Online poker tournaments fell off ever so slightly the past weekend, with tournament entries and prize pools finally seeing a drop after February’s FTOPS and Billion Dollar Hand promotions. Fortunately this week saw a lot less chip-chops and more final table action. There were also some great final tables with a lot of recognizable faces including some of the best online tournament players in the world.
The day started off with the Sunday Warm-Up which had been surpassing the $1,000,000 prize pool mark as of late. While the tournament could not quite reach the seven-figure mark, it did remain in the #2 slot behind the Sunday Million with 4,594 players creating a $918,800 prize pool. The Warm-Up was one of the few events to not come to a full conclusion as “lu_tricolor” and “CallMeIdiot” decided to do an even chop (with $10k on the side) despite there being about a 5,000,000 chip difference once heads-up play began. The $10,000 sidebet went to lu_tricolor who took down the biggest score of his career on PokerStars by a wide margin. Before winning the Warm-Up he did not have a recorded score over $3,000 to his name on the world’s biggest poker site. Runner-up CallMeIdiot was ever so slightly more experienced having won the $30r for $7,149 last month.
Seat 1: CallMeIdiot (1051880 in chips)
Seat 7: lu_tricolor (44888120 in chips)
CallMeIdiot: posts small blind 300000
lu_tricolor: posts big blind 600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
CallMeIdiot: raises 391880 to 991880 and is all-in
lu_tricolor: calls 391880
*** FLOP *** [2c Qc 7h]
*** TURN *** [2c Qc 7h] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [2c Qc 7h 4s] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lu_tricolor: shows [9c Ac] (a pair of Queens)
CallMeIdiot: shows [9s Jd] (a pair of Queens – lower kicker)
lu_tricolor collected 2103760 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up $750k Guaranteed
4,594 Entrants; $918,800 prize pool
*2-way deal
1. lu_tricolor $130,591.83
2.CallMeIdiot $120,591.82
3. Mur917 $75,801
4. King 2307 $51,912
5. 1-ronnyr3 $39,049
6. emiwarg $29,861
7. F3dOrOv9191 $20,673
8. Mollpan $11,485
9. minisune $7,350
The Sunday Million could not quite make it to the $2,000,000 prize pool mark yesterday but it easily broke the $1.5M Guarantee. The tournament fell about $65,000 shy of the $2M mark but did make up for it with a final table that came to a full conclusion. Over the past few months the million has been chopped many times in many different ways. Last weekend the final four players decided to chop, which just kills a lot of the final table experience. Luckily “Highway51″ would have no part of that this week as he shipped the biggest cash of his career for more than $271,000. What is interesting about this particular player deciding not to chop is that he did not have any major final table experience entering the world’s biggest tournament. Despite only having a few four-figure scores to his name he took the Million by storm and is now more than a quarter-million dollars richer.
Seat 1: Klauss8s (6545314 in chips)
Seat 2: Highway51 (15263886 in chips)
Seat 3: jfyjfy6 (14305972 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (2374136 in chips)
Seat 5: Snort4eva (7457616 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (6657954 in chips)
Seat 7: SingleFileD (19335800 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (18393274 in chips)
Seat 9: THE CUBE (6536048 in chips)
Seat 1: Klauss8s (6325314 in chips)
Seat 2: Highway51 (26970837 in chips)
Seat 3: jfyjfy6 (2842464 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (4816544 in chips)
Seat 5: Snort4eva (6405232 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (5194423 in chips)
Seat 7: SingleFileD (19749196 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (20699942 in chips)
Seat 9: THE CUBE (3866048 in chips)
Highway51: posts small blind 300000
jfyjfy6: posts big blind 600000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
popimaiorca: folds
Snort4eva: folds
rakeinfools: folds
SingleFileD: folds
Soltari84: folds
THE CUBE: folds
Klauss8s: raises 5665314 to 6265314 and is all-in
Highway51: calls 5965314
jfyjfy6: folds
*** FLOP *** [4h 6c 8h]
*** TURN *** [4h 6c 8h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [4h 6c 8h Td] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Highway51: shows [5c 5h] (two pair, Tens and Fives)
Klauss8s: shows [2d 2c] (two pair, Tens and Deuces)
Highway51 collected 13670628 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (27085704 in chips)
Seat 3: jfyjfy6 (3587392 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (3513088 in chips)
Seat 5: Snort4eva (2585232 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (7788846 in chips)
Seat 7: SingleFileD (14406604 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (32051038 in chips)
Seat 9: THE CUBE (5852096 in chips)
popimaiorca: posts small blind 400000
Snort4eva: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
rakeinfools: folds
SingleFileD: raises 977777 to 1777777
Soltari84: folds
THE CUBE: folds
Highway51: folds
jfyjfy6: folds
popimaiorca: folds
Snort4eva: raises 727455 to 2505232 and is all-in
SingleFileD: calls 727455
*** FLOP *** [9h 3s Js]
*** TURN *** [9h 3s Js] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [9h 3s Js 4d] [4h]
Soltari84 is disconnected
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Snort4eva: shows [5h Ah] (a pair of Fours)
SingleFileD: shows [Kh Ad] (a pair of Fours – Ace+King kicker)
Soltari84 is connected
SingleFileD collected 6050464 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (26845704 in chips)
Seat 3: jfyjfy6 (3347392 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (2873088 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (8908846 in chips)
Seat 7: SingleFileD (16511836 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (32771038 in chips)
Seat 9: THE CUBE (5612096 in chips)
Highway51: posts the ante 80000
Soltari84: posts small blind 400000
THE CUBE: posts big blind 800000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Highway51: folds
jfyjfy6: folds
popimaiorca: folds
Soltari84 is disconnected
rakeinfools: folds
SingleFileD: raises 977777 to 1777777
Soltari84 is connected
Soltari84: raises 30913261 to 32691038 and is all-in
THE CUBE: folds
SingleFileD: calls 14654059 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (16259202) returned to Soltari84
*** FLOP *** [Th Ad Ts]
*** TURN *** [Th Ad Ts] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [Th Ad Ts Jd] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Soltari84: shows [Ah Td] (a full house, Tens full of Aces)
SingleFileD: shows [Ks Kd] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
Soltari84 is disconnected
Soltari84 collected 34223672 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (42472616 in chips)
Seat 3: jfyjfy6 (4002176 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (3086176 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (12125596 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (32586636 in chips)
Seat 9: THE CUBE (2596800 in chips)
Highway51: posts small blind 500000
jfyjfy6: posts big blind 1000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
popimaiorca: folds
rakeinfools: folds
Soltari84: folds
THE CUBE: raises 1496800 to 2496800 and is all-in
Highway51: calls 1996800
jfyjfy6: folds
*** FLOP *** [2d 5d Th]
*** TURN *** [2d 5d Th] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [2d 5d Th 8s] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Highway51: shows [3c 3d] (a pair of Threes)
THE CUBE: shows [8c Ac] (a pair of Eights)
THE CUBE collected 6593600 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (39675816 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (6188352 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (11325596 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (31286636 in chips)
Seat 9: THE CUBE (8393600 in chips)
Soltari84: posts small blind 500000
THE CUBE: posts big blind 1000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Highway51: raises 2000000 to 3000000
popimaiorca: folds
rakeinfools: folds
Soltari84: folds
THE CUBE: raises 5293600 to 8293600 and is all-in
Highway51: calls 5293600
*** FLOP *** [7d 6s 2c]
*** TURN *** [7d 6s 2c] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [7d 6s 2c Kd] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
THE CUBE: shows [Jh Ad] (high card Ace)
Highway51: shows [As Ah] (a pair of Aces)
Highway51 collected 17587200 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (45869416 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (16776704 in chips)
Seat 6: rakeinfools (5437244 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (28786636 in chips)
Highway51: posts small blind 500000
popimaiorca: posts big blind 1000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Soltari84 is disconnected
rakeinfools: raises 4337244 to 5337244 and is all-in
Soltari84 is connected
Soltari84: raises 4337244 to 9674488
Highway51: folds
popimaiorca: folds
Uncalled bet (4337244) returned to Soltari84
*** FLOP *** [Th Tc Qc]
*** TURN *** [Th Tc Qc] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [Th Tc Qc Td] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
rakeinfools: shows [Js 9s] (three of a kind, Tens)
Soltari84: shows [9d 9h] (a full house, Tens full of Nines)
Soltari84 collected 12574488 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (33889416 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (45753408 in chips)
Seat 8: Soltari84 (17227176 in chips)
popimaiorca: posts small blind 600000
Soltari84: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Highway51: raises 2400000 to 3600000
popimaiorca: folds
Soltari84 is connected
Soltari84: raises 13507176 to 17107176 and is all-in
Highway51: calls 13507176
*** FLOP *** [Tc Kc 9s]
*** TURN *** [Tc Kc 9s] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Tc Kc 9s 6s] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Soltari84: shows [As 3d] (a pair of Tens)
Highway51: shows [Js Qd] (a straight, Nine to King)
Highway51 collected 35174352 from pot
Seat 2: Highway51 (52556592 in chips)
Seat 4: popimaiorca (44313408 in chips)
Highway51: posts small blind 600000
popimaiorca: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Highway51: raises 2400000 to 3600000
popimaiorca: raises 3600000 to 7200000
Highway51: raises 6000000 to 13200000
popimaiorca: calls 6000000
*** FLOP *** [7h Ad Qs]
popimaiorca: checks
Highway51: bets 3600000
popimaiorca: calls 3600000
*** TURN *** [7h Ad Qs] [Ks]
popimaiorca: bets 27393408 and is all-in
Highway51: calls 27393408
*** RIVER *** [7h Ad Qs Ks] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
popimaiorca: shows [Kd Qd] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
Highway51: shows [Ah Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
Highway51 collected 88626816 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Million $1.5M Guaranteed
9,687 Entrants; $1,937,400
1. Highway51 $271,241
2. popimaiorca $197,615
3. Soltari84 $139,493
4. rakeinfools $96,870
5. THE CUBE $77,496
6. jfyjfy6 $58,122
7. SingleFileD $38,748
8. Snort4eva $19,374
9. Klauss8s $13,174
The $500k fell victim to the chop bug yesterday despite having some very talented players reach the final table. One of the more recognizable names was Bryn Kenney who is a well-known high-stakes tournament, SNG, and cash game player. Last year he was a big part of the nosebleed games on FullTilt that featured other stars such as Durrrr, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius. Kenney was joined at the final table by Joe “hoodini10” and Ryan “DoeBoyFre$h” Fees. Udine is a top-20 ranked professional who won FTOPS Event #12 last August for $304,793. He also final tables the $1,050 WCOOP Event a month later for $74,0005 and nearly won the Warm-Up earlier in 2009, taking 2nd for $73,926.
Fees is a respected high-stakes cash game professional who dabbles in tournaments. He has yet to hit a big score on PokerStars in tournaments but has won nearly $100,000 in a single day playing cash games. On the live scene Fees won the PokerStars LAPT Season 2 Championship for $285,773 in November 2008. The players at the final table seemed happy to see him go as they decided to chop-up the remaining prize pool as soon as he busted. While Kenney ended up taking 1st place in the $500k he actually received the smallest piece of the prize pool, just over $71,000. This was the biggest score he has recorded in some time and possibly the biggest of his career on PokerStars. On FullTilt, under the screen name “oneuponastar”, Kenney has won the $1k Monday once of $86,250 and finished runner-up in FTOPS Event #14 in 2008 for $56,496. He has more than $1.5M in cashes between the two sites and more than $500,000 in earnings in cash games as well.
Seat 3: BrynKenney (6343998 in chips)
Seat 8: hellzito (5186002 in chips)
BrynKenney: posts the ante 10000
hellzito: posts the ante 10000
BrynKenney: posts small blind 50000
hellzito: posts big blind 100000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
BrynKenney: raises 100000 to 200000
hellzito: raises 300000 to 500000
BrynKenney: raises 5833998 to 6333998 and is all-in
hellzito: calls 4676002 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1157996) returned to BrynKenney
*** FLOP *** [3d 2s 2h]
*** TURN *** [3d 2s 2h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [3d 2s 2h Td] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hellzito: shows [8c 8s] (two pair, Eights and Deuces)
BrynKenney: shows [2d 2c] (four of a kind, Deuces)
BrynKenney collected 10372004 from pot
PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1,153 Entrants; $576,500 prize pool
*3-way deal
1. BrynKenney $71,453.75
2. hellzito $77,523.66
3. ducksholdup $75,800.03
4. DoeBoyFre$h $39,202
5. Prometheus R $28,537
6. hoodini10 $22,772
7. thedonator $17,007
8. LarryBh $11,242
9. BeSje $6,226
While the $500k had a few big names at the final table, it was the $215r that saw the most notable faces make the last nine. A large group of young internet professionals was on hand to battle it out for a $43,419 first place check and bragging rights. Making an appearance on the STR for the umpteenth time was Joseph “bigegypt” Elpayaa who has a ton of cashes on FullTilt and PokerStars in big events for more than $2,000,000 total. Trying to chase Elpayaa down was Corwin “mig.com” Mackey, Chad “lilholdem954” Batista, and David “WhooooKidd” Baker.
Baker is well known in the internet poker world as “Bakes” but also made a splash in the live poker world in 2006 at the WPT Festa al Lago WPT Event where he took 5th place for $125,240. Online he has a bunch of big scores including a SCOOP bracelet for winning hte $5,200 PLO Event #19 last year for $215,000. He also won the Sunday $500k back in October 2008 for $91,500 and playing under “Bussa Buss” on FullTilt he won the $200k rebuy last May for $62,738. Mackey has had a nice career playing online tournaments as well including a 2nd place finish in the Warm-Up last March for $78,354. All the way back in 2006 he shipped the $1K WCOOP Event #14 for $580,212.50, one of the biggest scores in online history. He has not had as much success on FullTilt under “Mig_com” but he did win the $1K Monday in 2008 for $90,750.
Finally, Chad Batista is one of the most notorious online tournament players around. Known for his brash behavior at the table, Batista has managed to gain a lot of detractors through out his illustrious career. Originally known as “m8kingmoves”, Batista was one of the first internet professionals to make a big score on the live scene when he won a WSOP Circuit event in 2006 for more than $262,000. Online he won the FullTilt $1M Guarantee in 2007 for $212,000 and shipped the Super Tuesday on Stars that same year. Playing as “jse81” on FullTilt Batista has shipped more than $1.6M in cashes including FTOPS Event #10 last month for $225,000.
In the end it was Elpayaa getting the best of Mackey for the title and more than $43,000:
Seat 3: bigegypt (1220490 in chips)
Seat 7: mig.com (491510 in chips)
bigegypt: posts small blind 8000
mig.com: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
bigegypt: raises 18420 to 34420
mig.com: calls 18420
*** FLOP *** [8d 2h Ks]
mig.com: checks
bigegypt: checks
*** TURN *** [8d 2h Ks] [Qd]
mig.com: checks
bigegypt: bets 40420
mig.com: raises 71420 to 111840
bigegypt: raises 888580 to 1000420
mig.com: calls 343650 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (544930) returned to bigegypt
*** RIVER *** [8d 2h Ks Qd] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mig.com: shows [5c Kc] (a pair of Kings)
bigegypt: shows [Qc 2c] (two pair, Queens and Deuces)
bigegypt collected 983020 from pot
PokerStars Sunday $215r $150k Guaranteed
1. bigegpyt $43,419
2. mig.com $31,770
3. SHIPP ITT $23,933.40
4. lilholdem954 $18,003
5. Moosedebator $12,496.20
6. WhooooKidd $9,531
7. clarkkent33 $7,413
8. nicelife $5,295
9. niccc $3,706.50
The final event of the day on PokerStars actually saw a nice increase this past weekend as nearly 1,600 players entered the Sunday Second Chance. With a prize pool of $319,800 the Second Chance bested its guarantee by nearly $120,000 yesterday.Eventual champion ” HardcorePawn” took home the biggest cash of his career for $57,564. Before this event he did not have a $10,000+ score to his name on PokerStars and his biggest win was in the $3r. Runner-up “dunkmaster50” was much more experienced than his opponent but could not win a crucial flip for the majority of the chips. This was the 2nd biggest score of his career, well behind a $199,818 cash in the Million last September.
Seat 1: HardcorePawn (4105484 in chips)
Seat 3: dunkmaster50 (691516 in chips)
dunkmaster50: posts small blind 25000
HardcorePawn: posts big blind 50000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
dunkmaster50: raises 50000 to 100000
HardcorePawn: raises 750000 to 850000
dunkmaster50: calls 586516 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (163484) returned to HardcorePawn
*** FLOP *** [Js Th 7h]
*** TURN *** [Js Th 7h] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [Js Th 7h Jd] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HardcorePawn: shows [4d 4s] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)
dunkmaster50: shows [Kh Ah] (a pair of Jacks)
HardcorePawn collected 1383032 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $200k Guaranteed
1,599 Entrants; $319,800 prize pool
1. HardcorePawn $57,564
2. dunkmaster50 $41,574
3. Revjot $31,980
4. Reds85 $23,985
5. icebreaker11 $16,789.50
6. Godfatti $13,591.50
7. rmpvieira $10,393.50
8. fielderflop $7,195.50
9. Cordelia $4,477.20
FullTilt continues to try to keep pace with PokerStars but it is proving to be quite a difficult task. While the Sunday Brawl continues to prosper, their biggest event, the $750k Guaranteed, is constantly wavering around the $750,000 mark. It has come to the point where the Warm-Up on Stars is the clear-cut 2nd biggest event every Sunday.
The Sunday Brawl final table was graced by a few of the best online tournament players in the world. Winning the event was Chris “MoormanI” Moorman who is a top-10 ranked tournament professional and winner of multiple Tournament Leaderboards in 2009. Moorman has multiple $100k+ scores including a 2nd in FTOPS event #17 last year for $204,000. He also made the final table of the $10k buy-in SCOOP Main Event last April, finishing in 8th place for $112,950. This score took him to nearly $4,500,000 in cashes on PokerStars and FullTilt alone over the past few years.
Moorman was joined by Russell “rdcrsn” Carson, another highly-ranked professional who has made our tournament report numerous times in the past. His biggest recent win was in the $500k on Stars for $88,198 in January. Just like Moorman, Carson has a ton of great cashes and now has more than $3,000,000 in scores between the world’s two biggest poker sties. There were a lot of FullTilt professionals on hand including Carlos Mortensen who finished in 26th place and Eric Froehlich who took 41st. Bruno Stefanelli rounded out a trio of FullTilt “red pros” in the top100 with a 68th place finish.
FullTilt Sunday Brawl $400k Guaranteed
2,700 Entrants; $540,000 prize pool
1. MoormanI $109,620
2. Towelfish $70,740
3. rdcrsn $52,380
4. knluiy $39,420
5. jornx $27,540
6. paulpod13 $18,360
7. ibininlondon $12,420
8. Biggest Donkey $8,640
9. RandomDonk $6,480
While three FullTilt professionals finished in the top-100 in the Brawl, it was David Pham who made the most noise on Sunday. “The Dragon” made a splash at the final table of the $750k Guaranteed, taking 7th place for more than $18,000. While he might have been the most notable face at the final table, there were a couple internet pros who made a lot more money. Chris “brsavage” Savage and Alex “TheAssassinato” Fitzgerald finished in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Fitzgerald’s $55,580 score was the biggest of his career, just barely eclipsing another close call in the Super Tuesday last month for $51,260. He does have a major win to his name, as he was able to ship the Second Chance last June for $46,975.50
Savage finished in 2nd place but earned more than $109,000 due to chopping with eventual winner “-zoopreme-“. This was the biggest cash of his career and took him one step closer to the $1,000,000 mark between PokerStars and FullTilt. Prior to this score his best cash was a 3rd in the Million in 2007 for $67,420. Other FullTilt professionals playing in the $750k were Bruce Buffer, Isaac “Menlo Baron, and Erick Lindgren.
FullTilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed
3,970 Entrants; $794,000 prize pool
*2-way deal
1. -zoopreme- $116,518
2. brsavage $109,018
3. TheAssassinato $55,580
4. welshwizard9 $43,829
5. pokerlogic1 $32,872
6. shlomibh78 $24,376
7. David Pham $18,262
8. dwnbytheriver $14,292
9. timkrank $10,640
Capping off a great day of tournament poker was the $200k Sunday Mulligan. Unfortunately no FullTilt sponsored professionals were able to crack the top-100 in the days final event. However, the absence of FullTilt professionals was made up for by the presence of a FTOPS champion in “bigdogpckt5s” who took home Event #9 in 2008 for $277,930. He also won Event #14 in 2009 for $75,573 as well as finishing 3rd in the Brawl last December for more than $82,000. On PokerStars he shipped the big $109r for $77,976 in January and has more than $2.5M in cashes between the two sites.
“bigdogpckt5s” was set to face “LeoEleven” heads-up for $58,124. The top-5o ranked LeoEleven is more well known by the nickname “thecronic420” which he uses to play on PokerStars. Almost one year ago to the day he finished 2nd in the Sunday Million for $132,176 and yesterday he arrived at the same fate. The $36,998 score barely rates in his top-5 cashes which include a 6th in the Million and a win in the $200k rebuy on FullTilt this January for $74,062.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,321 Entrantsl $264,200 prize pool
1. bigdogpckt5s $58,124
2. LeoEleven $36,988
3. xROUNDER12x $26,750
4. TheStein $21,466
5. arsenal46 $16,195
6. PTAYLOR $11,889
7. g_peti $7,662
8. AmazingMiss $5,548
9. Cobalt56 $3,963