Sunday Warm-Up: Flipping with excitement, flippydippi claims $104K in victory

With a lot of people nursing either a sugar or otherwise induced hangover from Halloween or Day of the Dead celebrations, the Sunday Majors here at PokerStars rolled on. Tonight’s $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up saw a uptick with attendance as the $668,400.00 prize pool would indicate. Through 11 tough hours of play flippydippi would take over the chip lead and was strong enough to carry home the title earning $104,939.70 for the win.

Halfway through the eighth hour of play, chipleader stknsidewayz would greet busttard from the recently rearranged tables with pocket jacks against busttard’s sixes sending busttard out in 18th place ($2,005.20). vasdas1 would follow busttard out the door a few minutes later in 17th place ($2,005.20) as the 3,342 player field crept closer to the final table.

Only 14 players would make it to the ninth hourly break including Super Tuesday champ eisenhower1 who banked $73K last year during the weekly high roller tournament.

bullyon would not be adding a second Sunday Warm-Up title tonight. After taking down the title in 2010, bullyon was just 11 eliminations away from winning again this Sunday Major again but a flip with A♦ 7♦ versus infinity499’s pocket sixes 6♥ 6♠ would end in infinity499’s favor 5♦ 8♠ Q♣ K♣ 6♦ shipping $4,010.40 to bullyon in 12th place.

“Oh, that’s not very nice“.

Words out this writer’s mouth after watching the final hand before Table 20 collapsed into the final table. With the blinds at 50K/100K ante 10K infinity499 would raise to 220,000 as the chip leader, stknsidewayz, three-bet to 579,000 from the button. After the blinds folded infinity499 called to see a A♠ 7♠ 2♦ flop. infinity499 would check-call 437,000 as a 3♣ landed on the turn. Again infinity499 checked as stknsidewayz continued with a 1.62 million chip bet. infinity499 would check-raise all-in for 2.48 million as the action moved back to stknsidewayz. After a few moments of reflection, stknsidewayz made the call with the nut flush draw 10♠ K♠ which promptly spiked on the river 5♠ shipping the 7.1 million chip pot to stknsidewayz and starting up the final table below:

Seat 1: flippydippi (3601636 in chips)
Seat 2: Showtime43 (1035254 in chips)
Seat 3: stknsidewayz (13281783 in chips)
Seat 4: panch90 (3504424 in chips)
Seat 5: eisenhower1 (2903156 in chips)
Seat 6: Ce$ar$pa (1980772 in chips)
Seat 7: gifuhorna (3019432 in chips)
Seat 8: K!nG.O.O (2249725 in chips)
Seat 9: RafaSampaio7 (1843818 in chips)

Panch with the first punch

Moving on to the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level, play would fold around to panch90 who min-raised from the hijack seat as Ce$ar$pa shoved for two million from the small blind. panch90 holding J♣ A♥ would make the call as Ce$ar$pa flipped up the dominated K♦ J♦ . The board immediately showed an ace 7♣ A♦ 3♥ J♠ Q♦ locking up 4.3 million chips for panch90 by the turn and sending Ce$ar$pa home in ninth place ($5,347.20).

Stackin vertically

Further on in the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level stknsidewayz continued to increase the chip lead with aggressive post-flop play to almost 14 million chips while second place flippydippi held a little under six million. No post-flop play necessary on this hand as shortstacked eisenhower1 would shove 835,338 chips from UTG as stknsidewayz made the call with pocket deuces 2♣ 2♥ from the small blind. eisenhower1 showed 10♥ K♥ which failed to catch on the 3♦ J♠ 8♠ 3♥ 3♣ board earning the Swede $8,355.00 in eighth place.

King for a hand

Five hands later with the blinds moving up to 100K/200K ante 20K K!nG.O.O open shoved from the cutoff seat for 2.6 million as RafaSampaio7 called all-in for 1.7 million. The blinds got out of the way as K!nG.O.O showed K♠ Q♦ starting off slightly behind RafaSampaio7’s J♠ A♠ . While RafaSampaio7 found two spades on the flop, K!nG.O.O found two ladies 4♠ Q♣ Q♠ . After the 5♦ turn and 9♦ river came up spade-less, RafaSampaio7 collected $15,039.00 in seventh place.

Still stacking and racking

On the last hand before the tenth hourly break the chip leader got a little hungry for a snack before the five minute interlude. With the blinds holding at 100K/200K ante 20K stknsidewayz would go into bully mode by open shoving 14 million from the small blind. panch90 liked the 9♠ A♥ enough to call all-in for 3.08 million while the chip leader showed K♦ 10♥ . While the flop was safe for panch90, the turn was not as stknsidewayz made a pair of tens 6♥ 9♥ J♦ 10♠ 6♦ earning $21,723.00 for panch90 in sixth place.

Exit stage right

With the blinds up to 125K/250K ante 25K gifuhorna would min-raise from the cutoff as Showtime43 shoved 1.87 million from the big blind. Holding a couple of high diamonds Q♦ 10♦ gifuhorna made the call as Showtime43’s life in the spotlights depended on 5♥ A♦ . Flopping a pair was enough but gifuhorna would end the 2♦ 7♦ 10♣ 9♥ 5♦ board with a flush. Last call for Showtime43 was worth $28,407.00 in fifth place.

Out with a whisper

The later part of the tenth hour of play was not kind to stknsidewayz. After losing the chip lead, stknsidewayz was ground down to just 3.1 million chips and looking for a way to stay in the hunt for the $104,939.70 still sitting up top. flippydippi, now holding an eight-figure stack, would open shove from the button for 10.9 million as stknsidewayz made the call from the small blind holding A♠ Q♠ . flippydippi’s 10♥ K♣ connected with the flop a little harder than stknsidewayz, flopping the nut straight A♣ J♦ Q♣ 5♥ 6♠ . This held against stknsidewayz’s top two, and $38,433.00 should cushion stknsidewayz’s fall in fourth place.

Flipping off the competition

As the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K the chat box remained quiet as flippydippi’s sizable 19.1 million chip stack was more than gifuhorna (8.5 million) and K!nG.O.O (5.7 million) combined. gifuhorna would min-raise from the button as flippydippi shoved from the big blind holding A♥ J♠ . gifuhorna made a play for the chip lead and called with the dominated A♣ 10♥ . Neither player touched the 3♦ 5♥ K♠ K♥ 4♦ board as flippydippi’s jack-kicker collected the 17.2 million chip pot and gifuhorna claimed $55,143.00 in third place.

Defeating the king

flippydippi would start off with a 27.9 million to 5.49 million chip lead going into heads-up play against K!nG.O.O as the two would play for 15 minutes before breaking into the 11th hour of play. Despite giving up a double-up after the break this would be flippydippi’s day. With the blinds up to 250K/500K ante 50K and flippydippi retaining a 25.2 million to 8.1 million chip lead, flippydippi would min-raise from the button as K!nG.O.O shoved holding 10♥ 8♥ . flippydippi made the call with J♦ K♦ as both players managed a piece of the 4♣ K♣ A♦ 8♣ A♣ board. flippydippi’s piece was bigger however taking down the 16.2 million chip pot and earning $104,939.70 as this week’s Sunday Warm-Up champion!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (11-02-14):

Entrants: 3,342
Place paid: 495
Prize pool: $668,400.00

1. flippydippi (Austria) $104,939.70
2. K!nG.O.O (Germany) $78,202.80
3. gifuhorna (Finland) $55,143.00
4. stknsidewayz (Netherlands) $38,433.00
5. Showtime43 (Canada) $28,407.00
6. panch90 (Ireland) $21,723.00
7. RafaSampaio7 (Brazil) $15,039.00
8. eisenhower1 (Sweden) $8,355.00
9. Ce$ar$pa (United Kingdom) $5,347.20

David Aydt is a freelance contributor