Finishing first may get you the prestige of winning a TCOOP event but for those with money on their minds, going for the bounties raked in the win. The $600,000.00 guarantee was demolished 11 minutes into play as a final tally of 4,250 would play for a total of $850,000.00. Due to the nature of Event #3's Progressive Ultra-Knockout payout, only one-fourth of that went to the regular prize pool ($212,500.00) as the rest ($637,500.00) was place on the top of everyone's heads. The top dog, ugritaly, would collect $33,363.40 and the largest amount of bounties ($24,591.48) while claiming the TCOOP 2015 Event #3 victory.

The regular money bubble burst one minute after the second hourly break as noctraen (Denmark) would settle for the $431.25 in collected bounties. The remaining 540 players would play for the side pot containing a not-so-little $33,363.40 sitting up top for the champ.

Out of the four players striving for the PokerStars Grand Slam, only Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko dared to try his luck. Unfortunately, the WCOOP, SCOOP, EPT Prague High Roller, and Sunday Million champ would need to wait an hour or so for the next TCOOP event to start up after collecting a single bounty before retiring.

Laurynas "LaurisL91" Levinskas with a SCOOP final table to his credit (2014 Event #6-H) would come one table short from adding a TCOOP final after finishing in 17th place ($637.50 and $5,624.98 in bounties).

A furious run of eliminations brought hand-for-hand play right before the fourth hourly break. On the third to last hand before the break with the blinds up to 60K/120K ante 15K CHIQUIDEALER tried to snag the blinds away from the table chip leader Borjomi1970 with a shove from the small blind. Borjomi1970 was up to the task, calling with [Ac][Th] and dominating CHIQUIDEALER's [Td][Jh]. The jack-less board [Qs] [2c] [4h] [Ts] [Qd] sent Borjomi1970 to the final table with the largest bounty:

Seat 1: ToTall4Y (3187448 in chips)
Seat 2: Bigdaft (1123662 in chips)
Seat 3: plokker292 (2255721 in chips)
Seat 4: actaml (1454316 in chips)
Seat 5: Borjomi1970 (4929207 in chips)
Seat 6: bobix12 (1610954 in chips)
Seat 7: ViDss (1498357 in chips)
Seat 8: drygo 1 (2577176 in chips)
Seat 9: ugritaly (2613159 in chips)

Eight hands in, as there is no time to waste in the TCOOP, bobix12, drygo 1, and ToTall4Y, covering all bets, would shove preflop creating a 4.8 million chip pot. If the name sounds familiar ToTall4Y was at the Super Tuesday final table two days ago earning $22K in sixth place. Might be a larger payday at the TCOOP as ToTall4Y's [Qd][As] managed to side-step drygo 1's big slick [Ad][Kc] and bobix12's [7s][9s] on the [Qh] [6c] [7c] [Td] [6d] board to eliminate bobix12 in ninth ($1,700.00 and $4,247.13 in bounties) and drygo 1 in eighth ($2,625.25 and $8,136.88).

Four minutes later with the blinds up to 80K/160K ante 20K ToTall4Y would go three for three in collecting bounties. Plokker292, who held the chip lead for most of hours two and three, shoved for a meager 206,562. Borjomi1970 would three-bet to 320,000 as ToTall4Y shut down Borjoni1970 with a shove for 6.7 million. Pocket nines [9c][9s] for the chip leader would safely cross the [Jd] [2h] [4s] [6h] [Kd] board as plokker292's [Ts][Ah] was forced to leave in seventh place ($4,781.25 and $7,302.80 in bounties).

Three hands later Bigdaft would get in on the action.

Bigdaft nearly claimed a Sunday Warm-Up win in 2014 as the runner-up winning $68K. This hand may boost Bigdaft to a Major win. Going into the [8h][Td][7d] flop with actaml, Bigdaft flopped top pair and a straight draw holding [9d][Th]. But, actaml's top pair, better kicker was ahead after the shortstack shoved. The [8c] did not help but a timely [Jd] on the river connected the straight and disconnected actaml from the table in sixth place ($6,906.25 and $1,403.90 in bounties).

Six hands later ToTall4Y was back and ready to claim bounty number four. With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 25K Borjomi1970 would toss in 1.67 million over a raise by ToTall4Y. Good cards for Borjomi1970 holding [Qc][Ah] but bad timing as the chip leader turned up big slick [Ks][Ad]. No role reversals on the [6h] [Js] [3c] [8h] [4h] board sent Borjomi1970 home in fifth place ($9,031.25 and $9,387.52 in bounties).

Ten minutes later ugritaly would wrestle the chip lead from ToTall4Y's hands after doubling through Bigdaft then knocking out ViDss two hands later in fourth place ($12,218.75 and $3,893.09 in bounties).

Bigdaft's depleted stack would not allow for much more play. Bigdaft was only two players away from that Major win but came up short. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 37.5K Bigdaft would shove from the small blind for 1.85 million as ugritaly made the call with [7h][Qh]. One pip more than Bigdaft's [Jd][Th] as the [6s] [Ac] [3c] [3d] [5c] board crushed Bigdaft's dreams in third place ($17,531.25 and $3,683.19 in bounties).

Ugritaly would start off with a 12.1 million to nine million chip lead but five hands in, ToTall4Y would bring the match nearly all-square after getting called down to the river with a pair of jacks. Three hands after that ToTall4Y would increase the lead after claiming an 8.2 million chip pot with a river shove that ugritaly had no answer for.

But ugritaly was just laying low.

Five hands later ugritaly earned a double-up and four hands later with the lead extended to 14.8 million to 6.4 million, ugritaly was a freshly minted TCOOP champion. Using the weight of the chip lead, ugritaly shoved from the button as ToTall4Y called all-in holding [Ah][Th]. Ugritaly's [5s][6s] was live and alive after a five in the door [5d] [3c] [2c] [3s] [Kh] shipped the TCOOP 2015 Event #3 title earning $33,363.40 plus the whopping $24,591.48 in bounties!

TCOOP-03 ($215 NL Hold'em, Turbo Progressive Ultra-Knockout) results

Entrants: 4,250
Regular prize pool: $212,500.00
Bounty prize pool: $637,500.00
Places paid: 540

1. ugritaly (Australia) $33,363.40 + $24,591.48
2. ToTall4Y (Germany) $24,862.50 + $23,458.01
3. Bigdaft (United Kingdom) $17,531.25 + $3,683.19
4. ViDss (Brazil) $12,218.75 + $3,893.09
5. Borjomi1970 (Russia) $9,031.25 + $9,387.52
6. actaml (Poland) $6,906.25 + $1,403.90
7. plokker292 (Netherlands) $4,781.25 + $7,302.80
8. drygo 1 (Norway) $2,656.25 + $8,136.88
9. bobix12 (Poland) $1,700.00 + $4,247.13

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