"bought in with FPPs today (not bad roi)" stated Cod Meharly right after the three-way chop talks gave our final three players over $70K a piece and yet another story of those little Frequent Players Points churning out something big in a major tournament here at PokerStars. 40 FPPs was all the buy-in needed to roll up a $5,200.00 buy in to the 2012 WCOOP Main Event and after two days of play, Marat "maratik" Sharafutdinov used that virtual freeroll to take home over a million dollars and the WCOOP Main Event bracelet. Everyone rushing to their computers to grind up FPPs for something other than t-shirts or a Porsche?
A good return for the Red Spades to the Sunday Warm-up as Team Pros Johnny Lodden (210th place, $529.92), and Jude "j.thaddeus" Ainsworth (167th place, $662.40) took home cash along with Greece challenger winner Stavros "IDOLLS" Kalfa (66th place, $1,126.08).
Team Online's Shane "shaniac" Schleger was tweeting about being happy to be in a regular old Sunday Warm-Up tonight in early goings of this tournament. Those feeling nearly swelled to a six-figure payday as Schleger was still going strong with only 50 players of the original 3,312 standing between him and a very WCOOP-like $103,997.70 first place prize. With the blinds at 15K/30K ante 3K he would make a play against Mr. Hirobow's min-raise from the small blind by shoving for 478,704 chips. Mr. Hirobow was not going to release aces [Ad][Ac] without a mis-click, making the call. Shane's [Ks][Qd] would flop a queen [7h] [Qh] [7c] but with the pair sevens left him with two outs. No luck on the [Ts] turn and [2h] river handed the last Red Spade standing earned $1,258.56 in 48th place.
A little closer to the big cash with two tables running, pyszalek (Poland), who picked up $80K in sixth place during 2012 SCOOP Event #2-H nearly made another big final table tonight finishing in 16th place ($1,987.20).
On the final table bubble with the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K Cyatusha would shove from the cutoff of the five-handed table for 1.4 million as igor gas reshoved for 4.6 million to make sure Cod Meharly folded the big blind. Cod cooperated as igor gas showed big slick [Ah][Kd] and Cyatusha needed a hold with pocket treys [3d][3c]. The "hold" lasted about .17 seconds as a king showed on the front and back of the flop [Kh] [5s] [Kc] [Jc] [9h] sending Cyatusha (who snagged $71K during Event #19 just a few weeks ago) out on the Ukrainian's well... tush in tenth place ($3,974.40) starting up the final table below:
Seat 1: Cod Meharly (2158249 in chips)
Seat 2: staszeq (1793726 in chips)
Seat 3: Flow_Bambow (3942702 in chips)
Seat 4: verybadday (3123882 in chips)
Seat 5: _slowb0y_1 (7296409 in chips)
Seat 6: Maskus (4549810 in chips)
Seat 7: igor gas (6215976 in chips)
Seat 8: SuitedConex4 (2837126 in chips)
Seat 9: gs08bjohnson (1202120 in chips)
Just a bad day
If I could make $5,299.20 from a donation of $215.00 (or FPPs for that matter) personally it would not be a bad day, but considering the proximity our final nine is to $103,997.70 getting knocked out in ninth place might be a terrible one. With the blinds at 65/130K ante 13K and just four hands after sitting down we would say goodbye to SuitedConex4. Holding 2.7 million in the small blind, SuitedConex4 would shove from the big blind with [As][Jh]. Back to the min-raising verybadday holding big slick [Ks][Ad], a call was quickly made. The [Qh] [5s] [2h] [7s] [8d] board changed nothing as SuitedConex4 went home with the aforementioned $5,299.20 in ninth place.
A VERY bad day
While SuitedConex4 would go out on a dominated hand, watching the river card come down on this hand between Flow_Bambow and verybadday may have the loser tossing their laptop through a wall:
Flow_Bambow holding pocket nines [9h][9s] to verybadday's [5h][5s] and a healthy 6.3 million chips in the middle preflop, Flow_Bambow watched the board trickle out four blanks [3s] [Jd] [3h] [Ac] but could not get pass the river [5d]. $8,280.00 in eighth place is likely enough to replace whatever walls and/or electronic devices that may have suffered from the bad beat.
Break time for everyone! Not so fast staszeq
As the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 10K the last hand before the tenth hourly break would see a short-stacked staszeq try to improve with an 860,663 chip shove from early position. Folded to Maskus in the cutoff with [8h][Ah] and 2.84 million chips, the Russian would re-shove to drive out the blinds as staszeq showed a suited [5c][Kc]. Only one club would hit the [6h] [9h] [Qc] [7s] [7d] board as both players missed and Maskus' ace played. Seventh place and $14,904.00 was shipped to staszeq.
Hooked by Cod
Maskus was rolling along with 3.68 million chips and called a 3.18 million chip shove from Cod Meharly out of the big blind. Maskus [Ac][Js] would whiff against Cod's pocket fours on the [2d] [2h] [5h] [Ts] [Kc] board leaving the Russian with just 480,620 chips and 100K/200K ante 20K blinds. Five hands later Maskus would open shove for 700,620 as gs08bjohnson made the call with [Ad][Qh] from the cutoff. Maskus' [7c][Qs] was dominated and stayed dominated as the board pumped out two pair for gs08bjohnson and Maskus walked away with $21,518.00 in sixth place.
More Cod, Less Players
After the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K Cod Meharly would open for 512,499 as it folded around to igor gas holding 3.32 million chips and looking to do some damage with [As][Qd]. igor gas would shove from the small blind as Cod Meharly covered and made the call with pocket tens [Th][Ts]. An ace on the door [Ad][2c][Kd] would retain igor's seat at the final table, but the [Td] on the turn took it away. [9c] river left igor gas running on empty but the Slovenian would grab $28,152.00 in fifth place.
Five seconds more and it could have been a better day
Just as Team Online's Richard "Tzen1" Veenman was about to stop the tournament clock for four-way chop talks, _slowb0y_1 and verybadday decided to jump into the tournament's largest pot to this pot preflop. Check out the 11.4 million chip pot below:
This turned into a verybadpush as verybadday may have been thinking no one would call such a large bet of 5.3 million going into chop talks holding pocket sevens [7d][7h]. But, _slowb0y_1 did with pocket tens [Td][Tc] and verybadday's sevens went down quickly on the [9d] [Ac] [5h] [Jd] [Kh] board collecting $38,088.00 in fourth place and missing out on the chop talks below.
After a little maneuver with ICM numbers and giving gs08bjohnson a little spot of cash, the threesome agreed to the numbers below (leaving $10,000.00 for the champ)
_slowb0y_1 $77,773.98
Cod Meharly$77,372.52
gs08bjohnson $71,000.00
Cod Maybemad
The only cushion this writer could think of after suffering two major bad beats back-to-back and get eliminated from a Sunday Major with three left is locking up that big cash first. Cod Meharly would first get rivered by gs08bjohnson after making a great call with [Kh][Qc] after gs08bjohnson shoved for 6.6 million. gs08bjohnson's [Qh][Th] would find a ten on the river [7d] [2c] [8s] [5c] [Td] claiming the 13.5 million chip pot.
After grinding back up to 8.9 million, Cod Meharly would three-bet a min-raise from gs08johnson to 1.82 million. _slowb0y_1 would four bet all-in for 10.7 million as gs08johnson folded and Cod Meharly snap called with aces [Ah][As]. _slowb0y_1 showed jacks [Jd][Jc] and was ready to give nearly the entire stack but diamonds kept hitting the board and after the river trey fell [Kd] [Qd] [7s] [9d] [3d] Cod Meharly's demise was complete in third place ($77,372.52).
River dreaming
_slowb0y_1 would start off with a 20.5 million to 12.5 million chip lead and it would take only eight minutes (minus a few minutes for a potty break) to roll up the remainder of the chips on yet another river card.
With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K _slowb0y_1 would min-raise from the button as gs08johnson shoved for 7.89 million. Holding a suited ace [As][2s] _slowb0y_1 made the call. Pocket sixes [6c][6h] solid favorite over the small ace until two spades hit the flop [9s][8h][7s]. [8c] on the turn kept the sixes in the money, but the cruel [7h] would counterfeit the sixes as _slowb0y_1's ace kicker and higher two pair would take the final hand and the extra $10,000.00 as this week's Sunday Warm-Up champion!
$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (09-30-12):
Players Entered: 3,312
Places Paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize Pool: $662,400.00
First Prize: $103,997.70
(* Part of three-way deal)
1. _slowb0y_1 (Sweden) *$87,773.98
2. gs08bjohnson (United Kingdom) *$71,000.00
3. Nicky "Cod Meharly" Evans (United Kingdom) *$77,372.52
4. verybadday (Poland) $38,088.00
5. igor gas (Slovenia) $28,152.00
6. Maskus (Russia) $21,528.00
7. staszeq (Poland) $14,904.00
8. Flow_Bambow (Germany) $8,280.00
9. SuitedConex4 (Canada) $5,299.20
David Aydt is a freelance contributor from Minnesota