Sunday Warm-Up: VL-Hannibal takes $104K bones after picking apart final table

Four minutes. It’s a double minor penalty in hockey or a stern time-out given to a child who refused to eat his or her brussel sprouts. In tonight’s $500,000 Sunday Warm-Up our champion VL-Hannibal would go from a mid-stack, to taking the chip lead, and eliminating three players in just four minutes. After a brief consult and chopping the last two money spots with Flush098765, the UK player would take another four minutes to take down all 3,550 runners for $104,540.00 the Sunday major win.

Unlike last week’s monster run by Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov taking home the title and $110,780.37 today would be a relatively quiet one for the Red Spades. Team Online’s Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara would claim a fair return on investment in 180th place ($603.50) as Christophe “chrisdm” de Meulder claimed yet another Sunday Warm-Up deep cash with a 90th place effort ($1,065.00).

The tournament would shrink down to two tables after former Sunday Warm-Up final tablist dsnka took a spot on the rail in 27th place ($1,810.50) and high stakes SCOOP villepn followed in 19th place ($1,810.50).

At the ninth hourly break only 13 players remained alive for the $111,470.00 first place prize as the UK’s VL-Hannibal and Costa Rica’s Renster12 topped the leaderboard.

After Flush098765 convincing took down malinga for a 3.3 million chip pot and 11th place ($4,260.00) hand-for-hand play awaited our two tables of five players remaining. And Flush098765 was in a hurry to start up the final table and the German decided to make things happen quickly. With the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K Flush098765 opened for enough chips from the small blind to put René Nielsen all-in. Holding 10♠ A♦ René Nielsen made the call and was ahead of the J♣ 6♦ of Flush098765. “Was” being the operative word as the 8♠ K♠ 9♣ 10♣ Q♣ board connected with Flush098765’s jack for a straight as the final table started up below:

Seat 1: moertelmu (3863362 in chips)
Seat 2: sneker (838007 in chips)
Seat 3: KippekontNL (2945441 in chips)
Seat 4: zinkAA (3894912 in chips)
Seat 5: vip_1985Z (1670230 in chips)
Seat 6: VL-Hannibal (6080679 in chips)
Seat 7: Flush098765 (7139700 in chips)
Seat 8: Renster12 (5736030 in chips)
Seat 9: danface (3331639 in chips)

No time to get settled in

On the final table’s first hand zinkAA led off with a min-raise from UTG+1 as vip_1985Z made it 1.66 million by shoving to the immediate left. Folding around to moertelmu in the big blind with pocket jacks J♦ J♠ and a re-shove to 3.85 million. zinkAA wanted nothing to do with the two shoves and folded as vip_1985Z exposed queens Q♠ Q♣ . No short-stack revival here as vip_1985Z would get a very un-VIP treatment as the jack on the door J♥ K♣ 7♣ 8♦ 8♥ would knock out the Greek in ninth place ($5,680.00).

Adieu to moertelmu

As the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K moertelmu would open for 324,000 from early position as VL-Hannibal made it 680,000 with a three-bet. moertelmu holding Q♣ A♥ decided to test VL-Hannibal by shoving for 3.54 million. Test answered as VL-Hannibal called with big slick A♦ K♠ . No card over a seven on the 2♠ 7♣ 6♠ 6♦ 4♥ board increased VL-Hannibal’s stack to over nine million and moertelmu’s bankroll received $8,875.00 in eighth place.

I meant “ace-ace not eight-eight”

With the blinds up to 80K/160K ante 16K zinkAA would min-raise from middle position as Flush098765 made it 675,855 chips. Holding pocket eights 8♥ 8♣ zinkAA would challenge the chip leader by shoving for 3.76 million. Flush098765 had no problem making the call with pocket aces A♠ A♦ . A couple of ladies on the flop could not stop Flush098765 from increase the chip leading stack to 15.6 million as zinkAA left with $15,975.00 in seventh place.

The quickening

Just six hands later as the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K KippekontNL would open shove from the cutoff for 2.63 million as the chip leader went looking for more by raising to five million from the small blind to shut out Renster12 in the big blind. Watch below as the chip leader gathered yet more ammo:

It worked as Flush098765 turned over kings K♦ K♣ and KippekontNL needed some help with a small ace 5♠ A♣ . The assistance never showed up on the 6♠ J♥ 9♠ 4♦ 7♥ board and KippekontNL collected $23,075.00 in sixth place.

Hannibal the chip cannibal

The next series of the hands belonged all to VL-Hannibal. First, VL-Hannibal would go all-in preflop against Flush098765 as VL-Hannibal’s big slick K♣ A♥ knocked down Flush098765’s 9♣ 10♣ for a game-changing 16.1 million chip pot as the favorite prevailed 8♣ 6♦ 6♠ 2♥ A♦ . The next hand danface would shove in a shortstack of 1.54 million from the button as VL-Hannibal made the call out of the big blind holding pocket fours 4♠ 4♦ . A flip against danface’s 7♠ A♦ would not last past the turn as the new chip leader nailed a boat 3♥ 4♣ 5♣ 5♠ 6♦ earning danface $30,175.00 in fifth place.

Not even slowing down to take a breath, on the very next hand sneker would try to extract some chips from VL-Hannibal by shoving from the button for 1.89 million and getting the chip leader to re-shove from the small blind for 17.8 million with pocket sixes 6♠ 6♥ . Another flip and another win for VL-Hannibal who put away sneker’s K♠ Q♠ after the 10♠ 10♣ 3♠ 4♥ 7♥ board offered a little excitement and nothing else as sneker took away $40,825.00 in fourth place.

Can’t get enough

Just two hands later after the chip bulldozer of VL-Hannibal ran over half the table, the UK player went looking for a quick finish. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K Flush098765 would min-raise from the button as Renster12 shoved from the small blind for 3.07 million as VL-Hannibal’s 20.3 million chip stack followed into pot. Flush098765 got out of the way as Renster12 rolled over A♥ 8♦ and looked to the board for help against VL-Hannibal’s Q♦ A♣ . Neither player touched the 7♥ 9♦ 10♥ 4♦ K♠ board as VL-Hannibal claimed yet another pelt as Renster12 earned $58,575.00 in third place.

A token of good will

After hearing the chip chop numbers from Team Online’s Shane “shaniac” Schleger “Can you give me 90K?” asked Flush098765 whose chip lead took a backseat to VL-Hannibal’s carnage on the table for the past three minutes. VL-Hannibal complied and the deal below was brokered with $10,000.00 still on the line.

VL-Hannibal: $94,540.00
Flush098765: $90,000.00

Two minutes to ten grand

After the chop talks VL-Hannibal would take only two minutes to dispatch Flush098765 as the chip leader never loosened those reins on the table. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K and VL-Hannibal with a 24.4 million to 11 million chip leader, the chip leader min-raised from the button as Flush098765 called. Watch below as the final hand plays out:

After the 7♥ 5♣ 10♦ flop the two would trade bets until two stacks reached the middle. Flush098765 8♥ 6♥ pushing with an open-ended straight draw against VL-Hannibal’s top pair A♦ 10♣ . VL-Hannibal would fade again as the Q♦ turn and 10♥ river locked up $104,540.00 first place prize and the Sunday Warm-Up title!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (03-31-13):

(* notes part of two-way chop)

Playered entered: 3,550
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $710,000.00
First place: $104,540.00

1. VL-Hannibal (United Kingdom) *$104,540.00
2. Flush098765 (Germany) *$90,000.00
3. Renster12 (Costa Rica) $58,575.00
4. sneker (Denmark) $40,825.00
5. danface (United Kingdom) $30,175.00
6. KippekontNL (Netherlands) $23,075.00
7. zinkAA (Russia) $15,975.00
8. moertelmu (Germany) $8,875.00
9. vip_1985Z (Greece) $5,680.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor