While snow and sleet cover the terrain outside, like most of the 3,693 players in tonight's $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up, this scribe decided to remain indoors during the duration of the tournament. In the early goings of the final table it appears jnel9 would take home first place after taking down three players in row. But, the hot hand changed and it was SLips713 taking home the win and $108,877.08 after just under 11 hours of play.
Team PokerStars Pro Richard Toth was seen sporting a short stack going into hour eight of this tournament 26th place out of 32 players left. The deep finish tonight exceeding his last run at the Sunday Warm-Up title which ended in November at a 47th place finish. The Hungarian Pro would find a small double-up mid-way through the eighth hour as the number of tables shrank from four to two as he clung to a chip stack of around 500K with blinds increasing to 30K/60K ante 6K.
After Toth was able to grind up to 671,328 chips he would three-bet shove over the top of a cutoff raise to 180,000 from AGALFARO. Holding just under three million in chips, AGALFARO made the call with pocket nines [9h][9c] which would race off against Toth's [Js][Ac]. While a couple of face cards hit the [2d] [7c] [Kc] [Qh] [3s] board but nothing matched up enough to keep the last Red Spade in the tourney finishing in 17th place ($2,215.80).
Usually we wait until after the ninth hour of play to announce the final nine but with the quick eliminations of almazyan2030 (Kazakhstan), Paranoiide (Netherlands), and matkillers23 (Canada) in 11th through 13th place, hand-for-hand play would start up before the hourly break. But, the five players each at the final two tables would get a five minute break to mull over their strategy to win that six-figure sum sitting at the final table.
Hand-for-hand play in the Sunday Warm-up is usually a fairly quick affair. But not tonight as all ten players would get through the 50K/100K ante 10K level. Then, with the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K our break-through would come in the form a suck out. Holding 1.13 million chips proctus would open shove with [Ad][Jh] from the button getting matt86ck to match the bet out of the big blind. Dominated matt86ck's [Jd][Kd] would go searching for a king and found one sitting on the edge of the [3s] [7c] [2h] [5h] [Kc] board as our final table was set below:
Seat 1: DwnByDaBrdge (1002316 in chips)
Seat 2: SLips713 (6881772 in chips)
Seat 3: DYBYDX (3848522 in chips)
Seat 4: yali1961 (5481995 in chips)
Seat 5: diasbet (3879565 in chips)
Seat 6: jnel9 (4707793 in chips)
Seat 7: matt86ck (8224683 in chips)
Seat 8: AGALFARO (1642966 in chips)
Seat 9: N1lmar (1260388 in chips)
First elimination hands knocks field down to seven
Continuing with the theme of longer play tonight, the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K before a three-way all-in woke up the table. DwnByDaBridge would shove for 832,244 one hand after doubling up N1Imar, SLips713 immediately made the call from the cutoff seat. Not done there, DYBYDX joined the party holding pocket tens [Td][Ts] on the button and shoving for a tad over three million chips. Again Slips713 was quick with the call button, and the pocket kings [Ks][Kh] showed why. DwnByDaBrdge's [Jc][9c] would not find any clubs on the [As] [6s] [2h] [6h] [7d] board as SLips713 scooped up the 7.2 million chip pot as DwnByDaBrdge collected $5,908.80 in ninth place and DYBYDX exited quietly in eighth ($9,232.50). DYBYDX is certainly not stranger to big final tables having won a WCOOP 2011 bracelet and final tabling this event during the recent TCOOP's Event # 46 Sunday Warm-Up special earning $12,892.50 while taking a mirror-like eighth place.
Play speeds up
Just two hands later with the blinds still at 80K/160K ante 16K diasbet would open for 341,255 from the button as jnel9 three-bet to 640,000 from the small blind. diasbet called to see trip kings hit the board [Kh][Kc][Kd]. jnel9 tried a 480,000 chip bet which diasbet answered with a shove for 1.85 million. Holding a full house [Jd][Js] jnel9 made the call as diasbet flipped up a smaller boat [5h][5d]. No two-outers on the turn [4h] or river [8h] and diasbet earned $16,618.50 in seventh place.
jnel9 strikes again
With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K jnel9 went looking for more blood found it in the video shown below:
Fresh off doubling up N1Imar, yali1961 tried to open shove from the small blind for 1.21 million to blow off a little steam. Unfortunatley, jnel9 wanted to play and made the call holding [Kd][7s]. Only one live card for yali1961 [9h][7d] failed to hit that nine on the [6s] [Ah] [7c] [7h] [Jc] board ended the Israeli's night in sixth place ($24,004.50).
jnel9 rolls a turkey
For those unfamiliar with the lingo surrounding bowling, when a person manages to knock down all ten pins three times in a row, they are credited with scoring a turkey. Usually it is a cause for some excitement for those not used to rolling higher scores, but tonight jnel9's turkey would end up with another elimination. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K jnel9 would min-raise as matt86ck called and N1Imar went looking for another double up, shoved for 3.2 million. Back to jnel9 who min-raised again causing matt86ck to back away slowly as jnel9 turned over big slick [Kh][Ac]. N1Imar needed some love again holding the dominated [Qs][As] but this time did not receive it [Jc] [Td] [2h] [5d] [Jh] finishing the tournament in fifth place ($31,390.50).
Far to go
Down to four players and blinds resting at 125K/250K ante 25K matt86ck would lead off with a min-raise from the cutoff seat as AGALFARO bumped it up with a shove for 1.42 million. Folded through the blinds as matt86ck made the call holding [7c][Kc] slightly behind the [Ac][Jh] of AGALFARO. A jack would hit the flop along with a king for matt86ck as the board [Js] [2d] [Kd] [6d] [5d] favored the Polish player and AGALFARO took away $42,469.50 in fourth place.
Kneeling down
A short time later still in the 125K/250K ante 25K blind level jnel9 would suffer a setback after trying to push mattck86 around with a preflop four-bet shove. matt86ck made the call holding big slick [Ac][Kc] which defeated jnel9's [Kd][Td] for a 16.6 million chip pot. Eight hands later jnel9 would shove for 3.7 million from the small blind as matt86ck made the call holding [5s][Kc]. It was the right call as jnel9 showed [7s][9s] and as both players made a pair on the flop, matt86ck's was the mightier [2d] [Kh] [7c] [Ad] [Ts] ending jnel9's run in third place ($60,934.50).
Love and war
While matt86ck was ready to declare war against SLips713 during their unscheduled break to discuss monetary matters, things calmed down enough when matt86ck's demands were met for the deal shown below:
SLips713: $98,877.08
matt86ck: $93,500.49
$10K still at large for the winner as the two saddled up for a 35 minute poker battle.
Slips in for the win
Near the end of this battle, a smaller ace would work once for matt86ck as Polish rounder would be all-in preflop with [8c][As] against big slick [Ah][Ks] of SLips713. An eight on the flop [5s] [8h] [Qd] [Js] [9d] helped matt86ck retrieve 12.7 million chips but still trailed SLips713's 24.2 million chip stack.
Two hands later they would get it in again preflop as SLips713 tried again with big slick [Kd][As]. Watch below if it succeeded against matt86ck's [Js][Ac]:
While matt86ck managed to hit the kicker again, so did SLips713 [8c] [Ah] [Kh] [Jd] [2d] as the higher two pair carried SLips713 to victory and a $108,877.08 paycheck for winning this week's Sunday Warm-Up!
$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (02-10-13):
(* part of two-way deal)
Players entered: 3,693
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $738,600.00
First place: *$108,877.08
1. SLips713 (Canada) *$108,877.08
2. matt86ck (Poland) *$93,500.49
3. jnel9 (Canada) $60,934.50
4. AGALFARO (Chile) $42,469.50
5. N1lmar (Poland) $31,390.50
6. yali1961 (Israel) $24,004.50
7. diasbet (Greece) $16,618.50
8. DYBYDX (United Kingdom) $9,232.50
9. DwnByDaBrdge (Mexico) $5,908.80
David Aydt is a freelance contributor