Super Punch Out was the lesser known sequel to the ever popular Nintendo arcade game Mike Tyson’s Punch Out with Glass Joe, King Hippo, and Soda Popinski standing in your way to the title fight against Iron Mike himself. Tonight’s opponents for our hard working champion went by the names of BIG-ice-cube, Panti999, and JACOMARIA on the way to the MicroMillions Event #22 title. The SuperKnockout NLHE tournament split the $75,000 guarantee crushing prize pool exactly in half. $121,821.00 for the prize pool and $121,821.00 for the knockout pool as players would receive $5.25 for every player they eliminated, as DAS8686 collected more than a few $5.25 bounties while claiming the top prize of $11,500.00 after a five-way deal.

So how did our champ get past Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man and 23,203 other players to win the SuperKnockout title? Read on.

A little after the ninth hour of play our small city of players was reduced to just two tables of nine. Despite 116,020,000 chips held between 18 players on the two tables the average stack would only hold eleven big blinds. Because of this shortage of chips to the blinds it would only take 12 minutes to whittle down the population to 13.

vvp1212 finished in an understandable 12th place ($353.28) when A♦ Q♦ could not catch up to DAS8686’s pocket kings K♣ K♠ despite flopping a straight and flush draw on the flop 3♦ 4♦ 2♥ 4♥ 3♥ DAS8686 would scoop the 12 million chip pot. Then, two hands later, DAS8686 would take yet another 12 million chip pot, this time eliminating magnif7 who was not magnif enough to get A♣ 10♣ past the J♣ Q♣ of DAS8686 on the Q♥ 6♠ 10♥ Q♠ 5♥ board. DAS8686 would take a chip stack over twice the size of second place Panti999’s 17 million chips into hand-for-hand play as magnif7 collected $456.82 in 12th place, and Catshark76 following closely behind in 11th ($456.82).

After nine minutes of tense hand-for-hand play, a short stack would finally succumb to the blinds. 400K/800K ante 100K sounds like a level best left for a rebuy tournament, but here it was the prelude to the final table. Diegodel79 would open shove all-in for 1.1 million as both the blinds made the call. Panti999 and fujjji checked down the 4♠ K♦ 5♠ 3♥ 9♠ board as Panti999 dropped 9♣ 6♥ good for a rivered pair of nines as both players mucked to start up the race to $12K and a MicroMillions title at the table below:

Seat 1: BIG-ice-cube (8260710 in chips)
Seat 2: ThierryH3 (15345281 in chips)
Seat 3: DAS8686 (37711865 in chips)
Seat 4: fujjji (2281312 in chips)
Seat 5: Panti999 (18957776 in chips)
Seat 6: ovemind13 (2703607 in chips)
Seat 7: fer_90_1 (8280757 in chips)
Seat 8: _Rorschach_6 (12092084 in chips)
Seat 9: JACOMARIA (10386608 in chips)

Cold as ice

With the blinds holding at 400K/800K ante 100K, BIG-ice-cube would try to freeze out the table with an open shove from middle position, but instead received a very small call for less out of ovemind13 in the small blind. ovemind only had 803,607 after paying the small blind and took a shot with Q♠ 10♦ . Pocket jacks J♣ J♠ for BIG-ice-cube would pass through the 4♦ 7♠ 4♣ 10♥ 3♥ board without issue while collecting the 4.1 million chip pot as ovemind’s tournament was over in ninth place ($730.92).

Fer about 10 hours of work you received $1,096.38

Shortly after the 10th hourly break fer_90_1 would try to dig out a dwindling stack of 4.3 million with an open shove holding J♠ A♥ . However, with the blinds moving up to 600K/1.2MM ante 150K DAS8686 wanted another $5.50 for the knockout and made the call with aces A♠ A♦ . The board provided zero excitement Q♠ 3♠ 5♥ 8♦ 4♣ as fer_90_1 grabbed the $1,096.38 while exiting in eighth place.

Thierry scores again!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! The French football star Henry Thierry is known for his scoring abilities on the pitch, but a fan, ThierryH3, was deep in Event #22 looking for a score as well tonight. On the very next hand after fer_90_1’s seat was vacated TheirryH3 would min-raise to 2.4 million as _Rorschach_6 shoved for 9.1 million from the big blind. Looking down at 3♦ A♥ the striker covered the bet and made the call, and was well behind the pocket jacks J♠ J♦ of _Rorschach_6. A trey on the flop looked harmless, but the trey on the river 3♣ 8♦ 8♥ 9♦ 3♠ was not as Thierry found a way to slip past the defense and scored $5.50 for the knockout as _Rorschach_6 collected $1,711.58 in seventh place.

Ice Ice Baby

Big-ice-cube may never roll down a1a Beachfront Avenue but may be able to collect a MicroMillions title while the DJ revolves it after this three way hand for a sizable 15.9 million chip pot:

BIG-ice-cube: Q♣ Q♦
ThierryH3: 10♦ 10♠
fujjji: 3♦ K♠

All three players were all-in preflop with ThierryH3 covering both players. The double-paired J♠ 5♠ J♦ 5♦ 8♥ board changed nothing as BIG-ice-cube grabbed the huge pot and fujjji grabbed $2,436.42 in sixth place.

Just in time to make it back for lunch

Most hourly workers get 30 minutes for a lunch break and that includes a bit of walking time to and from the cafeteria. Thankfully, our players tonight only took 23 minutes to hash out a five-way deal leaving $1,500.00 on the table for our champ tonight, and enough time to get back to their cubes for the rest of the tournament workday:

DAS8686 (Russia) $10,000.00
BIG-ice-cube (Denmark) $6,741.85
ThierryH3 (Germany) $6,734.72
JACOMARIA (Portugal) $5,501.21
Panti999 (Ukraine) $5,391.07

Wide of the crossbar

The first two hands back from the deal making break were huge ones. First, BIG-ice-cube managed to double up off the big chip leader, DAS8686. With the blinds at 700K/1.4MM ante 175K pressed 19.1 million from the button as DAS8686 in the big blind made the call holding A♠ J♥ . BIG-ice-cube’s small ace 3♠ A♦ was in deep trouble until the board ran off a four-card straight 5♥ 7♣ 6♥ 4♥ K♣ to slide the 39.8 million chip pot to BIG-ice-cube.

Then, the next hand, DAS8686 was not satisfied with losing the chip lead and decided to try to get some of those chips back. ThierryH3 would open shove from the button for 18.1 million as DAS8686 also shoved for 34.9 million. Panti999 slid out of the way as ThierryH3 held an ace A♠ 6♥ for the better preflop hand over DAS8686’s K♥ 9♥ . DAS8686 was one card away from dropping back-to-back lead changing pots but a king on the river 8♠ 5♥ 3♠ 6♦ K♦ knocked TheirryH3 to the bench in fifth place ($6,734.72).

Four minutes to bed time

Just four minutes, enough time to heat up a microwavable dinner, pour yourself a beverage, and tune into your favorite sitcom or realty show. Tonight, it would take four minutes from the chop talks to name our Event #22 champ. A big reason for the fast finish was this 18.1 million chip, three-way pot shown below:

DAS8686 was determined to finish this thing off as both short stacks, Panti999 holding A♠ 7♠ and JACOMARIA 6♦ 8♦ jumped into the pool preflop against DAS8686’s queens Q♥ Q♠ . JACOMARIA’s small suited hand was looking to take the 8.2 million chip main pot after hitting two pair on the turn 8♥ 9♠ 2♠ 6♣ . But, the 2♣ river counterfeited the two pair giving the whole 18.1 million chip pot to DAS8686 as JACOMARIA claimed fourth place ($5,501.21) and Panti999 ($5,391.07) got less money but a third place finish.

Melted

In the fourth minute of play after the big five-way deal, we would name our champion as both DAS8686 and BIG-ice-cube decided to play for the win versus a long, drawn out heads-up match. The blinds moved up to 800K/1.6MM ante 200K what started as an innocent min-raise from BIG-ice-cube, the third hand of heads-up play ended with 109.7 million chips in the middle preflop. DAS8686 showed K♥ Q♣ for the win as BIG-ice-cube held pocket nines 9♥ 9♦ looking to knock DAS8686 down to a meager six million chips if the nines passed the board.

They would not.

A king on the flop 4♠ 10♣ K♠ 3♣ 5♠ would seal up the MicroMillions III Event #22 win for DAS8686 who captured $11,500.00 total for the victory!

MicroMillions III Event #22 $75,000 guarantee $11 NLHE SuperKnockout results (11-17-12):

Players entered: 23,204
Places paid: 3,150
Buy-in: $11.00
Bounty prize pool: $121,821.00
Main prize pool: $121,821.00
First place prize: *$11,500.00

(*denotes part of five-way deal)

1. DAS8686 (Russia) *$11,500.00
2. BIG-ice-cube (Denmark) *$6,741.85
3. Panti999 (Ukraine) *$5,391.07
4. JACOMARIA (Portugal) *$5,501.21
5. ThierryH3 (Germany) *$6,734.72
6. fujjji (Germany) $2,436.42
7. _Rorschach_6 (Belgium) $1,711.58
8. fer_90_1 (Colombia) $1,096.38
9. ovemind13 (Croatia) $730.92

This is a reminder that our two Team Online players Grzegorz ‘DaWarsaw’ Mikielewicz and Richard ‘Tzen1’ Veenman will be looking at the other to take care of all their personal needs during the upcoming 2013 PCA tomorrow.

David Aydt is a freelance contributor