Super Tuesday 5/22: Apestyles dealt a victory after 3-way deal

After a two week hiatus for the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker to shatter records, the Super Tuesday made a triumphant return to the Pokerstars calendar. A field of 397 entries means the final 45 players will share in the $397,000 prize pool. When three players remained, they decided to chop the remaining money equally. It wouldn’t take long for the tournament to end as apestyles’ name appears on top of the standings.

Tonight’s Super Tuesday featured just two PokerStars sponsored players after an exhausting run of SCOOP action. Team PokerStars Online player Kevin “WizardofAhhs” Thurman (below) made a deep run before finally running out of chips in 17th place, earning $3,970. Team Nordics Pro Johnny Lodden was surely thinking of similar success, but he finished well short of the money.

Failed flush for featured final table

The tension was palpable as ten players vied for nine final table seats. The blinds were up to 3,200/6,400 with an ante of 800 as Mik3ma started the hand by min-raising from the button. The short-stacked Pokergenius2 moved all in with their last 72,644 chips. Mik3ma quickly called as they held Q♥ Q♠ against the A♥ 5♥ of Pokergenius2. The 8♥ 7♦ 2♥ flop gave Pokergenius2 the nut flush draw. There were two red cards on the turn and river, but it was the 10♦ and K♦ sending Pokergenius2 out in 10th for $5,955.00 to establish the final table.

Here’s how tonight’s Super Tuesday final table lined up:

Seat 1: ForzaVaxholm (124947 in chips)
Seat 2: apestyles (175813 in chips)
Seat 3: Bazhok22 (289786 in chips)
Seat 4: yasunori66 (216207 in chips)
Seat 5: pokerpro_kk1 (301432 in chips)
Seat 6: RikiNhO_BdrM (269573 in chips)
Seat 7: Superfizzy (141573 in chips)
Seat 8: Mik3ma (283332 in chips)
Seat 9: progre69 (182337 in chips)

Mik3ma felts two players with one ace

A few hands into the final table, Mik3ma decided to help move the action along by disposing of two players in the same hand. Action started with yasunori66 committing their stack with 3♠ 3♥ . Superfizzy had a bigger stack than yasunori66, and they also moved in from the button, holding J♦ J♣ . Mik3ma was in the small blind with A♠ K♠ and decided it was good enough to call two all-in bets. The A♣ 8♦ 7♥ flop moved Mik3ma from worst to first. Superfizzy and yasunori66 were both down to two outs, but neither would hit on the 7♦ turn and 6♥ river, moving over 500,000 chips to take the lead as Superfizzy (8th – $9,528.00) and yasunori66 (9th – $6,947.50) made their exits.

Mik3ma moves from penthouse to basement (7th – $13,498.00)

When you’re chip leader with seven players remaining, you’re not expecting to be the next player out, but that was the fate of Mik3ma tonight. First, progre69 doubled through the Cypriot (T-T beats A-9), followed by Bazhok22 holding a dominant A-K against Mik3ma’s A-Q to also double up. Down to just over 100,000 chips as the blinds moved up to 3,600/7,200 with an ante of 900, Mik3ma hoped to get into contention, but progre69 had other ideas:

Apestyles pounces on pokerpro_kk1 (6th – $17,468.00)

Down to half a dozen players, Brazil’s pokerpro_kk1 held just over 118,000 chips in the big blind, facing a min-raise from the button by apestyles. Pokerpro_kk1 moved all-in with A♥ 7♥ as apestyles called with 3♣ 3♠ in a classic race situation. The board ran out K♣ 9♦ 5♦ 5♥ Q♥ as apestyles’ underpair held up, moving into the chip lead.

ForzaVaxholm swept away (5th – $22,629.00)

Nearly an hour would pass before the next elimination as the chip lead moved from apestyles to progre69 to Bazhok22. The blinds moved to 5,000/10,000 with a 1,250 ante as apestyles and ForzaVaxholm held less than a one big blind difference in chips when they tangled in the biggest hand of the tournament:

Bazhok22 bounces RikiNhO_BdrM (4th – $32,752.50)

Down to four and there were two sets of chip stacks: apestyles and progre69 were well ahead of Bazhok22 and RikiNho_BdrM. The bottom two stacks became involved in a hand that would send one of them on the brink of elimination. From the button, Bazhok22 min-raised possessing K♠ K♣ as RikiNhO_BdrM responded with a 3-bet to 43,125 holding A♥ 9♥ as Bazhok22 called. The J♣ 7♠ flop brought a bet of 35,437 from RikiNhO_BdrM as Bazhok22 re-raised all in. RikiNhO_Bdrm barely had Bazhok22 covered, calling with middle pair top kicker. No help on the 8♠ turn or 7♦ river left RikiNhO_BdrM with less than 14,000 chips.

Those chips were put in the pot on the next hand as RikiNhO_BdrM raised as Bazhok22 and apestyles called from the blinds. The 8♠ 8♦ 7♠ flop saw Bazhok22 check-fold to apestyles’ bet of 20,000. Cards were on their backs as apestyles revealed 8♥ 5♦ for trips as RikiNhO_BdrM showed A♦ 10♣ needing runner-runner help. One out came when the J♥ hit the turn, but no nine on the river as the K♥ appeared instead taking the field down to 3 players close in chips.

Let’s make a chop deal (apestyles, progre69 and Bazhok22 each earn $59,351.50)

A few hands into three-handed play, discussion of a deal was underway. Apestyles and progre69 were looking for an even chop but Bazhok22 wanted one by chip count.

Bazhok22 – 763,358
progre69 – 625,094
apestyles – 596,548

Seeing they were chip leader, you can side with Bazhok22. However, the other two insisted on an even chop and Bazhok22 eventually decided that earning better than 2nd place money wasn’t such a bad deal. However, when the host provided the payout information, they forgot to note that $6,000 was to be set aside for the eventual winner. Play was halted on that development with the host giving the players the option to accept the figures already agreed upon or take back $2,000 each and play to a winner, who would earn $6,000.

Again, it was Bazhok22 who pressed to accept the figures, meaning no further change in the awarded prize money as the trio played for TLB points.

Apestyles runs wild, eliminates Bazhok22 and progre69

Play became a lot more aggressive after all the money was divvied up. Bazhok22 decided to move all in 6♠ 2♠ as apestyles called with 10♠ 9♥ . The board runs out J♣ 8♦ 8♣ 3♦ 10♦ giving apestyles a slight edge heads-up.

Progre69 would snatch the lead back a couple of hands later, but apestyles would win the last eight hands to claim the Super Tuesday victory. The final hand featured blinds of 6,000/12,000 with an ante of 1,500 as apestyles shoved from the small blind with Q♠ 5♦ as Progre69 called with A♠ J♥ . Apestyles moved ahead on the K♥ 6♦ 5♥ flop. Progre69 would not be able to proceed as the 3♣ turn and Q♥ river mean all the chips belonged to apestyle, earning a hefty haul of TLB points.

May 22, 2012 Super Tuesday Final Table Results:

* Payouts reflect a three-way chop

*1st: apestyles – $59,351.50
*2nd:progre69 – $59,351.50
*3rd: Bazhok22 – $59,351.50
4th: RikiNhO_BdrM – $32,752.50
5th: ForzaVaxholm – $22,629.00
6th: pokerpro_kk1 – $17,468.00
7th: Mik3ma – $13,498.00
8th: Superfizzy – $9,528.00
9th: yasunori66 – $6,947.50