On the second last hand of the day, we witnessed the biggest pot of the tournament as Hong Kong's Nick Wong landed a river of dreams to end the day as our chip leader.
The action went down on a flop of [ts][jd][qc]. Wong fired out a full-pot bet of 50,000 before Nuno Da Silva moved all in for his last 117,500. Wong made the call and opened king-queen for top pair and open-ended straight draw, but he'd need to improve as Da Silva showed [qh][th] for two pair. The turn bricked the [6h] but the river was the [kd] as Wong screamed with delight at taking down the enormous pot.
Da Silva is eliminated as Wong is up to 377,000 chips and the chip lead.
The action didn't stop on the final hand on this table.
ANZPT Sydney champ Angelo Hamataj has been unusually quiet today, but he saved his best for last, as he found a double up on the very last hand to stay alive and reach Day 3 of play. In a battle of the blinds, Hamataj held [9s][9d] against Dominic Coombe's [4d][4s] with all the chips in preflop. The board was spread [ah][qc][7d][jc][7h] and Hamataj doubles to 153,000 for the high point of his day. Coombe will end the day with 105,000.
That wraps up our day here at the Jupiters Poker Room. It looks like we'll have 41 players left, which means Danny McDonagh will be buying the drinks tonight, although nothing new there. We'll have a full wrap of the day's play and complete list of chips counts for you shortly.
6:45pm: Five more hands
Maurie "The Master" Pears was given the honour of drawing a card to see how many more hands we would play today and the magic number was five.
Interestingly, if Pears can reach the money he'll become the oldest player to ever cash in an ANZPT event. That record is currently held by Antonis "Toothpick Tony" Kambouroglou. Pears is on the short stack with around 40,000.
6:32pm: Dropping like flies
Adam Smith has fallen short of the money after pushing his short stack with [as][Qh], only to run into the [kh][kc] of Sheldon. The board bricked out [2h][2c][6h][8c][7h] to eliminate Smith as Sheldon climbs to 175,000.
Joel Dodds has also sent one to the rail as his [ad][qd] held against the [as][td] of his opponent. The board bricked out [6d][kc][9d][kh][8d] and Dodds is back up to 211,000.
6:20pm: Last woman standing eliminated
We've lost our last woman standing as Rhonda Whitford has been eliminated. She moved all in with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Nauv Kashyap. Whitford flopped an ace but Kashyap hit a jack for a set to send Whitford to the rail. Kashyap holds 210,000 chips to be with the chip leaders.
Our other big stacks in the room are Darko Balaban (260,000), Aaron Benton (220,000), Nick Wong (200,000) and Dominic Coombe (190,000).
Dominic Coombe is amongst the chip leaders at the ANZPT Gold Coast
6:06pm: Double Xu
Qi Xu has found a handy double through Joel "StrongPlay" Dodds. It was Xu's [qc][qs] up against Dodds' [ac][kh] with the board bricking out [6d][tc][7c][4d][7d]. Xu doubles to 120,000 with Dodds back to 113,000.
6:00pm: Last level of the day
The players are back for the last level of play. The line has been set at 40 players remaining by the end of the day, and usually the smart money is behind ANZPT Commissioner Danny McDonagh who has taken the unders on this occasion.
The Gold Coast is renowned for being a fun, family holiday destination with its expansive beaches, sports activities and of course, the theme parks. There's six of them sprinkled only a short drive from Surfers Paradise and many poker players were heard to be enjoying themselves yesterday on the thrills of "The Cyclone", "Wipeout", "The Claw", "The Giant Drop" and "Tower of Terror".
The Cyclone is one of the thrill-seeker rides at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast
A poker tournament is much like a roller coaster ride and it's an analogy that we often use in our reports. The ride usually starts off pretty comfortably to lure you into a false sense of security, before a savage drop gets your heart racing. It's followed by an equally abrupt rise. It swings left, it swings right. Up and down again. Suddenly you're hanging on for dear life wondering if how you'll survive, before you fly through three "loop-de-loops" for the ultimate rush. You're praying for it to all be over when, before you know it, the ride comes screeching to a halt. You made it. You're heart is beating, the adrenalin is pumping, you're feeling a bit nauseous and a beat of sweat drops from your brow. It's an amazing buzz to have survived and you can't wait to do it all over again.
Today 132 players will be fastening their safety belts for another ride on the ANZPT Gold Coast roller coaster. It's going to be seven levels of highs and lows for our players as their goal is to simply survive the ride. If they do make it through the day, we expect they will be within a breath of the money, but it's likely that the bubble won't burst until tomorrow.
Our front runner is Darko Balaban who holds a massive chip lead entering today's play. Balaban is an easy man to spot, with his name tattooed impressively on his right arm and dark shades to provide an intimidating presence at the table. The chips flowed freely to him yesterday, but can he carry that momentum into today's play?
Our chip leader, Darko Balaban
There are plenty of sharks still lurking in the field, including PokerStars Team Australia Pro Tony Hachem, Aaron Benton, Julian Cohen, Joel Dodds, Scott Kerr, Andrew Watson, Billy Argyros, Tom Grigg and David Steicke. Today will be mover's day with the cream expected to rise to the top, and the pretenders pushed to the side.
Please remove all loose items from your pockets, hold on to your hats and buckle up tight, as we let fly on another wild ride from 11:30am local time. See you then!
PokerStars has always been an innovator in the world of online poker. So, it was not a surprise that SCOOP would include a tournament that maintained the same blinds throughout the tournament but with one significant catch... escalating antes.
If numbers are any indication, the public was willing to give the Ante Up event a shot. In fact, 10,712 runners showed up in this event as the prize pool ballooned to $160,680. The top 1,800 players would win prize money with first place earning $21,298.77. That's a juicy payday considering the $16.50 price of admission.
I'm still fascinated by the format. Blinds were etched in stone at 5/5, but players were responsible for an ante on every single hand. A couple of Team PokerStars Pros participated in this event including George Danzer, Alex Kravchenko, Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, ElkY, and Veronica Dabul. None of those pros secured a cash in this event, however, two team pros from Portugal proudly made the money... Nuno Coelho (855th) and Henrique Pinho (882nd). Pinho was also hosting the final table of this event.
Mla~ bubbled off the final table in 10th place. When the final table was set, pash123 from Moscow, Russia held the lead with over 16.2 million.
XBraumeister Busts on Hand #1; BigMan1984 Busts on Hand #2
If you blinked, then you missed two big hands to kick off the final table.
On the first hand... Pash123 opened for a raise and XBraumeister called. The flop was [Kc][5s][5c]. Pash123 fired out 400K. XBraumeister raised to 800K and pash123 called. The turn was the [Tc] and pash123 shoved for 15 million or so. XBraumeister called all-in for his last 1.5 million. Pash123 was ahead with a flush [Qc][8c], while XBraumeister failed to boat up with [Kh][Js]. Out in 9th for $964.08.
On the second hand... BigMan1984 was all-in with [Qs][Qd] against Thishowedoit's [As][Ks]. BigMan1984 flopped a set of queens, but Thishowedoit flopped a Broadway straight. BigMan1984 also failed to boat up and he was eliminated in second place. He won $1,446.12.
"Careful with that Axe, Eugene"
Axe Lavec was the next casualty. He shoved with [7h][7c], and Robie123 called with [Ad][Th]. On a flop of [Js][6s][3h], Robie123 bet 425,955 and axe lavec called. The turn was the [Ts]. Robie123 bet close to 1.3 million and Axe Lavec called all-in. Robie123's pair of tens were ahead of pocket sevens. The river was the [Td] and Robie123 won with trips. Axe Lavec hit the road in 7th place, good enough for $3,052.92.
With six players remaining, the field became divided into two parts: big stacks (Thisowedoit, Pash123, Robie123) and little stacks (AttyBubba, lorenzo79, trompete). Pash123 held the lead with 20 million.
Robie123 Cooler'd
What are you gonna do? Raise. Re-raise. Re-raise. Re-raise. Shove. Call. Robie123 was not happy to see a pair of aces going to battle against his kings. Robe123 went out in 6th place and won $4,659.72.
Check out the hand on the replayer...
RSS readers must click through to see the replay
AttyBubba OuttyHere
Another all-in preflop. AttyBubba was fighting to the death with [Kd][Jc] against pash123's [Ac][6s]. The flop contained an ace and that's all she wrote. AttyBubbda collected $6,266.52 for fifth place.
On the Dole: Pash123 Passes Out Free Chips
Pash123 bumped up his stack to over 40 million and then it got ugly in three hands. Three big socialist hands, I should add, because big stacked Russian redistributed the wealth among his peers.
-- Thishowedoit doubled up with A-8 against pash123's A-J. Pash123 slipped to 38 million.
-- Lorenzo79 also doubled through pash123 with Ah-10h holding up against A-8.
-- Thishowedoit flopped set of 5s versus top pair and nut flush draw. All in on the flop. Pash123 did not improve and slipped to 27.3 million.... Thishowedoit jumped to 19 MIL.
Pash123 finally stopped the hemorrhaging when he won a 19 million pot against Thishowedoit. Pash123 increased his chip lead to 37 million, while Thishowedoit slipped to 10 million.
The Dreaded Slow Down
With four players to go, the action fell into a predictable funk. Here's what usually happened, pash123 opens with a bully-bet, then one of two things ensues...
1. Someone comes over the top and pash123 folds.
...or...
2. Everyone folds to pash123.
That tediuous situation played itself out for almost an hour.
Lorenzo79 Leap Frog
Lorenzo79 doubled up to move into second place in chips when his [Js][Jc] held up against trompete's [Ad][Kc]. Lorenzo79 was not longer the hunted, and increased his stack to 6.2 million.
Trompete Trumped in 4th
Short-stack trompete shoved with [Kd][Jh], but he could not win a race to save his tournament life against lorenzo79's [8d][8c]. The Frenchman finished in fourth place and won $7,873.32 for his efforts.
ThishowDeucesHold
Thishowedoit was nursing the short stack with three to go until he doubled through lorenzo79. His [2h][2d] won a race against [Ah][Qc] in a 11.2 million pot.
Lorenzo79 was now bringing up the rear as the short stack. A few hands later, Lorenzo79 avoided elimination when he doubled up with pocket aces and flopped a set.
Just when it seemed like someone else was about to make a run, Pash123 won 14.7 million pot with a flush and was sitting on comfortable stack worth almost 48 million.
Lorenzo79 Is a Not-So-Happy Jack
Lorenzo79 shoved with [Kc][6s], which did not hold against Thishowedoit's [Js][Jc]. He finished in third place and won $11,086.92. With lorenzo79's elimination, a heads up match was set with pash123 holding a tremendous advantage.
It only took ten hands to determine a winner. On the final hand... Thishowedoit opened. Pash123 popped him and Thishowedoit called. The flop was [Ac][Td][4h]. Pash123 bet 400K and Thishowedoit called. The turn was the [Ts], giving pash123 two-pair. He bet 1 million and Thishowedoit called. The river was the [3h]. Pash123 bet 15,599,685. Thishowedoit called all-in. It wasn't pretty after that. He showed [Ah][4c] for a flopped two pair -- not good enough to avoid elimination -- because pash123's bogger two pair prevailed.
Thishowedoit was eliminated in second place, collecting $14.694.18. Meanwhile, pash123 won the event and $21,298.77 in cash.
The gift that keeps on giving, the $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown is back again this month ready to send a lucky er... skillful player off with $60,000 and a brand new Audi TT. Nary a real dollar, euro, or yen will get you into this tournament, only 3,000 FPPs via grinding cash games or thru the satellite system will seat you besides the 18,074 players that showed up tonight. Along with the five figure paydays to all of our final nine tonight, this tournament pays out to 5,000 places giving players a near 1 in 3 chance of cashing for at least $78.00, not bad for free money. Also, if you cash enough times or being kind enough to show one of the Team PokerStars Pros to the exit, you will pick up bonus cash along the way (check the Turbo Takedown link above for details).
We're here to report on the final table however and to get there you must say good-bye to the bubble boy. That distinction belonged to funfunfun101 who was donedonedone in tenth place. With blinds at 60K/120K ante 12K and severely shortstacked funfunfun101 would call the raise of marroca5 holding big slick [Kc][Ad] and less then 2BBs as the rest of the table folded. Firmly ahead of marroca5's [As][Jd], funfunfun101 watched the board in pain as the turn card [2d] [Kh] [Qh] [Tc] [7s] gave marroca5 a broadway straight sending him home in tenth place ($8,000.00) as we started up the final table to give away the Audi TT below:
Click on image for larger picture
Seat 1: evandijk70 (4757042 in chips)
Seat 2: AmarulaBr (14883738 in chips)
Seat 3: joachimpowa (8533421 in chips)
Seat 4: PURPLE"K"99 (4008652 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (1363731 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (4196441 in chips)
Seat 7: ChiprakerAA (6275635 in chips)
Seat 8: marroca5 (6885932 in chips)
Seat 9: reversejam (3317408 in chips)
With blinds starting at 60K/120K ante 12K they would quickly move up to 70K/140K ante 14K where we would see our first elimination. marroca5 who opened up the final table by eliminating tenth place started a blind versus raising war with ChiprakerAA. ChiprakerAA raised to 340,000 as marroca5 popped it to 885,250, then ChiprakerAA to 1.83 million, and finally marroca5 shoved for 5.2 million as ChiprakerAA covered and called with pocket queens [Qs][Qh]. marroca5 would need to come from behind again holding pocket tens [Ts][Td], but neither player would improve with a board full of sailboats [2c] [4c] [Jh] [4h] [4d]. It would be marroca5 to take the head wind and sail off first taking $10,000.00 in ninth place. This is not marroca5's first success with the Sunday Tournaments as back in November marroca5 picked up $51K in a fourth place effort at the Sunday Warm-up.
Ouch. It's one thing when an opponent hits those two-outers, it's quite another when the below hand happens. Watch the 3-way all-in between reversejam, ChiprakerAA, and BobMad121:
ChiprakerAA covered both reversejam and BobMad121, and reversejam covered BobMad121 for this 7.8 million chip pot. To say the [8h] [5c] [8d] flop was kind to BobMad121 would be like saying kids just kinda enjoy candy. Flopped quads for BobMad121 meant we were watching the rest of the board for the 4.2 million side pot between ChiprakerAA and reversejam, [9h] was safe but the [Kc] on the river sent reversejam and those pocket jacks packing in eighth place ($12,500.00) as BobMad121 took 3.5 million from the main pot.
With seats eight and nine gone perhaps seat seven was next? Fast forward to the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and ChiprakerAA sitting in the seven seat taking a big hit against KuzMich_pro in a bad beat when KuzMich_pro's pocket queens complete a four-flush against the pocket kings of ChiprakerAA for a 11.4 million chip pot. But, it would be PURPLE"K"99 instead that would take leave next. In the small blind facing an all-in bet from joachimpowa, PURPLE"K"99 would call all-in with those dreamy pocket aces [As][Ac]. joachimpowa turned over the steal attempt and [Kd][8s] but promptly hit a king on the [Ks] [3d] [7s] flop. [2s] on the turn missed the seven outs, but the [Kh] on the river gave joachimpowa 6.9 million chips from the pot for the trip kings and PURPLE"K"99 probably his most expensive bad beat story in seventh place ($15,000.00).
Largest pot of the tournament you might expect to see some big hands if both players pushed preflop right? Check out this expensive raising war in the video below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
evandijk70 did not feel like relinquishing the preflop raise after being three-bet holding just [9h][8d] and decided to press it by shoving for nine million total as AmarulaBr covered made the call with [As][Qs]. An 18.7 million chip pot and chip lead for the winner as neither player connected on the [4c] [3c] [6h] [Tc] [5c] board and AmarulaBr took a huge chip lead with four remaining and evandijk70 got an expensive lesson leaving in sixth place ($17,500.00).
Three hands later AmarulaBr would add even more to that total. Blinds holding at 175K/350K ante 35K, ChiprakerAA was facing a call for his tournament life after being three-bet by AmarulaBr holding [9d][Ac]. "Call" was the answer and AmarulaBr turned over [Ah][Jh] for the dominating hand. Both players would pair their aces on the [6h] [3s] [Tc] [Ad] [Qc] but AmarulaBr's jack kicker played and the once mighty chip leader was out in fifth place ($20,000.00).
This was an action packed stretch as another two hands later and there was yet another elimination. This time it was joachimpowa raising it up to 999,999 from the cutoff as KuzMich_pro in the small blind three-bet to 2.1 million. And as the players were discussing the possibility of a deal while these two were throwing chips in, joachimpowa shoved for 8.2 million getting a snap call from KuzMich_pro who covered and held pocket kings [Kc][Kd]. joachimpowa could only turn up [As][2c] and watched the [8c] [8d] [Tc] [5s] [7h] board rain down without an aces as the 16.8 million chip pot slid to KuzMich_pro. For the fourth finish there was no automobile, but $25,000.00 in prize money can certainly buy one (just not the brand new Audi TT still on the board for the winner).
As we moved on to three handed play and blinds of 200K/400K ante 40K the players slowed up for a bit to discuss a possible deal. After sitting out and grumbling about the pay outs like a bunch of sports fans watching their favorite player getting traded to a rival, they returned to the table and started play once again.
With blinds moving up to 225K/450K ante 45K AmarulaBr may have regretted not giving BobMad121 the extra 2K he requested from the deal.
Chip counts at the time of the potential deal:
Seat 2: AmarulaBr (28051196 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (7146795 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (19024009 in chips)
Chip count at the hourly break and two blind levels later:
Seat 2: AmarulaBr (21509176 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (23118815 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (9594009 in chips)
AmarulaBr picked up the Team PokerStars Brazilian cheering section with Maridu Mayrinck, Andre Akkari, and Alexandre Gomes giving AmarulaBr a cheer during a timely double-up with pocket twos against big slick for BobMad121 for a 16 million chip pot. Despite the giving up those chips BobMad121 retained the chip lead as the blinds were capped at 250K/500K ante 50K.
The chips were not held for long by the Brazilian as AmarulaBr raised from the small blind for 1.25 million and was three-bet by BobMad121 to three million. AmarulaBr decided to shove [Ac][6d] for 15.1 million total and BobMad121 snap called with pocket tens [Th][Ts]. A six would pop up on the flop [5h] [9d] [6c] but the chances of a suckout vanished with the [Tc] on the turn rendering the [3d] on the river moot. With a set of tens BobMad121 would take down Team Brazil and AmarulaBr in third place ($30,000.00). Taking a look into AmarulaBr's past success would tell perhaps why the deal wasn't made. A fourth place finish in the Super Tuesday just last month for $34K and a chopped third place in the Sunday Warm-up in January for $100K makes for a decent run.
On to heads-up play the where BobMad121 held a 4:1 chip advantage to start.
Seat 5: BobMad121 (42665182 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (11556818 in chips)
It had the potential to be a knuckle-dragging fight, instead ten hand later the tournament was finished with a preflop all-in. Watch the final hand play out below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Domination held up and BobMad121 drove away in the new Audi TT after his [Ac][8c] held over the [8h][Qd]. No surprises on the [3c] [7s] [Tc] [3h] [2d] board and the comeback story was complete for BobMad121 who earned $60,000.00 in addition to the car and KuzMich_pro took away $40,000.00 as the runner-up.
With the 2010 SCOOP on the horizon, or more to the point next starting with what should be a massive Event #1 (as of 7:46pm CST 21 people entered for the $2,100 event, 154 for the $215, and yikes 1,636 for the $22 version) players are trying to gain some momentum (i.e. bankroll) for this 114 event series. Especially with a few of the events like the $10,300 Main Event and Event #35's $25,500 heads-up tournament costing a little more than your usual Sunday night majors.
Tonight, people still get the every weekend low cost rate of $215 at the $750,000 Guaranteed Sunday Warm-up with a shot at two different six figure paydays. $141,192.00 and $104,850.00 being handed out to our top two finishers this evening thanks to the tidy round number of 4,500 players entering.
Down to ten players saw a big call and a rough ending. With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K, MoonPearl called a three-bet from Timvd19 as both would see a [5d] [Jd] [9c] flop. Immediately Timvd19 shoved 5.5 million into the pot as MoonPearl had a decision to make with [6d][9d], after a few ticks MoonPearl would make the call and was slightly ahead of the [Kd][8d] of Timvd19. Both betting their flush draws, but MoonPearl was ahead with the nines. [Tc] on the turn changed nothing, but the [7d] on the river gave both players flushes but Timvd19's was the stronger as the 6.5 million pot slid in his direction as MoonPearl went out with the sunrise in 10th place ($5,400.00).
Click image for larger picture
Seat 1: soihoang (5889264 in chips)
Seat 2: Drew M Scott (5241574 in chips)
Seat 3: Vinkyy (2297433 in chips)
Seat 4: cdbr3799 (3931915 in chips)
Seat 5: CesarSPA (6469074 in chips)
Seat 6: Radioheads (4678869 in chips)
Seat 7: Timvd19 (9605498 in chips)
Seat 8: ReadElek (5237971 in chips)
Seat 9: z 0 0 t s (1648402 in chips)
It wouldn't be until the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K that the table would bid adieu to the first player. Vinkyy lost an all-in coin flip of AQo to z 0 0 t s earlier, and now faced elimination after shoving 673,031 chips with pocket sixes [6s][6c] into z 0 0 t s who would call in the big blind holding [5s][Kc]. King didn't waste any time appearing as z 0 0 t s would flop the pair of kings and hold on thru the [Ks] [Js] [9d] [3c] [5c] board to take the 1.6 million chip pot and knock out Vinkyy in ninth place ($7,200.00).
Two hands later another shortstack, Drew M Scott, tried to strengthen his stack with pocket kings [Kh][Ks] by shoving over the top of Timvd19's middle position raise. Timvd19 with plenty of chips would make the call with pocket jacks [Js][Jh]. Drew M Scott would survive the flop [8s] [2h] [5c] but the two-outer was revealed on the turn [Jd] and no re-suck on the river [4h] meant the 2.8 million chip pot was shipped to Timvd19. For the bad beat, Drew M Scott would take away $11,250.00 in eighth place.
Blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K meant more pressure to take the blinds for the shorter stacks. Check out cdbr3799's steal attempt below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
cdbr3799 found [9h][Kh] to be staring right in the face of CesarSPA's pocket queens [Qd][Qh] for the 6.8 million chip pot. The flop [5h] [Kd] [Qc] would hit both players, but left cdbr3799 nearly drawing dead. [5c] on the turn opened up two outs for cdbr3799 against the full house of CesarSPA, but the [3d] on the river sended cdbr3799 packing in seventh place ($20,250.00).
Eight hands later with blinds remaining at 125K/250K ante 25K CesarSPA kept the hot streak going after soihoang tried to take down the blinds preflop after shoving 2.1 million from the small blind but instead found a caller in CesarSPA. soihoang was well ahead, holding [Ah][9c] against the [8s][As] of CesarSPA and looked good for a double up after the [6c] [Qs] [7d] flop. But the [8h] hit the turn yet still gave soihoang some hope and 11 outs on the river. The [4h] was not one of those outs and soihoang had earned $29,250.00 in sixth place.
After the bustout of soihoang we settled into five-handed play for awhile as the players all had a more comfortable 20 big blind stack or more with the blinds sitting at 150K/300K ante 30K. That is until a cooler of a hand occurred between z 0 0 t s and Radioheads. Watch the results below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
No stopping this one from happening, pocket queens [Qc][Qd] for Radioheads and pocket aces [As][Ah] for z 0 0 t s. The only excitement would be on the river with the board showing [6d] [9d] [4h] [4d] Radioheads picked up a flush draw to go with the two other queens. [Th] was the wrong suit and wrong broadway card sending 11.8 million chips to z 0 0 t s and Radioheads was tuned out in fifth place ($38,250.00). This isn't Radioheads' first brush with the big money, just last month in the Sunday Warm-up he claimed seventh place for 21K (click here for the final table write up).
After doubling up off of CesarSPA with an open ended straight draw that hit, Timvd19 came back to finish what was started. The blinds moving up to 200K/400K ante 40K, CesarSPA would open shove from the small blind for 5.2 million holding [Td][Qd] as Timvd19 would make the call from the big blind with [Ks][Js]. CesarSPA would hit the [5d] [Qc] [5c] flop with a pair of queens but the [9h] on the turn opened up some more out for Timvd19. Déjà vu? Yep. [Ts] on the river gave Timvd19 yet another straight and the 10.7 million chip pot. Maybe CesarSPA would rather play a game like 2-7 Triple Draw where straights are bad, but tonight CesarSPA will take home $50,850.00 in fourth place.
Down to three players and blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K after a quick five minute break Timvd19 and ReadElek who quietly collected chips tonight knotted up for the largest pot of the tournament. After a min-raise by Timvd19 was called by ReadElek, both would see a flop of [6d] [Jh] [9d] to their liking. First, Timvd19 fired 880,000 into the pot as ReadElek three-bet to 2.43 million. With a castle of chips and [Ad][Kd] Timvd19 would push ReadElek all-in to make a decision for his tournament life. A pair of nines was good enough to make the call as ReadElek called and turned up [9c][7c]. Flush and overcard outs for Timvd19 would not hit the [5h] turn, but would hit the [Ks] river. The king on the river sent 16.1 million chips to Timvd19 as ReadElek left with $74,250.00 in third place setting up a lop-sided heads-up match chip wise.
Seat 7: Timvd19 (36069066 in chips)
Seat 9: z 0 0 t s (8930934 in chips)
Nearly a 6:1 advantage in chips, Timvd19 had some trouble taking this one down as z 0 0 t s would manage a double up and narrowing the lead to 31 million to 13 million at one point. But, with winning seven hands in a row at the end, Timvd19 chip castle would add all the remaining Sunday Warm-up chips to its treasure room.
With the blinds bumped up to 205K/500K ante 50K Timvd19 would start the final hand by min-raising as z 0 0 t s went for broke by shoving 11.9 million chips into the middle quickly getting called by the pocket jacks [Jd][Jc] of Timvd19. z 0 0 t s started praying to the pocket gods for an ace or a couple of tens to match the [Ad][Tc] in his hand. Unfortunately this one wouldn't even need a river card as Timvd19 would hit a set on the turn [5s] [7d] [3h] [Jh] leaving the [9h] null and void as the final 24 million chips made their way into Timvd19's stack and $141,192.00 into his bankroll. For the runner-up, z 0 0 t s, a six-figure payday earning $104,850.00 for defeating 4,498 players.
Be sure to check back in the few days at PokerStars.tv for replay of the Sunday Warm-up with excellent commentary and hole cards revealed.
If you have PokerStars on your Twitter feed, then you know that PokerStars sends out tweet contests regularly and by answering correctly can earn you some free FPPs. If you are not following PokerStars and PokerStarsBlog, we suggest getting with the program and take advantage of information and contests flowing thru there. Today's trivia question for FPPs on Twitter was: "How many players will start tonight's $1Million Turbo Takedown?".
Answer: 18,485
And tonight 5,000 of those players who paid the 3,000 FPPs to enter will grab a piece of the mentioned $1 million prize pool. The majority of the prizes will be waiting for our final nine at the final table as $60,000.00 plus the Audi TT is set aside for the person who stands tall after defeating this massive field.
Down to the final two tables, HarryO44 was left with just 463,979 chips with blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K and after a five minute break shoved those chips in the middle getting Munken_28, equinespy, and tmb_bluevar to call. [4c] [Qs] [4d] [Ah] [6d] was laid out and checked all the way down as tmb_bulevar showed pocket sevens [7s][7h], equinespy and HarryO44 were forced to muck before the winning hand [7c][As] of Munken_28 was turned over. HarryO44 earned the bubble boy title but took away $8,000.00 for tenth place setting up the final table below:
(click picture for larger image)
Seat 1: DareYou2Call (6623656 in chips)
Seat 2: Econ Adager (8819199 in chips)
Seat 3: equinespy (8183380 in chips)
Seat 4: Jroszkow (11603192 in chips)
Seat 5: Munken_28 (7468391 in chips)
Seat 6: Poker Drum (1499760 in chips)
Seat 7: analena85 (5215463 in chips)
Seat 8: tmb_bulevar (1484273 in chips)
Seat 9: pokerfun4321 (4557686 in chips)
Two hands into the final table, short-stacked Poker Drum wasted no time trying to find a double up. After open shoving from the cutoff for 1.3 million, Poker Drum watched pokerfun4321 in the big blind make the call creating a 2.9 million chip pot. [Ts][Ks] for pokerfun4321 and pocket fives [5s][5c] for Poker Drum. Two spades on the [6s] [Js] [7d] opened up a plethora of outs for pokerfun4321 and one of those hit the turn [7s] and the river [8c] stayed five free. Poker Drum was beaten but will play on to the tune of $10,000.00 earned in ninth place.
As the blinds rose to 125K/250K ante 25K, pokerfun4321 was on the flip side of the coin finding himself all-in against big stacked Econ Adager for a 6.9 million chip pot. After pokerfun4321 pushed [6h][Ah] all-in from the button, Econ Adager made the call in the big blind holding [Qd][As]. The other two aces would hit the [Ad] [5c] [Ts] [3d] [Ac] board but Econ Adager's queen kicker still played and pokerfun4321's chips were 4-3-2-1-gone in eighth place ($12,500.00). pokerfun4321 just last week took third in the Sunday Mixed Hold Em' tourney for $1,000.
Three hands later another short-stack made an attempt to rise from the basement. tmb_bulevar shoved all-in preflop for 1.4 from UTG+1 as it folded around to Jroszkow who would min raise to dissuade Munken_28 from calling. It did as Jroszkow turned over pocket kings [Kc][Kh] to tmb_bulevar's [8h][Jh]. The cold, heartless [Ac] [2c] [6s] [As] [5c] board rolled out to Jroszkow's favor as tmb_bulevar would not be driving away in that Audi TT tonight, finishing in seventh place ($15,000.00).
Much like the rather nasty beat that set up the just finished Sunday Warm-up, watch Munken_28 and equinespy tangle for a tournament changing 17.9 million chip pot below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
After the [9c] [4c] [5d] flop both players would get their considerable sized stacks into the middle. Munken_28 holding [Kc][Tc] for two overcards and the flush draw while equinespy had the pocket rockets [As][Ac]. The [Th] on the turn opened up even more outs for Munken_28 and the [8c] got the underdog there as Munken_28 raked in the big pot and equinespy got a nasty bad beat story in sixth place ($17,500.00). Add this to the $141K equinespy won at the 2009 WCOOP Event # 26 and equinespy could buy his own Audi TT.
The very next hand we had ANOTHER all-in pre-flop. This time analena85 and DareYou2Call knotted up to create a 8.8 million chip pot. With the blinds still at 125K/250K ante 25K, analena85 made a raise to 750K and DareYou2Call shoved all in for 5.8 million. Just like the name says "dare you to call" as analena85 took that literally and made the call holding big slick [Kh][Ad], which was a big favorite against the suited [9h][Ah] of DareYou2Call. analena85 would hit an unnecessary full boat on the [Kc] [Qs] [As] [Ks] [Jc] board leaving DareYou2Call to consider a name change after busting out in fifth place ($20,000.00). DareYou2Call has been hot lately, taking down the $215 NLHE Heads-up tourney for in February for a $14K score.
With the loss of DareYou2Call, faint pings of chop talks filtered through the chat box, and finally got loud enough to summon the moderator to the table. After Econ objected to the straight chip chop, Jroszkow and Munken_28 trimmed a little off their figures to reach the deal below:
All of the money was now locked up; the keys to the Audi TT were still up for grabs for tonight's champion. Econ Adager would be the first to take leave after the chop. With blinds at 175K/350K ante 35K and a shove over the top of Jroszkow's cutoff raise. Econ Adager watched Jroszkow call the shove, creating a 13.5 million chip pot, and turn over pocket queens [Qs][Qd] which looked much prettier than the [As][7s] in his hand. [8s] [Th] [Tc] [Kd] [9d] was laid out as Econ Adager's supply side was down to zero earning $32,802.74 from the chop in fourth place.
Several hands later after the blinds bumped up to 200K/400K ante 40K the two big stacks would clash for a huge 42.9 million chip pot. Watch the carnage below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Again Munken_28 shoved after flopping a flush draw while up against a huge pocket pair. This time it was pocket kings [Kd][Kc] for Jroszkow and the nut flush draw holding [7h][Ah] for Munken_28 on the [2h] [Tc] [8h] flop. The [5s] was safe on the turn, as Munken_28's tournament life was on the line. Rivered [3d] sealed up the largest pot of the tournament for Jroszkow as Munken_28 took away the chopped $41,028.15 in third place.
Because of that pot, Jroszkow held a huge 48.3 million to 7 million chip lead on analena85 going into heads-up play. But, analena85 wasn't conceding the car just yet and managed to stay even keel through several hands and finally caught a double-up with [As][Qh] when Jroszkow called the all-in holding [As][Ts]. A queen on the flop sealed it up thru the [Qc] [5c] [3d] [5s] [Th] board and 9.9 million chips made their way to analena85.
analena85 had new life with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K and near 10 million in chips. However, that life would take a turn for the worse just three hands later. After Jroszkow min raised from the button, analena85 seized the opportunity to shove in with a decent [Ah][9c] hand. Jroszkow holding [Td][Ad] snap called and nailed the nut flush on the [9d] [3d] [6d] flop sealing up the win...
... not so fast said the turn. The [Ac] on the turn gave analena85 three outs to a boat, but the excitement was short lived as the [Qs] fell and analena85's well fought battle was at an end in second place ($35,169.11).
The keys to the Audi TT belonged to Jroszkow who also got $46,000.00 in gas money from the chop as this month's Turbo Takedown champion!
March Madness. With Duke taking out Baylor this afternoon there are only four left from the original 64 teams which become one of the most wagered on sporting events in the United States. Personally, my bracket took a beating early as my bets became recyclable trash, similar to the 4,016 players that did not cash in this evening's Sunday Warm-up, as 675 did take a slice of the $938,200.00 prize pool which broke the $750,00 guarantee once again. While the $5 office pool pales in comparison to the $215 price tag for the tournament, so does the $147,187.03 first place prize with slightly beats out the $80 I could have won for correctly picking Butler, Michigan State, Duke, and West Virginia in the Final Four.
We'll call them Final Nine, as that's where the big cash lies, and getting close to those big payouts was Team PokerStars Pro Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis. Down to four tables remaining Veldhuis would take a hit on his stack after a blind steal went wrong with A7o and the big blind woke up with ATo which held for the majority of the pro's chips. Four hands later with blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K Lex would raise to 135K from UTG and Yankees31 would push the pro all-in from middle postion. 1/3 of Veldhuis' chips were in the middle as he made the call holding [3d][Ac]. Yankees31 rolled over [Qd][As] for the dominate hand and it held on the [2d] [Qc] [Th] [Jd] [Js] board to knock out RaSZi in 29th place ($2,064.04).
Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis 29th place
Gross. There are no other words for the double elimination that occurred to set up tonight's final table. Watch below as FIGARO10 throws a double knockout punch.
RSS readers click through to see replay
And with FIGARO10's quad queens, we were down to the Final Nine as shown below starting off with 80K/160K ante 16K blinds:
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Seat 1: Firaldo87 (4375491 in chips)
Seat 2: Radioheads (4420415 in chips)
Seat 3: Comandr_Cool (3549448 in chips)
Seat 4: FIGARO10 (7068924 in chips)
Seat 5: Coltaine (6500265 in chips)
Seat 6: DNA2RNA (3660271 in chips)
Seat 7: LuckyTC (5240038 in chips)
Seat 8: djk123 (5466992 in chips)
Seat 9: SNo0oWMAN (6628156 in chips)
All eyes were on Dan "djk123" Kelly the 2009 WCOOP "Player of the Series" after taking down two bracelets and adding a 4th place performance in the Main Event for $643,200. At the first final table break, he was the first to jump into an eight figure stack.
Dan "djk123" Kelly
With the first hand after the break, the blinds rose 100K/200K ante 20K and the final table shrunk from nine to eight. Comandr_Cool with Conan O'Brien in his corner (or at least as an avatar), made a min rise to 400K as Coltaine two seats over shoved to the tune of 2.28 million chips. Folded back around to Comandr_Cool who would make the call with [Kh][Qc], facing the [Js][Ts] of Coltaine. Comandr_Cool would flop top pair [3d] [Kc] [5s] and would need to fade a flush draw after the turned [7s]. But the [3c] gave Coltaine some walking papers in ninth place ($7,505.60).
After an uneventful first round of blinds at the final table things heated up quickly as six hands later we had our second elimination. djk123 led off the betting with the popular min raise as Firaldo87 shoved over-the-top for 3.4 million. Folded around to FIGARO10 in the big blind who would make the call as djk123 sat this one out. Pocket jacks [Jd] [Js] for FIGARO10 was well ahead of the [Ad][Tc] held by Firaldo87. The jacks were never threatened on the [4s] [8h] [6d] [Ks] [8d] board as FIGARO10 won the 7.6 million chip pot and Firaldo87 flamed out in eighth place ($11,727.50).
Still in the 100K/200K ante 20K blind level, FIGARO10 went back to work, this time tangling with Radioheads. Watch the hand play out below:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Pocket jacks for the win and 7.3 million chips! Once again FIGARO10 found jacks [Jd][Js] and found them in an even more dominate position over the pocket tens [Td][Ts] of Radioheads. No suckout on the [Kd] [Ah] [4d] [Kc] [5d] board as Radioheads' tournament was turned off in seventh place ($21,109.50).
As the blinds rose to 125K/250K ante 25K, FIGARO10 once again found a high pocket pair this time passing jacks and moving up to pocket kings [Kh][Ks] and after trading four-bets with SNo0oWMAN preflop, all of the SNo0oWMAN's chips were in the middle holding [Ad][Jc]. Our first eight figure pot (10.3 million) was formed as the favorite held once again [5d] [5c] [9h] [Qc] [8d]. As spring is here bringing the sunshine and warmth, the SNo0oWMAN also melted in sixth place ($30,491.50). SNo0oWMAN is a regular to the big Sunday Tournaments and cashes often, including a $20K score in the $215 with Rebuys tourney back in July of 2008.
Three hands later with the blinds still at 125K/250K ante 25K the fairly quiet DNA2RNA decided to break the silence and maybe some chromosomes with a shove from UTG for 1.5 million. djk123 on the button would make the call holding [9c][Ad] and found himself ahead of the [Ts][Jd] of DNA2RNA. The ace would play on the all low board [4s] [4c] [3d] [8d] [3h] as Kelly scooped up the 3.6 million chip pot and DNA2RNA would disappear in fifth place ($39,873.50). DNA2RNA is a regular SnG player who managed a fourth place finish in the monthly Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout.
Continuing with the rapid eliminations, five hands later LuckyTC tried to push Comandr_Cool off his hand with a three-bet shove for 3.8 million. Barring a misclick, Comandr_Cool wasn't folding pocket aces [Ac][Ah] and managed to click the call button. [2h][Jd] for LuckyTC who found a little luck on the flop but drawing dead after the ace hit the turn on the [2d] [8d] [9s] [As] [Kc] board. LuckyTC, a VIP Supernova, also found his way to the Battle of the Planets final table for a seventh place finish, has several big Sunday tournament scores and adds a fourth place finish here ($53,008.30).
The hand of the tournament, much like the one that broke down the penultimate table involved a major cooler. Watch below as all three of our players are all-in after the flop:
RSS readers click through to see replay
Dan "djk123" Kelly: [As][Ah]
Comandr_Cool: [Kd][Qd]
FIGARO10: [Kc][Ks]
With blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K after the flop of [Tc] [2d] [Qc] both djk123 and Comandr_Cool would check to FIGARO10 who would bet 1.5 million. djk123, after taking a few hits to his stack would push all-in for 5.4 million. After a few ticks on the time box, Comandr_Cool shoved for 12.7 million as FIGARO10 covered both players and called. [9s] on the turn and [6h] meant Kelly would take the main pot worth 18.5 million while FIGARO10's pocket kings hauled in 14.6 from the side pot with Comandr_Cool eliminating the Coco fan in third place ($77,401.50). Comandr_Cool added this win to a chopped victory in the $215 NLHE Heads-up tourney in January as our final two moved on to heads-up play.
Chop talks never entered the surface of the chat box, so the final two would hammer at each other for that $147,187.03 first place prize.
Seat 4: FIGARO10 (28330364 in chips)
Seat 8: djk123 (18579636 in chips)
FIGARO10 held a 10 million chip advantage as djk123 was eyeing to add another title to his already very impressive collection of wins. But, this one was over before it started as heads-up play lasted just five hands. FIGARO would take down three of the four hands, opening up a 33.6 million to 13.2 million chip lead on the 2009 WCOOP Players of the Series. Then with blinds moving up to 150K/300K ante 30K after a min raise by Kelly, a three-bet to 1.8 million by FIGARO10, both players got their chips in the middle with pairs. Pocket sixes for FIGARO10 [6h][6c] and pocket fours [4d][4c] for djk123. The [2s] [Ac] [Qd] [Ts] [6d] board once again allowed the favorite to win as the champ was taken down by FIGARO10 but earned another six-figure score in second place ($109,300.30).
FIGARO10 held the right cards at the right times turning those quad queens before the final table into $147,187.03 by winning tonight's Sunday Warm-up.
The kicker is that the tournament was finished in under six hours as the $300,000 guarantee from PokerStars created a $50,000 first prize thanks to the massive overlay.
We're sure oskar69 is happy about the ROI from the win today, as no deal was reached and the entire $50,000.00 was awarded for besting this massive field shown below:
(click on image for larger picture)
Congratulations to oskar69 and all of the 30,000 players who cashed this evening and thank you for setting yet another Guinness Book of Records record here at PokerStars!
There's been a running gag in the past couple of days at Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa - with the sun shining and so much to do, no-one's going to be too disappointed if they're eliminated in the early stages of the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event.
Since it opened in October 1993, Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa, Cebu has won various awards from international institutions such as AsiaMoney, Business Traveller, Conde Nast, HotelClub.com, Smart Travel Asia, Time Magazine, Travel Weekly (for "Best Spa") and Zagat World's Top Hotels, Resorts and Spas.
The view from one of the 547 rooms at Shangri-La's Mactan Resort
The hotel was honoured as "Top Hotel in Asia" by the HotelClub Awards Asia 2008 after more than 120,000 votes were cast for more than 7100 hotels and resorts across Asia.
Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa features 547 rooms, palm-studded lawns, free-form pools, shady pavilions where you can set yourself up like a sultan and a choice of food and beverage outlets.
There's also a huge spa complex, CHI, where the range of esoteric treatments includes watsu, a water-based shiatsu massage that involves floating on your back in a warm pool and doing your best jellyfish imitation.
As if the resort isn't relaxing enough, many players are heading to CHI for an added slice of paradise
CHI is designed as a secluded Spa Village, where one can enjoy the privacy and luxury of one of the largest spa treatment villas in Asia. The CHI Villas are complete with spacious relaxation areas, a private garden patio, sunken tub, herbal steam room and shower.
The snorkelling in the marine protection zone right off the Shangri-La's beach is one of the highlights. The beach staff provides bread to feed the fish and you'll be surrounded by the marine life almost as soon as you slip into the water.
There are also other ways to cool off, including jetskiing, kayaking, sailing and windsurfing. Some are taking out their frustrations by bashing around the six-hole pitch-and-putt golf course or on the tennis courts. There are also pool and table tennis tables, as well as volleyball, badminton and water polo for those still looking for some competition. We may never leave ...
One of the joys of travelling with the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour is experiencing different countries and cultures. We've visited countries like Korea, where conformity is an obsession, and countries like the Philippines, where parents will go to extraordinary lengths to make their children stand out from the crowd.
As a result, there are thousands, if not millions, of Filipinos walking around with highly unusual names. Given we're here for a poker tournament, let's start with politician Joker Arroyo. He has a brother Jack, but we're unsure if there's a King or Queen Arroyo. There is, however, another politician named Robert Ace Barbers, and he prefers to play the Ace.
Jejomar is a popular name in this highly religious country, taking the first two letters from Jesus, first two letters from Joseph and first three letters from Mary.
2008 champ Van Marcus gets settled for his title defence
And strolling the Marquee floor today, we heard 2009 APPT Macau runner-up Mike Kim singing the Paul Lekakis gem Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room). Van Marcus then kicked into a rendition of Boom Boom Boom by the Outthere Brothers. Why all the singing? The young lady dealing their table is named Boom.
Close by on table 10 where Bing is dealing - seriously - Daniel Schreiber just vacated his seat after being KOed by Michael Shinzaki. The PokerStars.net Team Asia Pro kicked off the betting with a raise to 825, Shinzaki popped it to 2200 and Schreiber called.
The good form Michael Shinzaki displayed in Auckland is being repeated in Cebu
They checked the flop of [6c] [6d] [2d], before Shinzaki shoved all-in after Schreiber had checked the turn of [4h]. Schreiber called and showed [5c] [5d] only to find Shinzaki holding [ks] [6h] for trips. The river blanked and the Korean-based American was heading for the door, as he discussed ...
Ticking down to the end of level four on day 1A, the sensibly named Lee Jin from Korea leads on 65,000 ahead of Hong Kong's Elton Tsang on 62,000. Hang on ... Elton?
7:00pm Saving the best until last
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