After the conclusion of the TCOOP in the previous weeks players are coming down from their Red Bull-infused highs of keeping up with those fast blinds. Tonight’s $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up final table would feature both quick eliminations and an excellent heads-up battle between krec23 and GrimRipper2 after a four-way chop. After the 20 minute battle, krec23 would reign as the champ this week taking home $94,320.83 with the victory.
Two Red Spades would enter the eighth hour of play still holding chips and a chance at the $114,265.77 prize sitting at the final table. With the blinds at 12.5K/25K ante 2.5K Team PokerStars Pro Joe “jcada99” Cada would shove in a small stack of 149,903 from UTG+1 as play folded around to WCOOP 2010 Event #1 and two time TCOOP champ Alex “AlexKP” Petersen holding J♥ A♥ in the cutoff. Petersen would make the call as Cada flipped up the smaller kicker 8♦ A♦ . Neither player would hit the 9â™ 2♦ Qâ™ 3♥ 2♥ board as the World Series of Poker Main Event champ collected $1,310.04 in 60th place.
The other Red Spade has been in the money here several times in the past, and notched together yet another withdraw from the Sunday Warm-Up prizepool tonight. Team PokerStars Pro Martin “AABenjaminAA” Hruby along with 46 others would enter the ninth hour of play with blinds at 15K/30K ante 3K holding 600K in chips.
Martin’s run towards the final table would be halted by death. Well… poker casualty caused by GrimRipper2 as the blinds moved up to 25K/50K ante 5K GrimRipper2 would open for a min-raise from the button as Hruby shoved for 250,489 chips holding J♦ Kâ™ in the big blind. A medium ace A♦ 7♣ was good enough to make the call as the ace-high cleared the 9♥ 9♦ 6♥ 5♣ 3♦ board to knockout the remaining Red Spade in 34th place ($1,491.99).
Alex Petersen would not be adding a Sunday Major to his -COOP titles after finishing in 22nd place ($1,855.89) as the ninth hour featured chip leader Dejan “dejanaceking” Divkovic who took down the Zoom $1 Million guarantee last year for $166K with a powerful performance at the final table. SCOOP 2012 Event #14-M champ Zackattak13 was also trying to add a Sunday Major but fell short in 13th place ($3,275.10) after running into kicker problems against krec23.
On the final table bubble it looked as lavdara was certain to be taking home tenth place cash with less than a big blind left. But, with the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16k on the opposite table üä-qaypö.wsx had no intentions of waiting out lavdara’s demise and three-bet shoved 2.7 million chips over a min-raise by krec23. Unfortunately, üä-qaypö.wsx’s A♣ Q♥ would be flipping for tournament life after krec23 called with pocket jacks J♥ J♣ . After the second jack fell on the A♦ Jâ™ 5â™ J♦ 10â™ board giving krec23 quads, üä-qaypö.wsx’s exit would open the final table below to lavdara:
Seat 1: Nicolsan777 (3819451 in chips)
Seat 2: iacog4 (2480036 in chips)
Seat 3: lavdara (62910 in chips)
Seat 4: GrimRipper2 (2093195 in chips)
Seat 5: dev209 (1393188 in chips)
Seat 6: NoHayMiedo* (4097058 in chips)
Seat 7: krec23 (7138785 in chips)
Seat 8: needdollarz (5908626 in chips)
Seat 9: Dejan “dejanaceking” Divkovic (9396751 in chips)
Chip and chair and then air
lavdara’s stay at the final table was a short one mostly marked by only bringing 62K in chips with blinds up to 80K/160K ante 16K. After four hands lavdara managed to triple that stack and forced to call all-in from the big blind holding 9♣ Q♥ . dev209 came along for the ride after shoving 1.3 million from early position with 10♦ Q♦ . The kicker problems for lavdara basically end this one after the flopped ten 3â™ 10♥ 4♣ 5♣ Q♣ but thanks to the short-stack ninja play lavdara earn a couple extra thousand in ninth place ($5,822.40) instead of tenth.
dev209 knocked off another
Just two hands later with the blinds holding needdollarz would min-raise from UTG+1 as iacog4 pushed in barely two big blinds, 341,021, and dev209 shoving 1.55 million from the small blind with Q♠K♦ . needdollarz called hoping to knockdown two players with A♦ J♥ as iacog4 showed K♥ J♦ . Everyone hit a pair on the 3♠Q♣ 8♦ J♠8♠board but dev209 benefited the most while knocking out the shortstacked iacog4 in eighth place ($9,097.50).
More dev209 and less players
dev209 despite eliminating the first two players at the final table never touched the chip lead at this point. Nor did the German capture the chip lead after taking down yet another player in the hand shown below:
With the blinds moving up to 100K/200K ante 20K and after a min-raise from early position by dev209, Nicolsan777 would shove 2.7 million chips from the big blind. King-queen worked once so dev209 went with it again and called holding Q♥ K♦ . Nicolsan777’s A♥ 8♥ did not make it past the flop 7â™ Kâ™ 7♥ 2â™ 10♥ as the king would send Nicolsan777 home in seventh place ($16,375.50). Chalk up another big final table for Nicolsan from Moldova after taking home $20K in the WCOOP 2013 Event #13.
krec23 takes control
After grabbing the chip lead away from Divkovic, krec23 went looking for more. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K krec23 tried the bullying route as play folded to the chip leader in the small blind. A shove for 10.4 million was a tall order for needdollarz as the big blind needed chips to get more dollars. A suited ace A♠7♠was good enough to make the call for 2.5 million as krec23 showed J♣ Q♥ . Despite the bookending spades 5♠J♦ K♦ 5♥ 2♠needdollarz would walk away from the final table tonight $23,653.50 richer in sixth place. This could have been a story of the two-time Sunday Warm-Up champ after needdollarz captured a title in 2010.
Dejan “dejanaceking” Divkovic finishes in fifth place
Divkovic was not able to dominate play like that past ZOOM tournament win despite bringing a sizable chip lead to the final table tonight. With the blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K and scrapped down to just 1.1 million, Divkovic would open shove from the small blind holding 7♣ 10♥ . Bad luck in this case as well as GrimRipper2 was sitting in the big blind with pocket queens Q♥ Q♣ and eager to make the call. No straight draws, no pairs, just a clean 3♥ 5♠9♣ A♠4♦ for the ladies as Divkovic took home $30,931.50 in fifth place.
Five minute pause to chop up the funds
ICM numbers and quick nods around made for a fairly quick five exchange to chop up the biggest slices of the Sunday Warm-Up prizepool leaving $10,000.00 for our champ:
krec23 (Russia) $84,320.83
NoHayMiedo* (Dominican Republic) $71,658.81
GrimRipper2 (Poland) $69,755.55
dev209 (Germany) $65,575.18
Well that was quick
Just two hands after the four-way split play would move into heads-up for the extra $10K. The blinds holding at 125K/250K ante 25K GrimRipper2, dev209, and NoHayMiedo* all jumped in to this massive 20.7 million chip pot below with the winner taking over the chip lead from krec23:
dev209 tried to get GrimRipper2 off a button min-raise with a shove for 4.69 million from the small blind. But instead, NoHayMiedo* re-shoved for 7.99 million with A♦ J♣ and GrimRipper2 called holding pocket tens 10♦ 10♥ . dev209’s suited connector 5♦ 4♦ never attached to the board, but GrimRipper2 would tear the table in half after hitting a set 4♣ 10â™ J♦ 8â™ Q♣ handing dev209 fourth place ($65,575.18) and NoHayMiedo* third place ($71,658.81) to set up a length battle for the extra $10K and Sunday Warm-Up title.
20 minutes to the title
krec23 held a huge chip lead before that three-way hand but never lost faith in taking down the title tonight. After 15 minutes with GrimRipper2 expanding the chip lead to 26.4 million, krec23 caught a little bit of fortune to take back the lead. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K and the board showing 3♠J♥ 10♠krec23 would call the shove by GrimRipper2 holding pair and a flush draw J♠4♠as GrimRipper2 showed the same pair and same kicker J♦ 4♦ . Suits made the difference as the A♥ turn and spade on the river 8♠shipped 19.9 million chips to krec23.
Two minutes later with krec23 holding a 21.6 to 14.6 million chip lead, both players would arrive to the Q♣ 3♣ 7â™ 4♦ 8♣ river with 12 million already in the pot. krec23 would lead for enough to put GrimRipper2 all-in and GrimRipper2 made the call with the turned straight 6â™ 5♣ . However, krec23’s hand improved with every part of the board, from pair with a flush draw, to two pair, and finally a winning flush 7♣ 4♣ as krec23 claimed tonight’s Sunday Warm-Up victory and $94,320.83!
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (02-16-14)
Players entered: 3,639
Places paid: 540
Prizepool: $727,800.00
(* denotes part of four-way chop)
1. krec23 (Russia) *$94,320.83
2. GrimRipper2 (Poland) *$69,755.55
3. NoHayMiedo* (Dominican Republic) *$71,658.81
4. dev209 (Germany) *$65,575.18
5. Dejan “dejanaceking” Divkovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) $30,931.50
6. needdollarz (Russia) $23,653.50
7. Nicolsan777 (Moldova) $16,375.50
8. iacog4 (United Kingdom) $9.097.50
9. lavdara (Croatia) $5,822.40
David Aydt is a freelance contributor
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