Sunday Warm-up: ely_cash41 adds Sunday Warm-up win to an impressive resume

We getting closer each week to my prediction of the $750,000 Guaranteed Sunday Warm-up reaching the one million dollar prize pool by the end of the year. There’s only three left in 2009 as this week saw 4,718 players put down the $215 necessary to take a shot at the $148,034.11 first place prize.

Team PokerStars Pro Pieter De Korver made a giant run this evening, but was low on chips during the 12.5K/25K ante 2.5K blind level and made a move with 10♦ K♥ only to be facing the pocket rockets A♦ A♣ of HITTHEPANDA. Both players would have a full house on the 2♣ 4♥ 2♠ 2♥ 4♣ board but HITTHEPANDA’s was higher and took the last remaining pro out in 62nd place ($1,622.99).

Near the bubble the players dropped like flies in the back porch neon blue bug zapper from 18 to 11 but play suddenly tightened up with the final table money just two players ahead. With the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K sexygee tried to slide a button shove past chip leader shalzy13’s A♣ 6♠ but 7♣ 8♣ couldn’t connect on the J♦ 2♥ 4♠ 2♣ K♠ board for the 5.1 million chip pot. sexygee would receive the $5,661.60 beauty contest consolation prize for finishing 11th. A few hands later on Table 80, shortstacked XLR8 got that stack into middle looking good with 4♠ 7♠ on a flop of 7♣ 2♥ 10♠ against manu34300’s A♥ J♦ . K♣ on the turn opened up some more outs for the aggressive French rounder, and the A♦ on the river scored the 3.2 million chip pot bursting the bubble and sending XLR8 off in tenth place ($5,661.60) thus setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: ely_cash41 (4110576 in chips)
Seat 2: manu34300 (6749250 in chips)
Seat 3: AceKicker_19 (4672590 in chips)
Seat 4: UcfChamp (6963349 in chips)
Seat 5: skalexjung (4093867 in chips)
Seat 6: shalzy13 (11531881 in chips)
Seat 7: Edith_Piaf (5968574 in chips)
Seat 8: Patrolman35 (1947000 in chips)
Seat 9: Fylleborje (1142913 in chips)

Blinds for our final nine this evening started off at 65K/130K ante 13K with shalzy13 sitting with the only eight figure stack, nearly double of second placed UcfChamp and bubble popper manu34300. manu34300 would lose the first all-in of the final table against severely shortstacked Fylleborje when Fylleborje’s Q♠ 10♠ held up over manu34300’s 10♦ J♠ all-in preflop for a 1.9 million chip pot.

At the break with the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K, the rich got richer as shalzy13 had increased the lead to over 13 million chips with UcfChamp also stacking up to over eight million as seen below:

Seat 1: ely_cash41 (3623853 in chips)
Seat 2: manu34300 (6501337 in chips)
Seat 3: AceKicker_19 (4406157 in chips)
Seat 4: UcfChamp (8223569 in chips)
Seat 5: skalexjung (2244202 in chips)
Seat 6: shalzy13 (13048381 in chips)
Seat 7: Edith_Piaf (5284675 in chips)
Seat 8: Patrolman35 (1946000 in chips)
Seat 9: Fylleborje (1901826 in chips)

Immediately after the break there were two all-ins with the blinds increasing to 100K/200K ante 20K. Patrolman35 shoved for everything except a dollar and had to put that in when ely_cash41 decided to shove over the top. The 3.9 million chip pot was created as ely_cash41’s 10♥ A♦ would hit a ten on the 10♣ 7♦ 2♠ flop. But, a magical 6♦ on the turn fit nicely into Patrolman35’s pocket sixes 6♥ 6♣ rendering the river useless and shipping the pot to Patrolman’s set of sixes. In the very next hand slakexjung was up next to double up at the expense of Manu34300 who’s pocket tens 10♦ 10♥ failed to hold up against slakexjung’s J♣ Q♣ on turned queen A♥ 2♥ 6♣ Q♦ 9♥ for a 4.6 million chip pot.

Seven hands later Patrolman35’s would try for another double-up, this time against the chip leading shalzy13. AceKicker would start the hand off raising to 479,779 as shalzy13 3-bet from the cutoff to 1,259,558. Patrolman35 was sitting in the small blind holding pocket queens Q♥ Q♠ and overshoved for 4.4 million. AceKicker folded as shalzy13 snap called with K♠ A♠ . The 4♠ 5♦ 8♥ flop was safe for Patrolman35, but a K♦ on the turn had the lawman down to two outs. A K♥ added insult to injury as Patrolman35 would not be able to improve on the 3rd place showing in this tourney back in February (click here for the final table wrap-up) and was out in ninth place ($7,548.00).

As the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K a slew of all-ins and double-ups came in for ely_cash41, AceKicker_19, and Fyllebroje but nary an elimination, until ely_cash41 called and covered the all-in shove by skalexjung from the big blind. Watch the ducks line up on the board below:

With quad deuces on the 2♠ 2♥ 6♦ 2♣ 2♦ board, ely_cash41’s ace kicker 9♥ A♥ played over the queen kicker of slakexjung Q♠ J♣ for the 6.4 million chip pot. Playing Event #16 Stud at the 2009 SCOOP slakexjung collected $7K for a 4th place finish (click here) but tonight’s eighth place hold em’ finish paid off $11,795.00

As the blinds were closing up the 150K/300K ante 30K level a huge three-way hand between shalzy13, manu34300 and Edith_Piaf developed. Watch the action play out below:

Pocket aces A♥ A♦ of shalzy13 would hold up on the 8♠ 3♦ 10♥ 2♠ J♥ board against the turned nut flush draw of Edith_Piaf J♠ A♠ and flopped open ended straight draw of manu34300 9♦ J♦ to eliminate both players and gobble up another 12 million chips. Due to stack sizes at the beginning of the hand, Edith_Piaf was awarded seventh place ($21,231.00) and manu34300 sixth place ($30,667.00).

All-in mania finally came to the table as on the very next hand still extremely shortstacked Fylleborje would shove UTG with only one million chips and blinds still at 150K/300K ante 30K holding J♦ 10♠ . And for the second straight hand someone would be waiting with pocket aces. This time those aces A♦ A♥ belong to a resurgent AceKicker_19. No surprises came out on the 8♣ Q♣ 2♥ 5♦ 10♥ board, as AceKicker_19 took in the 2.7 million chips and Fylleborje squeezed that beginning short stack for all it was worth earning $40,103.00 in fifth place.

As the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K the chip lead also changed as AceKicker_19 doubled-up off shalzy13 with pocket jacks and pocket kings in a span of five hands as the chips smoothed out a bit for our final four.

Seat 1: ely_cash41 (7279300 in chips)
Seat 3: AceKicker_19 (18217820 in chips)
Seat 4: UcfChamp (9181399 in chips)
Seat 6: shalzy13 (12501481 in chips)

Team PokerStarsPro Steve Paul-Ambrose would pause the tourney as the four tried to notch together a chop of the big money with the following numbers:.

AceKicker_19 $121,580
shalzy13 $101,694
UcfChamp $81,514
ely_cash41 $74,334

AceKicker_19 didn’t feel like giving up what ely_cash41 wanted so the Team PokerStars Pro launched the cards in the air once again. The verbal barbs between the players started up as short stacked ely_cash41 managed to take 13 million chip pot off shalzy13 when the two got their chips in the middle preflop. Big slick A♦ K♥ for ely_cash41 would hold up over the A♠ J♦ on the 5♣ 4♣ 7♥ 2♣ 7♠ board and shalzy13 was knocked back to 8.6 million chips.

Seven hands later ely_cash41 would grab the rest of the shalzy13’s stack after shalzy13 would shove from the small blind holding K♠ Q♣ and 5.8 million chips. Once again ely_cash41 held big slick A♣ K♣ and snap called creating a 11.7 million chip pot. No oooooh’s and aahhhh’s from this J♠ 9♠ 7♣ 3♥ J♣ board meant the once mighty chip leader shalzy13 was out in fourth place ($53,313.40).

As the blinds moved up to 250K/500K ante 50K the players once again sat down at the bargaining table with ely_cash41 and AceKicker_19 in a dead heat with 18 million chips as UcfChamp trailed with almost ten million. Once again ely_cash41 went after extra cash and got the other two to agree to an extra thousand showing the final chop numbers below:

ely_cash41: $116,259
AceKicker_19: $113,477
UcfChamp: $96,074

After SteveJPA settled up the chop figures, it was on to the race for the $10,000.00 left on the table for this week’s Sunday Warm-up champion!

Now you see the chips, and now you don’t. Watch the all-in call by UcfChamp below:

With the 7♥ 7♦ Q♠ flop, UcfChamp’s J♦ Q♥ took the lead over ely_cash41’s 10♠ A♦ for the massive 21.8 million chip pot. 9♠ on turn and UcfChamp was looking pretty for a double up but the dirty A♠ on the river changed that and shipped the pot to the Sun Devil, vanquished UcfChamp in third place ($96,074).

On to the abbreviated heads-up play with ely_cash41 holding a nearly 3:1 chip lead on AceKicker_19 who was still jabbing at the chip leader in the chat box about his poker prowlness but if he’d done a little research AceKicker_19 would have found a slew of ely_cash41’s past big tourney scores like these: 2009 SCOOP Event #6 ($54,400), 2008 WCOOP Event #25 PLO ($17,293.50), 2007 Event #3 ($27,379.00). Along with claiming two WSOP bracelets in the chat ely_cash41 seemed to deflect many of the barbs by AceKicker_19 and got business taken care of quickly.

On the fifth hand of heads-up play the two would get all of the chips into the middle preflop. After ely_cash41 min-raised from the button with blinds holding at 250K/500K ante 50K, AceKicker_19 tried to show some of that aggressiveness with a shove for all 11 million chips holding 8♥ K♣ . Once again ely_cash41 held big slick A♦ K♠ having to call a big all-in and snap called. The board J♣ 4♠ 5♠ 2♠ 3♦ favored ely_cash41 the whole way, rivering a wheel for good measure and staking a claim as this week’s Sunday Warm-up Champion earning $126,259. AceKicker_19 tried to intimidate but fell short of the title earning $113,477 as the runner-up.

Be sure to check in later in the week for the Sunday Majors wrap-up show on PokerStars.TV with all of the hole cards revealed along with professional commentary.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up results (12-06-09)
(*denotes part of three-way chop)
1. ely_cash41 (phoenix) *$126,259.00
2. AceKicker_19 (Edmonton) *$113,477.00
3. UcfChamp (Wellington) *$96,074.00
4. shalzy13 (Grande) $53,313.40
5. Fylleborje (Krstd) $40,103.00
6. manu34300 (agde) $30,667.00
7. Edith_Piaf (Brooklyn) $21,231.00
8. skalexjung (berlin) $11,795.00
9. Patrolman35 (Erlanger) $7,548.80