From the blogging chair, variance is usually reserved to an undercooked quickly made meal or watching having to deal with the polar vortex weather that delivers -20°F temps one day, 30°F temps with a foot of snow the next, and just for kicks back to an arctic-like freeze the next day. In fellow PokerStarsBlog writer Gareth's case, last night he was able to get a rather big taste of the variance involved with the Turbo Championship of Online Poker by chopping up Event # 3 for nearly $100K and a well-deserved runner-up interview afterwards. Today's Event #8 $82 NLHE Big Antes Second Chance tournament would feature a $300,000 guarantee that was smashed by the 4,748 entries and 1,913 re-buys for a prizepool just a shade under $500K. The variance tonight would favor those who successfully navigated the antes worth 20% of the big blinds going up every five minutes to win not only the first place cash but the special TCOOP champion golden colored card protector. iBreakU_U managed the variance the best today collecting the title and $78,736.44 defeating jonwayne69 heads-up.
ponjat would live to play again at the fourth hourly break after successful sliding a small stack all-in with [Qd][5d] against Merceko's [As][Qh]. A five on the turn [Jc] [9s] [2d] [5c] [6c] would send 24 players off for five minutes with average chip stack around 140K and blinds up to 60K/120K ante 24K. Sitting up top the chip counts was someone who has had large success here at PokerStars. Tim "blumenkind53" Ulrich has a Sunday Million victory, two Super Tuesday wins, and SCOOP final table to his credit. A win today would give Ulrich two legs of the PokerStars Grand Slam.
In the five minutes back seven players would quickly leave the stage to shrink the number of tables down to two. frma1103 was among the 17 still in and would be looking for a second TCOOP title after taking down the TCOOP 2013 Main Event for $326K. After losing a cooler with pocket queens versus iBreakU_U's pocket kings, Ulrich never recovered and five hands later finished in 16th place ($1,498.72).
Only 17 minutes from the break our tournament would blaze into hand-for-hand play with 10 players. After just a few hands we would start up our final table with a gusty call coming the final table chip leader. With the blinds at 125K/250K ante 50K kleath would min-raise from the hijack seat as dhutt shoved from the immediate left for 4.74 million. kleath was the only one at the table who covered and made the call with pocket sevens [7c][7s]. dhutt would turn over [As][Js] and despite kleath flopping a set would get a sweat on the river after a turned spade [Kd] [5s] [7d] [2s]. But the wrong black card hit the river [6c] sending 10.1 million chips to kleath and the SCOOP 2009 Main Event-L 7th place finisher to the rail in 10th place.
Seat 1: Rasmus1002 (2996868 in chips)
Seat 2: FabOne1986 (1303335 in chips)
Seat 3: kleath (11165590 in chips)
Seat 4: back2beis (3421000 in chips)
Seat 5: alfonsom28 (1507499 in chips)
Seat 6: frma1103 (3907462 in chips)
Seat 7: Merceko (2308056 in chips)
Seat 8: iBreakU_U (3077758 in chips)
Seat 9: jonwayne69 (3617432 in chips)
Fab five
Just five hands into the final table and the blinds moving up to 150K/300K ante 60K we would see off our first player. FabOne1986 would shove from the UTG+1 for a little more than a million chips as three seats over alfonsom28 did the same for 2.6 million holding pocket nines [9h][9d]. FabOne1986's [As][2h] added a wheel draw on the river, but could not connect with the [8d] [3h] [Kd] [4h] [9s] board enough to stay alive, finishing in ninth place ($3,996.60).
Fading away
Shove or get gone. With the blinds moving up every five minutes and huge blinds back2beis unfortunately did not catch enough cards after losing a 3.6 million chip flip against Merceko. Eight hands later with the blinds up to 200K/400K ante 80K sitting in the big blind with only 272,944 chips behind, back2beis facing a shove by iBreakU_U would call all-in with [8d][Qh]. Two live cards for back2beis as iBreakU_U showed [As][3c]. Neither player however would touch the [Jc] [7d] [Js] [Ks] [4d] board as back2beis took home $6,244.68 in eighth place.
I break U... twice
After being down to fumes early on in the final table, iBreakU_U stormed back and took over the chip lead after sending back2beis to the rails. The My Little Pony fan was not finished there as evident by the video below:
After slyly playing pocket aces [As][Ac] for a min-raise, iBreakU_U watched kleath shove for 9.4 million holding pocket tens [Th][Tc] and Merceko was already all-in in the big blind with [Qh][3h]. While Merceko found a piece of the [4c] [5d] [3s] [Kh] [8h] board it was not big enough as Merceko took home $11,240.43 in seventh place while kleath was cooled in sixth place ($16,236.18). No stranger to success, SCOOP 2012 Event #14-H champ kleath would have to try another event to add a TCOOP title.
Shattering the field
Three hands later iBreakU_U went into bull-in-an-antique-store mode holding a commanding 24.1 million chips compared to only nine million held by the remaining four other players. One of those players, Rasmus1002 tried to call the chip leader all-in for 854,660 chips after the blinds moved up to 300K/600K ante 120K with [Qh][9h] from the small blind. iBreakU_U struck again this time with [4c][7c] by hitting a seven on the turn [Ad] [5h] [5d] [7d] [3h] sending Rasmus1002 off in fifth place ($21,231.93).
More breakage
Another three hands later with the blinds holding, iBreakU_U would open shove from the button as alfonsom28 looked down at [4h][7c] which was lucky for iBreakU_U but under different circumstances only holding 221,802 chips after paying the big blind. alfonsom28 would make the call as iBreakU_U showed a similarly modest [2s][Tc]. Both players would pair their top cards [9s] [Qd] [Th] [7h] [3d] as alfonsom28 collected $28,255.98 for a little more than four hours of work in fourth place.
Denied second TCOOP title
The two shortstacks would battle it out two hands later as the blinds remained at 300K/600K ante 120K. TCOOP champ frma1103 holding just 1.2 million chips would shove from the button as iBreakU_U decided to pass after winning the last six hands in a row. jonwayne69 was not about to fold an ace in the big blind [As][4d] and made the call. frma1103's [Th][Kh] whiffed on the flopped flush draw [4s] [2h] [9h] [9s] [6d] ending the shot at a second TCOOP title in third place ($41,214.93).
Pause before victory
Heads-up play lasted all of two hands as iBreakU_U's massive 29.9 million to 3.3 million chip advantage was too large for jonwayne69 to overcome today. Watch below as the Russian takes down Event #8 below:
Dominating chip lead, dominating cards as iBreakU_U showed [Td][Js] to jonwayne69's [Jc][9c]. No nines on the [8d] [5s] [Kc] [4d] [Ac] board and iBreakU_U would take down $78,376.44 and the TCOOP 2014 Event #8 title!
TCOOP-7: $82 NLHE Big Antes, Second Chance results (01-24-14)
Players entered: 4,748
Places paid: 630
Rebuys: 1,913
Prizepool: $499,575.00
1. iBreakU_U (Russia) $78,376.44
2. jonwayne69 (United Kingdom) $58,200.48
3. frma1103 (Sweden) $41,214.93
4. alfonsom28 (Mexico) $28,225.98
5. Rasmus1002 (Sweden) $21,231.93
6. kleath (Malta) $16,236.18
7. Merceko (Lithuania) $11,240.43
8. back2beis (Greece) $6,244.68
9. FabOne1986 (Germany) $3,996.60
Be sure to stick around for the around-the-clock tournament coverage of the TCOOP 2014 right here at PokerStarsBlog!
David Aydt is a freelance contributor who is tired of winter and hoping it will warm up soon.