The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker reached the half-way mark this weekend as the tournament series hit Event #19 of 38 with the No-Limit Hold’em “Big Ante” event. For those unfamiliar with these special ante tournaments the ante is in play from the very first deal and represents 20% of the Big Blind. This changes the table dynamic greatly as there is more dead money up for grabs in each pot which leads to aggressive play and some interesting situations.
The $20+$2 low buy-in event was the first to finish, well ahead of the medium and high buy-in tournaments. More than 16,000 players entered the $250k Guaranteed event creating a $329,660 prize pool with $32,982 going to first place. Below were the chip-stacks entering the final table:
Seat 1: LOL_FAILURE (31265846 in chips)
Seat 2: nisnipe (36305321 in chips)
Seat 3: nomorebeats (5811862 in chips)
Seat 4: zrezzo (14368856 in chips)
Seat 5: Amélie (18833478 in chips)
Seat 6: callmeicare (21239204 in chips)
Seat 7: BolshoiUh (3719240 in chips)
Seat 8: HBsen (24813377 in chips)
Seat 9: MattDollar$ (8472816 in chips)
The final table went by rather quickly and once play became three handed chip-chop talks began. At first it seemed the players could not arrive at a deal but after some coercing all three agreed to the following numbers:
nisnipe $26,574.07
LOL_FAILURE $23,200
zrezzo $19,188.92
The tournament rules stated at least $5,000 had to be left in the prize pool to go to the winner which came down to LOL_FAILURE and nisnipe once zrezzo was eliminated in 3rd place. In the end it was LOL_FAILURE who overcame a big chip deficit to ship the extra $5,000 and ultimately win more than $28,000 in Event #19-L:
Seat 1: LOL_FAILURE (89113464 in chips)
Seat 2: nisnipe (75716536 in chips)
nisnipe: posts small blind 600000
LOL_FAILURE: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
nisnipe: raises 1450000 to 2650000
LOL_FAILURE: raises 6050000 to 8700000
nisnipe: raises 16050000 to 24750000
LOL_FAILURE: raises 64123464 to 88873464 and is all-in
nisnipe: calls 50726536 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (13396928) returned to LOL_FAILURE
*** FLOP *** [Jd 3h 5d]
*** TURN *** [Jd 3h 5d] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 3h 5d 5h] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LOL_FAILURE: shows [9c 9d] (two pair, Nines and Fives)
nisnipe: shows [Qd As] (a pair of Fives)
LOL_FAILURE collected 151433072 from pot
PokerStars SCOOP #19-L $250k Guaranteed
16,483 Entrants; $329,660 prize pool
*3-way chop
1. LOL_FAILURE $28,200
2. nisnipe $26,574.07
3. zrezzo $19,188.92
4. HBsen $13,186.40
5. Amelie $9,889.90
6. callmeicare $6,593.20
7. BolshoiUh $4,631.72
8. nomorebeats $2,966.94
9. MattDollar$ $1,977.96
The medium event was a $200+$15 buy-in tournament with a $750,000 guarantee. Over 4,500 players entered one of the bigger events of the series and a $900,200 prize pool was amassed. The final table had a few recognizable faces including “toweliestar” who was amidst an awesome Sunday which saw him make a deep run in the Sunday $500k guaranteed. Below are the final table stacks:
Seat 1: olladio (5989969 in chips)
Seat 2: blauwekimco (7997303 in chips)
Seat 3: 20shark (2725010 in chips)
Seat 4: moumaife84 (1237998 in chips)
Seat 5: IG0tDibs (10475449 in chips)
Seat 6: Radford999 (1698354 in chips)
Seat 7: Ose9 (2878428 in chips)
Seat 8: sandman201 (4396796 in chips)
Seat 9: toweliestar (7610693 in chips)
Heads-up play came down to “olladio” and “IG0tDibs” who were set to battle it out for the $141,225.59 first-place check. For once it appeared a chip-chop would not happen and the railbirds would get a formal conclusion to one of the day’s major events. In the end IG0TDibs was just too strong and after flopping trips in a 3bet pot his hand held up against olladio’s open-ended straight draw for the win:
Seat 1: olladio (12581709 in chips)
Seat 5: IG0tDibs (32428291 in chips)
olladio: posts small blind 100000
IG0tDibs: posts big blind 200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
olladio: raises 266000 to 466000
IG0tDibs: raises 734000 to 1200000
olladio: calls 734000
*** FLOP *** [9d Td Tc]
IG0tDibs: bets 1250000
olladio: raises 2739800 to 3989800
IG0tDibs: raises 26810200 to 30800000
olladio: calls 7351909 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (19458291) returned to IG0tDibs
*** TURN *** [9d Td Tc] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [9d Td Tc 2h] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
IG0tDibs: shows [Ah Ts] (three of a kind, Tens)
olladio: shows [8h Jh] (a pair of Tens)
IG0tDibs collected 25163418 from pot
PokerStars SCOOP #19-M $750k Guaranteed
4,501 Entrants; $900,200 prize pool
1. IG0tDibs $141,225.59
2. olladio $104,873.30
3. blauwekimco $74,266.50
4. toweliestar $50,861.30
5. 20shark $38,258.50
6. moumaife84 $29,256.50
7. sandman201 $20,254.50
8. Ose9 $11,252.50
9. Radford999 $7,201.60
Last to finish was the high buy-in Event #19. Here were the stacks entering the final table:
Seat 1: “0PIGGYBANK” (615024 in chips)
Seat 2: F.Briatore (204501 in chips)
Seat 3: over.be (292686 in chips)
Seat 4: fabstinho (964761 in chips)
Seat 5: mement_mori (521501 in chips)
Seat 6: Se7enTr3y (1730583 in chips)
Seat 7: CookieDude90 (220981 in chips)
Seat 8: j.thaddeus (701938 in chips)
Seat 9: happyfister (648025 in chips)
The $2000+$100 event attracted 590 participants creating a $1,180,000 prize pool. This easily surpassed the $750,000 guarantee and left what would have been more than $221,000 for the winner. Instead of that large pay out the final FIVE players decided upon a chip chop of the following numbers:
mement_mori $169,286.46
“0PIGGYBANK” $151,137.04
happyfister $118,669.01
j.thaddeus $106,178.68
se7entr3y $95,100.82
There was still $15,000 up for grabs as well as covered TLB points but there was definitely a change of pace to the final table post-chop. What was interesting is the chop occurred when the average stack still had 100 Big Blinds left! Typically chops happen when the blinds get high and player do not want to gamble. However, in this case, it seemed all five were tired from a hard days work and wanted to lock up a nice payday. In the end it was happyfister who took down the extra $15,000 and the SCOOP #19-H title
Seat 5: mement_mori (1681600 in chips)
Seat 9: happyfister (4218400 in chips)
mement_mori: posts small blind 7000
happyfister: posts big blind 14000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
mement_mori: raises 14000 to 28000
happyfister: raises 61555 to 89555
mement_mori: raises 109210 to 198765
happyfister: raises 3539235 to 3738000
mement_mori: calls 1480035 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (2059200) returned to happyfister
*** FLOP *** [3h 2d 5s]
*** TURN *** [3h 2d 5s] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [3h 2d 5s 9d] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
happyfister: shows [7d 7s] (a pair of Sevens)
mement_mori: shows [Ah Qs] (high card Ace)
happyfister collected 3363200 from pot
PokerStars SCOOP Event #19-H $750k Guaranteed
590 Entrants; $1,180,000 prize pool
*5-way chop
1. happyfister $133,669.01
2. mement_mori $169,286.46
3. “0PIGGYBANK” $151,137.04
4. Se7enTr3y $95,100.82
5. j.thaddeus $106,178.68
6. fabstinho $50,150
7. over.be $38,350
8. CookieDude90 $26,550
9. F.Briatore $17,700
Be sure to check back with our News Section through out the week as SCOOP 2010 rolls on and the Main Event looms just seven days away!