The 3rd WCOOP tournament, a shorthanded $215 buy-in pot-limit Omaha high event, had a field of 1818 players and a prize pool of over $350,000. Although some professionals had a strong showing the eventual winner was jalla79, an amateur who took home just under $70,000.
This was the first of three Omaha high events of the WCOOP. The proclaimed “action game” lived up to its name. Unlike the slow pace of events one and two, event three had over half the field exit only two hours after it began. Unexpectedly, through the first few hours of the event no big name players were in sight. In hour six that all changed. The name Boosted J, a player considered one of the top cash game players in the world, as well as a very respected tournament player, crept up onto to the first page of the leaderboard. Not far behind was tournament professional BKice, a top 100 tournament player according to pocketfives.com. As we saw earlier from samh133’s victory, cash game players may have had the advantage in this structure. While Boosted J had to be the favorite at this point, BKice had a great shot.
It was in hour 8 that Boosted J had taken over the lead. BKice however, made a questionable play and was now looking like he was out of the running.
PokerStars Game #12083021747: Tournament #70000003, $200+$15 Omaha Pot Limit – Level XVI (1500/3000) – 2007/09/15 – 23:32:29 (ET)
Table ‘70000003 324’ 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: BKiCe (146564 in chips)
Seat 2: jeffdbusy (79636 in chips)
Seat 3: TomNordli (269906 in chips)
Seat 4: PiMaster (178038 in chips)
Seat 6: jalla79 (440045 in chips)
TomNordli: posts small blind 1500
PiMaster: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
jalla79: folds
BKiCe: raises 6000 to 9000
jeffdbusy: calls 9000
TomNordli: folds
PiMaster: folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 5s 6h]
BKiCe: bets 14500
jeffdbusy: raises 51500 to 66000
BKiCe: raises 51500 to 117500
jeffdbusy: calls 4636 and is all-in
BKiCe said, “oh”
*** TURN *** [7d 5s 6h] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [7d 5s 6h Ts] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BKiCe: shows [5d 8s Ad 7s] (two pair, Eights and Sevens)
jeffdbusy: shows [As 9d 8h Qs] (a straight, Six to Ten)
jeffdbusy collected 163772 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 163772 | Rake 0
Board [7d 5s 6h Ts 8c]
Seat 1: BKiCe showed [5d 8s Ad 7s] and lost with two pair, Eights and Sevens
Seat 2: jeffdbusy (button) showed [As 9d 8h Qs] and won (163772) with a straight, Six to Ten
Seat 3: TomNordli (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: PiMaster (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: jalla79 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Resident Omaha specialist salsa4ever felt like there was nothing BKice could’ve done. “Well played by both parties. Even against the made straight he has close to 25% pot equity, and given jeffdbusy’s short stack he would clearly have moved in with any straight draw or even an overpair, so calling is mandatory.” Salsa pointed out.
BKice hung in for awhile, but ended up busting out in 25th place.
With all the big names out of the way, Boosted J must’ve liked his chances. Unfortunately, Boosted suffered a huge beat against another one of the chip leaders, which took him all the way from the top of the leaderboard right to the bottom.
PokerStars Game #12083454316: Tournament #70000003, $200+$15 Omaha Pot Limit – Level XVII (2000/4000) – 2007/09/16 – 00:02:19 (ET)
Table ‘70000003 321’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: TomNordli (422334 in chips)
Seat 2: ely_cash41 (491902 in chips)
Seat 3: All_in_at420 (74220 in chips)
Seat 4: lefty2506 (448472 in chips)
Seat 5: madiso (503312 in chips)
Seat 6: Boosted J (618367 in chips)
madiso: posts small blind 2000
Boosted J: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
TomNordli: folds
ely_cash41: raises 8000 to 12000
All_in_at420: folds
lefty2506: calls 12000
madiso: calls 10000
Boosted J: raises 48000 to 60000
ely_cash41: calls 48000
lefty2506: folds
madiso: folds
*** FLOP *** [Th 4h 2d]
Boosted J: bets 144000
ely_cash41: raises 287902 to 431902 and is all-in
Boosted J: calls 287902
*** TURN *** [Th 4h 2d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Th 4h 2d 3s] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Boosted J: shows [Jd Qh Kh Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
ely_cash41: shows [Ah 8h 5c Qc] (a straight, Ace to Five)
ely_cash41 collected 1007804 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1007804 | Rake 0
Board [Th 4h 2d 3s 6s]
Seat 1: TomNordli folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: ely_cash41 showed [Ah 8h 5c Qc] and won (1007804) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 3: All_in_at420 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: lefty2506 (button) folded before Flop
Seat 5: madiso (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Boosted J (big blind) showed [Jd Qh Kh Jc] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Salsa4ever boldly blasted the play of who is considered one of the top all around players in the world:
“I don’t like Boosted’s big reraise here. He has a good hand, but it’s not a hand that particularly wants to get heads up, with just the pair of jacks right now. With JQKK a reraise would be better. Most of the players have over 100BB effective stacks, so Boosted should really want to see a multi-way flop and ‘fit or forget.’ After all, he is going to be in poor position all hand. Reraising also opens him up to a killer raise if E was raising with AAxx, which is certainly a possibility.
On the flop, he now pots with a JJ and a 2nd nut flush draw. I don’t like this at all. There’s just no reason to make such a huge bet when he is the one holding the flush draw. A half pot bet is sufficient to see if his opponent has a hand. B is putting his tournament life on the line to try to make 80,000 chips. In a cash game this would be defensibly bad, but in a tournament, horrible.”
However, despite a dubious play, Boosted didn’t lose his focus. Like a true champion, he fought back to gain a modest stack, and again looked as if he may pull away a victory. A player at his table was so amazed by this he wrote in the chat that Boosted J should’ve tilted and lost his stack by now. Boosted responded that was what made him a great player. But with all Boosted’s efforts, he ended up busting out in 8th. After Brazilian C.K. busted out in 7th, we had our final table:
Seat 1: smittymatt (1346396 in chips)
Seat 2: ely_cash41 (1155861 in chips)
Seat 3: jalla79 (1670217 in chips)
Seat 4: lefty2506 (370944 in chips)
Seat 5: madiso (140248 in chips)
Seat 6: TomNordli (770334 in chips)
Jalla79 was in the lead at this point, but it was really anyone’s game. However, after winning a big pot early where his king high straight beat smittymatt’s three queens. It was smooth sailing from their, as jalla79 was eventually crowned Event #3 champion! Here were the payouts.
1 jalla79 Sweden $67,739.58
2 TomNordli Norway $49,739.58
3 ely_cash41 United States $27,379.08
4 madiso Estonia $16,434.72
5 smittymatt United States $9,162.72
6 lefty2506 United States $5,526.72