Sunday Warm-up: BruceWizayne needs no hidden identity in $161K victory

For the second week in a row the $750,000 Guaranteed Sunday Warm-up became a $1,000,000 prize pool. Thanks to the 5,175 players who forked over their $215 buy-ins $1,035,000 was on the table tonight to be divided by 765 lucky players and one them will be walking away with $161,905.05 as tonight’s champion.

Two weeks ago Team PokerStars pro Liv Boeree took down this tournament two weeks ago and had three other Team Pros along for the ride deep into her final table journey. Pieter De Korver was looking at the potential chip lead with 31 left when his aces were cracked brutally, but notched a few more spaces up the pay scale and making the most of a short stack to finish in 24th place. Tonight Pieter was looking for revenge and perhaps redemption keeping a healthy stack well into the sixth hour of the tournament.

A short while into the seventh hour with the blinds at 20K/40K ante 4K and Pieter sitting with 694,925 chips, he would that stack in over the top of a min raise by mike2379. Folded back around to mike2379 holding A♣ K♦ he make the call and start the race against the Dutch pro’s pocket queens Q♦ Q♥ . De Korver’s queens looked strong on the 5♥ 5♣ 6♥ but failed to rule on the A♠ turn. One last gasp for Pieter’s tournament life and the 1.48 million chips in the middle failed to come though on the 6♠ river and De Korver would not match his run from two weeks ago and finished in 45th place ($2,049.30).

Joe “JBlaze20” Chaplin would take a seat in 22nd place ($2,535.75) as the tables continued to crunch down to two well into the eight hour of play. Adam “Roothlus” Levy found himself staring at a final table with just twelve left. The well-known pro final tabled this tourney back in February 2009 taking home third place and more recently in December 2010 took down the Sunday $215 w/rebuys for $36,039. Roothlus would find 4.1 million chips close to the final table bubble making two pair with 7♥ 9♥ to overcome the K♠ Q♣ of Agent Bear all-in preflop with the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K. He would give back many of those chips flipping pocket sixes against Agent Bear’s big slick and Agent Bear had his revenge when a king popped on the turn leaving Levy with just 334,482. A few hands later Levy would leave the table in 11th place ($6,158.25) after failing to find a suckout with K♠ 3♠ against elton_sph’s K♥ 7♦ all-in preflop.

Those chips elton_sph acquired from Levy may have been tainted as the very next hand elton_sph would shove again. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K, elton_sph would shove from the cutoff for 1.7 million as Agent Bear with over six million in chips made the easy call from the button holding aces A♠ A♥ . elton_sph’s pocket tens 10♦ 10♠ went limp and stayed limp as Agent Bear roared after a bit overkill on the 5♦ 2♦ 4♠ 4♣ A♦ board giving Agent Bear the 3.9 million chip pot and sending elton_sph home in tenth place ($6,158.25) setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: Agent Bear (8167264 in chips)
Seat 2: Nespotar (2890866 in chips)
Seat 3: mrlimp (11869185 in chips)
Seat 4: xalbas11 (1875316 in chips)
Seat 5: jfitz23 (7409776 in chips)
Seat 6: Enners (5077266 in chips)
Seat 7: steffo8 (3039950 in chips)
Seat 8: BruceWizayne (7084870 in chips)
Seat 9: mike2379 (4335507 in chips)

BruceWizayne wasted no time improving an already sizable chip stack and trying to improve on his 45th place finish from last week’s Sunday Warm-up, doubling up off the chip leading mrlimp in the final table’s second hand. Pocket queens Q♣ Q♠ for mrlimp failed to dodge the big slick K♠ A♦ of BruceWizayne and the chip lead along with 15.2 million chips sailed across the felt to BruceWizayne while mrlimp was still kicking with 4.4 million.

Another big flip, another big win

Still in the 100K/200K ante 20K blind level BruceWizayne would make a min-raise from middle position as mike2379 tried to jump on those chips from his immediate left with a shove for 4.3 million. The chip leader would make the call holding pocket jacks J♣ J♠ as mike2379 flipped up A♦ Q♥ . Neither player would hit the K♦ 3♦ 5♠ 10♥ K♥ board as the 9.2 million chip pot found its way into Gotham’s richest man’s bank and mike2379 would settle for ninth place money ($8,280.00).

As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K a huge chip chasm was very noticeable at the final table. BruceWizayne’s monster stack of over 28 million towered over several stacks of two million or less held by xalbas11, steffo8, Enners, mrlimp.

X marks 8th place

One of the aforementioned short stacks, xalbas11, had just enough to cover a big blind while open shoving from under the gun for 375,632. Making sure no one came along for the ride jfitz23 would re-raise to 850,000 as the table folded around. jfitz23 unearthed J♥ A♣ as xalbas11 had a decent hand for being in a desperate spot 10♥ A♠ . The micro stack found no help on the 8♥ 2♦ 4♣ 2♥ 5♦ board however and took home $12,937.50 in eighth place.

jfitz23 shows no mercy to the short stacks

With the blinds remaining at 150K/300K ante 30K jfitz23 was playing the schoolyard bully but had the goods to back up the talk. After raising from the cutoff to 750K, jfitz23 watched Enners deposit his remaining 528,466 chips into the middle holding big slick K♠ A♣ . jfitz23 held pocket queens Q♥ Q♣ however and the queens would hold strong on the 2♣ 3♣ 10♦ Q♠ 5♣ board sending another short stack packing. Enners earned $23,287.50 for holding out until seventh place.

Hey remember me, the player with all the chips?

With jfitz23 doing the dirty work of knocking out the short stacks, BruceWizayne continued to chip up with solid aggression preflop and a little bit more while knocking out Agent Bear. Watch the video below:

BruceWizayne would make this elimination very dirty, from the small blind he would put in enough chips to force Agent Bear in the big blind to call all-in. Agent Bear’s decision was rather easy holding pocket kings K♣ K♠ as BruceWizayne held Doyle Brunson’s favorite hand 2♣ 10♥ . Even Mr. Brunson would have flashed a grin after the 7♥ 8♥ 9♦ 6♥ 4♦ board notched a unlikely straight for the chip leader and sent Agent Bear back to his cave in sixth place ($33,637.50).

No more limping

Just seven hands after the dirty departure of Agent Bear the blinds would move up to 200K/400K ante 40K and find steffo8 raising from UTG to 1.6 million. Folded around to mrlimp in the small blind with just 1.1 million behind and making the call. Both players had two face cards but steffo8’s K♦ Q♥ outpipped the J♥ K♣ of mrlimp. Once behind, stayed behind as mrlimp’s jack failed to appear on the 10♥ 8♠ 4♣ 4♥ Q♠ board finishing the evening in fifth place ($43,987.50).

Taking down the little guys

jfitz23 continued beating up on the little guys as the 10 hour mark approached. With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K jfitz23 would raise UTG to 900,000 as Nespotar in the big blind shoved for 3.7 million total. Back to jfitz23 who has made it this far taking down most of the short stacks would make the call holding 9♥ A♣ . A good call it was as Nespotar was out-kicked by one flipping up 8♠ A♥ . A magical eight found its way onto the K♥ 4♠ 8♦ flop giving Nespotar the lead and a shot at the 7.7 million chip pot. A♠ on the turn improved both player’s hands but the K♣ would have Nespotar taking a double look at the board as the chip slid to jfitz23’s aces and kings with a nine kicker, ending Nespotar’s tournament in fourth place ($58,477.50).

I want it all, and I want it now

A fitting “Queen” lyric for this huge pot between BruceWizayne who did not chime in on some very brief chop talks and jfitz23 as the two played for the largest pot of the tournament below:

The queen would do it for BruceWizayne as the chip leader flipped up A♥ Q♦ versus jfitz23’s A♠ 6♦ and both players all-in preflop. No six could be found on the 4♦ 2♥ K♥ A♦ 3♠ board and BruceWizayne’s stack moved to over 40 million as jfitz23’s bankroll got a $85,387.50 increase for third place.

Five hands for six figures

BruceWizayne would carry a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play and was determined to finish this tournament as quickly as possible.

It would only take five hands.

While steffo8 doubled up in the fourth hand of heads-up play to get to 13.4 million, he would those chips back into the pot very quickly in the next hand. Blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K BruceWizayne made a standard min-raise from the button as steffo8 made the call to see a J♣ 8♣ 10♠ flop. steffo8 checked as BruceWizayne followed up with a 1.2 million chip bet. steffo8 was not going to be bullied and check-raised to 4.4 million. But, the chip leader who held that lead ever since acquiring it on the final table’s second hand, would come over the top all-in forcing steffo8 to a decision for the remainder of his chips. After a few blinks, steffo8 made the call with big slick K♠ A♠ that needed a lot of help against the flopped nut straight Q♦ 9♦ of BruceWizayne.

Three outs and the gutterball draw would not make it there as the 5♦ and 10♦ completed BruceWizayne’s victory lap around this final table collecting $161,905.05 with the victory in tonight’s Sunday Warm-up!

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up results (02-20-11)
1. BruceWizayne (United States) $161,905.05
2. steffo8 (Sweden) $120,577.50
3. jfitz23 (United States) $85,387.50
4. Nespotar (Germany) $58,477.50
5. mrlimp (Norway) $43,987.50
6. Agent Bear (United Kingdom) $33,637.50
7. Enners (United Kingdom) $23,287.50
8. xalbas11 (Greece) $12,937.50
9. mike2379 (United States) $8,280.00