Sunday Warm-Up: Identifying the champ, Poker id 4me wins $99K

August brings some lazy days both at home and here at PokerStars. The month is after the latest installment of MicroMillions and SCOOP and before the 2013 WCOOP kicks off on September 8th. However, it’s not all sitting on the porch with a Dogfish 90 minute IPA and a couple of ribeyes sizzling on the grill. Tonight’s $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up took ten and a half hours of hard work put in by the champ ‘Poker id 4me’ to nail down this Sunday Major victory and haul away $99,009.80 after a two-way chop with joaombrito.

Last month it was Challenger winner Starvos “IDOLLS” Kalfas showing a Red Spade on the stone money bubble spot. In tonight’s contest, Team Pro Christophe “chrisdm” de Meulder would find himself in a similar position finishing in 496th place out of 495 places paid.

Other Team Pros however had a more successful night as Leo Margets (380th place, $343.10), Martin “AABenjamin” Hrubý not slowing down with his Sunday Warm-Up mastery after last week’s runner-up finish in cashing yet again tonight (276th place, $411.72), and Toni Judet (218th place, $514.65) all enjoyed a return on investment.

Team Pros Andre “aakkari” Akkari (121st place, $857.75) and Team Online’s Caio Pessagno (95th place, $960.68) also enjoyed a piece of the prize pool. But, it was Max Lykov with one Sunday Warm-Up title already under his belt to pressure for another final table appearance.

However, the timely double-up never happened for the Russian Team Pro with the blinds at 15K/30K ante 3K Lykov would three-bet shove 272,396 chips from the big blind as troppa made the call with J♥ K♦ . Max’s A♦ 10♠ enjoyed a small pre-flop lead until the 9♥ K♣ 3♥ 10♦ Q♠ fell in troppa’s favor hitting top pair then a straight on the river to knock out Max in 35th place ($1,543.95).

Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky would book another solid tournament run tonight making it to the final two tables. With the blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K Wilinofsky would see his 1.12 million chips hit the middle after a min-raise from joaombrito and call by MCvisitor. joaombrito folded but MCvisitor made the call with A♥ J♦ . Ben’s pocket threes 3♣ 3♠ looked solid until an ace hit the river Q♣ 5♥ 4♠ 9♣ A♦ knocking out Wilinofsky in 16th place ($2,058.60).

At the ninth hourly break only 11 players would return to 40K/80K ante 8K blinds and a big $107,734.21 first place prize staring at them just ten players away. Nine players away after MCvisitor attempted check-raise bluff all-in on the turn turned out poorly when TanTanSWE called with a higher flush draw and top pair rendering MCvisitor’s hand moot before the river card ending the night in 11th place ($4,117.20).

Shortly afterwards with the blinds still 40K/80K ante 8K troppa would open shove 1.49 million from the small blind as nasukk holding 1.25 million made the call holding A♦ Q♥ . Right call, extremely wrong result for nasukk as the board filled up with a bunch of spades 10♣ 4♠ 5♠ 10♠ 7♠ shipping the 2.7 million chip pot to troppa and starting up the final table below:

Seat 1: chikitin099 (917048 in chips)
Seat 2: joaombrito (6177648 in chips)
Seat 3: salamandryko (641217 in chips)
Seat 4: miraculix06 (3453568 in chips)
Seat 5: Adreny (4528624 in chips)
Seat 6: TanTanSWE (6156625 in chips)
Seat 7: PatMike888 (949257 in chips)
Seat 8: troppa (2865931 in chips)
Seat 9: Poker id 4me (8620082 in chips)

PatMike888 out in seven

Just seven hands into the final table with the blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K PatMike888 would shove a short stack of 731,257 chips as joaombrito called out of the small blind with 9♥ A♠ . PatMike888 watched nasukk’s ace-quuen go down in flames to a smaller ace, and PatMike888’s own ace-queen Q♣ A♣ would do the same. A nine on the door 9♦ 5♣ A♥ 8♦ J♦ sent PatMike888 to the rail in ninth place ($5,489.60).

joaombrito takes the chip lead with back-to-back eliminations

As the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K mirculix06 would min-raise from UTG+1 as it folded to joaombrito in the big blind holding eight million chips and A♥ 4♦ . The plan was to scare away mirculix06 with a shove but instead miraculix06 was anxious to call with pocket queens Q♦ Q♠ . miraculix06 was not anxious to see that ace A♠ 9♦ 6♥ K♥ J♥ in the door as the 4.9 million chip pot headed to joaombrito and miraculix06 picked up $8,577.50 in eighth place.

On the next hand TanTanSWE started with a min-raise from early position as troppa made it 1.89 million with a shove from the immediate left. Folded to joaombrito on the button and the chip leader quickly re-shoved for 10.6 million holding big slick A♦ K♥ . TanTanSWE went bye-bye as troppa flipped up tonight’s unlucky hand ace-queen Q♦ A♥ . Chalk up another loss for the queen kicker as no ladies hit the 8♣ A♠ 10♠ 7♣ K♣ board and troppa hit the deck in seventh place ($15,439.50).

Unable to change color

If salamanadryko had the power to change the river card red (and maybe some shape-shifting into a heart as well) the player from Peru may have stolen the 2.5 million chip pot shown below:

salamandryko’s J♥ A♣ needed a heart, ace, or jack on the river to defeat TanTanSWE’s eights 8♠ 8♣ but came up short 7♠ 9♥ 7♥ K♥ Q♠ to finish in sixth place ($22,301.50).

40 minutes to ID fifth place

One break and several blind levels later Poker id 4me would take out another player. With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K Poker id 4me would shove 6.48 million chip from the small blind as chikitin099 had a decision with a small ace A♦ 5♠ from the big blind. chikitin099 made the call as Poker id 4me showed J♦ 9♥ and made short work of chikitin099’s ace by flopping top two 3♦ J♣ 9♣ 10♠ 10♥ and knocking out chikitin099 in fifth place ($29,163.50).

TanTan exits stage left

Seven minutes later with the blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K Adreny would min-raise from the cutoff seat as TanTanSWE shoved 2.44 million from the button. Both blinds folded as Adreny covered and made the call with pocket nines 9♥ 9♦ . TanTanSWE turned over pocket fives 5♣ 5♥ and the Swede watched the 3♣ J♣ 10♠ K♠ 6♦ board come blank earning $39,456.50 in fourth place.

Challenging the chip leader

Poker id 4me and Adreny decided the only way they would challenge joaombrito for the title if they combined their chips after a busted attempt at a three-way deal. Watch below as the winner of this 14.8 million chip pot would have enough chips to take joaombrito heads-up with a slight chip lead:

Both players would trade bets with small pairs until the pot bloated to 14.8 million chips. Adreny’s pocket fours 4♣ 4♥ looking up at Poker id 4me’s pocket seven 7♠ 7♣ . Threes and sixes showed up on the 3♦ 6♦ 3♥ 6♣ A♦ board but no fours as Adreny was pushed down to 2.1 million chips. Four hands later Poker id 4me would take the rest of Adreny’s chips, finishing in third place ($56,611.50). A second big third-place finish for Adreny this year as the UK player finished third in 2013 SCOOP Event $14-L for $20K.

Even Steven

With the chip difference under 40K, both players quickly agreed to an even chop leaving $10K on the table to play for:

Poker id 4me: $89,009.81
joaombrito: $89,009.81

Identifying the winner

Despite some relatively sizable stacks this heads-up match would be over in a matter of eight minutes. As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K Poker id 4me in complete control of the final two holding a 27.3 million to 6.9 million chip lead, the chip leader would min-raise from the button. Something needed to go right for joaombrito and K♠ 9♣ was supposed to be enough to make it happen as the Portuguese player shoved from the big blind. Poker id 4me made the call with J♣ A♦ and both players paired their top cards K♥ 8♦ A♥ 7♦ 7♠ but Poker id 4me’s aces would take home this week’s Sunday Warm-Up title and $99,009.80!

PokerStars $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (08-18-13):

Players entered: 3,431
Places paid: 495
Prizepool: $686,200.00

(* denotes part of two-way deal)

1. Poker id 4me (Germany) *$99,009.80
2. joaombrito (Portugal) *$89,009.81
3. Adreny (United Kingdom) $56,611.50
4. TanTanSWE (Sweden) $39,456.50
5. chikitin099 (Portugal) $29,163.50
6. salamandryko (Peru) $22,301.50
7. troppa (Norway) $15,439.50
8. miraculix06 (Switzerland) $8,577.50
9. PatMike888 (Germany) $5,489.60

David Aydt is a freelance contributor