This afternoon, in dirty basements* from Vancouver to Croatia, over 27,000 poker fans watched live as Jason Somerville played the final table of a Stud Hi/Lo tournament. For the moment, let's set aside the fact that it was, by Somerville's own admission, the third stud tournament he had ever played. Let's forget that the third stud tournament he ever played was a $1k buy-in WCOOP, where the competition is some of the finest you'll be pressed to find. And let's forget that his result was the largest cash he's ever made in a non-hold'em MTT.
27,000 people were watching a Stud Hi/Lo tournament broadcast live, in real time, over the internet. Not no-limit hold'em. Stud Hi/Lo. Somerville may not have broken the Twitch record he set Monday night, when he final tabled Event #7, but... ARE YOU SERIOUS, 27,000 PEOPLE WERE WATCHING THIS GUY PLAY STUD HI/LO!
The Twitch experience brings a final table sweat to a whole new level. With more than 800 hours of live streaming behind him, Somerville is a seasoned pro in the medium, mixing expert hand breakdowns with affable, stream-of-consciousness commentary. His chat-box fans respond with enthusiastic communication-by-emoji, hurling virtual cartoon pork chops his way when he splits a pot and showering their hero with bell icons as he (DING!) rakes in some chips. It may not have the decibel level of an Andre Akkari heads-up match at the WSOP, but it's still a party.
Event #18 kicked off at 2pm EDT on Friday afternoon and played 18 levels before wrapping for the day. Of the 185 entrants, 27 survived and three more would need to bust before the money bubble burst at 24. Among those advancing to Day 2 were Somerville (108,825), Team PokerStars Pro and champion of too many poker things to count Jason Mercier (141,357), three-time SCOOP champion Woody "plplaya" Deck (63,533), 2012 WCOOP Player of the Series and three-time bracelet winner Mikal "mikal12345" Blomlie (47,296), and confirmed Klingon Matt "plattsburgh" Vengrin (16,986).
End of Day 1 Top 5 in chips
Gerald "viking47 Ringe (United Kingdom) 155,344
Orjan "Aftret" Skommo (Norway) 145,984
JasonMercier (Canada) 141,357
Maicoshaa (Russia) 125,074
Jens "Fresh_oO_D" Lakemeier (Germany) 120,866
Action resumed Saturday afternoon, 24 hours after it began. Forty-five minutes into Day 2, the money bubble burst when vantala150's threes and deuces fell to Harleyy30040's trip aces. Vantala150 went home empty-handed in 25th place and the remaining players were each guaranteed at least $2,312.50 for their efforts.
With 14 players remaining, Somerville and Mercier landed on the same table and tangled in a hand Somerville took down on fifth street to put his stack back over the 100,000 mark. Now that they were similiarly stacked, Mercier had a proposal.
JasonMercier: friendly last longer?
JasonMercier: im playing every hand seet
JasonMercier: maybe decide after the hand?
jcarverpoker: yea maybe...
JasonMercier: take it
JasonMercier: streaming brah?
jcarverpoker: all day erry day
hhecklen: isnt that like asking if satan likes the heat?
In fact, Somerville is currently on his 28th consecutive day streaming, averaging about nine hours of play each day.
Overnight chip leader Gerald "viking47" Ringe busted in 11th place and moments later, the tournament went hand-for-hand on the final table bubble. With the betting limits up to 8,000/16,000/1,600, Mercier brought it in with the [6h] up and 55,000 in chips behind. Raconteur completed to 8,000 with the [Qc] and Mercier called. Raconteur made the high board on fourth street and led out. Mercier called. However, Mercier made an open pair of nines on fifth street and fired 16,000. Raconteur raised and Mercier called all-in.
JasonMercier ([2s][3d]) [6h][9s][9c][8s] ([Ts])
raconteur ([4c][7h]) [Qc][5d][6c][3h] ([Td])
When the money went in, Mercier had a pair of nines and three to a low, while raconteur held four to a seven-low and an open-ended straight draw. Raconteur hit the [3h] on sixth street to make a seven-high straight and scooped the pot, ending Mercier's run at another WCOOP title on the final table bubble.
Final table chip counts
Seat 1: dimas78 (91,798 in chips)
Seat 2: raconteur (348,876 in chips)
Seat 3: mikal12345 (70,566 in chips)
Seat 4: TIETYMM (630,915 in chips)
Seat 5: jcarverpoker (170,877 in chips)
Seat 6: Chillolini (270,807 in chips)
Seat 7: Aftret (78,213 in chips)
Seat 8: raidalot (187,948 in chips)
Somerville arrived at the final table fifth in chips, but soon fell on the short stack. In a battle with Chillolini, Somerville's pair of fives was ahead on sixth street, but Chillolini rivered a pair of nines and left Somerville on 66,000 in chips. Then, with the limits up to 10,000/20,000/2,000, mikal12345 lost two-thirds of his stack to Chillolini in a similar fashion. Mikal12345's low draw did not materialize and he finished with the pair of sixes he made on fifth street, only to have Chillolini hit running nines on sixth and seventh. A few hands later, mikal12345 put the rest of his chips in on fifth street against both raconteur and dimas78.
mikal12345 ([3d][5c]) [2c][Jc][9h][7s] ([Kh])
dimas78 ([As][2d]) [6d][8s][5d][Qh] ([Qc])
raconteur ([Ah][5s]) [8h][9c][4d][5h] ([6s])
Dimas78 scooped the pot with a pair of queens and an 8-6-5-2-A low, edging out raconteur's pair of fives and 8-6-5-4-A low. For eighth place, mikal12345 picked up $5,087.50.
Somerville picked himself back up, winning three small pots to increase his stack to 115,000. However, chip leader TIETYMM crippled dimas78 when he made quad sixes, leaving him on only 37,000. The limits increased to 12,000/24,000/2,400 and dimas78 committed the last of his chips on fourth street against Chillolini and raidalot. Raidalot led out on fifth street for 24,000 and Chillolini gave up his hand.
dimas78 ([9h][9s]) [As][Jh][3c][7h] ([8s])
raidalot ([Qc][Qh]) [Ac][6d][6c][Jc] ([7d])
Chillolini (X-X) [6h][2c][Js]
Although dimas78 turned over buried nines, raidalot had buried queens and made queens and sixes on fifth street. Dimas78 did not improve and hit the rail in seventh place.
Raidalot ground it out for the rest of the level, but had fallen back to 100,000 in chips when he completed to 12,000 with the [Ah]. Raconteur called with the [6h]. Raidalot led again on fourth street when he picked up a king, ranconteur raised, and the war continued until the betting was capped. Raidalot put the rest of his chips in on fifth street and turned over a pair of kings, but they were behind the pair of aces raconteur made on fourth street.
raidalot ([Kd][6d]) [Ah][Kh][8c][9c] ([2d])
raconteur ([2c][As]) [6h][Ac][Jd][Ks] ([4d])
Raidalot did not improve any further and went out in sixth place, good for $8,325.00.
As play turned five-handed, Somerville shared with his viewers that this was officially his best-ever finish in a WCOOP event as well as his first-ever five-figure score in a non-NLHE tournament. Not bad for a guy playing his third-ever stud tournament with only card sense and a 20-minute lesson from his friend and fellow pro Eric Wasserson to go on.
Somerville's stack rose and fell, vacillating between a 209,000 high and a 50,000 low over the course of the next level. Meanwhile, chip leader TIETYMM topped 1 million in chips before Chillolini hit a rush and took a 346,000 pot off his hands with a pair of fives and a 7-6 low to move into the top spot with 790,000. TIETYMM fell to 564,000 and over the next 15 hands, tumbled to 159,000. With the betting limits up to 20,000/40,000/4,000, TIETYMM completed to 20,000 with the [8h], Aftret made it 40,000 with the [5s] and the raising continued until the betting was capped at 80,000 apiece. TIETYMM's last 4,659 went in on fourth street and Aftret called.
TIETYMM ([Ad][8s]) [8h][7d][5c][Qd] ([Jc])
Aftret ([Ah][4h]) [5s][8c][9c][Kd] ([9h])
TIETYMM picked up a low draw on fifth street to go with his pair of eights, but never improved. Aftret rivered a pair of nines and the onetime monster chip leader was suddenly on the rail in fifth place.
Aftret and Chillolini were now on top while Somerville was still fighting on the short stack. Down to only 50,808, Somerville scored a clutch double-up after getting the rest of his chips in on third street against raconteur. Raconteur made a pair of eights on fourth street, but Somerville rivered a pair of kings and doubled to 111,616. Somerville's rush continued two hand later when he doubled again vs. raconteur, rivering queens and fives to snap off the pair of aces raconteur made on fifth. Somerville was up to 263,000 while raconteur was the new short stack with 126,000.
Level 28 (30,000/60,000/6,000) saw Aftret fall from 711,000 to 224,000 while Somerville thrived, chipping up to a 511,000 peak. Down to 126,000, Aftret bet the rest of his chips on fourth street and Chillolini called.
Aftret ([3h][3s]) [Ah][Ts][7c][5d] ([7d])
Chillolini ([Qh][Qd]) [5s][As][9d][8s] ([8c])
Although Aftret rivered sevens and threes, they were no match for Chillolini's queens and eights and Aftret ended his run in fourth place.
When three-handed play commenced, Chillolini was the chip leader with 892,500, raconteur was second with 638,500 and Somerville was the short stack with 319,000.
Raconteur seized the chip lead when he scooped a big one off Somerville. Showing a board of [Kd][Ts][8h][5s], Somerville check-called 60,000 on sixth street and checked the river. Raconteur checked back and turned over buried sevens, which were good enough to scoop, both players having missed their low draws. Somerville fell to 136,000 in chips while raconteur moved up to 875,000.
A few minutes later, Somerville brought it in for a raise to 30,000, Chillolini raised and Somerville called. Somerville called Chillolini's fourth street bet and called-all-in on fifth.
jcarverpoker ([Ad][Qs]) [3h][7c][8c][7d] ([Ts])
Chillolini ([8h][Qh]) [Qd][2c][8s][5d] ([Qc])
Somerville's low draw failed to come in and he finished with a pair of sevens for high, while Chillolini's buried queens improved to queens full of eights on the river. No low hand qualified and Chillolini scooped the pot, eliminating Somerville in third place ($22,200).
Somerville, of course, took it all in stride. "We can't be too sad about it," he said as congrats rolled in on the Twitch chat box. "If you told me three days ago I would win 20k playing stud, I would have said 'What are you smoking over there? And why aren't you sharing it?'"
Somerville also picked up another 70 points in the 2015 WCOOP Player of the Series race and currently sits fourth on the leaderboard.
Heads-up chip counts
Seat 2: raconteur (1,004,518 in chips)
Seat 6: Chillolini (845,482 in chips)
Chillolini started heads-up play at a slight disadvantage and wasted no time turning that around. He took a straight draw and a low draw to the river against raconteur's open pair of threes and rivered a pair of aces to take down a 432,000 pot and move into the lead with 1 million. Then, with the limits up to 40,000/80,000, Chillolini reraised on third and fired out on every subsequent street. Raconteur called him down.
Chillolini ([As][7d]) [8s][Ad][Kc][Th] ([Td])
raconteur (X-X) [Jc][2s][7h][3c] (X)
Chillolini turned over aces up and raconteur mucked. Chillolini moved up to 1.5 million while raconteur fell to 342,000.
Moments later, raconteur raised on third street and Chillolini called. Chillolini looked up his fourth, fifth, and sixth street bets before both players checked the river. The split fives raconteur started with on third street never improved while Chillolini rivered threes and deuces, leaving his opponent on only 134,000.
Raconteur, however, wasn't finished. In a flurry of action, he chipped back up to 542,000, then won a 656,000 pot without a showdown to top 870,000 in chips. Chillolini pulled out all the stops and quickly struck back, winning three pots in a row to push raconteur back to 334,000 in chips.
The betting limits were 40,000/80,000 when Chillolini brought it in with the [5s] and raconteur raised with the [As]. Chillolini called. Raconteur picked up another low card and led fourth street. Again, Chillolini called. Fifth street gave Chillolini a [5s][3c][6c] board while raconteur hit a "banana" with the [Jc]. Raconteur check-called Chillolini's 80,000 bet. On sixth street, raconteur check-raised all-in and Chillolini called.
raconteur ([2d][8d]) [As][4h][Jc][6h] ([7h])
Chillolini ([5h][7d]) [5s][3c][6c][Ad] ([2c])
Raconteur had ace high and a 8-6-4-2-A low when the money went in on sixth street while Chillolini held a air of fives for high and a 7-6-5-3-A low. Although raconteur's low improved to 7-6-4-2-A on the river, Chillolini made a 6-5-3-2-A and locked up his first WCOOP bracelet.
Congratulations to Norway's Andre "Chillolini" Messmer on joining the ranks of WCOOP champions! He banked $40,237.50 for the win, while runner-up raconteur not only improved upon his third-place finish in Event #8, but earned another $28,675.00.
We have two more weeks of WCOOP action ahead! Check out the WCOOP homepage for more information and a complete schedule of events. And if you're ready to try your mettle against our resident Twitch star Jason Somerville,click here to sign up for a PokerStars account.
*= Devotees of jcarverpoker Twitch streams do their viewing from their "dirty basements." Somerville broadcasts from his.
Event #18: $1,050 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo Championship
Entrants:185
Prize pool: $185,000
Places paid: 24
1. Andre "Chillolini" Messmer (Norway) $40,237.50
2. raconteur (United Kingdom) $28,675.00
3. Team PokerStars Pro Jason "jcarverpoker" Somerville (Canada) $22,200.00
4. Orjan "Aftret" Skommo (Norway) $15,725
5. TIETYMM (Germany) $10,175.00
6. Talai "raidalot" Shakerchi (United Kingdom) $8,325.00
7. dimas78 (Russia) $6,475.00
8. Mikal "mikal12345" Blomlie (Norway) $5,087.50
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