With millions of dollars in guarantees and minimal time requirements thanks to the turbo structures in all of its events, TCOOP is going to give tournament grinders a lot of reasons to play over the next week and a half. Event #1 was a perfect example of what makes this series so great: a 6-max turbo NL Hold'em event with a $750,000 prize pool, one whose winner was crowned in just five hours and 36 minutes.
That was attractive enough to draw a crowd of 25,590 players, only six of whom were left when the final table began play at 5:03 p.m. ET:
Seat 1: Raymen82 (33,206,160 in chips)
Seat 2: Shavgula (5,505,223 in chips)
Seat 3: sting_AC (18,788,736 in chips)
Seat 4: venced0r (47,710,494 in chips)
Seat 5: carmenqueasy (15,574,188 in chips)
Seat 6: URMYLeNoR (7,165,199 in chips)
Chip leader venced0r of Germany held a little over 37 big blinds as the final table began on the 700K/1.4M/175K, but nobody else was in anything resembling a comfortable position. Shavgula of Georgia was the worst off with just under four big blinds, but Belgium's carmenqueasy and Canada's sting_AC were in immediate danger, too. That had almost everyone at the table willing to make a deal, but Raymen82 from the Netherlands wasn't having any of it right away.
"shav and urmy out and then I will discuss," typed Raymen82, so play moved forward Then Raymen82 quickly took care of half of those requirements. Sitting in the big blind with [Kd] [7s] on Hand #5, the Dutch player called for another 2.53M to face off with Shavgula's [Ad] [Js]. A small underdog before the flop turned into a big favorite after the first three cards came down [Kh] [7d] [2d], leaving Shavgula in need of one of a few possible runner-runner combinations. But the turn and river came [9s] [6c], making Shavgula the final table first casualty in 6th place ($7,500).
URMYLeNoR proved more difficult to knock out. The German player doubled up to 14.98M in the small blind on Hand #9 with [Ah] [7h] against venced0r's [Qh] [8h] after the latter tried to steal the blinds from the button. Two hands later Raymen82 took a coin flip with [Ah] [Js] for a chance to knock out carmenqueasy, but the Belgian player's [7d] [7s] caught a set on the flop of the [7c] [5d] [3c] [2s] [Jc] board and needed no more help. That moved carmenqueasy up to 26.99M chips and flattened out the counts enough to convince everyone to talk about a deal:
Seat 1: Raymen82 (36,237,195 in chips)
Seat 3: sting_AC (9,963,736 in chips)
Seat 4: venced0r (41,370,295 in chips)
Seat 5: carmenqueasy (26,798,376 in chips)
Seat 6: URMYLeNoR (13,580,398 in chips)
Deal time
After looking at the chip-chop numbers - and giving the hard-bargaining URMYLeNoR an extra $1,000 above them - all five players agreed and got back to the action. With the deal on the books and an extra $15,000 to play for, sting_AC had nothing to lose and made a three-bet all-in for 9.76M with after Raymen82 opened for 3.47M. Raymen82 made the call with [As] [Jh] and had sting_AC's ace dominated, but the board ran out [Kh] [3c] [3h] [Th] [Kc] and the pot was split. Five hands later it the same two players would square off, this time with sting_AC holding the dominating hand, [Kh] [Td] against [Qs] [Th]. There were no bumps on the [4d] [8s] [7h] [4c] [3s] and sting_AC was back in decent position once again with a 26.32M-chip stack.
After that nobody was willing to be the first one to make a mistake. Nearly all of the pots were won before the flop, and none went to showdown until Hand #31. That one saw carmenqueasy lead with an all-in bet of 16.89 from the cutoff, a bet that went uncalled until the action reached sting_AC in the big blind. The Canadian called with [Ac] [Kh] and 14.32M chips behind, and was up against carmenqueasy's [Ah] [Jd]. Nearly a three-to-one dog before the flop, carmenqueasy jumped into the lead when the board started off [3d] [7s] [Jh]. The turn was the safe [4s], but the [Kd] on the river knocked the Belgian player out in 5th place ($40,284).
URMYLeNoR looked likely to be the next player out, holding just under five big blinds, but the deck had other plans. Just three hands after the first post-deal knockout came the next confrontation. sting_AC opened with a minimum raise to 4M under the gun and then called after Raymen82 moved all-in for 20.22M in the big blind. Raymen82 had a small lead with [6s] [6c] against [Kh] [Qc] but that evaporated on the [4h] [9d] [Qs] flop. The [Qh] turn didn't actually change much, as Raymen82 still had two outs to win the 42.44M-chip pot, but the [4c] on the river was the end of the line for Raymen82 in 4th place ($51,862.85).
Three players for $15K
sting_AC's stack was now worth 36 big blinds to venced0r's 22 and URMYLeNoR's five. Both the leader and the short stack had a lot of incentive to play for the extra $15K on the table, given that they had the two smallest shares of the five-way deal, while venced0r was already guaranteed the largest share at more than $57K. URMYLeNoR was able to turn desperation moves into double-ups on both Hand #40 and Hand #42, one against each opponent, to chip up to 29.17M.
Then the table became a Mexican standoff - or if not that, then whatever you call it when two Germans and a Canadian play three-bet chicken for 14 hands. At the end of that run URMYLeNoR once again doubled up twice more in three hands, to 21.78M with a slight dog against venced0r and then to 38.24M with a slight favorite against sting_AC. The wild ride finally came to an end on Hand #64 after URMYLeNoR opened for a minimum raise to 5M on the button and called after sting_AC moved all-in for 59.33M. That had URMYLeNoR covered, so the German's tournament was on the line by calling with [Ad] [9c] - a bad development considering sting_AC had been dealt [Kh] [Ks]. The board came [7s] [6h] [Js] [6c] [Kd], no help at all to the dog, and URMYLeNoR was gone in 3rd place ($27,470.24).
Heads-up play started with 1.5M/3M blinds and 375K antes, with the chips split like so:
Seat 3: sting_AC (96,962,093 in chips)
Seat 4: venced0r (30,987,907 in chips)
The duel would last just eight hands, most of that span bereft of action as the two folded either on the button or to an all-in raise from it. On the eighth hand venced0r repeated the pattern with an all-in move worth 32.48M, but sting_AC shook things up by calling with [Qd] [2h]. That turned out to be ahead, as venced0r held [8d] [6d] - and it stayed there as the board ran out [7c] [Qc] [3d] [Kh] [Th] to bring the tournament to a close.
venced0r may not have been able to make up any ground in the heads-up match, but the German player still walked with the tournament's biggest payday, a $57,615.77 share from the five-way deal. As for sting_AC, the Canadian player took the extra $15K for winning this TCOOP's opening event, good for a total prize of $37,416.85 - and, of course, an early lead on the TCOOP Player of the Series leaderboard.
TCOOP-01: $27 NL Hold'em (6-max)
Entrants: 25,590
Prize pool: $750,000
Places paid: 3,600
1. sting_AC (Canada) $37,416.85*
2. venced0r (Germany) $57,615.77*
3. URMYLeNoR (Germany) $27,470.24*
4. Raymen82 (Netherlands) $51,862.85*
5. carmenqueasy (Belgium) $40,284*
6. Shavgula (Georgia) $7,500
* - denotes result of a five-way deal
Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.