again to the tune of 11 million chips. Eleven hands later, a fortunate river card would help Dusnumbri double up again, this time against morbo1 who's [As][Js] looked prime for sending home Dusnumbri in fifth place on the [Ad] [Tc] [5s] [3s] turn. But, the two-outer [Jc] spiked on the river elevating Dusnumbri to 24 million chips and sending morbo1 to the basement with 5.8 million.

In the last two hands before the end of the blind level, morbo1 would double up off kartalli for a ten million chip pot, and danilov153 would trap Dusnumbri with pocket aces against Dusnumbri's suited connector that hit top pair on the flop for a 21 million chip pot in back-to-back hands as the blinds increased once again to 400K/800K ante 80K.

Several hands of the "raise everyone fold" variety go by to set up this three-way all-in between kartalli, danilov153, and Dusnumbri watch the hand play out below:


RSS readers click through to see replay


The pocket jacks of [Js][Jc] got double teamed by the big slicks of kartalli [As][Ks] and danilov153 [Ad][Kd] as kartalli had to sweat the river when danilov153 picked up a flush re-draw. But the final board showed [Kh] [4h] [Td] [4d] [2c] to split up Dusnumbri's tournament chips and send home the Oslo native in fifth place ($64,216.01).

This prompted some attempts to start chop talks but the table could not agree to look at the numbers despite having similar stacks across the board, so play moved on into its eleventh hour with 500K/1 Million ante 100K blinds.

Just three hands after kartalli doubled up, aprilsfool would take down the next three hands in a row, including taking out kartalli in fourth place. After aprilsfool limped in from the button, kartalli would complete from the small blind as morbo1 checked in the big blind to see a spade heavy flop of [5s] [Js] [7s]. kartalli led out for six million as morbo1 may have lacked a spade and folded, but aprilsfool decided to put kartalli to the test and shoved holding [As][2c] for the nut flush draw. kartalli however was in the lead with [8s][Jc] hitting top pair and a flush draw as well (but probably wasn't rooting for the flush after the cards were turned over). kartalli was happy that the flush did not hit, but two of the remaining three aces did, as the turn [Ac], and river [Ad] gave aprilsfool trip aces for the 36 million chip pot sending kartalli out in fourth place ($80,912.17).

The next three places would enjoy at least six figure pay outs as the players broke for five minutes returning to level 41 and 600K/1.2 million ante 120K blinds and the following chip counts:

Seat 7: morbo1 (14351874 in chips)
Seat 8: danilov153 (32687360 in chips)
Seat 9: aprilsfool (33230766 in chips)

aprilsfool's stack would take a hit right away in the new blind level, first losing a 7.5 million chip pot to danilov153 than doubling up morbo1 when another preflop shove for the blinds steal went wrong as aprilsfool turned up [4c][7c] in the small blind for the busted steal as morbo1's [Ac][2s] would catch an ace the board of [As] [9s] [3d] [Kc] [7s] to double up from the 28 million chip pot.

danilov153 caught one player in a trap earlier at the final table with aces, this time it was morbo1 getting caught. After the three players paid the minimum to see the [2d][8s][6h] flop, watch the hand below after aprilsfool gets out of their way:


RSS readers click through to see replay


A bit of a cooler for morbo1 catching top pair and running into the set of deuces held by danilov153 as the 53 million chip pot slid to the crafty danilov153 and morbo1 was rewarded with a six figure score tonight in third place ($120,405.01).

Heads-up play was as one-sided as the starting chip count as danilov153 enjoyed a 60 million to near 20 million chip lead over aprilsfool. danilov153 would win all four hands that comprised heads-up play as aprilsfool could do nothing but watch yet another danilov153 trap get sprung when on the fourth hand of heads-up play danilov153 limped from the button and aprilsfool took the bait and shoved for 15.2 million holding pocket sevens [7d][7c]. danilov153 quickly called with pocket queens [Qd][Qh] which held up on the [Kd] [8d] [4d] [6c] [6h] board to claim the $240,810 and don't forget the penny first place prize as this week's Sunday Million champion!

For the relentless aggression, aprilsfool tricked enough players at the final table to score $176,594.01 as the runner-up.

As with the just finished Sunday Warm-up, you will find commentary on tonight's tournament with hole cards (personally I'd love to see with aprilsfool was playing on a couple of hands) at PokerStars.tv soon.

$1.5 Million Guarantee Sunday Million Results (07-19-09)
1. danilov153 (Oviedo) $240,810.01
2. aprilsfool (Southlake) $176,594.01
3. morbo1 (Woodridge) $120,405.01
4. kartalli (marietta) $80,912.17
5. Dusnumbri (Oslo) $64,216.01
6. cardlo69 (Stoney Creek) $48,162.01
7. Hanamichi23 (Bahía Blanca) $32,108.01
8. demistocles (Perugia) $18,462.11
9. Lenny _1964 (Sweden) $12,441.86


leclash le-wins $132K in Sunday Warm-up Victory

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

sunday-warmup-thumb.jpgWith the madness of the World Series of Poker behind us (at least until the November Nine return to the Main Event final table), 4,209 players filled the void this evening by trading $215 for a ticket to the $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up. Easily breaking the guarantee, 630 players divided up the $841,800.00 prize pool.

Mr.Ingenious had the perfect plan to set up the final table this evening. First, call short stacked Scary_Tiger's push from the button with [Ts][Ac]. Second, acknowledge the advantage over Scary_Tiger's [9c][Kd]. Third, after watching a king fall on the turn promptly river an ace to take the 3.2 million pot on the [Jd] [6d] [7d] [Kh] [As] to send the stripped one home in tenth place ($5,051.81). Poker is easy, and the Sunday Warm-up had its final nine.

SunWarmUp071909.jpg

(Click image for larger picture)

Seat 1: USCphildo (3834464 in chips)
Seat 2: bigboybunk (2486561 in chips)
Seat 3: Purr Of Aces (4208584 in chips)
Seat 4: gummmmi (3276552 in chips)
Seat 5: leclash (5256829 in chips)
Seat 6: ole6 (1068160 in chips)
Seat 7: Scarer (7476307 in chips)
Seat 8: starchiebear (9812468 in chips)
Seat 9: Mr.Ingenious (4670075 in chips)

Scarer will be looking to improve on a Sunday Warm-up final table in March (ninth place finish write-up here) tonight. Scarer is no stranger to success having taken down SCOOP Event #10 low buy-in NLHE heads-up tourney in April for $13,402.41 (check out the SCOOP write-up here).

Derek "Purr Of Aces" Morris will be representing Great Britain at the final table tonight. The two-time veteran of the PokerStars World Cup of Poker (see write-up from the PokerStars World Cup here) comes in with a mid-stack as the blinds start off at 80K/160K ante 16K.

All nine players survived the first blind levels as the chip counts shifted slightly when bigboybunk's flush doubled-up off of Scarer and Scarer the very next hand took down a 4.3 million chip pot with trip kings to retrieve some of those chips from the chip leader starchiebear:

Seat 1: USCphildo (2643464 in chips)
Seat 2: bigboybunk (7910683 in chips)
Seat 3: Purr Of Aces (3404584 in chips)
Seat 4: gummmmi (3660552 in chips)
Seat 5: leclash (2828268 in chips)
Seat 6: ole6 (1155160 in chips)
Seat 7: Scarer (7664819 in chips)
Seat 8: starchiebear (10005259 in chips)
Seat 9: Mr.Ingenious (2817211 in chips)

After the break, gummmmi once left for dead after running a button steal that ended up badly when leclash turned up pocket aces [As][Ac] against [8d][Kc], made a respectable comeback to three million chips after surviving two all-ins against starchiebear and leclash.

USCphildo along with the shortstacks Mr.Ingenious, Purr Of Aces, and ole6 started to feel the crunch of blinds rising to 125K/250K ante 25K. Making a standard raise to 600K from UTG + 1, USCphildo was left to make a decision for the tournament life when starchiebear re-raised all-in. Pocket jacks [Js][Jc] was the choice of weapon for USCphildo, slightly ahead of the big slick [Ah][Kd] of starchiebear and looked good after the [4d] [Qd] [2s] flop. But, the [Ac] on the turn flipped the coin in starchiebear's direction and stayed that way after the [Tc] river for our first elimination of the evening. USCphildo picked up $6,734.41 for the ninth place finish.

Shortstacked with pocket queens [Qc][Qh] is a favorable position to be in, and Purr Of Aces was looking good for a double up after calling the all-in shove by Mr.Ingenious. The PlatniumStar Mr.Ingenious could only produce a suited [Ts][As], but the [6d] [3s] [9c] [Ac] [6c] board provided the ace needed to crack Morris' ladies and sent the Wigan native home in eighth place with $10,522.51 to warm up with for another possible World Cup run next year.

Action continued to heat up as Scarer wrestled the chip lead away from starchiebear after pocket jacks [Jd][Js] all-in preflop for Scarer held up against starchiebear's [9h][Ad] for a 9.6 million chip pot. Three hands after the big pot between Scarer and starchiebear, shortstacked ole6 tried to get back into the action pushing preflop with big slick [Ks][Ac] with a blind level change coming in just three hands later and holding only 2.5 big blinds. bigboybunk provided the action calling from the small blind with [Qc][Tc] to gather 1.6 million chips in the middle . The [3h] [Jc] [2c] flop made the hand a coin flip as bigboybunk added a flush draw to the outs available, the [Qs] on the turn hit one of those outs, and trips on the river with the [Qh] sent ole6 away with $18,940.51 in seventh place money.

Another player on the ropes found a decent pocket pair to push with eight hands later as gummmmi shoved from the button with pocket jacks [Jh][Js] with the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and holding a micro stack of just under 750,000 chips. Scarer in the big blind made the easy math call holding [As][8d] and caught the ace on the flop and retained that lead thru the river [Ac] [Tc] [6d] [3s] [Qs] to send home gummmmi in sixth place ($27,358.51).

This author's favorite hand happens to be pocket nines, that might not be the case for Mr.Ingenious after the hand below played out for the PlatinumStar's tournament life against the big slick of bigboybunk:


RSS readers click through to see replay


The ace on the flop does in the pocket nines, and Mr.Ingenious diabolical poker ways were ended in fifth place adding $35,776.51 to the bankroll.

Four handed played lasted thru a blind level, as the remaining four shuffled chips across the felt with bigboybunk getting ground down to just four million chips and blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K. Facing a 945,565 chip raise from Scarer, bigboybunk took [7c][Ad] and those four million chips into the middle. Scarer made the call with pocket nines [9d][9h], this time the pocket pair holds up against the ace as the [5d] [Qh] [Tc] [Ks] [8h] board remained ace-free to award the 8.6 million chip to Scarer and $47,561.71 in fourth place money to bigboybunk.

The biggest hand of the tourney came down while three handed as leclash led over for a little more than a le-million on the button and was facing the push of starchiebear from the big blind. Watch the remainder of the action below:


RSS readers click through to see replay


leclash's [Th][Ah] holds on the [6d] [5s] [3d] [8d] [3s] board over starchiebear's [9h][Ad] having dodge a diamond on the river to ship $69,448.51 as heads-up play would have to wait until after the players broke with the blinds rising to 250K/500K ante 50K.

Seat 5: leclash (25607717 in chips)
Seat 7: Scarer (16482283 in chips)

Despite the chip deficit, Scarer and leclash spoke briefly about chopping up the prize pool but nothing solidified as the players decided to let the cards decide who would walk away with that $132,061.59 and with a SCOOP victory in a heads-up tournament, the advantage may be with Scarer.

First big pot went to Scarer as pocket kings [Ks][Kh] were more than enough to overcome the [Qh][Kd] of leclash as the two got all their chips into the middle preflop for a 32 million chip pot. The kings held on the [5d] [7s] [As] [5c] [6h] board and Scarer held a 32 million to 9 million chip advantage.

But, leclash did not back down as eight hands later the double up would go into his stack after correctly calling with pocket kings on a jack-laden flop [Jc] [Js] [9s] [Qd] and catching the crafty Scarer holding just pocket fives [5d][5s] instead of a jack to win that 22 million chip pot.

The lead would open up to 34 million for leclash versus seven million for Scarer as the blinds increased again to 300K/600K ante 60K, and on the first hand of the new blind level the players pocket nines would once again provide someone with chips. Watch the up and down hand provide Scarer some love on the turn and well, see for yourself in the video.

RSS readers click through to see replay


Straight for Scarer on the turn, and the rivered boat as the four paired up to give leclash the title of Sunday Warm-up Champion! Scarer vastly improved on the ninth place finish a few months back in the same tournament, taking home $98,069.71 tonight as the runner-up, while leclash made the right decision not to deal and made off with the whole $132,061.59 for the win.

Be sure to check back tomorrow as PokerStars.TV will provide commentary and hole cards for your viewing pleasure of the big hands from tonight's contest.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (07-19-09)
1. leclash (baillargues) $132,061.59
2. Scarer (Glasgow) $98,069.71
3. starchiebear (provo) $69,448.51
4. bigboybunk (West Palm Beach) $47,561.71
5. Mr.Ingenious (Hamburg) $35,776.51
6. gummmmi (Thuine) $27,358.51
7. ole6 (Markkleeberg) $18,940.51
8. Derek "Purr Of Aces" Morris (Wigan) $10,522.51
9. USCphildo (Mount Pleasant) $6,734.41


Zimmy41 claims Sunday Million win, Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle Mercier 3rd

Monday, July 13th, 2009

sunday-million-thumb.jpgDay Five of the World Series of Poker Main Event may have closed with only 185 remaining, and Team PokerStars Pros Noah Boeken, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Dennis Phillips, and defending champion Peter Eastgate are returning tomorrow for Day Six.

Tonight however another Team PokerStars Pro was going for a different title as the Sunday Million champion. Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle "NoMercy" Mercier was looking to eclipse her biggest tournament cash as a pro (5th place at the 2006 WSOP scoring $175,404) with $231,360.01 sitting at the final table waiting to be awarded to tonight's champion. The large first place prize was gathered thanks to the 7,712 players that showed up with the $215 buy-in.

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After playing for nine hours and passing out money to 1,170 players we reached the final table bubble with Isabelle tip-toeing to the betting line like an elephant, not backing down from huge chip leader Zimmy41 with constant raises and prudent folds. With blinds swelling up to 125K/250K ante 25K, she would grab an eight million chip pot from kenydalglish when her pocket tens [Tc][Td] bested the [9d][As] of kenydalglish then the very next hand she would set up the final table by calling the 2.2 million chip shove of padjes from the small blind with [Js][As]. padjes rolled over pocket sixes [6s][6d] and watched as the flop [3s] [2d] [5s] hit Isabelle hard with the nut flush draw and two overcards, cooled a little bit from the [7h] turn, but padjes received walking papers with the [Ks] on the river giving NoMercy her flush and final table ticket while padjes had to settle for tenth place ($8,251.85).


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Seat 1: Zimmy41 (18859019 in chips)
Seat 2: oncecajun (7813499 in chips)
Seat 3: kenydalglish (2001050 in chips)
Seat 4: labbedorval (4907008 in chips)
Seat 5: DrunkkkYoda (10426806 in chips)
Seat 6: SLYEYES35 (4525734 in chips)
Seat 7: arsenal46 (12798088 in chips)
Seat 8: NoMercy (10906842 in chips)
Seat 9: awkward_clam (4881954 in chips)

EPT founder John Duthie was on hand to MC tonight's final table and cheer on his fellow Team PokerStars Pro as DrunkkkYoda would get the party started taking in the first 20 million chip pot of the night as pocket queens [Qs][Qc] held up against arsenal46's [Qd][Ad] on a sailboat full board [4d] [4c] [4h] [9c] [8d] to vault the alcoholic jedi master into the temporary chip lead.

But it was labbedorval five hands later that would end the party for our ninth place finisher. In a blind versus blind battle, kenydalglish tried to make something happen by shoving a stack of 1.9 million holding [Jh][Td] from the small blind into similarly short stacked labbedorval. With blinds just increasing to 150K/300K ante 30K, labbedorval made the call with [Kc][Qc], and the call was rewarded on the [Qs] [4h] [Ts] [6c] [Ad] board as the pair of queens was enough to send kenydalglish home in ninth place ($11,953.61).

Rising blinds and shortened stacks means for faster play as four hands later, Zimmy41's big stack led out from UTG for 834,200 folded around to SLYEYES35 who would shove for 4.4 million in the cutoff with pocket nines [9h][9s]. Unfortunately the big stack was not bullying and made the quick call with pocket queens [Qc][Qh]. Queen on the [Tc] [Qd] [8d] flop actually gave SLYEYES35 more outs, but no jacks visited the board as the [5c] and [7c] fell instead sending SLYEYES35 off in eighth place ($17,737.61).

Fast bust-outs continued in the 150K/300K ante 30K level as just seven hands after SLYEYES35 left the table, labbedorval and oncecajun hooked up preflop for a big 15 million chip pot. Watch the hand play out below:


RSS readers click through to see replay


Once again the pocket queens [Qh][Qs] would flop a set and hold as labbedorval neared the chip lead with the double up that crippled oncecajun. arsenal46 would pick up oncecajun's spicy crumbs two hands later when [Ac][Ts] was more than enough to overcome the [3c][7d] of oncecajun. With seventh place and $30,848.01 in hand oncecajun exited the table as the Team PokerStars Pro inched closer to the Sunday Million victory but short-stacked with nine million chips.

The price of poker stayed the same with blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K but the number of players at the final table would be reduced from seven to six as labbedorval would raise to 1.5 million UTG with [Ac][Ts] and short stacked arsenal46 found pocket jacks [Jh][Js] awaiting in the cutoff as 4.5 million would get thrown into the pot. Having the bet well covered, labbedorval made the call and caught a bit of luck on the [As] [Ad] [Ks] flop and ran those trips through the [3d] turn and [8h] river for the 9.7 million chip pot giving $46,272.01 to arsenal46 in sixth place.

awkward_clam stayed quiet for most of the final table until forced to start shoving gathered four out of seven pots for the short stack as the blinds rose to 200K/400K ante 40K. But, those short stack shoves will eventually get called as labbedorval snagged [As][Qd] in the small blind while the awkward_clam attempted a blind steal shoving for 5.1 million chips from the cutoff with [Ad][2d]. The diamonds never came into play on the [3s] [3c] [6s] [5s] [Ah] as the awkward_clam sunk to the bottom of the sea with an extra $61,696.01 in fifth place.

With Isabelle lingering in fourth place holding six million chips and blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K, labbedroval and DrunkkkYoda would play for the first 30 million chip pot of the tournament. Watch the action play out below:


RSS readers click through to see replay


Even with the 3-bet preflop the players would wait until the flop to shove their chips in and with the cooler for DrunkkkYoda's big slick [Ks][Ad] , labbedorval's flopped two pair holding [Ac][9c] would hold on the [Ah] [9s] [2d] [6c] [6s] board for the huge pot and sent DrunkkkYoda in a sober cab back to Dagobah err... London with $77,736.97 in fourth place.

The players would break for five minutes as short stacked Mercier was looking up at the below towering stacks and blinds going up to 250K/500K ante 50K:

Seat 1: Zimmy41 (31336508 in chips)
Seat 4: labbedorval (39829250 in chips)
Seat 8: NoMercy (5954242 in chips)

The wait for action from the Team PokerStarsPro was about a nano-second after play resumed as she would shove those 5.9 million chips into the middle the first hand back from the break holding [Ts][Qh] on the button. Zimmy41 did not have to deliberate long holding [Qc][As]. Isabelle's shock of domination would turn into delight on the [Td] [Qs] [Jd] flop, hitting two pair to take the lead. But, the [Kh] on the turn quickly turned the tables giving Zimmy41 the straight thus leaving NoMercy looking for the case queen or two tens on the river. The river did not deliver as the [2s] hit the virtual felt with a thud ending the Team PokerStars Pro's night in third place good for her second largest tournament cash at $115,680.01


Heads-up play would start fairly even with labbedorval holding just a slight lead:

Seat 1: Zimmy41 (37840750 in chips)
Seat 4: labbedorval (39279250 in chips)

Holding nearly 80 big blinds apiece the two deep stacked players would battle back and forth each scoring a few shots but only Zimmy41's check raise on the flop of [Jd] [9c] [3d] stood out as the 11.1 million chip pot slid in Zimmy's direction to stretch the lead to 49 million to 27 million.

Four hands later a complete and shove from labbedorval got Zimmy41 to call as the two would race for the nearly 60 million chip pot and potential win for Zimmy41. Watch Zimmy41's pocket sevens [7c][7s] go up against labbedorval's [As][Qh] below:

RSS readers click through to see replay


The pocket sevens would score an unnecessary straight by the river as Zimmy41 won the race, and became $231,360.01 richer winning this week's $1.5 Million Guarantee Sunday Million! For the runner-up $169,664.01 goes out to labbedorval who took a meager beginning final table stack into a big six figure payday.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow as PokerStars.Tv will be re-broadcasting the action from the final table with all the hole cards exposed.

$1.5 Million Guarantee Sunday Million Results (07-12-09)
(*denotes Team PokerStars Pro)

1. Zimmy41 (Ann Arbor) $231,360.01
2. labbedorval (Opasatika) $169,664.01
3. *Isabelle "NoMercy" Mercier $115,680.01
4. DrunkkkYoda (London) $77,736.97
5. awkward_clam (vancouver) $61,696.01
6. arsenal46 (Clinton) $46,272.01
7. oncecajun (Burkburnett) $30,848.01
8. SLYEYES35 (Whitewater) $17,737.61
9. kenydalglish (Birmingham) $11,953.01


All the right toppings: pizzaiolo1 wins Sunday Warm-up

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

sunday-warmup-thumb.jpgWith over six thousand poker players currently crushing the World Series of Poker Main Event tonight's $750,000 Guarantee was sure to be a ghost town right?

Wrong.

3,884 players found the less expensive $215 buy in for the Sunday Warm-up more to their liking easily going over the $750,000 Guarantee and producing a $776,800.00 prize pool that 585 players would get to share. Only one however would go home with the $121,957.61 sitting at the top.

Tonight's bubble boy truly took a bad beat, after watching Bobba Gee get blinded down for being disconnected for the past hour or longer, DenverSports pushed over the top for a shade under three million chips of mick_allin's UTG+2 raise, only to see Bobba Gee magically come alive with a mere 45,148 chips and race for the last seats to the final table. mick_allin covered and called the all-in bet to show the three way hand below:

mick_allin: [Jc][Jh]
Bobba Gee: [4h][4s]
DenverSports: [Qc][Ac]

[4d] [Ks] [7d] [4c] [5d] on the board gave the short main pot to Bobba Gee with quads as the 5.4 million chip side pot went to the jacks of mick_allin as DenverSports was eliminated in tenth place ($4,660.81) to set up the final table below:

SunWarmUp070509.jpg

Seat 1: strip23 (8724547 in chips)
Seat 2: ThislsTheEnd (3253380 in chips)
Seat 3: Thor6587 (3940683 in chips)
Seat 4: pizzaiolo1 (2315607 in chips)
Seat 5: sqwiggi8000 (6757373 in chips)
Seat 6: Bobba Gee (590444 in chips)
Seat 7: mr flyboy (2141402 in chips)
Seat 8: mick_allin (6912160 in chips)
Seat 9: Elwood_fi (4204404 in chips)

The curious case of Bobba Gee ended very quickly at the final table. With blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K and only the second hand of the final table tonight Bobba Gee open shoved the light 564,444 chip stack with [Th][Jd] in middle position. Folded around to Thor6587 in the big blind sitting on almost four million in chips made the call with [6h][Ks]. Neither player benefited from the [5c] [2c] [2h] [Ad] [Qd] board and Bobba Gee finally disconnected for good in ninth place ($6,214.41).

sqwiggi8000 would trim an eight million chip pot off mick_allin after the two traded raises on a [8d] [2c] [Ah] flop. mick_allin couldn't match the 4.8 million chip three-bet and with that pot brought the tournament's first 10 million chip stack as mick_allin was still in good shape holding 3.6 million in chips with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K.

Seven hands later Thor6587, who was responsible for the night's first elimination, would become the table's next causality. Using the power of the button, Thor6587 would three-bet strip23's middle position raise to 2.5 million all-in. With [As][Tc] strip23 made the call as Thor6587 rolled over the two face cards that did not match in [Jh][Qc]. The hammer of Thor was heard loud and clear on the [9s][Js][4s] taking the lead with a pair of jacks, but that noise was silenced after the [Ts] gave strip23 the nut flush leaving Thor6587 time power down the computer for the evening drawing dead but gaining $9,701.01 in the process for the eighth place finish.

In a head scratcher of a hand, strip23 managed to get ThisIsTheEnd all-in preflop holding just [8h][9h] for a 9.7 million chip pot. Watch the hand's exciting conclusion below:


RSS readers click through to see replay

Trip nines for strip23 meant the end came sooner than expected for ThisIsTheEnd but the solace of $17,478.01 should heal some bad beat wounds as those pocket jacks couldn't hold up in seventh place.

Three hands later as the players stepped up the aggression and action found mick_allin putting 2.5 million into the middle with [Kh][Qh] against pizzaiolo1's cutoff raise. pizzaiolo1 found pocket sixes [6d][6h] plenty to make the call. This [3s] [Ad] [4h] [7d] [2c] board could only produce one heart and no face cards and mick_allin was all out of chips in sixth place ($25,246.01).

Another day, another river card. Unfortunately for Elwood_fi the hot hand of strip23 caught up on the river once again in the hand below:


RSS readers click through to see replay

With the rivered pair of aces, strip23 sent Elwood_fi home with cracked pocket kings and $33,014.01 in fifth place.

With the departure of Elwood_fi in fifth place, about ten hands later the table sat down with the lovely Team PokerStarsPro Vicky Coren

to broker the deal shown below (setting aside $10,000.00 for the winner) with the 125K/250K ante 25K blinds getting a little too large for their comfort:

strip23: $110,659.86
mr flyboy: $57,006.32
pizzaiolo1: $75,214.47
sqwiggi8000: $68,714.26

True to the words of the players the action ramped up huge after the four-way chop. First, mr flyboy would raise into pizzaiolo1's small blind for one million only to get re-popped for 2.25 million back by pizzaiolo1 as mr flyboy elected to call. Both players checked the [As] [6s] [5c] flop but with the [Kc] on the turn they broke out of their shells and shoved all-in with pizzaiolo1 covering.

mr flyboy: [Ks][Qh]
pizzaiolo1: [Jh][Ad]

The slowplayed flopped pair of aces was good for the 8.5 million chip pot held up for pizzaiolo1 on the [3c] river as mr flyboy flew away from the final table tarmac with the chopped $57,006.32 in fourth place.

Two hands later pizzaiolo1 would chop down strip23's dominance in the chip counts with carefully value betting pocket queens [Qs][Qc] on every street of the [6d] [4c] [Jd] [Ts] [8h] board as strip23 could only produce [7h][6c] for a pair of sixes. 23 million chips found their way into pizzaiolo1's stack.

The stacks would flatten out a bit over the course of the 150K/300K ante 30K blind level but it was sqwiggi8000's stack that would be flatten to zero first. After a tame button raise to 900K with blinds at 150K300K ante 30K by pizzaiolo1 and a call by both sqwiggi8000 and strip23 everyone saw the monotone [7s] [6s] [Qs] flop. sqwiggi8000 checked, strip23 punched random numbers and bet 1,856,231 as pizzaiolo1 gave up on the preflop raise. sqwiggi8000 elected to check-raise to 5.4 million, but that just woke up strip23 into shoving for nearly 10 million total. sqwiggi8000 would call for less holding [Th][Qd], as strip23 held [Qh][7h] good for two pair. No one held a spade as sqwiggi800 was left looking deep for a ten, which failed to appear on the [8c] turn and [Kc] river sending sqwiggi8000 off to work with the chopped $68,714.26 in third place.

Despite the huge chip lead during the chip chop, strip23's lead was not so apparent at the start of heads up play:

Seat 1: strip23 (21567362 in chips)
Seat 4: pizzaiolo1 (17272638 in chips)

pizzaiolo1 went right to work on hand five of heads up play, snagging a 19 million chip pot holding just third pair on a [2s] [4c] [Jd] [6h] [6d] board and calling a 4.2 million chip raise on the river by strip23 to find [4s][9h] was good.

Another five hands later the $10,000.00 would be shipped to pizzaiolo1 for overcoming the huge chip deficit to become this week's $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up champion! Check out how both players got their chips into the middle preflop below:


RSS readers click through to see replay

Race for the finish as pizzaiolo1's pocket sevens [7h][7c] held up over strip23's [Ac][Td] to win the extra $10,000.00 set aside from the four-way deal and claim $85,214.47 as tonight's winner. strip23 as the runner-up was the biggest winner having secured $110,659.86 in the deal.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (07-05-09)
(* based on four-way chop)
1. pizzaiolo1 (coral springs) *$85,214.47
2. strip23 (Berlin) *$110,659.86
3. sqwiggi8000 (Aarhus C) *$68,714.26
4. mr flyboy (richmond) *$57,006.32
5. Elwood_fi (Vihti) $33,014.01
6. mick_allin (scarborough) $25,246.01
7. ThislsTheEnd (Brest) $17,478.01
8. Thor6587 (Malmoe) $9,710.01
9. Bobba Gee (Dub) $6,214.41


PokerStars Sunday tournament results (6-21-09)

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

ps_news_thn.jpgWe know. It's hard to pay attention to everything at once. We sometimes have a hard time using a knife and fork together, so we'd forgive you if your attention was focused elsewhere. We know there's a little event taking place in Las Vegas right now and it's sort of hard to ignore. That said, when a tournament is routinely pulling 7,000 players on a week-to-week basis, it's sometimes good to pay it a little attention.

See, the the World Series is temporal. The Sunday Million will always be there for you. It's such a nice feeling, no?

As usual on a Sunday, there was no bigger story online than the PokerStars Sunday Million. Nearly 7,000 players ponied up their $215 to ram and jam with the best of online poker. Top honors ended up going to Vikidin who took down the Sunday Million for $220,000.

In other news, Dennis2410 plowed through the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for a better than $100,000 win. It took beating nearly 3,700 other players, but the man from Denmark made it happen. You can see how in our Sunday Warm-Up final table report.

For a full rundown of this weekend's big tournament finishers, check out our full list of final table results.

Congratulations to all of this week's big winners.

Now, about that knife and fork...


V for Victory: Vikidin claims $220K in Sunday Million victory

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

sunday-million-thumb.jpgWe didn't quite get to the normal 7,000+ player crowd tonight for the $1.5 Million Guarantee Sunday Million, but considering most of the higher roller crowd is battling it out in Las Vegas for bracelets at the WSOP, 6,990 runners is better than can be expected.

Of course without reaching the guarantee PokerStars loosen its purse strings on the prize pool to ensure $1.5 million would be handed out to the top 1,080 players.

For the final table of the Sunday Million there are normally nine players seated, calmly awaiting the chance to stake a claim to the $225,000.00 first place prize. Tonight two all-ins lost at the same time, Maxxx72alba and nsemog77, were all-in for their tournament lives on opposite tables during the final table bubble. Soelberg's pocket nines [9h][9s] were enough to take out nsemog77's [Ad][Js] on the queen heavy board [Qs] [Qc] [Qh] [2d] [Kc]. Then, on the other table, chip monster unfadeable1 collected yet another poker skin when the domainating [Qd][Ah] held up against Maxxx72alba's [Ad][Th] on the [8s] [Kh] [Kc] [3c] [4h] board for an additional seven million chips to use at the final table.


By rule the player with the most chips prior to the bust out hand gets the higher place. In this case Maxxx72alba is credited with the ninth place finish ($11,625.00) and a final table appearance despite never sitting down. nsemog77 will have to take solace in the $8,250.00 being shipped for the final table bubble pay out.


SunMill062109.jpg

Seat 2: villepn (3429358 in chips)
Seat 3: Soelberg (11743686 in chips)
Seat 4: unfadeable1 (19775902 in chips)
Seat 5: Vikidin (5278401 in chips)
Seat 6: Fulle (10258850 in chips)
Seat 7: Aftret (6087991 in chips)
Seat 8: predator.ger (9064228 in chips)
Seat 9: < Roskolnikov (4261584 in chips)

With our smaller final table and blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K Vikidin came in as one of the smaller stacks but quickly turned that around after catching pocket aces at the right time and doubling up at the expense of Fulle who suffered the cooler holding pocket kings with the [7c] [Jd] [Td] [Qh] [Jh] board giving a little hope on the end. Vikidin's aces still held for the 9.7 million chip pot.

Five hands later Vikidin would limp into a pot with pocket nines [9h][9d] as <Rosholnikov would pop it to two million from the small blind. Vikidin made the call bringing out the [8d] [2s] [7d] flop which <Rosholnikov wasted no time shoving all-in for a 3.3 million chip bet, Vikidin made the call with the overpair, and needed to fade an ace or king to defeat <Rosholnikov's big slick [Kc][Ac]. [5s] and [8h] on the turn and river and <Rosholnikov took a seat in eighth place ($18,000.00).

Vikidin would continue this tear taking three big pots in a row off Fulle and Aftret eventually overtaking unfadeable1's chip leading position. The third pot resulted in Aftret (who chopped the Sunday Million in December for $92K, final table write-up shown here) being asked to leave the tournament area. Down to 2.2 million and blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K Aftret made a play for the blinds shoving from UTG with [Jh][Kh], but Vikidin was waiting in the small blind holding [8h][Ad]. The flopped pair of eights [2h] [5c] [8c] changed nothing, but the [8d] on the turn locked the win for Vikidin as a meaningless [4h] hit the river and Aftret add another $32,250.00 in Sunday Million earnings taking seventh place.

Soelberg went into the final table on a roll but in no limit hold em' it only takes one hand to demolish your chip wall after several hours of careful play. Watch Soelberg run into a monster holding [Js][As] after repopping unfadeable1's UTG raise from the big blind:


RSS readers click through to see replay

Drawing dead on the turn, Soelberg saw the writing on the wall and a bankroll that just got a $46,500.00 injection of cash for sixth place.

Fulle was getting dangerously low with the blinds beating down on the small stack that Vikidin took a chunk of earlier. Fulle tried raising from the cutoff with [Ts] [Ad] to 900K after starting the hand with just 2.4 million left. But, villepn sitting on 10 million chips put Fulle to the test from the small blind by 3-betting to 2.7 million. Fulle would make the call with tournament life on the line and was facing villepn's big slick [Kc][Ac]. Fulle failed to fill up and villepn's kicker played on the [5c] [Jd] [2h] [Qh] [Js] board to ship the 5.3 million chip pot to villepn sending Fulle home in fifth place ($61,500.00).

Vikidin's stack would continue to grow, calling down all large bets of fellow monster stack unfadeable1 on a [Qs] [5h] [4s] [3c] [4d] board and holding just a pair of fives [As][5s] for the winner as unfadeable1's bluff with [6c][Ac] saw a 24 million chip pot go in Vikidin's direction. Eleven hands later Vikidin found [8s][Ah] was good enough to min-raise with from the button as the blinds remained at 150K/300K ante 30K. predator.ger wasted no time shoving a stack of 3.5 million into the middle with pocket kings [Kh][Kc]. Vikidin would make the call well behind the kings creating a 7.6 million chip pot. The [Jd] [9c] [Js] flop contained no aces, but the turned [Ad] turned predator.ger into prey. The [Tc] on the river left predator.ger to roam the cash games for fish with an extra $79,500.00 in fourth place.

The start of three handed play with blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K looked like this:

Seat 2: villepn (14258012 in chips)
Seat 4: unfadeable1 (13521310 in chips)
Seat 5: Vikidin (42120678 in chips)

Vikidin enjoyed a sizable lead, and chop talks went nowhere fast as neither Vikidin nor villepn wanted to look at the figures. But, the tide would change quickly as here's the chip count at the five minute break and blinds increasing to level 37 250K/500K ante 50K.

Seat 2: villepn (19318012 in chips)
Seat 4: unfadeable1 (27031310 in chips)
Seat 5: Vikidin (23550678 in chips)

Vikidin would lose the lead and joined unfadeable1 in initiating chop talks, but villepn responded with a "no" sticking to principles about not chopping tournaments after Team PokerStars pro Steve Paul-Ambrose explained no pausing would occur unless all three of the remaining players agreed to chat.

While Vikidin was giving villepn one last shot at a chop, they tangled in a pot that left villepn all-in with his tournament life on the line. Watch the hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After the turned pair of jacks for Vikidin overcame the pocket fives of villepn the remaining two went right to work on a chop deal.

spa15d2.jpg

Steve Paul-Ambrose

Fortunately for them Steve Paul-Ambrose brushed up on his arithmetic in college because the players kept asking for more money than what was left. After cosine Y was divided by the tangent of X, they came up with the following chop numbers:

Vikidin: $190,000.00
unfadeable1: $170,000.00

This agreement left the players to play for $30,555.00 in their heads-up battle with blinds still at 250K/500K ante 50K with the following chip counts:

Seat 4: unfadeable1 (26481310 in chips)
Seat 5: Vikidin (43418690 in chips)

The first fifteen minutes of heads up was a light tennis match with volleys being traded with a few hard winners for both players in the seven to nine million chip range. Vikidin would extend the lead to 53 million against unfadeable1's 16 million when the final hand below played out:


RSS readers click through to see replay

unfadeable1 got a little unlucky slowplaying the flopped top pair holding [Qs][Th] on the [3s] [Tc] [5d] [9d] [9c] board, as Vikidin shoved in an overbet for value on the river with trip nines [9s][Ad] to claim unfadeable1's remaining 12 million chips and this week's Sunday Million title.

unfadeable1 captured $170,000.00 as the runner up thanks to the chop deal as Vikidin took home $220,555.00 laying claim to the extra $30,555 that was set aside in the negotiations.

Be sure to check back tomorrow at PokerStars.TV for the Sunday Million wrap up show.

$1.5 Million Guarantee Sunday Million Results (06-21-09)
(*based on two-way deal)
1. Vikidin (Bellingham) *$220,555.00
2. unfadeable1 (Monroe) *$170,000.00
3. villepn (Kuopio) $120,000.00
4. predator.ger (Karlsruhe) $79,500.00
5. Fulle (Skuldelev) $61,500.00
6. Soelberg (Århus C) $46,500.00
7. Aftret (Trondheim) $32,250.00
8. < Roskolnikov (Rzeszów) $18,000.00
9. Maxxx72alba (Ekaterinburg) $11,625.00


Five is just fine, Dennis2410 wins Sunday Warm-up

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

sunday-warmup-thumb.jpgAs expected with the crush of PokerStars players sitting in the Amazon Room at the Rio playing the 40th edition of the World Series of Poker, the numbers at today's $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up were down. But, not by much as 3,690 players ponied up the $215 buy-in leaving the tourney a few buy-ins shy of the guarantee but thanks to PokerStars there was a $750,000 prize pool split up by 540 players tonight.

After eight and a half hours of play the final table bubble loomed as Beyn's large stack would call the all-in re-raise of obywatel_g with [Jd][Ts] hoping for two live cards. obywatel_g's pocket tens [Td][Tc] held the dominating position and looked great to collect the 2.9 million chip pot, but the flop came out [9h] [8s] [7c] notching a nut straight for Beyn. Unfortunately for obywatel_g the jack for a split did not come on the [2h] turn nor [As] river and obywatel_g was tonight's final table bubble boy but received $4,500.00 in tenth place.

After obywatel_g took leave from the tournament the players reconvened on Table 155 for the race to the $117,750.00 first place prize. Here's how the players started out with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K:


SunWarmUp062109.jpg

(click image for larger picture)

Seat 1: slm022 (4827280 in chips)
Seat 2: Beyn (7929864 in chips)
Seat 3: skully92 (3263592 in chips)
Seat 4: swinebag (3074192 in chips)
Seat 5: smartplaying (4604506 in chips)
Seat 6: Dracospinner (1711130 in chips)
Seat 7: DIV999 (5345348 in chips)
Seat 8: Dennis2410 (4545818 in chips)
Seat 9: ymemoy (1598270 in chips)

As mentioned Beyn came in with the chip lead but would lose a 4.4 million chip pot just a few hands into the final table to slm022 in a blind versus blind battle when slm022 flipped up suited big slick [As][Ks] on a [3s] [Qs] [Jd] [6c] [Ac] board causing the former chip leader to muck two unknown cards (until tomorrow's wrap up show perhaps).

No eliminations occurred during the 100K/200K ante 20K blind level but action would heat up in the next 125K/250K ante 25K blind level between DIV999 and the often mentioned Beyn. After losing 1.25 million chips to Dennis2410 after having to abandon his preflop raise when Dennis2410 pushed over the top, DIV999 would flip a 2.8 million chip stack holding [Kd][Ah] versus Beyn's pocket tens [Td][Ts]. Watch the hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay


With the board absent of kings and aces, DIV999 took a seventh place cut of the prize pool ($16,875.00).

Five hands later Beyn angry baby avatar decided to share with the other kids, as Dennis2410 and a short stacked smartplaying tangled when Beyn found a rattle to play with. While UTG, smartplaying raised to 612,000 chips with blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K and Dennis2410 on the immediate left cut out 1.5 million in chip, folded back to smartplaying who made a brief pause and shoved for 2.7 million chips holding pocket fours [4c][4d]. Dennis2410 needed no pause to make the call holding pocket kings [Ks][Kd]. No surprises here as the [8c] [5s] [9d] [Ac] [6d] board ran absent of a third sailboat and smartplaying's brain trust added $24,375.00 to the bankroll in sixth place.

A boost in the blinds to 150K/300K ante 30K saw a couple of bust outs in short order. First, the angry baby of Beyn was pacified for a few short moments after [As][5c] held up over slm022 half court shot short stack push with [4h][Qs] failed to the hit the net on the [4s] [Ah] [2h] [Ts] [8h] board awarding the 4.2 million chip pot to Beyn. slm022 fifth place finish was worth $31,875.00

swinebag doubled up off Beyn when a fortunate ace (not a diamond) hit the river on the [Kd] [8d] [6s] [Qd] [As] board, swinebag's [Ah][4d] cracked Beyn's pocket jacks [Js][Jh] and received the first 10 million chip pot of the tournament. The very next hand saw skully92's tournament life on the line after pushing 4.3 million chips over the top of Dennis2410's preflop raise and watching Dennis2410 call with pocket tens [Tc][Ts]. skully92's [As][Qd] could not overcome the turned set of tens on the [8d] [3d] [Jc] [Th] [Ah] board and the alpaca got $43,125.00 to nibble on in fourth place.

Five hands later with the same blinds with chop talks flashing across the chat box, and Dennis2410 holding 2/3rd of the chips in play, Beyn and swinebag got their similar stacks into the middle in the hand below for a near 14 million chip pot:


RSS readers click through to see replay


Beyn failed to connect on the board with [3h][Kd] as swinebag's ace-high [Ac][7c] sent the crabby newborn back to the nursery with a soothing $61,875.00 for third place.

No sooner than Beyn leaving the tournament area the remaining two players checked in with tonight's MC Team PokerStars Pro Steve Paul-Ambrose for a deal holding the following chip counts:

Seat 4: swinebag (13635672 in chips)
Seat 8: Dennis2410 (23264328 in chips)

Heads up play was then paused to discuss a deal to divvy up the biggest amount left in the prize pool. First a "yes" from swinebag and a "no" from Dennis2410, then a second deal was shot down by swinebag, and lastly a return to the original chip chop numbers found the remaining players locking in their profits for the evening (minus the $10,000 set aside for the champion).

Dennis2410: $100,456.95
swinebag: $95,043.05

The deal came with excellent timing too, as the ink on the deal was just beginning to dry when both players hit a decent chunk of the board and heads up play would last only five hands. Watch the value bets of Dennis2410 work perfectly below:


RSS readers click through to see replay


swinebag's turned two pair [Js][9h] was no match for Dennis2410's flopped two pair with big slick [Kh][Ac] on the [9c] [Ks] [As] [Jc] [7h] board and before this humble author could get settled in for the heads up battle, we had our winner.

For the runner up, swinebag took home the mentioned $95,043.05 acquired in the chop, while this week's $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up champion, Dennis2410, added another $10,000.00 to the chopped total bringing Dennis2410's total winner's check to $110,456.95!

Be sure to check out our continuing WSOP coverage of PokerStars Team Pros and qualifiers raiding the World Series of Poker in their quest for the bracelets.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (06-21-09)
(*based on two-way deal)

1. Dennis2410 (Herning) *$110,456.95
2. swinebag (Manchester) *$95,043.05
3. Beyn (Regensdorf) $61,875.00
4. skully92 (West Allis) $43,125.00
5. slm022 (monaco) $31,875.00
6. smartplaying (limassol) $24,375.00
7. DIV999 (Southall) $16,875.00
8. Dracospinner (Bergen) $9,375.00
9. ymemoy (Gaenserndorf) $6,000.00



Sunday Million disappears, gives way to $2.8 million in WSOP packages

Monday, June 15th, 2009

ps_news_thn.jpgDays without the Sunday Million are like wedding days without sunshine.

Days with mega World Series qualifiers are like the day you forgot to get married and realized you have a life of freedom and debauchery still in front of you.

This Sunday was one of the latter (although most of us here at the PokerStars Blog are duly attached to loving wives and girlfriends and would never, ever imply that yesterday was ever anything in which we'd be interested...never, ever, we promise).

Indeed, when we announced there would be no Sunday Million, there was a collective gasp. When we announced PokerStars would be awarding more then 200 Main Event packages, the gaspers exhaled and said, "Really?"

As it turned out, the Sunday Million was replaced with a $375 mega satellite to the World Series that ended up hosting more than 8,000 players and awarding 233 PokerStars World Series Main Event packages.

This was not some penny-ante satellite hosting the down and out of the poker world. Just a brief glance at the winner's lists reveals names like shaniac (Shane Schleger) and Dogger9 (Bernard Lee) among the people winning their seats in yesterday's big qualifier.

As of this morning, more than 1,400 people have qualified for the World Series through PokerStars satellites. All of those players, should they choose to play, will get their $10,000 buy-in, free hotel stay for the duration of their time at the Series, and $1,000 spending money. That's not to mention the ability to automatically become a PokerStars Supernova and hang out at the one-of-a-kind PokerStars party in Las Vegas.

You still have your chance to qualify for the World Series. Just click on Events>WSOP in the PokerStars tournament lobby. Word on the street is that satellites will be running for the next couple of weeks.

The mega satellite was the biggest thing going this weekend, but everyone still took time out of their day for the other big events. Perhaps the happiest player with the coolest screen name was FoNkEy_DiSh. That awesome name sits atop the winner's list for the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up. Check out our 6/14/09 Sunday Warm-Up report to see how it ended.

To see who else cashed in this weekend, here's a full breakdown of this weekend's big tournament results.

Congratulations to all of this week's big winners, especially all the people we'll be seeing in Vegas for the World Series Main Event.


FoNkEy_DiSh hard to spell, harder to beat in Sunday Warm-Up Victory

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

sunday-warmup-thumb.jpgWith the monster 200-seat Guarantee WSOP Main Event Qualifier running this week, the Sunday Warm-Up became the biggest prize of the Sunday Night fights. 4,320 players signed up, building a massive $864,000 prize pool. It was still a relatively quick affair, as it only took a little over eight hours of play to reach the final table bubble and the cusp of the serious money. Play slowed down once the final table bubble hit, and it took almost thirty minutes of short-handed play to get to the final nine. The home stretch took (Insert length of final table here - started at 9:43) before FoNkEy_DiSh bested bfizz11 heads up for the $135,544.32 top prize and the Sunday Warm-Up title.

warmup 6.14.09.jpg

Philipoo came into the final table as one of the shortest stacks, and when he picked up pocket nines in the big blind, he wasted no time moving all in over the top of Heskey27's preflop raise. Heskey27 snap-called with [Ad]-[Ks], and the race was on. The race was over almost before the runners got out of the blocks, as the flop came down [Qd]-[Kh]-[8c] to give Heskey27 the dominant hand. No two outer for philippp, and he was done in 9th place ($6,912).

Street G was next to fall when he got his money in with [Ac]-[Td], only to find bfizz11 right behind him with [As]-[Jd]. Nothing out of the ordinary happened on the [3c]-[7s]-[Ks]-[4h]-[Ah] board, and street G picked up $10,800 for 8th place.

After losing a huge pot to HolgerSpeck, Om3rta ramped up the aggression and shipped it in preflop several times without a caller. He finally got action from chip leader EdwasEdzend when he moved all in over the top of EdwasEdzend's preflop praise with [Ad]-[Jc]. EdwasEdzend tabled [Kc]-[Qs], and promptly flopped top pair on a [Ks]-[6c]-[7c] board. Backdoor clubs wouldn't held Om3rta, and the [7s] on the turn put an end to anyone's flush draws anyway. Only an ace on the river would save Om3rta, and when the [Kh] landed, EdwasEdzend dragged a monster pot to reclaim the massive chip lead while Om3rta had to settle for 7th place and $19,440.

Caecilius ran pocket tens into bfizz11's pocket jacks to leave him on the extreme short stack, and he busted in 6th place ($28,080) a couple of hands later when he put his last few chips in with [Ah]-[3c] on a [Jc]-[2c]-[8s] board. HolgerSpeck led out with [As]-[2d], and caecillus made the call. He got no help as the turn and river ran out [4d]-[Jd], and he was finished.

Sometimes it all comes down to a read, and when bfizz called for all his chips against chip leader Edwas Edzend, we had the hand of the final table. It looked a little like this:

Former chip leader EdwasEdzend completed his plummet from penthouse to outhouse on the very next hand, when he shipped it in preflop with [Ks]-[4h]. FoNkEy_DiSh called with [As]-[Jh], and when the board ran out [6h]-[9h]-[10c]-[5d]-[9c], EdwasEdzend's tournament had ended in 5th place ($36,720).

FoNkEy_DiSh continued to play the role of the heavy when he took out HolgerSpeck in 4th place ($48,816). All the money went in prelop, and when the hands were revealed, it was a classic coin toss as HolgerSpeck showed [Kc]-[Jh] and FoNkEy_DiSh tabled pocket nines. The nines held on a board of [5h]-[5c]-[3c]-[6d]-[6c], and then there were three. The three players left standing paused the clock to discuss a deal, and after a few minutes of discussions, the deal was quashed and the decision was made to play it out.

After deciding "no deal" was his best strategy, FoNkEy_DiSh seemed destined for the bad luck that befalls he who doesn't deal at a final table when his internet connection crashed during three-handed play. He came back to double up Heskey27, but moved into the driver's seat when he took a massive sick pot off of bfizz11. Bfizz11 raised it up preflop from the button, and FoNkEy_DiSh flat-called from the small blind. The flop came down [Kc]-[Qh]-[7c], and both players checked. FoNkEy_DiSh fired when the [3d] came on the turn, and bfizz11 called. FoNkEy_DiSh checked the [Ks] river, then pulled the trigger on the check-raise when bfizz11 bet at it. Bfizz11 let his time bank run almost completely out before making the call with [Ad]-[Qs], only to watch FoNkEy_DiSh table [Kd]-[Qc] for a flopped two pair that turned into a rivered full house. That hand took bfizz from the chip lead to life support as FoNkEy_DiSh gathered up nearly ¾ of the chips in play.

But that dominant lead wasn't safe, as the three remaining players traded double ups like me and my cousin used to swap baseball cards. Just when it looked like a player was done for the night, he'd double up and it would be on again. Finally, FoNkEy_DiSh crippled Heskey27 in a sick hand that saw the board run out quad fives, and FoNkEy_DiSh's Q-J give him a better kicker and crack Heskey's pocket eights. Heskey27 got it all in a few hands later and both FoNkEy_DiSh and bfizz11 called. The live players checked it down on every street as the board ran out [9c]-[3d]-[5c]-[2d]-[3h]. FoNkEy_DiSh tabled [Kd]-[3c] for trip threes, and both opponents mucked as Heskey 27 was done in 3rd place ($71,280).

It only took a few hands of heads up play for the 6:1 chip advantage of FoNkEy_DiSh to prove insurmountable. When bfizz11 picked up a pair, all the chips went in, but he was in deep trouble and got only deeper as the final hand played out.

When the dust settled, bfizz11 picked up $100,656 for his runner-up finish, and turning down the deal was the right decision for FoNkEy_DiSh, who grabbed a cash bag loaded with $135,544.32 for taking down the Sunday Warm-Up. Congrats to our final table players for the exciting show they put on, and congrats to everyone who cashed in this week's Sunday Warm-Up!