Four poker playing brothers recently took a trip to Vegas with very different styles of getting their degeneracy on. Milford carefully saved up his cash over the course of a year and had plans to sit down at a Limit Omaha Hi/Lo table while sipping on the occasional light beer while discussing retirement plans with the table and maybe catch the Bellagio fountains at night. Chazz was looking for a little different action, after jamming seven jack and cokes on the plane, he was ready to hit the Pot Limit Omaha-Hi tables with the max buy-in and two drink minimum while splashing pots blind and shouting “GAMBOOOOOOOOOL!” every other hand while holding tickets to “Zumanity”. Rick, the unpredictable one of the bunch needed a cocktail of pills, self-help books, and greyhounds to appear normal, but once the plane touched down in Nevada, anything with a blinking light and the ability to drop cash in got played. $100 in the Mr. Cashman slots, $100 on one card War, and finally Rick made his way to the poker room where in the NLO8 cash game he began shoving his stack in preflop eight times in a row to collect the $3 in blinds. The last brother, Scott, the calm, collected gambler with a stylish edge after having a few Captain Morgan and Cokes on the plane was ready to do battle at the Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tables. Carefully maneuvering his four cards and looking for hands that would scoop the pot versus banging away for half of it.
And that’s where we are today, covering the second day of SCOOP Event #30-H $1,050 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo two day event. 180 high rollers managed to beat the $100,000.00 guarantee gathering a $180,000.00 prize pool and leaving $38,700.00 for today’s champion.
Several Team PokerStars pros and Team Online members took their scooping abilities to the virtual felt but all failed to reach day two. Joe Hachem and Anders “Donald” Berg could not get past the late registration. George Danzer (135th place) and Marcel Luske (124th place), also ended their tournaments early. Further up the ladder ElkY (89th place), Lex Veldhuis (86th place), and Rino Mathis (70th place) all took a seat on the bench as only 27 places paid out. JP Kelly (53rd place) and Nuno Coelho (35th place) got a little closer leaving just two Team PokerStars pros to fight for the SCOOP championship watch.
After ten and a half grueling hours of play we would finally reach the money bubble. The difference between $1,800.00 and an empty stomach was riding on micro-stacked jager1987 shoving all in UTG with the blinds at 600/1,200 and getting calls from jjsbryan and e1mdopp. After a check-check on the flop, with the board showing 10♥ A♣ 2♣ Q♣ on the turn, jjsbryan put out 3,600 chips which e1mdopp did not counter as jjsbryan rolled over the turned flush 5♣ J♣ J♥ 4♠with a low re-draw. jager1987 flashed a set of queens A♥ 6♥ Q♦ Q♥ but the board failed to pair on the river 5♠and jager1987 took a painful 28th place.
Pro on Pro violence
They may play for the same team, but poker is still an individual pursuit as shown by Noah “Exclusive” Boeken turning the screws on his Portuguese team mate Henrique Pinho. With the blinds at 800/1,600 Boeken would open raise to 4,800 from the small blind as the short stacked Pinho tossed in the rest of his 9,713 chips holding Jâ™ A♣ 6â™ 6♣ . Boeken made the call for 4,913 more holding a double suited low hand 7â™ 2â™ 8♥ 4♥ that managed to avoid the flopped nut flush draw of Pinho and notch a six to ten straight and seven-six low 9♣ 10♦ 2♣ 3♦ 6♥ to take down the 19,426 chip pot as Henrique finished in 19th place ($1,800.00).
Team PokerStars pro Noah “Exclusive” Boeken eliminated in 12th place
Certainly at home with mixed games as Boeken also took 9th place in Event #29-H’s Eight Game tourney last night he was looking for a final table in this one. But the big hand below just would not swing his way:
With the blinds at 1K/2K Boeken sitting on 46,736 chips would open to 6,000 as DazzleO three-bet to 19,000 from the big blind and Boeken called from the button to see a high flop 8♥ 10♠J♥ . Immediate DazzleO put the pressure on betting enough to put the Dutch pro all in. Holding the nut-flush draw and a pair 2♦ A♥ 4♣ 10♥ Boeken made the call as DazzleO flipped up the overpair, second nut flush draw, and worse backdoor low draw K♥ K♠2♠4♥ . 7♦ would open up the low draw as any ace through to six would give Boeken at least half the pot. But the Q♣ fell instead shipping the sizable 94K pot to DazzleO and Noah barely missed out on a final table again in 12th place ($3,150.00)
No miracles found
Down to the bubble DazzleO retained the chip lead after eliminating Boeken and let the smaller stacks Angellike and bastinho06 battled it out. With the blinds still at 1K/2K Angelike led out for 6,000 from UTG as bastinho06 three bet to 20,000 from the small blind as Angellike made the call. 3♣ 10♥ 5♠on the flop got bastinho06 to shove for 35,923 chips, covering the 27,553 chip call by Angellike. Aces for bastinho06 A♦ A♣ K♥ Q♥ hoping wishfully not to get scooped by the two-way hand of Angellike 6♣ A♠3♥ 4♣ as any non-pairing low card would give Angellike a freeroll at the high. But, the poker gods decided no other low cards would appear on the board K♣ 9♥ and Angellike ascended to the poker heavens in tenth place ($3,150.00) starting up the final table below:
Scammed on the river
The second day would begin after reaching level 24 not the final nine, as still in day one maxxscam fell a little short holding 34,832 chips with the blinds at 1,500/3,000. After calling a raise from ozenc in the big blind both would see a 3♣ 2♣ Kâ™ flop. maxxscam liked it enough to shove in a pot sized bet which ozenc countered with a re-raise to set maxxscam all-in. Holding bottom two pair A♥ 10â™ 2♦ 3♦ he made the call. Ozenc could only show queens but also held a live low draw Qâ™ Q♥ 4â™ 6♥ . A blank 9♣ on the turn helped maxxscam’s cause but the K♣ on the river counterfeited maxxscam’s two pair ending his tournament on day one in ninth place ($3,600.00)
After a redraw for new seats here is how our final eight looked on day two:
Seat 1: byniolek (112202 in chips)
Seat 2: superowl99 (148193 in chips)
Seat 4: DAMIROK (151752 in chips)
Seat 5: hinuttaja (85183 in chips)
Seat 6: ozenc (114992 in chips)
Seat 7: DazzleO (164657 in chips)
Seat 8: bastinho06 (87573 in chips)
Seat 9: Saage (35448 in chips)
No rest for the gamblers
Just two hands into day two we would have our first elimination and change in chip lead. With the blinds at 2K/4K, DAMIROK would pop it to 12,000 from the small blind as hinuttaja made the call. Flop of 9â™ 4â™ 10♣ set off the fireworks as DAMIROK led out for 12,000 and hinuttaja made it 60,000 to go. Back to DAMIROK holding aces with the nut flush draw 5♥ 10â™ Aâ™ A♣ he would put in enough to push hinuttaja all-in. A set of nines 9♦ 9♣ A♥ 6♦ for hinuttaja was enough to make the call for his remaining 13,183 chips but fading the flush draw proved to be futile as the 7â™ hit the turn and the river K♣ failed to pair the board ending hinuttaja’s second day in just one minute earning eighth place ($5,400.00).
Did this turn into a turbo?
Despite the still fairly deep stacks and 30 minute blind levels the very next hand had bastinho06 all-in on the turn versus DAMIROK with both players holding the nut-low. But, DAMIROK pulled out a pair of sevens to best the fives of bastinho06 as bastinho06 took a nasty quartering. Two hands later down to 47,287 chips with blinds still at 2K/4K bastinho06 would get those chips in preflop against ozenc. 6♥ 4â™ 7♦ A♦ for bastinho06 as ozenc had a little better high hand 7♣ 5â™ A♣ Q♥ and that queen kicker would come into play since the low failed to hit on the 8â™ K♥ 10â™ Aâ™ 8♣ board and ozenc’s lady played for the 98,574 chip pot and bastinho06 was out in seventh place ($7,200.00).
Some sage advice: gamble it up
Of the first eight hands of this day two final table, five of them involved all-ins. The players would wait seven more hands for the next one. Blinds steady at 1K/2K, DazzleO made it 8,000 to go as short-stacked Saage pumped it up to 30,000 as the rest of the table folded. Back to DazzleO who would set Saage all-in for his remaining 2,448 chips with a three-bet. Saage called and turned over 10♥ J♣ A♦ 2♣ for a decent hi/lo hand, likewise for DazzleO showing Aâ™ 3♣ J♦ 7♣ . 2♥ K♣ 8♥ on the flop gave Saage deuces but killed his low draw. 4♣ on the turn gave DazzleO half the pot with a lock low, and the 3♥ counterfeited the nut low but since DazzleO held a seven smooth versus Saage’s board playing eight smooth, and gave DazzleO the higher pair of treys, the 70,896 chip pot would head DazzleO’s direction as Saage was free for the rest of the afternoon finishing in sixth place ($9,000.00). This wasn’t Saage’s first shot at a SCOOP watch, coming in second in last year’s Event #21-H for over $62K.
The mighty no more
DazzleO carried the chip lead into the final table but could not parlay it into a SCOOP watch today. As just 12 minutes after the restart we would have our fourth elimination. Blinds remaining at 2K/4K and DazzleO fresh off taking a hit to his stack from missing a nut flush draw versus superowl99 for a 302,386 chip pot, he would double up back to just over 100,000 chips when the following hand came up against his nemesis superowl99:
DazzleO once again could not connect with his flush draw holding 6♣ 3♥ 7♣ A♦ against superowl99’s aces A♣ 7♥ Aâ™ 10♦ as the big money poured in post flop and superowl99 dodged half the deck on the river 9â™ 10♣ 4♣ 5♦ 5♥ to scoop the full 209,648 chip pot, eliminating DazzleO in fifth place ($10,800.00). Perhaps more importantly, DazzleO grabbed 45 Player of the Series points leaping ahead of EDWARDHOPPER and joiso into the series lead going into tonight’s events.
Coming up for air
The players would take a 20 minute break from knocking each other off this final table as the blinds moved up to 2,500/5,000 and two players decided post-flop play was not in the cards as DAMIROK opened to 15,000 from the button and byniolek three-bet to 47,500 from the big blind. Back to DAMIROK, who decided not to take a flop holding 2♥ A♦ 8â™ 3♥ , shoved for 127,519 chips. byniolek covered and made the call showing tens with a suited ace 3♣ A♣ 10♣ 10â™ . Ten on the door 10♥ J♦ 3♦ with only one low card made things bleak for DAMIROK. 6♦ on the turn brighten a shot at half the pot, but the river 6♣ paired the board giving byniolek tens full and the entire 257,538 chip pot, knocking out DAMIROK in fourth place ($15,750.00). Chalk up another final table for the Colombia native as DAMIROK also final tabled Event #25-L, and won Event #4-L using those scores to parlay into today’s big cash.
After one hour of play we were already down to just three left with superowl99 and byniolek neck-and-neck for the chip lead as ozenc still held plenty of chips going to the next blind level of 3,000/6,000.
superowl99: 361,710 chips
byniolek: 361,056 chips
ozenc: 177,234 chips
Suck, re-suck, re-suck suck, or is it re-resuck?
While it took 15 minutes to go from eight to four players it would take almost two hours to reach heads up after this roller coaster hand between ozenc and byniolek:
Blinds moved up to 4,000/8,000 and byniolek down to 74,604 chips would open the button for 28,000 as ozenc made the call in the big blind to see a 4♣ K♥ J♥ flop. Good enough for ozenc to set byniolek all-in with a 60,000 bet holding a pair of kings Q♦ 9♣ Aâ™ K♣ and more importantly holding byniolek’s queen. Yes, there was a flush draw, but why get the easy outs when the last queen in the deck hit the turn Qâ™ . ozenc still could hit a ten for broadway or… a king Kâ™ for the higher boat. Kings full equaled 153,205 chips for ozenc and $21,150.00 for byniolek in third place. A second final table for byniolek, as the Polish player also notched a 7th place showing in Event #8-high for $20K.
Cannot fly away from this one
Several all-ins for superowl99 resulting in a split pot keep his hopes alive for a SCOOP watch but instead ozenc finally found a pair of aces when it counted the most. With the blinds moved up to 5K/10K superowl99 potted it from the button as ozenc quickly re-potted to 90,000. Hoping to scare ozenc off, superowl99 re-raised all-in for 219,712 total holding 6â™ 2♦ 8♦ 2♥ but instead got a snap call by ozenc’s aces A♦ 9♥ J♥ A♣ . Needing low cards in a hurry superowl99 instead was greeted by a high flop 3â™ Q♣ J♦ . 5♥ showed a feather light hope for a split but the wind along the 9♣ river carried that away handing ozenc the remaining 439,424 chip pot, $38,700.00 for first place, and the SCOOP championship watch for becoming today’s Event #30-H Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo winner!
SCOOP 2011 Event #30-H Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo results (05-20-11)
1. ozenc (Netherlands) $38,700.00
2. superowl99 (United Kingdom) $27,900.00
3. byniolek (Poland) $21,150.00
4. DAMIROK (Russia) $15,750.00
5. DazzleO (Colombia) $10,800.00
6. Saage (Finland) $9,000.00
7. bastinho06 (Luxembourg) $7,200.00
8. hinuttaja (Germany) $5,400.00
9. maxxscam (Canada) $3,600.00
