No long waits between rounds at the TCOOP 2016 Event #11 $215 buy-in NL Hold'em Heads-Up tournament. It is not uncommon for these tournaments to last more than half a day under normal circumstances (or a whole day during the WCOOP). But, thanks to the turbo blinds the starting population of 1,024 was down to the 128 money spots in two hours and 40 minutes.
Oddly, the latter rounds even with less players it would take nearly six hours for PULGUTIO to defeat NastyMinder in the final match. After a 50/50 split, PULGUTIO would claim the extra $3K earning a total of $32,220.00 as the Event #11 champ.
Read on below for PULGUTIO's road to TCOOP victory.
Unfortunately, the fast paced opening rounds meant a quick exit for some notables such one of our favorite Twitch pros, Jaime Staples, who came one match short of cashing in 168th place.
All remaining players could give thank to BensBenz for bursting the money bubble on Table 42. Ben "BensBenz" Yu is no stranger to cashing in -COOP tournaments as he final tabled WCOOP 2015's Event #32 (3rd place, $23,920). After knocking plsc0meagain down to 2,522 chips, Yu would pressure by raising enough to put plsc0meagain all-in preflop holding [8c][Ah]. Plsc0meagain made the call with [As][5h] and did not improve on the [2s] [Tc] [Jc] [8s] [Kc] board to lock up at least $409.60 and a shot at $40,960.00.
Round of 128
2012 SCOOP Main Event-High champ Nick "GripDsNutz" Grippo could not dig out of an early hole against seboraptor earning $409.60 in 110th place. He was followed closely by TCOOP 2014 Player of the Series Christian "CMoosepower" Elgstrøm who added yet another TCOOP cash to his long list.
WCOOP 2014 Event #52 winner Shyam "g's zee" Srinivasan would need to wait for another shot at adding a TCOOP title finishing in 78th place as the round of 128 threatened to close in less than an hour.
Down to Diogo "phounderAA" Veiga and FROGGERT and doubling the guarantee pay ($819.20), FROGGERT would make a late rally to side-step Veiga into the round of 64.
Round of 64
Down to the final two tables monopol would fall short to blakjak19 in 34th place ($819.20). Blakjak19 will be looking to improve on a WCOOP 2015 Event #61 final table (finishing fifth for $38K).
Sinoire and ArhAngel_29R would battle it out for the last spot in the round of 32. It would take a suck-and-re-suck situation but Sinoire caught the re-suck. Holding [Ad][Qc] Sinoire would shove from the button as ArhAngel_29R made the call with [Qd][9d]. A nine on the turn [Jc] [Kc] [5s] [9h] made things bleak for Sinoire. But the ace on the river [Ac] started up Round Six.
Round of 32
Dhr. Awesome was unable to win another Major (Super Tuesday earning $87K) after finishing in 22nd.
This round would only last an hour and may have been shorter but neither maggess88 nor viehkanking wanted to leave before getting a shot at that $40K up top. Maggess88 managed to nail down a WCOOP bracelet in 2015's Event #56 defeating Peter "Belabacsi" Traply heads-up. Maggess88 would move one step closer to the second leg of the Triple -COOP after putting away viehkanking to advance.
Round of 16
So much for maggess88 running it up for a TCOOP title. Despite holding a 2,017 to 7,983 chip lead with the blinds at 80/160, maggess88 would receive a cruel and swift twist of tournament fate.
First, holding pocket queens to NastyMinder's ace-trey all-in preflop, and watching two aces tumble out on the board. The next hand maggess88 tried to bluff at a board showing two tens on the turn only to see NastyMinder holding one. Finally, pocket deuces went down to NastyMinder's king-queen to finish in 12th place ($2,252.80).
After the sixth hourly break, gabrielafave would put away AceVentur1 to start round eight and the quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals
It would take seboraptor ten minutes to deny former Sunday Million champ Ravi "govshark2" Raghavan a chance to earn another leg of the PokerStars Grand Slam.
Sup-sport777 tried to slow play kings and paid the price against gabrielafave as the Brazilian moved on after notching two pair.
NastyMinder took the largest part of a six-way chop in the Sunday Million in 2014 earning $160K in fourth place. But, the elusive Major victory is now two matches away after NastyMinder took down Mr.Bittar who was trying to notch another -COOP final table after making a SCOOP and WCOOP final table in 2015.
That left the battle of the capital letters as PULGUITO and FROGGERT owned the remaining stage. In the end PULGUITO's lead was too large to overcome as FROGGERT claimed fifth place and $6,348.80.
Semi-Finals #1
NastyMinder vs. gabrielafave
If you look up "turbo" in the dictionary it would define the noun as short for a motor vehicle's turbocharger. Well, this match was the Ferrari's of turbocharged poker.
One hand and done.
With both players holding 5,000 in chips NastyMinder would three-bet preflop to 475 as gabrielafave called to see the [Kh][5s][As] flop. NastyMinder kept the foot on the accelerator as gabrielafave called the 775 chip bet. [4d] turn and NastyMinder bet 1,675 as gabrielafave shoved for 3,750 with NastyMinder insta-calling with two pair [Kd][Ad]. Holding [Qd][Ah] gabrielafave's tournament was done regardless of the river earning $12,288.00 in fourth place.
Semi-Final #2
PULGUTIO vs. seboraptor
Unlike the adjacent table PULGUTIO and seboraptor would make it to the seventh hourly break as PULGUTIO held a 6,570 to 3,430 lead with blinds at 40/80.
After the break PULGUTIO pressed and while seboraptor tried to dig out of the hole and was unable to get a firm enough footing. With the blinds up to 60/120 seboraptor would shove preflop for 2,044 as PULGUITO made the call holding [Ks][Ad]. Seboraptor's [Ac][7h] kicker problems would not turn around [6c] [8d] [6d] [As] [Js] cashing out in third place $12,288.00.
Finals
PULGUTIO vs. NastyMinder
Immediately the final two worked out a 50/50 split with $3K set aside for the TCOOP Event #11 champion.
TCOOP-11 ($215 NL Hold'em, Turbo, Heads-up) results
Entrants: 1,024
Prize pool: $204,800
Places paid: 128
1. PULGUITO (United Kingdom) $32,220.00*
2. NastyMinder (Switzerland) $29,220.00*
3. seboraptor (Poland) $12,288.00
4. gabrielafave (Brazil) $12,288.00
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