It was another big turnout for this week’s Super Tuesday, the weekly $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament on PokerStars that routinely attracts poker’s top talent. The final table this week reflected that talent as well, where Brazil’s Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes overcame everyone to earn top honors and a $104,810 first prize after chopping heads-up with Israel’s VIVILINE1. And among the other tough competitors in the final nine was the U.K.’s Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick who’d ultimately finish sixth.
A total of 604 registered this week, creating a $604,000 prize pool that easily bested the recently-increased guarantee of $400K for the event. It would take about five-and-a-half hours for the field to be whittled down to 72 players and the money bubble to burst, at which point Chidwick had found himself a spot at the top of the counts.
A little over 90 minutes later they were down to 27, with Chidwick again the pace-setter after having briefly lost the lead during the interim. A half-hour later he was still on top with 18 left, sitting with more than 340,000 with VIVILINE1 the nearest competitor with just over 260,000.
MadsMP (18th), Andre “extasyman” One (17th), and LUNOID (16th) were the next three to go, each earning $4,832 for their finishes. They were followed by SsicK_OnE (15th), ForzaVaxholm (14th), and clancywigam (13th) who each cashed for $6,040. Then badbeatman06 (12th), eidur888 (11th), and Firas “firas71″ Bassam Massouh (10th) were successively knocked out, with each picking up $7,248.
After a little over eight-and-a-half hours the final table was underway, with ActionFreak having just overtaken Chidwick to take the lead with nine players remaining.
Seat 1: Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes (Brazil) — 407,403
Seat 2: ActionFreak (Cyprus) — 639,827
Seat 3: VIVILINE1 (Israel) — 258,305
Seat 4: cocojamb0 (Bulgaria) — 340,929
Seat 5: ICANTSNG (Australia) — 188,206
Seat 6: knutante (Germany) — 110,316
Seat 7: djuuud (Canada) — 356,875
Seat 8: BigPig400 (Russia) — 190,728
Seat 9: Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick (United Kingdom) — 527,411
Just a few minutes later the blinds were 3,600/7,200 when leader ActionFreak raised to 14,400 from middle position, then it folded around to knutante in the big blind who reraised all in for 88,916. ActionFreak called, showing A♥ 9♥ while knutante had A♦ 3♣ .
The 5♣ 6â™ 9â™ flop paired ActionFreak’s kicker, and after the 6♦ fell on the turn the 5♦ river was no matter as knutante was drawing dead, having been eliminated in ninth.
They played on, then just before the tourney’s nine-hour break it was ActionFreak min-raising to 16,000 from the cutoff seat and getting three callers in VIVILINE1 (cutoff), cocojamb0 (button), and ICANTSNG (small blind).
The flop came 3♠4♠3♦ . ICANTSNG checked, ActionFreak bet 31,220, VIVILINE1 called, and cocojamb0 folded. ICANSING then shoved all in for 152,406 total, and after ActionFreak folded, VIVILINE1 called.
ICANTSNG: Qâ™ Jâ™
VIVILINE1: 5♦ 5♣
VIVILINE1’s pocket pair was ahead while ICANTSNG was gunning for a spade flush. The turn was the 9♥ and river the 3♥ , meaning VIVILINE1’s hand had held and ICANTSNG was done in eighth.
Play continued with Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes pushing out into the chip lead while Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick slipped back to seventh out of the remaining seven. Soon the blinds were 5,000/10,000 when ActionFreak raised to 20,000 from middle position, then BigPig400 made it 60,000 to go from the big blind. ActionFreak responded by shoving all in for over 210,000 total and BigPig400 called all in with the 149,565 left behind.
BigPig400 had A♥ Kâ™ and needed to improve to best ActionFreak’s 9♦ 9♥ . But the board came 4♦ Qâ™ 6♣ 4â™ 7â™ , and BigPig400 was done in seventh.
Meanwhile Chidwick continued to persevere with a stack of just over 200,000 as the blinds crept up again to 6,000/12,000. That’s when a hand arose that saw VIVILINE1 open for 24,000 from the cutoff, then Chidwick jammed for 206,579 from the big blind and VIVILINE1 called.
stevie444 had K♣ 10♠while VIVILINE1 held Q♣ Q♠, then the 3♠Q♥ J♠flop arrived to give VIVILINE1 a set of queens and Chidwick an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the J♦ , however, filling VIVILINE1 up and making the 3♣ on the end inconsequential as Chidwick finished in sixth.
They pushed on past the 10-hour mark, then with the blinds at 7,000/14,000 it was ActionFreak raising to 28,000 from UTG, then Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes reraised to 87,425 from the big blind. ActionFreak responded by pushing all in for 435,396 and Moraes called.
ActionFreak had 8♠8♣ while GM_VALTER showed A♥ Q♣ . The 4♥ 5♣ 10♣ flop was fine for ActionFreak, but the Q♥ fell on fourth street to give Moraes the better pair. The river was the 2♠, and ActionFreak was out in fifth.
A half-dozen hands later they were in the same level when djuuud opened with a 2x raise to 28,000 from under the gun, then VIVILINE1 three-bet to 72,622 from the small blind. Next to act, cocojamb0 reraised again to 154,000 from the big blind, and when djuuud shoved for 296,297 total VIVILINE1 stepped aside then cocojamb0 called.
It was a race as cocojamb0 had A♦ Kâ™ versus djuuud’s Q♦ Q♥ . The flop came K♦ 10♣ 8♣ to swing the advantage to cocojamb0, and after the 3♥ turn and 7♦ river djuuud was out and just three remained.
The blinds increased once more to 9,000/18,000, and soon cocojamb0 was raising to 36,000 from the button, Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes reraised to 109,898 from the small blind, and cocojamb0 called.
The flop came 5♣ J♦ 9♦ . Moraes checked, cocojamb0 bet 97,818, Moraes raised all in, and cocojamb0 called with the 485,334 left. cocojamb0 showed 8♦ 7♦ — a double-gutshot draw and a flush draw — while GM_VALTER had middle pair with 9♣ 6♣ . The turn was the 5â™ and river the 9♥ , improving Moraes to a full house and ending cocojamb0’s run in third.
That big hand gave Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes the lead to start heads-up play with 1,813,439 versus VIVILINE1’s 1,206,561. They played four more small hands after which Moraes had 1,840,439 to VIVILINE1’s 1,179,561, then the pair paused the tournament to discuss a possible deal to narrow the gap between the last two payouts.
Figures were produced — “chip chop” and “ICM”-based calculations being the same heads-up — leaving $8,000 for which to play, and after Moraes okayed giving VIVILINE1 a few hundred more than what was suggested the players agreed and a deal was made.
Soon cards were back in the air. Ultimately the final two would battle heads-up for more than 45 minutes, with VIVILINE1 narrowing the gap and then taking the lead on a few different occasions before GM_VALTER snatched it back.
Moraes then had about 1.77 million to VIVILINE1’s 1.24 million when a hand came up that saw VIVILINE1 open with a 2x raise to 50,000, GM_VALTER call, and the pair watch a flop fall 8♦ 8â™ 3♦ . GM_VALTER checked, VIVILINE1 bet 48,875, and Moraes called. The turn brought the 9♦ and another check from Moraes. This time VIVILINE1 bet 93,840, and Moraes called again.
The river was the 9â™ , putting a second pair on the board. GM_VALTER checked one last time, and when VIVILINE1 bet 266,342, Moraes check-raised all in and VIVILINE1 called with the 780,246 remaining.
VIVILINE1 had 8♥ 7♠for eights full of nines, but GM_VALTER had K♣ 9♣ for nines full of eights to win the hand and the tournament.
Congratulations to to Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes for beating more than 600 players to win this week’s Super Tuesday and more than $104K.
Kudos as well to VIVILINE1 who thanks to the heads-up deal earned a big $93K payday.
9/2/14 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants: 604
Prize pool: $604,000.00
Places paid: 72
1. Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes (Brazil) $104,810.00
2. VIVILINE1 (Israel) $93,000.00
3. cocojamb0 (Bulgaria) $61,608.00
4. djuuud (Canada) $46,508.00
5. ActionFreak (Cyprus) $32,616.00
6. Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick (United Kingdom) $25,670.00
7. BigPig400 (Russia) $19,630.00
8. ICANTSNG (Australia) $13,590.00
9. knutante (Germany) $9,241.20
*= reflects the results of a two-way deal that left $8,000 in play for the winner
EPTLive’s James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton are in Florida this week broadcasting from the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, with the final table of the big $10 million guaranteed Main Event happening Wednesday. Read here for the full skinny.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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