Everyone content with their tans from the last two weeks on Paradise Island while soaking up the sun and fattening the bankroll? While the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure may be done with for the year after Will Reynolds took down the $25,000 high roller event and Chinese Taipei claiming the sixth edition of the PokerStars World Cup, our focus will be back online with tonight’s $750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up. If you’re just returning from the Bahamas and generously applying aloe to those missed sunblock spots and playing today, be assured the $155,399.92 sitting on the final table for the winner this evening would soothe even the worst burn. But, first there were 4,967 runners to make it by, almost making tonight’s prize pool almost cool million but $993,400.00 is itching ever so closely to that seven figure number to this weekly $215 buy-in NLHE tournament.
About two months ago I was helping out on the Sunday Million coverage and there was a familiar icon from the TV Sitcom “Full House” playing some great poker at the final table. We now know this to be the avatar of one Harrison “gibler321” Gimbel who took 6th place that night for $47,322.00 but improved on that slightly last week at the PCA while winning the PCA NAPT Main Event for $2.2 million. Could one of tonight’s final tablist use their winning tonight to springboard to the next level as well? First we will need to see how our final nine got to their seats.
Team PokerStars Australia Gravy Levy bowed out in 98th place ($1,142.41) after his AJo all-in preflop does not catch up to the pocket kings of Hobbes200 as the cartoon tiger found an unneccesary king on the river to complete a full house and send the Australian Team PokerStars Pro packing. However he was not the winner of the Team PokerStars pros unofficial last-longer this evening as that distinction went to Team PokerStars Dutch pro Thierry van den “BOKPOWER” Berg who finished in 29th place ($2,135.81).
Down to the final two tables and 11 players remaining, Hood_Ace caught pocket aces A♠A♥ just before the bubble and made a raise to 338,000 with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K and getting Blue Baboon with 3.2 million behind on the immediate left to push with pocket jacks J♠J♣ . Hood_Ace covered and made the easy call while watching the all low board of 8♦ 4♠2♠5♣ 6♦ roll out as Blue Baboon took leave in 11th place ($5,910.73).
Poker is not a pretty game sometimes. It would have taken someone with the emotions of a slab of granite not to scream after this hand rolled out. On the final table bubble Patokaka2007 would make a raise UTG to 600,000 with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K. Shortstacked Stilige_Mari made it 2.2 million to go by shoving all-in as it folded back to Patokaka2007 who covered. After a few blinks Patokaka2007 would make the call holding K♦ Jâ™ and found those cards to be dominated by the pocket jacks J♥ J♣ of Stilige_Mari. A cringe-worthy flop of 10♣ 9♥ Qâ™ rolled out giving Patokaka2007 the nut straight and leaving Stilige_Mari with only hopes to a chop or runner-runner trips on the board for a boat. Neither scenario came down the 2â™ turn and 9♣ river as Stilige_Mari was stifled in tenth place ($5,910.73) as tonight’s bubble boy.
Seat 1: Lahni86 (1728606 in chips)
Seat 2: Hood_Ace (7625154 in chips)
Seat 3: Civell (3694478 in chips)
Seat 4: polpolpol (7443252 in chips)
Seat 5: Patokaka2007 (8158850 in chips)
Seat 6: insanocut (7107354 in chips)
Seat 7: ramondemon77 (2850058 in chips)
Seat 8: jordyporr (2485399 in chips)
Seat 9: AmarulaBr (8576849 in chips)
The blinds started a little higher than usual at 100K/200K ante 20K as Lahni86, jordyporr, and Supernova ramondemon77 would need to make some moves early with less 15 big blinds. jordyporr would do just that will doubling up on the final table’s first hand with pocket aces Aâ™ A♥ after allowing polpolpol to catch top pair-top kicker A♦ Q♥ on the 9♦ Q♦ 10♥ 6♦ 8â™ board for a 5.4 million chip pot.
Aces worked on the first hand of the final table, but not on the third. Shortstacked ramondemon77 was “fortunate” enough to catch pocket tens 10♦ 10♣ and shoved UTG+1 for 2.7 million. Waiting in middle position however was fellow shortstack Lahni86 with pocket aces A♥ Aâ™ who made the call for 1.6 million. No rivered excitement here as the heartbreak came out on the J♣ 10â™ 3♦ flop and Lahni was forced to find a third ace. The turned 9♥ and river 4♣ did not help and Lahni could only feel good about getting the money in well ahead but had to take away 9th place tonight ($7,947.20).
Fifteen hands later another pair over pair preflop showdown had the largest pot of the tournament to this point coming down. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K ramondemon77 would raise to 455,555 from middle position and found a little obstruction as both Civell and polpolpol in the blinds pushed all-in. ramondemon2007 must not have had aces and folded while Civell turned over pocket sixes 6♠6♣ and polpolpol did a couple of pips better with pocket tens 10♠10♥ . They dispensed with the theatrics early on this hand as well, as a ten hit the flop and no running sixes came to help on the 8♠10♣ 4♠8♥ A♦ board as Civell found $12,417.50 in the PokerStars bankroll for eighth place.
ramondemon77 avoided the big hand of polpolpol but couldn’t find an answer to insanocut’s pocket aces A♦ Aâ™ twelve hands later. Still shortstacked with blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K, ramondemon77 tried to push eights 8♥ 8â™ for luck but with the flopped set Q♥ A♣ J♥ there was a little bit of pause as a third heart hit the turn K♥ . Right color, wrong suit hit the river 4♦ as insanocut lopped off ramondemon77 in seventh place ($22,351.50).
Play would finally slow down for a while as the players held good-sized stacks as the blinds got passed around for bit until the 150K/300K ante 30K blind level when AmarulaBr opened for 777,555 on the button and was facing a huge re-raise from Hood_Ace who pushed from the small blind for 5.8 million. AmarulaBr covered and made the call with pocket sevens 7♦ 7♣ while Hood_Ace could only produce pocket deuces 2♠2♥ . No excitement came down on the J♠J♥ 4♣ K♣ 10♥ board as Hood_Ace was cloaked with $22,351.50 in sixth place money.
Play once again stalled a bit as the players still had plenty of chips compared to the blinds but when the all-ins rained in, it poured with eight figure pots.
First up with was polpolpol opening from the cutoff for 876,543 with blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K. But insanocut wasn’t giving up the blinds and re-raised to 2.2 million, not to be outdone polpolpol was just as stubborn holding A♣ J♣ and pushed for 5.3 million. Holding big slick Aâ™ K♥ insanocut covered and made the call to create a 11.3 million chip pot. Both players would hit their kickers on the 2♦ Kâ™ J♥ flop but no two outers came for polpolpol on the 8♣ turn and 6â™ river and polpolpol was gonegonegone in fifth place ($32,285.50) adding to the 5th place ($4,900.00) won during 2007 WCOOP Event #4 final table (write up found here).
Two hands later insanocut kept the hot hand rolling by raising from the cutoff with A♠7♥ for 922,250 chips. But, jordyporr feeling the squeeze of the big stacks and escalating blinds took a shot by shoving for 5.5 million with pocket sixes 6♥ 6♦ . With over twenty-three million in chips insanocut easily covered the bet and made the call. As with the other big hands this evening the deciding board card came out on the flop as insanocut hit the ace and carried the pair on the 10♣ 10♠A♣ 5♣ K♣ to acquiring the 11.8 million chip pot while knocking out jordyporr in fourth place ($56,127.10).
In this point it was insanocut’s tournament to lose with three-handed play starting out like this:
Patokaka2007 (11,309,434 in chips)
insanocut (29,619,196 in chips)
AmarulaBr (8,741,370 in chips)
Despite the chip difference, the ten hours of poker battle wore down our final competitors and they decided it was best to assure themselves a six figure score this evening. With the help of Team PokerStars pro Grant Levy they were able to get AmarulaBr some extra cash from the initial chop numbers so a party could be thrown for the railbirds in Brazil as shown below:
insanocut: $126,000.00
Patokaka2007: $110,000.00
AmarulaBr: $107,086.52
$10,000 left to play for and it was Patokaka2007 who would shift gears first. A few hands after jordyporr left to watch Sportscenter highlights, Patokaka2007 went on a tear winning eight out of nine hands including five hands in a row culuminating in a huge 21.5 million chip pot against AmarulaBr. After Patokaka2007 opened for 1.6 million with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K, AmarulaBr was looking at a suited A♦ 10♦ and decided to shove for 10.4 million from the big blind after insanocut folded. Pocket nines 9♣ 9♦ have always been lucky for myself and they would prove to be lucky for Patokaka2007 as well after he made the call and manged to dodge diamonds and overcards on the K♥ 5♣ J♥ 5♥ 8â™ board. AmarulaBr’s friends will be help to know there was $4K being set aside to celebrate the $107,086.52 won tonight for the third place finish.
At the start of heads-up play it was Patokaka2007 who assumed the chip lead as blinds held steady at 200K/400K ante 40K:
Patokaka2007 (28,325,304 in chips)
insanocut (21,344,696 in chips)
The pair would play a 47 hand battle for the remaining $10,000 and Sunday Warm-up title that seemed a lot less considering how it ended so quickly. On hand number 46, Patokaka2007 made a standard 1.5 million chip raise on the button with blinds at 250K/500K ante 50K but insanocut wasn’t going away holding A♦ J♦ as the weight of 19.5 million chips came out all-in. However, Patokaka2007 still covered, and made the easy decision to call holding pocket kings K♥ K♣ . The 5♣ 6♦ 10♦ flop gave insanocut the nut flush draw along with aces for outs. The 9♣ on the turn was one blank but the 4♦ was anything but null as it filled insanocut’s flush draw and shipped the 39.1 million chip pot to insanocut.
Patokaka2007 was anything but out, still holding twenty big blinds but they would tangle again all-in on the very next hand. This time insanocut would start the betting with a min-raise from the button as Patokaka2007 made the call to see a 8♥ 10♣ 8♦ flop. Both would check their action for the 4♥ on the turn. Patokaka2007 took the initiative and led out for 1.5 million and was called by insanocut to see the J♣ on the river. Again Patokaka2007 led out for 1.5 million but this time was raised 17 million chips putting Patokaka2007 all-in. Holding 10â™ 5â™ Patokaka2007 would make the call and find out slowplaying top pair might have cost $10,000.00 as insanocut’s pair of jacks on the river Kâ™ Jâ™ would end Patokaka2007’s tournament and crown this week’s Sunday Warm-up champion.
insanocut’s champion share of the prize pool went up to $136,000.00 as runner-up Patokaka2007 was left to blame unfortunate river cards in defeat, but earning $110,000.00 in the process as tonight’s runner-up. This was not insanocut’s first brush with a big-time Sunday final table as back in 2008 $39,000.00 was won while taking 6th place in the Sunday Million (read the final table wrap-up here).
Be sure to check back a few days as our crew recuperates a bit from the PCA and comes back on PokerStars.TV to give you all of the highlights of tonight’s tournament including the exposed hole cards.
$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (01-17-10)
(* denotes part of three-way deal)
1. insanocut (Miramichi) *$136,000.00
2. Patokaka2007 (PREVERENGES) *$110,000.00
3. AmarulaBr (Brasil) *$107,086.52
4. jordyporr (Leiden) $56,127.10
5. polpolpol (Nicosia) $42,219.50
6. Hood_Ace (Salzgitter) $32,285.50
7. ramondemon77 (timisoara) $22,351.50
8. Civell (sint-pieters-leeuw) $12,417.50
9. Lahni86 (Dresden) $7,947.20
