Experience pays dividends at the tables as the players who you will read about below have it in spades. Tonight's $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up field of 3,432 players had plenty of folks lined up near the final table with a shot at the $107,765.70 first place prize who have been here before or have proven results like David Hilton who won the TBL last year finished in 11th place. But, it would be a familiar face from last week, as FOO-92, who made the final table last week placing seventh, tonight would use that experience to take down the whole thing for $107,765.70.
Road back to the final table
After eight and half hours the surviving 18 players in the field of 3,432 sat at Table 254 and 53 as the only people left to become the Sunday Warm-Up champion this week. FOO-92 was looking to make back-to-back trips to the Warm-Up final table after finishing seventh last week ($15,723.00). With the blinds at 25K/50K ante 5K the German would catch the good side of a cooler picking up pocket aces versus jacks against jurakc for a 3.4 million chip preflop pot and knocking the field down to 17 players as a result. Five hands later stepped up the quest for a return trip by knocking out a shortstacked 'Dafoulmouth' after sneaking [6c][Ad] past Dafoulmouth's [Td][As] with a six on the river [Ah] [2d] [2h] [Qc] [6d].
More aces would show up as the blinds moved up to 40K/80K ante 8K as Poker Own U would min raise from middle position as heißtercamp applied the pressure with a shove for 875,818 chips from the button. The former Sunday Warm-Up champ heißtercamp needed something big to come out on the board as November 2012 champ's [9d][Ad] was looking down the barrel of Poker Own U's aces [Ah][Ac]. A severe lack of diamonds on the [Ks] [Qh] [Kh] [3s] [2h] board sent heißtercamp to the rail in 16th place ($2,059.20).
First hand back from the ninth hourly break Poker Own U took over the Table 53 chip lead by knocking out a sleeping ZzZzZick from Norway in 15th place ($3,088.80). Not a good stretch for the Norwegians as prebz would follow ZzZzZick immediately out the door in 14th place ($3,088.80). The fast eliminations continued with Brazil's thaleskoppe finding the wrong time to bluff. With the blinds holding at 40K/80K ante 8K and the board showing [2h] [8c] [4c] [5h] [Th] with two million chips in the middle, thaleskoppe would shove 2.1 million chip over a 600,000 chip bet from FOO-92. The chip leader quickly called with the nuts [9h][Ah] as thalskoppe's pocket sevens [7d][7h] exited in 13th place ($3,088.80).
After Jarcon86 claimed $4,118.40 in 12th place, with the blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K Y2JKID would shove 1.7 million from the button as dhilton12 made the call for less from the big button holding [Qs][As]. Y2JKID's pocket sevens safely weaved through the [2c] [Kc] [5h] [Kh] [9d] board for the 2.5 million chip pot as the 2012 Tournament Leaderboard champ David "dhilton12" Hilton would barely miss the Sunday Warm-Up final table in 11th place ($4,118.40).
Usually hand-for-hand play will result in nine players moving on to the final table to play for six figures. Tonight only eight would make the trek as a double KO on the bubble left the screenshot below one player short. Two races would form the final table as FOO-92's [Jh][Ad] took out kuzman89's pocket sixes when a jack landed on the door [Jd] [4h] [Th] [5s] [Tc]. Meanwhile on the opposite table CredeExperto was facing a four-bet shove from Ryba_5555 while holding pocket nines [9d][9s]. CredeExperto made the call for 843,420 more as Ryba_5555 flipped up big slick [As][Kc]. Nothing over a seven on the [6s] [7h] [2c] [3s] [6h] board was bad for Ryba_5555 because of chip position the Russian took home 10th place cash ($4,118.40) as opposed to kuzman89 who was the official ninth place finisher ($5,491.20).
Seat 1: Poker Own U (5079150 in chips)
Seat 2: CredeExperto (4673388 in chips)
Seat 4: FOO-92 (8259134 in chips)
Seat 5: TheCangorous (1449157 in chips)
Seat 6: motelli (5801477 in chips)
Seat 7: powerpokerBR (5037397 in chips)
Seat 8: Y2JKID (2961764 in chips)
Seat 9: Helst (1058533 in chips)
Seven OUT!
Just seven hands into the final table with the blinds at 50K/100K ante 10K Helst would push a shortstack of 838,533 chips from the cutoff as Poker Own U with over five million chips had no problem making the call with [As][Jh]. Helst despite being short held a decent hand in pocket tens [Ts][Td] but fell quickly when an ace hit the door [Ac] [3d] [9c] [5c] [5d] landing Helst in eighth place ($8,580.00).
No more kidding around
Seven players would get past the 65K/130K ante 13K level, but as the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K motelli would make a min-raise from the hijack seat as Y2JKID shoved for 1.7 million from the button. Folded back to motelli with a high suited connector and second in chips with over six million, the Finn made the call with [Qs][Js]. Y2JKID's pocket sevens spotted a jack in the middle of aces [As] [Jc] [Ah] [6s] [9c] to end the night in seventh place ($15,444.00).
Three-way action
CredeExperto, FOO-92, and TheCangorous all jumped into a pot. Those with a nine in their hand lost. Watch below as someone adds 6.6 million chips to their stack:
CredExperto's [Kh][9c] and FOO-92's [Ah][9h] were no match for the pocket aces [As][Ad] of TheCangourous despite both players hitting a nine on the [5d] [6c] [Qh] [9s] [6s] board. FOO-92 covered all bets, but CredeExperto did not finishing in sixth place ($22,308.00).
Power outage
Moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K blind level motelli would lead off with a min-raise from the button as powerpokerBR made it 2.8 million with a shove from the small blind. Holding pocket sixes [6s][6h] and 6.7 million chips motelli made the call facing off against powerpokerBR's [Ad][Jc]. This time the race went to the pocket pair [5s] [Qs] [Ks] [8c] [3d] despite the extra outs landing on the flop as powerpokerBR claimed fifth place ($29,172.00). A profitable second trip to the Sunday Warm-Up final table who made it here in October 2011 finishing in eighth place.
What was looking like a quick night at the final table turned into a drawn out fight as four players would head to the five minute break after the 11th hour of play. FOO-92 perhaps using some experience from last week's final table held a sizable 16.4 million chip stack as TheCangorous with 8.8 million chips held almost as much as motelli (5.5 million) and Poker Own U (3.5 million) combined.
motelli done
Shortly after the break motelli would give up a double up to Poker Own U getting knocked down to 1.9 million chips as the VIP Supernova claimed the 7.1 million chip pot. Five hands later with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K TheCangourous led off with a min-raise from the cutoff as motelli tossed in the 1.9 million chips and holding pocket eights [8s][8h] TheCangourous made the call. motelli's [Kc][Tc] went searching for face cards or clubs but only found a jack on the [3d] [6h] [2d] [Jh] [9h] board to finish in fourth place ($39,468.00).
Poker Wizard of Westeros
After an unscheduled 15 minute break as our final three could not hash out the details on a chop, TheCangorous showing Arya Stark as an avatar hopefully was paying more attention with six-figures on the line then the newest showing of the popular HBO series "Game of Thrones" tonight. With the blinds at 250K/500K ante 50K Foo-92 shoved from the small blind still covering the table easily with a 19.7 million chip stack. Holding [Th][Ad] TheCangorous figured to be ahead and made the call. Ahead of FOO-92's [9d][Kh] until the flop shot a nine in the middle of it [4d] [9s] [5d] [Qs] [2h] ending TheCangourous' night in third place ($56,628.00).
No fight left
Despite the lengthy final table battle the most important spots took the least amount of time to fill. Just two hands later with FOO-92 holding a 27.3 million to 7 million chip lead it would be over after the hand below played out:
After a shove from Poker Own U from the button FOO-92 was waiting to make the call with [6c][As]. [Qc][7c] sitting in Poker Own U's hand looked great after the queen in the hit flop and king on the [Kc] turn. But, tonight was redemption for FOO-92 hitting an ace [Ad] on the river to take down the Sunday Warm-Up title and $107,765.70!
$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-14-13):
Players entered: 3,432
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $686,400.00
First Place: $107,765.70
1. FOO-92 (Germany) $107,765.70
2. Poker Own U (Canada) $80,308.80
3. TheCangorous (Australia) $56,628.00
4. motelli (Finland) $39,468.00
5. powerpokerBR (Brazil) $29,172.00
6. CredeExperto (Russia) $22,308.00
7. Y2JKID (Canada) $15,444.00
8. Helst (Sweden) $8,580.00
9. kuzman89 (Canada) $5,491.00
David Aydt is a freelance contributor