For the fourth straight week the Super Tuesday saw in increase in the number of entrants, with this week’s turnout of 585 starting to approach again the 600-player mark routinely exceeded during the spring months. That big group built a $585,000 prize pool — nearly double the $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament’s $300K guarantee — and after a little over 11-and-a-half hours it was a familiar name coming away with the victory and first-place prize.

Going along with his WCOOP title, two SCOOP titles, and TCOOP title, Australia’s James “Andy McLEOD” Obst added a Super Tuesday win to his collection this week, picking up a nice $109,809 payday in the process.

It took just over five-and-a-half hours for the tournament to play down to 72 players and the money bubble to burst, at which point r shetty, Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima, eisenhower1, and Shhh00kem were leading the counts as the only players who had spun their starting stacks of 5,000 to more than 100,000.

There was still one Team PokerStars Pro alive as well, Leo Fernandez of Argentina who had survived the bubble period with a short stack.

It would take a couple of hours more for the field to be carved down to 18 players. Among those cashing during that stretch were Daris “DEX888” Pedes (72nd, $1,917.30), Josh “JBT449” Bergman (70th, $1,917.30), Matt “ADZ124” Marafioti (68th, $1,917.30), Erik “lirarerik” Friberg (67th, $1,197.30), Tomás “T 54 T 97s” Paiva (61st, $2,033.50), Benjamin “SPEKTAH” Leblond (59th, $2,033.50), Stefan “mindgamer” Jedlicka (58th, $2,033.50), Paul “_pauL€FauL_” Höfer (57th, $2,033.50), Andreas “Hoegh93” Høgh (55th, $2,033.50), João “Naza114” Vieira (53rd, $2,324), Matthew “eardleym” Eardley (52nd, $2,324), John “kleath” Leathart (51st, $2,324), Dominik “Bounatirou” Nitsche (48th, $2,324), Rocco “Sephirot88” Palumbo (45th, $2,614.50), Regis “capotinha” Kogle (43rd, $2,614.50), Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan (42nd, $2,614.50), David “My Brim Low” Ivers (26th $3,486), Elio “smokrokflock” Fox (25th, $3,486), Sergi “srxakgirona” Reixach (24th, $3,486), and Luis “Turko_man” Rodriguez (23rd, $3,486).

VIVILINE1 had moved into the top spot by then with more than 340,000, with Leo Fernandez still alive and with a slightly above average stack of a little more than half that.

elhilario (18th) and iambest2 (17th) were the next to hit the rail, after which a hand arose that saw Leo Fernandez make a 2x raise to 9,600 from the small blind and Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima call from the big blind. The flop came 7♥ 4♣ 8♠ . Fernandez checked, Nishijima bet 11,888 (about half the pot), Fernandez shoved all in for 81,585, and Nishijima called.

Fernandez had A♥ 9♦ for two overcards, but Nishijima had flopped two pair with 7♠ 4♦ . The turn and river blanked for Fernandez, and the Team PokerStars Pro was out in 16th. Like elhilario and iambest2, Fernandez earned $4,648 for the finish.

Following them to the rail were politm69 (15th), Keith “Kungfumonk” Johnson (14th), and r shetty (13th), each of whom earned $5,810. Aaron “Aguskb” Gustavson (12th), Nicholas “Rounder63” Carrillo (11th), and Kyle “KJulius10” Julius (10th) next went out, each taking away $6,972 from the prize pool.

With Nishijima the new chip leader having chipped up over 800,000, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: vasil1976197 (Ukraine) — 106,287
Seat 2: MAMOHT_T (Russia) — 88,857
Seat 3: RcknTheSbrbs (Costa Rica) — 273,477
Seat 4: Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima (Brazil) — 802,411
Seat 5: James “Andy McLEOD” Obst (Australia) — 287,472
Seat 6: YRWTHMELTHR (Canada) — 308,415
Seat 7: StrungOut1 (Mexico) — 378,905
Seat 8: ALIN76poker (Romania) — 163,865
Seat 9: VIVILINE1 (Israel) — 495,311

On the fifth hand of the final table, the blinds were 3,200/6,400 when leader Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima opened for 13,444 from under the gun, then it folded around to the table’s short stack MAMOHT_T in the small blind who reraised all in for 78,457. It got back to Nishijima who called, turning over Q♣ 10♣ to MAMOHT_T’s A♦ K♣ .

The flop came 8♣ 9♦ 3♠ and turn the 5♥ , and MAMOHT_T was still in front. But the river was the J♣ to complete a straight for Nishijima, and MAMOHT_T was done in ninth.

Five hands after that it was vasil1976197 open-pushing all in from under the gun for 63,087 (almost 10 big blinds) and it folded to ALIN76poker who reraise-shoved from the small blind.

vasil1976197 had 6♦ 6♠ and ALIN76poker A♦ Q♥ , and once again the at-risk player was fine through the flop — 4♦ K♣ 4♥ — and turn — 7♠ . But the river was the Q♣ to pair ALIN76poker’s hand, and vasil1976197 was eliminated in eighth.

The tourney reached the nine-hour mark, and more than a half-hour more would pass before the next elimination. By then the blinds had moved up to 4,500/9,000, and after it folded to the button James “Andy McLEOD” Obst raised to 18,000. YRWTHMELTHR then shoved for 100,953 from the small blind, and Obst called.

YRWTHMELTHR had 2♥ 2♣ and was hoping the small pair would hold against Obst’s K♦ Q♠ . But the 5♠ J♦ 10♣ Q♦ 8♥ board didn’t cooperate, pairing Obst’s queen and knocking YRWTHMELTHR out in seventh.

About 10 minutes later VIVILINE1 lost a big pot after running Q♣ Q♦ into StrungOut1’s A♦ A♣ . Then two hands later James “Andy McLEOD” Obst min-raised to 20,000 from middle position, VIVILINE1 reraised all in for 24,330 from the big blind, and Obst called.

VIVILINE1 had 9♣ 6♣ and Obst Q♦ Q♥ , and five cards later — Q♠ 2♦ K♣ 10♣ 4♥ — VIVILINE1 was out in sixth.

The remaining five pushed through the 10-hour mark, with Obst the new leader with nearly 1.3 million and StrungOut1 next with almost 785,000.

Soon the blinds were 6,000/12,000, and after James “Andy McLEOD” Obst raised to 24,000 from the button, ALIN76poker reraised all in for 159,676 from the big blind and Obst called.

Andy McLEOD had 7♥ 7♠ while ALIN76poker showed A♦ 3♥ . The board came 9♦ 2♣ 5♥ , then 5♣ , then 9♣ , and ALIN76poker was finished in fifth.

Play continued, then with the blinds at 8,000/16,000 it was RcknTheSbrbs opening for 34,400 from UTG, then Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima pushed all in from the button for 178,784 total. James “Andy McLEOD” Obst called the reraise from the small blind, and when it folded back RcknTheSbrbs stepped aside.

Nishijima had A♥ 3♠ but Obst had him outkicked with A♣ Q♥ . The community cards came J♠ 2♣ 10♣ A♦ 8♥ and Nishijima’s tourney run ended in fourth.

Later a big hand developed between RcknTheSbrbs and StrungOut1 that saw the latter five-bet shove all in before the flop with A♠ Q♥ and RcknTheSbrbs call with A♦ J♠ . StrungOut1’s hand held, leaving RcknTheSbrbs with about 100,000 or just five big blinds.

A couple of hands later StrungOut1 limped in from the small blind and RcknTheSbrbs checked the big blind, then when the flop came Q♣ 9♣ 3♦ StrungOut1 led for 37,555, RcknTheSbrbs pushed all in for 79,218, and StrungOut1 hesitated a beat or two before calling.

RcknTheSbrbs had 4♠ 3♥ for a pair of treys while StrungOut1 had but 8♦ 7♣ . The 2♥ turn kept RcknTheSbrbs in the lead, but the river brought the 7♠ to give StrungOut1 a better pair and send RcknTheSbrbs railward in third.

Heads-up play then began with StrungOut1 leading with 1,691,766 to James “Andy McLEOD” Obst’s 1,213,234. The pair played a couple of hands, then had a quick chat.

Andy McLEOD: gg gl
StrungOut1: numbers?
Andy McLEOD: we could look but id want close to even dont like chopping
StrungOut1: maybe if we get closer to even. gl for now
Andy McLEOD: k gl

They continued on with StrungOut1 chipping up further over 2 million while Obst slipped back to less than 850,000. Then came a hand that saw them raising back and forth until Obst was all in with 5♠ 5♦ against StrungOut1’s A♥ Q♣ . The board rolled out K♦ 10♣ 9♥ 10♠ 2♠ with Obst dodging elimination to earn a nearly 1.7 million-chip pot and the lead.

A short while later Obst had pushed out even further, building up close to 2.5 million to StrungOut1’s stack of almost 415,000. That’s when Obst opened with a 2x raise to 50,000 from the button, StrungOut1 pushed all in, and Obst called.

StrungOut1: A♠ 4♥
Andy McLEOD: J♦ J♠

The board came Q♦ 7♦ 6♥ 10♦ 2♥ , leaving StrungOut1 unimproved and giving Obst the pot and the title.

Congratulations to James “Andy McLEOD” Obst for toppng this week’s big Super Tuesday field and earning the title and $109,809 first prize.

8/5/14 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants: 581

Prize pool: $581,000.00 

Places paid: 72

1. James “Andy McLEOD” Obst (Australia) $109,809.00
2. StrungOut1 (Mexico) $80,468.50
3. RcknTheSbrbs (Costa Rica) $59,262.00
4. Thiago “XTheDecanoX” Nishijima (Brazil) $44,737.00
5. ALIN76poker (Romania) $31,374.00
6. VIVILINE1 (Israel) $24,692.50
7. YRWTHMELTHR (Canada) $18,882.50
8. vasil1976197 (Ukraine) $13,072.50
9. MAMOHT_T (Russia) $8,889.30

Grayson “gray31” Ramage won the WCOOP Challenge Main Event on Monday to claim a $500K-plus first prize. Read all about his victory here.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.