Sunday Warm-Up: Five-way deal makes victory easier for Palmero92

Whether you celebrated today sipping mimosa with family over brunch, attended an Easter gathering, watched The Masters golf tournament, or planted plastic eggs around the yard for the kids to find and hid them so well you could not find the ones they missed afterwards, the second weekend of April brings an air of remembrance and fun. Last week Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee tried to match his grand EPT Berlin win with a victory in the $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up, but fell short in fourth place. Fellow final tablist from last week Supernova Elite wpr101 from Estonia was back again after chopping up last week for $75,478.97 looking for and getting back-to-back final tables as 3,297 plied themselves away from the festive Sunday with hopes of grinding for 11 hours and coming out the first prize of $103,526.70

A couple of Team PokerStars pros managed to shave a little off the $659,400.00 prize pool by finishing in the top 495 places. Vicky Coren would safely pass the bubble line and got a little return on her $215 buy-in finishing in 431st place ($316.51). But, it would be Russian Team Pro Alex Kravchenko that would last the longest, ending the night in 136th place ($758.31).

Down to 14 players at the ninth hourly break including wpr101 who was attempting a rare feat of back-to-back Sunday Majors final table. vmnielsen was back in the hunt for a second Sunday Warm-Up after making the final table of the Sunday Warm-Up that saw Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree claim victory but the sixth place finisher that night would by stopped in 20th place ($1,681.47) tonight.

Japan’s chata.iz and jordie1982 busted 12th and 13th place respectively in short order as the average three million chip average to the 50K/100K ante 10K blinds allowed the final 11 to dig in a bit despite the short-handed tables. The rail did their homework as well as many well wishers at wpr101’s table were rooting on the Estonian for back-to-back final tables in this tournament.

We would lose ashafiq in 11th place ($3,956.40) after the short stack’s 10♠ K♠ could not catch up to Xplogo’s A♥ Q♥ despite flopping a Royal Flush draw J♠ A♠ 4♦ 8♥ 7♥ . Only two hands later at the same table JoGa52 would shove 1.5 million chips over the top of BWFCLEE’s min raise. Holding J♣ A♠ BWFCLEE made the call and dominated the suited A♣ 3♣ of JoGa52. Exactly zero clubs would hit the 7♥ 6♠ J♦ 5♦ 10♦ board and JoGa52 was gone on the bubble as wpr101’s run for a second straight Sunday Warm-Up final table was complete.

Seat 1: Kingoooo (2179297 in chips)
Seat 2: Xplogo (4664608 in chips)
Seat 3: Tomascibak (1586472 in chips)
Seat 4: jerry ping (2736696 in chips)
Seat 5: BWFCLEE (7050680 in chips)
Seat 6: wpr101 (1681754 in chips)
Seat 7: leopeluca (4863340 in chips)
Seat 8: eom2000 (3987214 in chips)
Seat 9: Palmero92 (4219939 in chips)

The players definitely took advantage of the blinds being low relative to the chip stacks as no player was knocked out for the first two rounds of blinds as they moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K with BWFCLEE and Xplogo fighting over the chip lead with just over six million chips apiece.

King meets the Queen

Just as the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K leopeluca would lead off with raise to 418,000 as Kingoooo shoved from middle position for 2.2 million holding jacks J♥ J♠ . Folded quickly back to leopeluca who snap called with queens Q♣ Q♥ . Showing the king who is the real the boss of the final table leopeluca’s ladies would safely run the 4♦ A♠ 2♥ 10♥ 10♦ board to show the royalty to the rail as Kingoooo finished in ninth place ($5,275.20).

wpr101 is not part of the chop for the second straight week

On the very next hand, wpr101 reeling a bit after doubling up Tomascibak on a coin flip tried to muscle Palmero92 away from his min-raise with a shove for 1.6 million from the big blind. Palmero92 was not letting go of the J♥ A♥ and made the call. Pocket fives for the Supernova Elite 5♥ 5♣ cleared the board as Palmero92 missed completely, but unfortunately the board did double pair giving Palmero92 the unlikely higher two pair Q♣ 7♣ 7♠ K♠ K♦ and the 3.5 million chip pot. wpr101 would have to settle tonight for the honor of making two straight Sunday Major final tables and eighth place cash ($8,242.50).

On to the break with seven… no six players

Huge 9.1 million chip three-way all-in would break out just before the hourly five minute rest period. Watch below as Tomascibak, Xplogo, and jerry ping all toss in their chips with Xplogo covering the table:

Seat 2: Xplogo Q♦ Q♥
Seat 3: Tomascibak A♦ K♥
Seat 4: jerry ping 9♣ 9♠

All sitting next to each other and 9.1 million in the middle as Xpolgo led the way preflop for a shot at a huge chip lead. But, the nine on the flop had other ideas 7♠ 9♦ J♣ 5♠ 10♠ as jerry ping would triple up while taking 6.2 million from the main pot and Xpolgo settled for the consolation prize of 2.9 million from the side pot. Tomascibak was the odd player out as big slick would only earn seventh place cash ($14,836.50).

Pressure applied, pressure received

In a extremely quick turn of events, after no eliminations for the first 20 minutes of the final table, we would have three in a matter of five minutes of play. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K and just three hands after Tomascibak got squeezed out between two pocket pairs, eom2000 would find an opening in the small blind and decided to shove 2.9 million holding K♠ 8♠ . Palmero92 sitting on just under six million chips and pocket eights 8♦ 8♣ would make the call. A king would fail to appear once again 3♥ 10♥ 6♦ 5♠ J♥ as eom2000 would quickly exit in sixth place ($21,340.50).

Nano-chop

Team Online’s Randy “nanonoko” Lew may have had to shut down two or three tables out of the 24 he is used to playing to help our final five reach the agreement below (leaving $10,000.00 for the winner):

BWFCLEE: $66,600.14
Palmero92: $62,989.56
jerry ping: $56,110.31
leopeluca: $53,958.65
Xplogo: $51,358.34

NO NOT A NINE! Oh wait…

If you have played poker long enough there has been a time where the scare card hits the river and for whatever reason the dealer still pushes you the pot. Shortly after the five-way deal, Xplogo would shove 3.9 million from the button with the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K as jerry ping in the small blind holding A♥ J♥ would make the call. Dominated holding 9♣ A♣ Xpolgo would be rooting for a nine and got there on the river 2♥ 6♠ A♦ 8♥ 9♥ . Only to see the dealer briskly pushing the pot to the owner of the nut flush as the nine made jerry ping’s heart flush and Xpolgo had to go in fifth place ($51,358.34).

Leo the lion roars

Four-handed play had the blinds moving up to 150K/300K ante 30K as leopeluca led from the cutoff for 627,000. Folded to BWFCLEE in the big blind holding a decent ace 10♠ A♦ and shoving that ace for four million chips. Back to leopeluca who held a better ace A♣ Q♣ to make the call. Just like Xpolgo’s nine on the river, this time the long shot hit on the flop 10♣ 5♣ 8♦ . But, it would not stand just like that nine as a club peeled off on the turn 8♣ and since the dealer did not put out a ten on the river 5♥ leopeluca collected the remainder of BWFCLEE’s chips in fourth place ($66,600.14).

Leo the lion meows

Two hands later leopeluca would hand all of those gained chips to Palmero92 as the Argentinean got a little aggressive after Palmero92 re-raised his opener in the small blind after leopeluca raised from the button. Holding Q♣ K♣ leopeluca would shove 13.9 million into the middle as Palmero92 holding 10.6 million snap-called with pocket aces A♣ A♥ . Clubs nor royalty would find the J♥ 4♠ 3♠ 3♦ 6♥ board and leopeluca would get knocked down to two million chips. Despite making two more laps around the felt, leopeluca would finally succumb to Palmero92 as Palmero92’s K♥ 10♥ trumped his Q♦ 9♦ taking away $53,958.65 in third place.

Tied for fastest Sunday Warm-Up heads-up match ever

No need to consult fellow PokerStarsBlog blogger and human poker encyclopedia Kevin Mathers on this one as the single hand heads-up play has happened before and it would again tonight. Watch the final hand in video below:

What started out as an innocent min-raise and call would end the night as the runner-up for jerry ping. 9♦ K♦ 6♣ flop got jerry ping to check as Palmero92 made a modest 608,858 chip bet and jerry ping called. 7♠ on the turn and again a check by jerry ping as Palmero92 put up 1.26 million and again jerry ping called. 6♥ and jerry ping again checked and again Palmero92 bet. This time Palmero92 put in enough to force jerry ping all-in. Holding top pair 8♥ K♣ and a missed straight draw, jerry ping made the call only to see Palmero92 slow-played the two other kings in the deck K♥ K♠ to maximum value while claiming the Easter edition of the $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-08-12):
(* denotes part of five-way deal)
1. Palmero92 (Germany) *$72,989.56
2. jerry ping (Netherlands) *$56,110.31
3. leopeluca (Argentina) *$53,958.65
4. BWFCLEE (United Kingdom) *$66,600.14
5. Xplogo (Australia) *$51,358.34
6. eom2000 (Finland) $21,430.50
7. Tomascibak (Czech Republic) $14,836.50
8. wpr101 (Estonia) $8,242.50
9. Kingoooo (Denmark) $5,275.20