With much fanfare and following a lengthy delay, the National Hockey League finally opened its season today to the delight of hockey fans all over the world. Meanwhile as pucks finally dropped around North America, Event #12 of this year's Turbo Championship of Online Poker offered players a chance for just $27 to battle through rapidly rotating levels of stud, razz, and stud hi/lo. And fittingly enough it was the Austrian player powerhockey skating past all to claim the victory and ice-cool $10,468.90 first prize.
From 2,508 to 8
By the time the 75 minutes of late registration had ended, a total of 2,508 had entered to create a big prize pool of $61,571.40, more than twice the tourney's $25K guarantee. The top 320 finishers would be splitting up that money, and in fact by then they'd already worked their way down to less than 1,000 players, with tamusha777, pinguinho, and Oblomoff79 leading the way.
It was just before the two-hour break that the cash bubble would burst and just 320 remained. Oblomoff79 had moved up into the chip lead at that point with more than 240,000, nearly 80,000 chips clear of the rest of the field.
Less than a half-hour after that, just 100 players were left, with GodSaker having pushed into the top spot with more than 470,000, followed by Kiss&Swallow and Oblomoff79. Within 15 minutes the field was halved to 50, and GodSaker was still the leader with nearly 1 million.
Like line shifts in hockey, the rotation through the three games continued at a rapid clip, changing every five minutes as the stakes continued to rise, and by the time they'd reached the tourney's three-hour-and-15-minute mark they were down to just 16 players.
It would take but 10 minutes more for eight more to be sent off, with powerhockey ascending to first position along the way.
Those just missing the final table included dexmorgan77 (16th), aleksei298 (15th), GodSaker (14th), and AUM RAM (13th), each of whom earned $323.24, and Caetana (12th), Zbad (11th), TrevorZinck (10th), and IamGrouchy! (9th) who picked up $452.54 apiece.
Just eight remained.
Seat 1: UnleashedUA (Ukraine) -- 1,142,539
Seat 2: TrunteTrunt (Denmark) -- 912,138
Seat 3: funlovingont (Canada) -- 2,330,660
Seat 4: KUBI$cz (Czech Republic) -- 564,616
Seat 5: pinguinho (Australia) -- 1,163,913
Seat 6: XIAZHAO (Austria) -- 2,029,250
Seat 7: powerhockey (Austria) -- 3,087,469
Seat 8: FENOMENICO (Russia) -- 1,309,415
The stakes had already climbed to 200,000/400,000 to start the final table, and thus it wasn't surprising to see bustouts happening with slap-shot quickness. Indeed, the entire final table would take just under 20 minutes to complete -- not even one period of a hockey game!
A shutdown pair: KUBI$cz out in eighth, TrunteTrunt in seventh
They began in the stud round, and on just the second hand of the final table two knockouts occurred. The hand saw TrunteTrunt raise, KUBI$cz make it 400k, pinguinho call, then TrunteTrunt raise once more to 600k. KUBI$cz called all in for 84,616, pinguinho capped it, and TrunteTrunt called leaving just 32,138 behind. The rest went in on fourth, and here's how the trio's hands appeared:
TrunteTrunt: ([8s]) ([8h]) / [4h] [7s] -- a pair of eights
pinguinho: ([Ah]) ([As]) / [Ts] [3h] -- a pair of aces
KUBI$cz: ([4d]) ([Tc]) / [Th] [8d] -- a pair of tens
The remaining three streets were dealt, with only pinguinho's hand improving:
TrunteTrunt: ([8s]) ([8h]) / [4h] [7s] [Jd] [Qc] / ([6d]) -- a pair of eights
pinguinho: ([As]) ([As]) / [Ts] [3h] [Js] [3s] / ([Ks]) -- an ace-high flush
KUBI$cz: ([4d]) ([Tc]) / [Th] [8d] [5d] [3d] / ([2h]) -- a pair of tens
KUBI$cz started the hand with fewer chips and thus finished in eighth, while TrunteTrunt's run had ended in seventh.
UnleashedUA speared in sixth
It would take just over an orbit for the next player to fall. By then they'd moved to stud hi/lo, with the stakes having increased to 300,000/600,000. On third street, UnleashedUA raised, funlovingont made it two bets, and both XIAZHAO and UnleashedUA called. Fourth street saw funlovingont lead out, XIAZHAO call, UnleashedUA raise all in for 542,539 total, funlovingont make it two full bets, XIAZHAO make it three, and funlovingont call. Then on fifth street funlovingont led with the 140,660 remaining and XIAZHAO called.
funlovingont: ([Qh]) ([Qd]) / [7c] [6c] [Ac] -- a pair of queens; three to a low
XIAZHAO: ([2h]) ([3h]) / [2s] [8c] [4s] -- a pair of deuces; four to a low
UnleashedUA: ([2d]) ([Jc]) / [Jh] [6s] [Qs] -- a pair of jacks; no low draw
funlovingont would then draw [Tc] and [7s] to finish with two pair (queens and sevens) and no low. XIAZHAO picked up [Kc] and [5h] to end with a pair of deuces and an 8-5-4-3-2. And Unleashed UA was dealt [2c][5s] to wind up with jacks and deuces and no low. That meant funlovingont got the high, XIAZHAO the low, and UnleashedUA was out in sixth place.
FENOMENICO body-checked in fifth
Three hands later the game was still stud hi/low when funlovingont and FENOMENICO traded bets until the latter was all in for 724,415 holding ([5s]) ([5c]) / [9d] versus funlovingont's ([2h]) ([3h]) / [6d].
The boards were dealt, with FENOMENICO ending with ([5s]) ([5c]) / [9d] [Qd] [3c] [2s] / ([Qh]) for queens and fives and no low and funlovingont finishing ([2h]) ([3h]) / [6d] [6h] [Jc] [Ah] / ([7h]) to make a heart flush and a 7-low to scoop, thereby sending FENOMENICO railward in fifth.
pinguinho frozen in fourth
Five hands later they were back to playing stud, with the stakes suddenly up to 400,000/800,000. That's when funlovingont and pinguinho each saw fit to put in four bets on third street, nearly depleting both players' stacks. funlovingont then led again on fourth, putting pinguinho all in for just 20,667 more.
funlovingont had buried jacks -- ([Jc]) ([Jd]) / [2c] [Ah] -- while pinguinho had a split pair of tens -- ([2h]) ([Tc]) / [Th] [6h]. funlovingont would subsequently draw another pair as the next three streets came [Qc] [Qh] / ([2d]) to add up to queens and jacks. Meanwhile, pinguinho couldn't improve on those tens, picking up [3d] [8d] / ([Ad]), and thus was eliminated in fourth.
funlovingont tripped in third
powerhockey hadn't knocked out anyone as yet at the final table, but had still won enough hands to retain the lead with three players left, sitting with more than 5.8 million while funlovingont had about 3.7 million and XIAZHAO a little more than 3 million. powerhockey would soon claim a 5 million-plus chip pot versus funlovingont in a stud hand to push up over 9 million while knocking funlovingont down to less than 1 million, thus setting up another elimination.
In funlovingont's last hand, the game was stud and the stakes 400,000/800,000 when funlovingont traded bets with powerhockey to go all in on third street for 887,012 total. Both had pairs in the hole -- fours for funlovingont and sevens for powerhockey -- and when the boards ran out thusly...
funlovingont: ([4s]) ([4h]) / [8d] [6c] [Jc] [Ac] / ([9s])
powerhockey: ([7h]) ([7s]) / [Qc] [5c] [Kd] [Th] / ([5s])
...powerhockey's two pair were best, knocking funlovingont out in third.
powerhockey lights the lamp after face-off with XIAZHAO
powerhockey thereby enjoyed a big advantage over XIAZHAO as they faced off for heads-up play with 10,704,481 to the latter's 1,835,519.
The two Austrians would play one more hand of stud, then eight hands of razz (at 500k/1m) without any of those hands getting past third street.
Then another razz hand arose in which XIAZHAO raised with a [9] up and powerhockey called with a [Q]. Fourth street then brought XIAZHAO an unwanted [9] and a pair, while powerhockey also drew a [9]. powerhockey bet, XIAZHAO raised all in for 765,519, and powerhockey called. Their hole cards were revealed...
XIAZHAO: ([2]) ([T]) / [9] [9]
powerhockey: ([8]) ([A]) / [Q] [9]
Like a team on a power play, powerhockey had an advantage with three streets to go, and the remaining cards failed to bring XIAZHAO a short-handed goal (so to speak)...
XIAZHAO: ([2]) ([T]) / [9] [9] [4] [7] / ([T]) -- T-9-7-4-2
powerhockey: ([8]) ([A]) / [Q] [9] [6] [8] / ([2]) -- 9-8-6-2-A
Congratulations to powerhockey for shooting through the field of 2,508 in just three hours and 44 minutes to score a TCOOP title and five-figure return on a $27 buy-in!
TCOOP Event #12 $27 Triple Stud final table results:
1st: powerhockey (Austria) -- $10,468.90
2nd: XIAZHAO (Austria) -- $7,388.56
3rd: funlovingont (Canada) -- $5,827.11
4th: pinguinho (Australia) -- $4,309.99
5th: FENOMENICO (Russia) -- $3,078.57
6th: UnleashedUA (Ukraine) -- $1,847.14
7th: TrunteTrunt (Denmark) -- $1,231.42
8th: KUBI$cz (Czech Republic) -- $615.71
Entrants: 2,508
Prize pool: $61,571.40
Places paid: 320
There's still a full week's worth of TCOOP left to go. Check the schedule for information about all of the remaining events, including satellites.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.