It’s the type of turbo tournament you don’t see every day. The buy-in is Frequent Player Points. The prize pool is a whopping $1 million. First place comes in at a cool $100,000.
When PokerStars tried out the Turbo Takedown earlier in the year, there were a lot of folks who thought it was going to be a one-off deal. When it was over and done with, the players begged to see it again. This month, PokerStars decided to add the Turbo Takedown to its monthly line-up of big money tournaments.
Sunday was a huge day at PokerStars. In all, PokerStars guaranteed more than $4 million in prize money over the course of the day. Twenty-five percent of that guaranteed purse was locked up in the Turbo Takedown. Twelve thousand players entered. The top 4,000 players walked away with cash. The final table players were guaranteed no less than $5,500—more than a dollar for every Frequent Player Point it took to enter.
Here’s what the final table looked like as the final nine convened to fight for the $100,000 first prize.
Seat 1: jolan (3837770 in chips)
Seat 2: Stompato (3142875 in chips)
Seat 3: nevada_nl (1535572 in chips)
Seat 4: Schmidl89 (4676163 in chips)
Seat 5: LFmagic (3235038 in chips)
Seat 6: Pokerguden (6539700 in chips)
Seat 7: biggboss120 (3544949 in chips)
Seat 8: stonz0steel (4312826 in chips)
Seat 9: L_Sprewell (5175107 in chips)
The chip stacks were still deep enough at the top of final table play that players played for around an hour before the first player busted out. In the meantime, thanks in part to making quad aces for a 4 million chip pot, jolan jumped out to a commanding lead. Nearly an hour into final table play, jolan had more than 11 million chips. It didn’t last forever, though, when his pocket sixes fell to Pokerguden for a 7 million pot.
After an hour, it came to the point where someone finally had to go. After PokerGuden limped in with pocket sixes, stonz0steel pushed all-in with AQ. A six on the flop and no miracles to come and stonz0steel was out in 9th place earning $5,500.
Seconds later Stompato found the rail after getting all-in with AQ versus L_Sprewell’s K8 and jolan’s AK. Nobody paired until the river. That’s when L_Sprewell hit his eight, doubled through jolan, and knocked out Stompato in eighth place. Stompato earned $10,000 for his finish.
Flood gates opened, one-time chip horder jolan went to the rail in quick fashion. He got it all-in preflop with AJ versis Pokerguden’s pocket queens. The ladies held and jolan found himself on the rail, but $15,000 richer.
LFmagic departed just a few hands later. He got his short-stack in with KT versus Schmidl89’s KQ. Schmidl89 made two pair and LFmagic was out in sixth place, earning $20,000.
For the briefest of moments, players discussed a quick chop. Just as soon as the discussion began, though, it ended and play resumed five-handed.
At first it looked like players might lock it down again. Instead, nevada_nl pushed all-in with QT. Pokerguden quickly isolated with AK. He flopped his ace and sent nevada_nl out in fifth place, good for $25,000.
Next to go was biggboss120. Hard to say what he had, but he got it all-in pre-flop and couldn’t beat L_Sprewell’ s A9 on a 4♠ 5♣ board. For fourth place, biggboss120 picked up $32,500.
Three handed, the remaining players were rather evenly stacked. After playing for an hour without losing a player, the final table had lost six players in just twenty minutes. It took just a few more minutes for L_Sprewell to lose about half his stack after continuation-betting a 2c 9d 7h flop and folding to Pokerguden’s push. He stood a very good chance of getting it all back against Schmidl89, all-in pre-flop with KJ to Schmidl89’s KT. The board gave L_Sprewell two-pair, but gave Schmidl89 Broadway. L_Sprewell earned $40,000.
Heads up, Schmidl89 jumped out to an early lead. When the players hit a break, Schmidl89 had 23 million to Pokerguden’s 12 million. It only took ten minutes for Pokerguden to chip away and take over the chip lead. However, with every hand with 700,000 pre-flop, it was not a contest that was going to last forever.
Schmidl89 would not go away, however. He doubled up once when Pokerguden missed a flush draw. Then, flopped two pair and got paid off on it. He was the chip leader again, and he would not give it up.
The final hand was a monster. Schmidl89 came in for a standard raise, Pokerguden re-raised with pocket kings, and Schmidl89 called. The flop came Th 9d 2h, Pokerguden pushed, and Schmidl89 called with Qh Td. The board put out two more hearts, giving Schmidl89 the flush and the victory.
Here are the full final table results.
PokerStars Turbo Takedown Final Table Results May 2008
1. Schmidl89 Austria) $100,000.00
2. Pokerguden (United States) $60,000.00
3. L_Sprewell (Spain) $40,000.00
4. biggboss120 (Netherlands) $32,500.00
5. nevada_nl (Netherlands) $25,000.00
6. LFmagic (United Kingdom) $20,000.00
7. jolan (United States) $15,000.00
8. Stompato (France) $10,000.00
9. stonz0steel (United States) $5,500.00
If you missed out on the action this month, fear not. The PokerStars Turbo Takedown will be back at the end of June. Between now and then, FPP satellites will be running and give you a shot at one of the biggest ROIs in online poker.
Back to Top
