Perhaps it’s the weather turning cooler that’s keeping more indoors to play online at PokerStars — an idea posed by Team PokerStars Pro Christophe de Meulder in a recent blog post. Or maybe it’s the growing anticipation surrounding the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event finally playing to its conclusion next week.
Whatever the reason, the fields for the Super Tuesday are starting to grow again — in a big way — with a huge group of 635 players making it out this week and nipe1955 of Brazil overcoming all to earn a massive $120,015 payday.
That field of 635 represented the third-largest Super Tuesday turnout in 2013 — indeed, the third-largest in the entire history of the weekly $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament. In March of this year came the only two larger Super Tuesday fields, with 663 and 637 taking part during successive weeks.
Such a large field meant it took longer than usual to reach the cash bubble, with nearly six hours of poker needed for the field to be whittled to 72 players and the money. At that point it was uknowProsky* on top, with leoe29, BroEyes, and Ector not too far behind.
About an hour and 15 minutes later they were already down to 18, with Mike “Tîmex” McDonald having just been eliminated in 19th for a $3,810 cash and Ector leading with a little over 400,000 chips.
It took a little over an hour more for nine more to fall. bb830 (18th), Nick “FU_15” Maimone (17th), and Mike “Pipedream17” Dietrich (16th) each earned $5,080 for their finishes. Marcelosrf (15th), pvas2 (14th), and Iwantbearich (13th) made $6,350 apiece. And H1TMANSH (12th), Jonas “donut604” Mackoff (11th), and marktb (10th) each claimed $7,620 worth of the prize pool.
With pumpon20, apostolis20, and uknowProsky* all battling for the lead and Ector and Halfrek not far behind, the final table was underway.
Seat 1: pumpon20 (Russia) — 488,106
Seat 2: M`HATC (Russia) — 250,878
Seat 3: apostolis20 (Greece) — 471,061
Seat 4: uknowProsky* (Netherlands) — 454,317
Seat 5: Sky20130731 (China) — 233,708
Seat 6: Halfrek (Denmark) — 396,283
Seat 7: Ector (Sweden) — 435,915
Seat 8: byfon (Russia) — 173,135
Seat 9: nipe1955 (Brazil) — 271,597
It would take 40 minutes before anyone was knocked off this week’s Super Tuesday final table, then two players fell in consecutive hands.
With the blinds at 3,600/7,200, Ector opened for the minimum with a raise to 14,400 from under the gun, then pumpon20 three-bet to 32,184 from middle position. It folded back to Ector who made it 115,452 to go, pumpon20 reraised all in for 361,818 total, and Ector called.
Both players had big pocket pairs, but pumpon20’s Qâ™ Q♣ was dwarfed by the A♦ A♣ of Ector. Then came the flop — 10♦ Q♦ 5♦ — and suddenly pumpon20 had seized the lead with a set. The turn was the 6♣ , but the river brought the 3♦ , that fourth diamond improving Ector to a flush and ending pumpon20’s Super Tuesday in ninth.
The next hand saw M`HATC raising to 14,824 from middle position, Halfrek reraising to 36,000 from the small blind, and M`HATC calling. The flop came 4♣ Q♠9♦ , Halfrek bet 30,239, and M`HATC called. The turn then brought the 6♥ and an all-in push by Halfrek for 108,378, quickly called by M`HATC.
It was another confrontation of pocket pairs, with Halfrek holding K♣ Kâ™ but discovering M`HATC was well in front with 4♦ 4♥ for a set of fours. There’d be no comeback for the better pair on this one, as the 5♦ fell on fifth street to oust Halfrek in eighth.
About 10 minutes later the blinds were up to 4,000/8,000 when Ector raised to 16,000 from the hijack seat, byfon shoved all in for 147,535 from the cutoff, then nipe1955 reshoved from the button for more than 270,000. It folded back to Ector who folded, too, and byfon showed A♥ J♦ to nipe1955’s Q♥ Q♣ . The board rolled out nine-high — 7â™ 4♥ 3♦ 8♦ 9♥ — and byfon was done in seventh.
Fifteen more minutes passed, as as the tourney approached the nine-and-a-half-hour mark the blinds were 4,500/9,000 when nipe1955 raised to 18,000 from UTG+1, then Sky20130731 reraised all in for 132,997 from the big blind and nipe1955 called. Sky20130731’s A♥ J♥ initially led the Q♣ Jâ™ of nipe1955, but the community cards came Q♦ 10♦ 5♦ 5♥ Q♥ to give nipe1955 a full house and eliminate Sky20130731 in sixth.
Shortly after that hand, the blinds were 5,000/10,000 when M`HATC made a button raise to 26,875 and uknowProsky* defended the big blind with a call. Both checked the 8♣ K♦ 7♥ flop, and uknowProsky* also checked after the Q♥ fell on the turn. That’s when M`HATC bet 30,000, uknowProsky* check-raised to 185,000, and M`HATC called all in with the 140,000 left.
M`HATC had 10♦ 9♣ for an open-ended straight draw while uknowProsky*had K♠Q♣ for two pair. The river was the 8♥ , and M`HATC was knocked out in fifth.
The remaining four reached the 10-hour break with nipe1955 way out in front with more than 1.57 million, Ector next with almost 791,000, apostolis20 third with just under 522,000, and uknowProsky* fourth with about 287,000.
Just a couple of minutes after play resumed, leader nipe1955 made a min-raise to 24,000 from the button and uknowProsky* called from the big blind. The flop came 6♦ K♠7♦ , and uknowProsky* check-called a bet of 48,000 from nipe1955. The Q♠then came on the turn, and both players checked.
The river was the Q♣ . uknowProsky* checked again, and nipe1955 bet 240,000 — more than the 227,509 that uknowProsky* had left. uknowProsky* made the all-in call, showing A♥ 7♥ for sevens and queens. But nipe1955 had Q♥ 4♥ for trips, and as uknowProsky* hit the rail in fourth, uknowProsky* took an even more commanding lead with three players left.
Soon it was nipe1955 on the button raising 2x again — to 28,000 this time — and when Ector reraised all in from the big blind for 149,454, nipe1955 called. Ector had A♦ 9â™ and needed to improve against nipe1955’s 2♦ 2â™ , but the board came 5♦ 4â™ 4♥ J♥ K♦ , and Ector was out in third.
As happened last week when NhFy rolled through the final table quickly to put an early end to the Super Tuesday, nipe1955 was on the way to doing the same, carrying a big lead to heads-up play with 2,773,762 versus apostolis20’s 401,238.
The pair battled for about 10 minutes more, with apostolis20 getting that short stack shortened even further to less than 180,000. Then with the blinds at 8,000/16,000, apostolis20 pushed those chips all in from the button with 7♣ 7♦ , but was met with a quick call from nipe1955 who had been dealt 10♣ 10♥ .
The community cards came 9♠3♦ A♦ , then 4♦ , then 4♣ , and nipe1955 had won.
Congratulations to nipe1955 for topping one of the largest Super Tuesday fields ever and taking away what amounted to the second-biggest prize in Super Tuesday history following the $124,644 won by Andoni “Pollopopeye” Larrabe back on 3/19/13!
10/29/13 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Players: 635
Prize pool: $635,000
Places paid: 72
1. nipe1955 (Brazil) — $120,015.00
2. apostolis20 (Greece) — $87,947.50
3. Ector (Sweden) — $64,770.00
4. uknowProsky* (Netherlands) — $48,895.00
5. M`HATC (Russia) — $34,290.00
6. Sky20130731 (China) — $26,987.50
7. byfon (Russia) — $20,637.50
8. Halfrek (Denmark) — $14,287.50
9. pumpon20 (Russia) — $9,715.50
Speaking of the WSOP, you probably heard something about another Team PokerStars Pro — Daniel Negreanu — winning himself another bracelet in France at the recently-completed WSOP Europe while also clinching the 2013 WSOP Player of the Year, the second time he’s notched the achievement. Read more about Negreanu’s triumph here.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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