Sunday Warm-up: No chop this time, BrandanZ win the full $149K

Anyone else getting whiplash from all the action today? Yes, Sundays are usually a busy and exciting time here at PokerStars, but with several large promotions going on the usual buzz around the Sunday Majors was enough to give an action junkie a contact high without even playing. The road to 60 Billion hands with every one million hands taking in some extra cash was being eaten up by the 350,000+ players at over 50,000+ tables today. Daniel Negreanu was taking on Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in the Superstar Showdown rematch as they multi-table with $150,000 at stake. You won’t need the MegaMillions lottery to turn $11 into over $200K, just manage to outlast 113,770 players in the $1 million guarantee Sunday Storm for the six figure score. And the reason you are reading this right now, the $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up which offers an easier shot at a six figure score with 4,751players and a $215 price tag without having to defeat a capacity crowd at the Rose Bowl to take it down.

Johannes Steindl and Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth and Anh Van Nguyen all found themselves in the running past the four hour mark and well into the money. Randy “nanonoko” Lew would join his fellow Team PokerStars player in the cash but barely past the 675 player mark in which everyone received $323.06, Lew was stopped in 664th place ($323.06).

Steindl would take a nasty trip out of the tourney losing all-in preflop with over 100,000 chips and blinds at 3K/6K ante 600 when Laigaard found a way to make A♦ J♦ to pass up Steindl’s A♠ Q♦ when the flop flashed a few too many diamonds K♦ 5♦ 3♦ 8♥ 9♠ eliminating Johannes in 269th place ($513.10). While Steindl dominated preflop, Van Nguyen was dominated preflop in his last hand. Blinds sitting at 4K/8K ante 800 Van Nguyen tried to push LaticsCo6 of his early position raise to 18,999 by shoving for 129,650 total. Passed back to LaticsCo6 who covered and made the call with A♣ Q♠ , dominating the Team PokerStars pro’s K♠ Q♦ . K♥ 6♣ 2♥ on the flop gave a reason for Anh to cheer but the ace on the turn did not A♠ , no two-outer on the river 3♠ and Anh was gone in 236th place ($532.11).

Shortly after Van Nguyen’s departure, Jude was found limping along with just 15,750 chips and blinds at 4K/8K ante 800 after a 385K pot didn’t go his way. Q♦ J♦ all-in preflop for the Irish pro up against the hammer 7♣ 2♠ of Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen. The hammer showed no mercy to the Team PokerStars pro’s small stack and won with two pair 4♦ K♦ 2♣ 9♣ 7♥ eliminating Jude in 216th place ($570.12).

Getting it in bad worked better

After two consecutive double ups, russellhar would find his chips in the middle again preflop. He defeated BrandanZ’s AJ with KJ, then wacked Kaksnel’s big slick with A5. But, then he made the mistake of getting it in good. With the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K russellhar opened from the cutoff for 300K, KingOfFilth three-bet to 790K from the button as the blinds folded and russellhar riding some good variance shoved for 2.9 million which was immediately called by KingOfFilth’s big slick A♣ K♦ . Pocket queens Q♣ Q♦ were hoping to squeeze by and looked good after the 7♥ 5♠ J♣ flop. However the K♣ dropped on the turn and failed to overturn on the 7♣ river giving KingOfFilth 6.1 million worth of extra scratch for the final table as russellhar was sent out in tenth place ($5,701.20).

Seat 1: SavePluto9 (2669873 in chips)
Seat 2: Kaksnel (4121113 in chips)
Seat 3: ilona_iuby (8633382 in chips)
Seat 4: fabsoul (3714412 in chips)
Seat 5: swede554 (1761590 in chips)
Seat 6: Petit (6960777 in chips)
Seat 7: BrandanZ (2187158 in chips)
Seat 8: KingOfFilth (9538134 in chips)
Seat 9: gutshtallin (7923561 in chips)

Finally!

Wow, in what had to the longest for the first elimination of the Sunday Warm-up final table at 38 minutes we would say goodbye to SavePluto9 who couldn’t do enough to save himself from elimination. By far not the first all-in with a call, but with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K SavePluto9 would shove from early position with 8♥ A♥ for 2.1 million as BrandanZ sat and waited in the big blind to call with big slick A♦ K♥ . The board ran dry for both players 9♣ 3♣ 4♣ J♠ Q♠ as BrandanZ picked up the 4.6million chip pot and SavePluto9 drifted towards the black hole of railbirds in ninth place ($7,601.60).

Three-way GAMBOOOOOL

Watch below as gutshtallin, Petit, and swede554 all get it in preflop with gutshtallin covering all bets:

Petit: 8♠ 8♥
gutshtallin: A♣ K♥
swede554: 4♣ 4♥

The flop 2♠ J♦ Q♥ gave gutshtallin his namesake and still had two overs. 2♥ on the turn helped no one, as did the 6♣ on the river to ship the massive 14.5 million chip pot to Petit and eliminate swede554 in 8th place ($11,877.50).

Someone stirred the pot

After over a half hour with no elimination we lost two quickly, and a third would be right behind them. In the very next hand with blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K it would be gutshtallin’s time on the chopping block as he open shoved for 2.05 million from the cutoff and caught a quick caller in Kaksnel on the button. gutshtallin took no time off from playing big hands and showed Q♥ A♦ but once again he was up against a pocket pair, the pocket aces A♥ A♠ of Kaksnel. Instead of a flip, gutshtallin was looking harshly at going from near chip leader to out in two hands. J♦ 5♠ 2♥ 5♥ 7♥ no Sunday miracle came through and gutshtallin collected $21,379.50 in seventh place. Definitely not his first dance here, as gutshtallin won this tournament a few years ago for $86K.

Kaksnel and fabsoul lost in the tubes of the internet

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties you will wait to see the story of Kaksnel’s and fabsoul’s departure in sixth and fifth place respectively during the replay of the Sunday Warm-up final table which can be found running tomorrow in your tournament tab under “Special”. Kaksnel received $30,881.50 in sixth place as fabsoul grooved his way to a fifth place finish earning $40,383.50

Winning filthy

With the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K ilona_iuby looked down at pocket seven and the opportunity to shove those 3.4 million chips into the middle for some much needed blinds and did so. Folded around to KingOfFilth sitting in the big blind with a medium suited ace 8♦ A♦ and deciding to make the call. Seven million in the middle and ilona_iuby looked for it on the turn Q♦ 6♦ Q♠ J♠ despite the scary possible flush on the flop. But, it wasn’t the diamond or the ace coming in, it would be the 8♠ hitting the river and shipping the pot to KingOfFilth as ilona_iuby would take solace in the massive $53,686.30 pay day for fourth place. Another final table member with former experience as ilona_luby collected $42K on the last trip here, also finishing in fourth place.

Not a petite call

It takes some fortitude to make calls like this late in the game with six-figure paydays just one player away. Watch BrandanZ solve the riddle of KingOfFilth below:

With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K BrandanZ min raised from the button as KingOfFilth folded and Petit in the big blind shoved for 8.8 million. After some thought, BrandanZ made the call with A♣ J♥ and happy to see he was ahead of Petit’s K♥ 9♦ . Was ahead and stay ahead after the 3♣ 7♠ 4♣ 10♦ 8♣ board shipped the 18 million chip pot to BrandanZ and sent Petit off with a $78,391.50 memento in third place.

USA vs. USA

United States had six of the nine seats in the final table and two of them were still filled as heads-up play started after the ten hour mark of this tournament. BrandanZ carried a sizable 36 million to 11.4 million chip lead into heads-up play.

Cleaning up the filth

BrandanZ sporting a pink flamingo for an avatar would end up sporting some cash after this tournament. After 11 minutes of heads-up play BrandanZ stretched his lead to 40.2 million to KingOfFilth’s 7.2 million. Blinds sitting at 250K/500K ante 50K KingOfFilth found two push-worthy cards 10♣ K♥ as BrandanZ found two call-worthy cards A♦ 10♠ which dominated and were a heavy favorite to take down tonight’s huge first place prize. 8♥ Q♠ 9♦ on the flop added four jacks to the outs for KingOfFlith as he was looking to retrieve enough chips and overturn the huge lead held by BrandanZ. But, the A♠ and Q♦ found their way safely to the virtual felt and KingOfFilth took home the runner-up cash ($110,698.30). While BrandanZ will be partying with a huge $149,069.59 score for winning this week’s Sunday Warm-up! Adding to chopping this tournament in August for $90K, BrandanZ seems to make it his personal ATM.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up results (03-27-11)
1. BrandanZ (United States) $149,069.59
2. KingOfFilth (United Kingdom) $110,698.30
3. Petit (United States) $78,391.50
4. ilona_iuby (Romania) $53,686.30
5. fabsoul (United Kingdom) $40,383.50
6. Kaksnel (Finland) $30,881.50
7. gutshtallin (United States) $21,379.50
8. swede554 (United States) $11,877.50
9. SavePluto9 (United States) $7,601.60