An abbreviated version of the Sunday Tournament Report comes to you this weekend as both FullTilt and PokerStars replaced the majority of their events with FTOPS and SCOOP tournaments. The $640 FTOPS Main Event concluded earlier this morning as did SCOOP Event #1-H which was a $2,150 6-max NLHE tournament. FlopTurnRiver is covering all of these tournaments separately so key an eye on our News Section for in-depth looks from these major events.
There were still a handful of the more familiar events running yesterday including the Sunday $500k, $215r, and Second Chance on PokerStars as well as the Sunday Mulligan on FullTilt. Tournaments as a whole benefited greatly from the two majors series overlapping as entries across the board were way up yesterday. The Sunday500 saw a 10% increase in its typical prize pool as 1,140 players joined the $500+$30 event. The same could be said about the Second Chance which easily broke the $300k barrier, well above its $200,000 guarantee.
The $500k had another solid final table full of recognizable names and successful tournament professionals. Runner-up “SHIPP ITT” is no stranger to success on PokerStars or this very event. In fact, he has done quite well in the $500k in the past having a win and another 2nd place finish to his name. In fact, those are his three final table appearances in this event, first, second, and after yesterday, another second. He has more than $225,000 in cashes in this event alone. He has also won the $109r numerous times and now has more than $1,300,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone.
Joseph “floes” Serock finished in 3rd place and earned $54,330 for his efforts. Serock has been quite successful in both online and live poker tournaments having won this event last July as well as the $109r. On the live circuit he made a big splash in the 2009 WSOP where he lost heads-up to Brock “tsoprano” Parker in Event #19 earning more than $341,000. Joining Serock at the final table were a few other known players including “Bill Ivey” and “ScHnibL0r”, two cash game professionals who dabble in online tournaments as well. ScHnibL0r crushes the high-stakes Limit Hold’em games on PokerStars, but has not yet seen a lot of success in tournaments. Bill Ivey now has more than $1,500,000 in tournament earnings on PokerStars, including more than a handful of victories in the $109r.
Despite all of the big names at the final table it was one of the lesser known participants who shipped the title and $97,325 in first-place money. Taking home the biggest score of his career was “gr33dy” who was not nearly as seasoned as the players he eliminated on the way to the title.
Seat 2: SHIPP ITT (4080000 in chips)
Seat 6: gr33dy (7370000 in chips)
gr33dy: posts small blind 50000
SHIPP ITT: posts big blind 100000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
gr33dy: raises 100000 to 200000
SHIPP ITT: calls 100000
*** FLOP *** [Kh 6h 7h]
SHIPP ITT: checks
gr33dy: bets 240000
SHIPP ITT: raises 380000 to 620000
gr33dy: raises 6540000 to 7160000 and is all-in
SHIPP ITT: calls 3250000 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (3290000) returned to gr33dy
*** TURN *** [Kh 6h 7h] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 6h 7h 2d] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SHIPP ITT: shows [Kd Ts] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
gr33dy: shows [Ah 3c] (a flush, Ace high)
gr33dy collected 8160000 from pot
PokerStars Sunday $500k Guaranteed
1,145 Entrants; $572,500 prize pool
1. gr33dy $97,325
2. SHIPP ITT $71,563
3. floes $54,330
4. AppelKruimel $38,930
5. lechuckpoker $28,339
6. Ben86 $22,614
7. ScHnibL0r $16,889
8. Bill Ivey $11,164
9. vfiras71 $6,183
Despite having a large amount of notable pros at the final table, the Sunday500 could not hold a candle to those making the final table of the $215 rebuy. Some of the more notable players at the table were Nicolas “PKasier” Fierro, Clayton “slammedfire” Mozdzen, Andrew “RunThisTable” Lichtenberger, Laurence “rivermanl” Houghton, and Matt “VerySexual” Larsh.
Andrew Lichtenberger really needs no introduction. Known as “luckychewy” by most of the online poker world, he is one of the most talented players under the age of 25 in the world. He was first seen making a cameo appearance on the GSN show “2 Months 2 Million” and then made a deep run in the 2010 WSOP Main Event where he fell in 18th place for more than $500,000. That same series he finished 2nd in Event 41 for $215,402. Chewy got his first big win on the live circuit last weekend when he took down the Caesars Palace WSOP circuit event for $190,137. Online he has shipped a few big events including the $109r on Stars and the $2,600 SCOOP Heads-Up Championship for $172,800 last year.
Joining Lichtenberger were a pair of top-50 ranked professionals in PKaiser and rivermanl. Both players have had major success on PokerStars in the past including major victories and $50k+ scores. Just like the $500k, the rebuy was not won by the most notable name but at least this time it was won by a solid tournament grinder in “Bounatirou” who had a large amount of $10,000+ scores to his name entering yesterday’s final table. The $40,467 score was the 2nd biggest of his career, just behind a $43,995 cash for finishing 3rd in the Super Tuesday two years ago.
Seat 7: psuNYY51 (345448 in chips)
Seat 8: Bounatirou (1251052 in chips)
psuNYY51: posts small blind 5000
Bounatirou: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
psuNYY51: raises 10000 to 20000
Bounatirou: raises 41000 to 61000
psuNYY51: calls 41000
*** FLOP *** [9c 8h 5c]
Bounatirou: bets 61200
psuNYY51: calls 61200
*** TURN *** [9c 8h 5c] [6h]
Bounatirou: bets 270000
psuNYY51: calls 222248 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (47752) returned to Bounatirou
*** RIVER *** [9c 8h 5c 6h] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bounatirou: shows [Ah Ac] (a pair of Aces)
psuNYY51: shows [9s Qs] (a pair of Nines)
Bounatirou collected 690896 from pot
PokerStars Sunday $215r $150k Guaranteed
1. Bounatirou $40,467
2. psuNYY51 $29,610
3. VerySexual $22,306
4. ErnestoF $16,779
5. rivermanl $11,646
6. RunThisTable $8,883
7. yuyupoker $6,909
8. slammedfire $4,935
9. PKaiser $3,454
The final event of the day on PokerStars was the Sunday Second Chance. The $200,000 guarantee event came closer to $400k than $200k as 1,635 players created a rather large $327,000 prize pool for the day’s latest event. One of the more popular figures in the online poker community, “WCG|Rider”, found himself heads-up with a sizeable chiplead over his opponent, “Ocall”. Unfortunately the ultimate grinder was unable to seal the deal as Ocall came back from the dead to take down the tournament and nearly $58,000. WCG|Rider is well known for his $10,000 in one month at a $25nl challenge which took place last year. This epic grinding test was the first of its kind and spawned a large amount of copy-cat prop bets of similar fashion. Despite being able to make the $10,000 he made quite a name for himself and is now a mainstay at high-stakes NL cash games on FullTilt and PokerStars.
Seat 5: WCG|Rider (1029200 in chips)
Seat 6: Ocall (3875800 in chips)
WCG|Rider: posts small blind 30000
Ocall: posts big blind 60000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
WCG|Rider: raises 963200 to 1023200 and is all-in
Ocall: calls 963200
*** FLOP *** [6c Th Qd]
*** TURN *** [6c Th Qd] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [6c Th Qd 8h] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Ocall: shows [Td Tc] (three of a kind, Tens)
WCG|Rider: shows [Ts 9s] (a pair of Tens)
Ocall collected 2058400 from pot
PokerStars Sunday Second Chance $200k Guaranteed
1,635 Entrants; $327,000 prize pool
1. Ocall $57,977
2. WCG|Rider $42,510
3. sprstoner $32,700
4. morbo1 $24,525
5. Apt555 $17,167
6. zavor $13,897
7. PlayWMyNuts $10,627
8. dj_ponytale $7,357
9. ltakcash $4,578
The only non-FTOPS event of the day on FullTilt was the $200k guaranteed Sunday Mulligan. Just like the Second Chance on PokerStars the Mulligan saw a big boost in attendance due to the FTOPS Main Event running alongside the tournament. With more than 1,500 players the Mulligan surpassed the $300,000 prize pool mark for just one of the few times in recent memory. Twenty-two of the 1,547 on hand were FullTilt sponsored professionals including Gavin Smith, David Pham, and Rafe Furst. Four “red pros”, Mandy B, Jordan Morgan, Jono Karamalikis, and Stuart Paterson all made the money and finished inside the top 100.
The tournament was won by Zachary “HustlerGrune” Gruneberg who won the Warm-Up on PokerStars last year for $118,692. This was the biggest win of his career on FullTilt and another major final table on a resume that also includes a 5th in FTOPS Event #18 last year as well as multiple top-10 finishes in the $1k Monday. Justin “Arsonist88” Shelton took 3rd place and $31,249.
FullTilt Sunday Mulligan $200k Guaranteed
1,547 Entrants; $309,400 prize pool
1. HustlerGrune $66,521
2. Puropoker $42,078
3. Arsonist88 $31,249
4. claroquesi $24,752
5. DaBails $18,564
6. Donk Perignon $13,304
7. citation3 $8,663
8. dangerousmav $6,188
9. Josef Cur $4,332
Make sure to check in with our News Section through out the next two weeks for in-depth coverage of the 2010 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker.