Germany’s KornmeisterX has enjoyed COOP success before, having won a NL Omaha Hi-Lo event during TCOOP 2016. With its slow structure and two hole cards versus four, the challenge in SCOOP 2017’s first Thursday Thrill Special Edition was a very different kind. And instead of coming in with the chip lead, as was the case in that TCOOP win, KornmeisterX held just a quarter of the leader’s chip stack. In the end, none of that mattered as much as patience, good timing, and a keen eye for picking off heads-up bluffs in earning KornmeisterX a second career COOP title.
The favorite as the final table began was Russia’s Ti0373. The three-time WCOOP winner with victories in heads-up NLHE, 1R1A NLHE, and the 2015 NL Draw Championship had begun Day 2 in second place out of 104 players and turned that advantage into a stack worth nearly 300 big blinds by the time just nine players remained.
Seat 1: MG10tze (1,335,202 in chips, $14,335.92 bounty)
Seat 2: despedespi33 (3,922,833 in chips, $15,273.43 bounty)
Seat 3: MkMyWishFish (381,424 in chips, $2,562.50 bounty)
Seat 4: Ryan “king10clubs” Madsen (1,426,214 in chips, $17,228.49 bounty)
Seat 5: KornmeisterX (1,611,691 in chips, $20,752.89 bounty)
Seat 6: Strz (390,948 in chips, $2,109.37 bounty)
Seat 7: Ti0373 (6,163,727 in chips, $18,076.15 bounty)
Seat 8: Razvan “razvyqq” Belea (700,989 in chips, $11,062.50 bounty)
Seat 9: ekziter (1,036,972 in chips, $9,078.11 bounty)
That provided ample room for error in chasing down a few more bounties, the first three of which came along very quickly. Razvan “razvyqq” Belea managed to double up early but had the misfortune of picking up 10â™ 10♦ in the small blind when Ti0373 held J♦ 10â™ on the button. No tens hit the board and razvyqq was out in ninth. Two hands later Ti0373 was dealt 9♦ 9â™ in middle position and called when SCOOP 2016 Sunday Warm-Up Special Edition finalist Strz opened all-in for 248K. MkMyWishFish, now a SCOOP Thursday Thrill Special Edition finalist for the second consecutive year after finishing fifth in last year’s Event #41-H, then moved in for 840K with Aâ™ K♣ , and Ti0373 called that bet, too. The big stack won the race when the only overcard on the board was a jack, busting Strz in eighth and MkMyWishFish in seventh.
A half-hour of six-handed play didn’t produce any big shifts in the leaderboard. Then KornmeisterX, who had been stealing the blinds and antes often enough to basically hold even, picked up K♦ K♥ in the hijack seat. Past WCOOP and Sunday Million finalist MG10tze had Q♣ Qâ™ in the small blind and was left with 279K after the board failed to deliver a third queen. The German doubled up a few hands later and hung around for another few orbits before shoving with A♣ 3♣ in the small blind and being picked off by despedespi33’s 8♣ 8♦ in the big blind. The 8â™ on the flop sent MG10tze packing in sixth.
SCOOP 2017 will award more than $55 million throughout the month of May. Click here to open your PokerStars account today!
Just two hands before collecting that bounty despedespi33 had narrowed the deficit against Ti0373’s leading stack with A♣ A♥ . After opening before the flop and calling Ti0373’s small-blind re-raise and then calling lead bets on the flop and river of the 5♦ Q♥ 8♣ 2â™ K♥ , despedespi33’s bullets won against the Russian’s busted gutshot draw and pulled the winner of the $22 Mini Sunday Million two weekends ago to 5.65 million chips. With nobody else holding more than 2.12 million and the blinds and antes at 15K/30K/3750, that gave despedespi33 some of the same room for error that Ti0373 had enjoyed throughout the final table so far.
The leader grabbed yet another bounty two hands later after picking up another pocket pair in the small blind. This time Ti0373’s J♣ J♥ held up in a coin flip against Ryan “king10clubs” Madsen. The PokerStars VIP Club Hall of Famer had four-bet-shoved with A♥ Q♣ after opening in the cutoff seat and then being re-raised, but he couldn’t find a queen or ace and bowed out in fifth.
That took the tournament up to the midnight hour with two big stacks and two shorties – or more accurately, two monster stacks and two that were shorter but stil lrelatively deep. The pressure on ekziter and KornmeisterX remained relatively low thanks to the slow structure, giving them time to pick and choose their spots. They actually clashed with each other early on, with KornmeisterX’s A♦ 8♥ winning against ekziter’s Kâ™ 9â™ to leave the past WCOOP, SCOOP 2016, and Super Tuesday champ with less than 20 big blinds. But after a successful coin flip a few minutes later and a stolen pot a few minutes after that, ekziter built enough chips to stave off elimination for well over an hour.
In the meantime, Ti0373 began to chip up again. As the 12:55 a.m. ET break neared the Russian won 11 pots out of 16, including several of the larger ones heads-up against despedespi33, to gain 40 big blinds. Finally, Ti0373 was up to 10.5 million chips when no one else had more than 2.9 million and opened all-in from the small blind with K♦ 4♥ . ekziter called ahead with A♦ 7â™ and even hit top pair on the Jâ™ Aâ™ Q♦ flop, but Ti0373’s hand became a Broadway straight after the J♥ turn and 10♥ river. With that, ekziter’s quest for a third COOP title ended in fourth place.
Ti0373 had two-thirds of the chips in play as the table became three-handed, and a chance to begin heads-up play with 92 percent of the chips presented itself not long afterward. Ti0373 opened for 103K with 10♥ 9♥ on the button and then called when KornmeisterX re-raised to 397K in the big blind. Both players checked the 8♦ 6♥ 2â™ flop and KornmeisterX check-called 504K with Aâ™ J♦ for top pair on the J♥ turn. Ti0373 put KornmeisterX to the test, moving all-in with nothing but two broken draws after the German led for 328K on the Kâ™ river. KornmeisterX made the call and was rewarded with 7.5 million chips. Within 20 minutes the two would be heads-up after short-stacked despedespi33 shoved with J♦ 9♥ in the small blind and fell in third after KornmeisterX’s Kâ™ 7♥ held up.
With more than a $38,000 difference between first and second places, and $80,000 in bounties already claimed between the two players, there was plenty on the line between these two players looking to add a SCOOP title to their previous COOP victories.
Aside from that late loss KornmeisterX on the river bluff, the vast majority of the significant pots at this final had gone Ti0393’s way. After they returned from the 1:55 a.m. ET break, though, that changed completely. KornmeisterX took down four pots worth more than 30 big blinds before Ti0373 won one, a run that put KornmeisterX at nearly 11 million chips. Ti0373 managed to stop the bleeding for the next 15 minutes, but then KornmeisterX reeled off nine consecutive wins. That run was capped off by a 3.59M-chip win with A♣ Jâ™ . KornmeisterX opened on the button and called a big-blind three-bet by Ti0373, and then called bets on the flop and turn before checking the river of the Q♦ 3â™ K♥ A♥ Q♣ board. Ti0373 had been bluffing the whole way with 6♦ 5♣ .
Things looked set to change when Ti0373 got aggressive on the button with Q♥ 3♥ and rivered queens and treys just in time to call down a big bluff by KornmeisterX, who had jammed with K♦ 10♣ and the board reading 8♠3♣ 9♥ 5♠Q♦ . But KornmeisterX got control on the following hand after min-raising on the button with 10♠9♠, flopping an open-ended straight draw, and getting there on the turn. Ti0373, who had check-raised the 7♠A♣ 8♣ flop, called on the J♥ and 6♠but mucked and was left with 4.1 million chips. Another failed bluff a few hands took close to half of that stack, and Ti0373 finally ended up moving in with A♠2♦ . KornmeisterX called with J♥ 7♦ and hit one seven on the flop and another on the turn, making trips to close out this Thursday Thrill Special Edition in style.
Congrats to KornmeisterX on earning career COOP title number two, and to Ti0373 for grabbing a great big chunk of change while just missing out on COOP number four.
SCOOP-19-H ($1,050 NL Hold’em, Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill SE) results
Entrants: 1,697
Total prize pool: $1,697,000 ($848,500 regular, $848,500 bounty)
Places paid: 216
1. KornmeisterX (Germany) $139,196.65 + $51,521.89 in bounties
2. Ti0373 (Russia) $101,820 + $39,096.62 in bounties
3. despedespi33 (Malta) $76,365 + $22,441.39 in bounties
4. ekziter (Belarus) $56,849.50 + $9,078.11 in bounties
5. Ryan “king10clubs” Madsen (Canada) $40,303.75 + $17,228.49 in bounties
6. MG10tze (Germany) $31,818.75 + $14,335.92 in bounties
7. MkMyWishFish (United Kingdom) $23,333.75 + $2,562.50 in bounties
8. Strz (Finland) $14,848.75 + $2,109.37 in bounties
9. Razvan “razvyqq” Belea (Romania) $8,485 + $11,062.50 in bounties
SCOOP 2017 will award more than $55 million throughout the month of May. Click here to open your PokerStars account today!
Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.
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