Just when you thought the Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) couldn't get any more "turbo", PokerStars kicked things up a notch with the Special Edition of the Sunday Supersonic. A $215 buy-in, hyper-turbo, hold on to your hats and buckle your seat belts event that requires equal parts gamble and luck.
There's no avoiding it. You simply have to run exceptionally well to survive a field of 3,231 players in an event where the blinds rise every three minutes. It was action. It was excitement. It was carnage. And we loved it!
So did Germany's iPUNI$H. After negotiating a six-way deal to reduce some variance, iPUNI$H went on a rampage, destroying his opponents with some aggressive play and a few handy river cards, to grab the TCOOP title.
A huge prize pool of $681,094.80 was up for grabs with the likes of Stavros Kalfas, Richard Veenman, Naoya Kihara, Matthias de Meulder, Mickey Petersen, George Danzer, Shane Schleger, Tatiana Barausova, Lex Veldhuis, Toni Judet, Caio Pessagno, Christophe de Meulder, Johnny Lodden, Martin Hrubý, Max Lykov, Christian de León, Vivian Im and Jake Cody all representing Team PokerStars in this event. Unfortunately they failed to reach the cash for the top 414 players.
Also missing the money was Banisher666 from Poland who was sadly banished as the bubble to miss the $381.41 min-cash by just one spot.
There were a few red spades that did finish in profit and they were Angel Guillen (388th - $388.22), Kevin Thurman (363rd - $395.03) and the lovely Liv Boeree (186th - $647.04).
It took under two hours for the field to be reduced to the final table of nine, with _vXvXvXvXv_ flopping a set of eights to better the [as][qs] of ELcamaleon to see our final table line up set as follows:
Final Table Lineup
Seat 1: cottroni (716,216 in chips)
Seat 2: full_83_tilt (835,410 in chips)
Seat 3: zerped012 (795,511 in chips)
Seat 4: Sytraxx (2,956,106 in chips)
Seat 5: _vXvXvXvXv_ (3,325,675 in chips)
Seat 6: WacKyJaxon (1,679,470 in chips)
Seat 7: define_cmd (738,902 in chips)
Seat 8: iPUNI$H (2,948,929 in chips)
Seat 9: xxxZotecxxx (2,158,781 in chips)
The blinds started off at a rather scary 60k/120k/24k which meant several players were already desperate need of a double or three.
cottroni was first to try. When the blinds came around, cottroni committed with [qc][jc] from the big blind, but _vXvXvXvXv_ had opened with [ad][as] which held on the [2s][9s][8d][Kc][7c] board. You don't see too many poker players hailing from the United Arab Emirates, but $5,789.30 was heading that way for cottroni's 9th place finish.
zerped012 was next to go after finding [Ts][Tc] in the blinds which was good enough to call the shove from define_cmd. However the big pairs were being passed around as define_cmd showed [Kc][Kd] which was too strong on the [4d][9s][Js][4h][9h] board. zerped012 collected $9,208.40 for 8th place, which was not too bad for two hours' work.
_vXvXvXvXv_ continued to surge up the chip count leaderboard with the elimination of full_83_tilt in 7th place. full_83_tilt moved all in from middle position with a pretty [8c][7c] but _vXvXvXvXv_ made the call with [Ac][Qh]. Things got interesting when full_83_tilt turned an open-ended straight draw but ultimately the ace on the river sealed the deal as the [4d][Ts][3s][9d][As] board left full_83_tilt to pick up $16,005.72 for a fine tournament.
Easy dealing
A double up for xxxZotecxxx with ace-six against define_cmd's pocket sevens was enough to trigger the six remaining players to take a look at deal numbers which was entirely understandable considering the hyper-charged structure and hefty payouts of this event. The chip counts were as follows:
Seat 4: Sytraxx (2,573,106 in chips)
Seat 5: _vXvXvXvXv_ (5,379,301 in chips)
Seat 6: WacKyJaxon (2,299,940 in chips)
Seat 7: define_cmd (1,064,632 in chips)
Seat 8: iPUNI$H (1,363,459 in chips)
Seat 9: xxxZotecxxx (3,474,562 in chips)
The chip chop numbers were quickly agreed to by all parties with the remaining $8,000, and title, left to play for.
With the deal done, iPUNI$H kicked it into another gear, and with a bit of luck, started to get back into contention:
An eight on the river was just the ticket for iPUNI$H to start to make a comeback.
Sytraxx couldn't do the same, shoving [Th][Qd] into _vXvXvXvXv_'s [6s][6h] and define_cmd's [jh][js]. The board was spread [8d][8c][2s][5h][7c] to see define_cmd triple up and Sytraxx derailed in 6th place for a healthy post-deal amount of $53,273.78.
_vXvXvXvXv_ continued to do some damage, catching xxxZotecxxx on the steal in a battle of the blinds. xxxZotecxxx shoved [th][2d] from the small blind with _vXvXvXvXv_ making the call in the big blind with [7c][7h]. The board fell [8d][5c][Ah][7d][Tc] to see xxxZotecxxx quickly to the rail for $63,944.06 in prize money.
iPUNI$H found a double up with [qd][2d] surviving against define_cmd's [9d][7d], before the two clashed yet again. define_cmd shoved pocket sixes and iPUNI$H called with [qh][td], catching a ten on the river to survive once again.
_vXvXvXvXv_ was also still in the thick of the action, but came unstuck when shoving [Tc][Ah] into WacKyJaxon's dominant [Jh][Ac]. The board bricked out [4s][3d][Kc][4d][7h] to see _vXvXvXvXv_ collect a very generous $86,489.90 for 4th place. The payout was actually more than originally slated for finishing in second place.
iPUNI$H and define_cmd continued to battle with each other, with iPUNI$H even winning a hand at showdown with just nine-high:
WacKyJaxon finished off define_cmd, after define_cmd called it off with [js][td] for live cards against WacKyJaxon's [as][9d]. define_cmd never caught up on the board of [Kc][Ad][Kd][Kh][8h] and was left to collect $35,418.41 for 3rd place.
Heads-up chip counts
Seat 6: WacKyJaxon (11,815,100 in chips)
Seat 8: iPUNI$H (4,339,900 in chips)
iPUNI$H trailed but didn't take long to find a big double up with [Qc][7s] surviving against WacKyJaxon's [Tc][Jh] on the board of [6c][2s][9c][Qh][2c].
It evened things up before the final hand unfolded, and again it was in dramatic style:
iPUNI$H punished them again, this time with a lucky seven on the river to claim a mighty victory. WacKyJaxon put in a fine performance to finish 2nd for $50,040.40 as iPUNI$H wins it for Germany along with $46,955.54. Congratulations!
TCOOP Event #19 Results
Entrants: 3,231
Prize pool: $681,094.80
Places paid: 414
1st iPUNI$H (Germany) - $46,955.54*
2nd WacKyJaxon (Lithuania) - $50,040.40*
3rd define_cmd (Russia) - $35,418.41*
4th _vXvXvXvXv_ (Switzerland) - $86,489.90*
5th xxxZotecxxx (Austria) - $63,944.06*
6th Sytraxx (Netherlands) - $53,273.78*
7th full_83_tilt (India) - $16,005.72
8th zerped012 (Belgium) - $9,208.40
9th cottroni (United Arab Emirates) - $5,789.30
* denotes six-handed deal
Heath "TassieDevil" Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.