The one and only Razz tournament on this year's Turbo Championship of Online Poker played out today, sporting an inexpensive $27 buy-in and cool $25K guarantee. A total of 2,886 decided to accept the invitation, thus building a $70K-plus prize pool and nearly tripling the guarantee. And just a little over four hours after it started, jarmari of Russia came away with all of the chips to take the victory and more than $10K first prize.
With five-minute levels bumping the stakes up at an accelerated clip, it took just over two hours for the field to be carved down to 368 and the money. babebapebape, Dark Varvar, and Sindbad74 were atop the rapidly shifting chip counts at that point, but all would fall shy of the final table with Dark Varvar going out in 48th ($187.75), babebapebape in 28th ($230.26), and Sindbad74 in 17th ($283.40).
By the three-and-a-half-hour mark just 16 were left, with a couple of Russian players -- jarmari and BAZON-dima -- having pushed their way up the counts and into the top spots.
It would take just a few minutes more for the next eight to fall. gusar417 (16th), Barepenger (15th), Gigaloff (14th), and LBBigSlickAK (13th) each earned $352.25 for their finishes, while tommygotNUTZ (12th), Liongis (11th), SebbyGI (10th), and mikeden5 (9th) each saw $495.95 added to their PokerStars accounts.
The final table was underway...
Seat 1: relbmiz (United Kingdom) -- 997,352
Seat 2: jarmari (Russia) -- 4,714,081
Seat 3: BAZON-dima (Russia) -- 3,251,700
Seat 4: dezho (Czech Republic) -- 1,532,976
Seat 5: uapikne (Australia) -- 753,360
Seat 6: 700920 (Bulgaria) -- 63,112
Seat 7: iLampon (Chile) -- 985,985
Seat 8: outobot (Finland) -- 2,131,434
From 8 to 3
The stakes were all of the way up to 250k/500k to start the final table (with a 50k ante). 700920 was already nearly all in on the first hand after paying the ante, and after a BAZON-dima raise with a [2] showing 700920 would call the rest with a [5]. The players down cards were revealed, and the remaining streets were dealt out as follows:
BAZON-dima: ([7]) ([K]) / [2] [A] [3] [A] / ([T])
700920: ([2]) ([9]) / [5] [Q] [8] [8] / [J]
BAZON-dima's T-7-3-2-A had beaten 700920's J-9-8-5-2, and they were down to seven.
Just four hands later, BAZON-dima was raising again, uapikne three-bet all in for 428,360 total, and BAZON-dima called. BAZON-dima had ([8]) ([A]) / [9] while uapikne held ([2]) ([A]) / [T]. BAZON-dima was then dealt [2] [8] [3] ([8]) to end with a 9-low, while uapikne picked up [6] [2] [J] ([A]) to finish with a J-low and go out in seventh.
Before long the stakes were 300k/600k when iLampon opened with a raise and relbmiz called. Fourth street then saw a rapid bit of back-and-forthing between the pair resulting in relbmiz having committed the last of the 807,352 chips which relbmiz had begun the hand.
relbmiz: ([3]) ([8]) / [2] [7]
iLampon: ([4]) ([5]) / [A] [A]
relbmiz had a good start, but iLampon did as well. And as it turned out, the latter would have the better finish, but just barely...
relbmiz: ([3]) ([8]) / [2] [7] [9] [6] / ([6]) -- 8-7-6-3-2
iLampon: ([4]) ([5]) / [A] [A] [T] [8] / ([3]) -- 8-5-4-3-A
Just five remained.
Shortly after that three players -- chip leader jarmari, dezho, and outobot -- would reach fourth street with outobot leading the betting. jarmari would then fold to outobot's fourth-street bet, but dezho would raise and outobot called to be all in for the 1.55 million-plus with which outobot had started the hand.
dezho was in great shape drawing to a 6-3-2-A with ([A]) ([6]) / [3] [2] while outobot would need a couple of agreeable cards to go with ([4]) ([A]) / [3] [A]. But dezho picked up a [5] on fifth street to make a 6-5-3-2-A right away, while outobot could only muster a J-8-4-3-A after drawing [4] [8] / ([J]) and was eliminated in fifth.
The final four played on with the stakes increasing again to 500k/1m. Meanwhile iLampon had slipped to a stack of 165,469 and would soon be all in on third street versus dezho.
iLampon would conclude the hand with a board showing ([4]) ([T]) / [K] [8] [9] [9] / ([2]) (a T-low) while dezho would draw ([2]) ([8]) / [A] [5] [7] [2] / ([T]) for an 8-7-5-2-A to eliminate iLampon in fourth.
The final three chop it up
The four-hour break was imminent, but the remaining trio chose to halt proceedings just prior to its arrival in order to discuss a possible three-way chop of the remaining prize money. At that moment, jarmari led with 7,089,081, dezho was next with 5,209,181, and BAZON-dima third with 2,131,738.
The "ICM" numbers were soon produced -- leaving $500 for which to play -- and all three quickly assented.
The stakes jumped again to 600k/1.2m, and soon jarmari was calling BAZON-dima's two bets on third, then leading out on fourth and watching BAZON-dima calling all in for 336,033. jarmari had ([7]) ([8]) / [2] [5] while BAZON-dima had been dealt ([6]) ([5]) / [3] [Q].
BAZON-dima was then delivered [4] [K] / ([9]) to finish with a 9-6-5-4-3. But jarmari picked up [A] [6] / ([8]) to make a 7-6-5-2-A and send the fellow Russian out in third.
jarmari began heads-up play with about a 2-to-1 advantage over dezho, sitting with 9,975,114 chips to dezho's 4,454,886. The pair would play five quick hands that were all folded on third street. Then with the stakes at 600k/1.2m, a hand would develop that proved to be the last one of the tournament.
On third street dezho raised, jarmari three-bet, and dezho called. Then on fourth dezho check-called jarmari's bet, on fifth both players checked, and on sixth jarmari bet and dezho called. The boards appeared thusly:
jarmari: (X) (X) / [8] [J] [T] [A]
dezho: (X) (X) / [4] [T] [7] [Q]
Seventh street was dealt and when jarmari led with a bet again, dezho called with the 1,034,886 remaining. Their cards were revealed...
jarmari: ([5]) ([4]) / [8] [J] [T] [A] / ([K]) -- T-8-5-4-A
dezho: ([2]) ([9]) / [4] [T] [7] [Q] / ([Q]) -- T-9-7-4-2
A close finish, but jarmari had drawn the better 10-low of the pair and the TCOOP Event #33 title had been won.
Congratulations to jarmari of Russia for topping a field of 2,886 and grabbing a nice five-figure score for a $27 buy-in in TCOOP Event #33! And kudos as well to dezho and BAZON-dima for making it to a three-handed chop and handsome paydays of their own.
TCOOP Event #33 $27 Razz final table results (*reflects three-way deal):
1st: jarmari (Russia) -- $10,187.38*
2nd: dezho (Czech Republic) -- $9,116.93*
3rd: BAZON-dima (Russia) -- $7,620.98*
4th: iLampon (Chile) -- $4,959.59
5th: outobot (Finland) -- $3,542.56
6th: relbmiz (United Kingdom) -- $2,125.53
7th: uapikne (Australia) -- $1,417.02
8th: 700920 (Bulgaria) -- $708.51
Entrants: 2,886
Prize pool: $70,851.30
Places paid: 368
The Turbo Championship of Online Poker marches on. Check the TCOOP page for information regarding remaining events as well as the TCOOP Player of the Series Leader Board.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.