Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino has had a nice week at the TCOOP tables. Just look at his hourly rate in a couple of the events in which the player from Australia has taken part.
Last Thursday Fazzino played Event #3, a $215 no-limit hold'em progressive "ultra-knockout" event, and in just over four-and-a-half hours was able to beat out a 4,250-entry field to win the title and just under $58K between the first-place prize and bounties.
Then today Fazzino needed just about the same amount of time -- just a touch over four-and-a-half hours -- to win a second TCOOP title in Event #28, an $82 buy-in NLHE event with optional re-entries. For that effort Fazzino picked up a nice $31,202.54 cash. In other words, between those two events he made just under $10K an hour!
Players were able to re-enter up to three times during late registration. All told there would be 2,633 entries (1,935 entries, 698 re-entries), adding up to a $197,475 prize pool that well exceeded the event's $150K guarantee.
It would take only about two hours and 10 minutes to play down to 342 players and for the money bubble to burst, at which point Tony "D1rtyR1v3r" Nardi topped the chips counts. A half-hour after that they were down to less than 100 with Arvydas "Merfinis" Merfeldas the new leader and Nardi having slipped back to an average stack.
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They were only a short way into the tournament's fourth hour when just 18 were left, with Nardi out in 69th ($335.70), Merfeldas still near the top, and Loxagos the new chip leader with more than 1.5 million.
zyang1982 (18th), TCOOP Event #13 winner MikeyGG3 (17th), and one-time SCOOP winner LeslieGroves (16th) were the next eliminations, with those three each taking away $730.65. MrNorberto (15th) and vin.fromage (14th) then went out, picking up $1,007.12 apiece.
Then came a big double-knockout hand in which max-horror flopped a full house, then took out both 10Badboy10 (13th, $1,007.12) and former leader Arvydas "Merfinis" Merfeldas (12th, $1,283.58), after which max-horror had more than 3.7 million and twice the stack of the nearest challenger.
Gordon "holla@yoboy" Vayo (11th) and benderbei2 (10th) were next sent railward, each also earning $1,283.58, and with max-horror still the big leader the final table was underway.
Seat 1: villepn (Finland) -- 796,405
Seat 2: SimonToronto (Netherlands) -- 1,821,093
Seat 3: Loxagos (Germany) -- 1,363,881
Seat 4: gpainn (Philippines) -- 1,336,894
Seat 5: TiltStarter (Russia) -- 728,726
Seat 6: Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino (Australia) -- 1,516,708
Seat 7: Seven_DV (Russia) -- 1,026,948
Seat 8: max-horror (Russia) -- 4,179,301
Seat 9: flip flop250 (United Kingdom) -- 395,044
Shortly after the final table began, leader max-horror min-raised from the small blind, and flop flop250 called all in for just over 15,000, all that was left after posting the 120,000-chip BB. flip flop250 had [Jh][Td] and max-horror [Qd][5h], and the board came [Ah][2c][8c][9h][5s] to give max-horror a pair of fives and knock out flip flop250 in ninth.
Then just before the break that came at the tournament's four-hour mark, SimonToronto raised 3x to 480,000 from middle position, gpainn reraised all in to 786,918 from the cutoff, and SimonToronto called. gpainn had [Qs][Qd] and was racing versus SimonToronto's [As][Kh], then the [Kc][7c][9s] flop swung the advantage SimonToronto's way. The turn was the [8s] and the river the [9d], and gpainn was sent railward in eighth.
Following the break, SimonToronto min-raised to 140,000 from UTG, TiltStarter three-bet to 350,000 from the hijack seat, SimonToronto reraised back, and TiltStarter called all in right away with the 141,274 behind. TiltStarter turned over [Ac][4c] and needed help versus SimonToronto's [9s][9d]. The board came [8c][6s][2h], then [Ts], then [5s], and TiltStarter was ousted in seventh.
Helped by those knockouts, SimonToronto had moved into the chip lead, eventually pushing up over 5 million. Then it was villepn shoving for 1,230,310 from the cutoff and Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino calling from the big blind.
villepn was going for a "Triple COOP," having previously won both a WCOOP and a SCOOP, and was at risk with [As][3s]. Meanwhile Fazzino had the edge with [Ad][Td]. The board came [Jd][Ah][7s][9s][Th], giving Fazzino two pair and villepn just one, and villepn's run was stopped in sixth.
Not long after, Seven_DV would grab the chip lead in a big all-in that saw Seven_DV's ace-nine outdraw SimonToronto's ace-jack. The pair got all in on a seven-high flop, then a nine turned and Seven-DV moved up into first position with five left.
A few minutes later SimonToronto was the short stack, and when folded to in the small blind shoved all in for just over 1.4 million total (not quite six big blinds) and Loxagos called from the big blind. SimonToronto had [Jh][7c] and Loxagos [Ts][Td], and five cards later -- [8h][9s][Ks][Kd][Ad] -- Loxagos's tens had held and SimonToronto had been eliminated in fifth.
Brief chat about a deal with four left went unheeded as all-ins were occurring nearly every hand. Finally Loxagos was the one not to survive an all-in, pushing from small blind for 1,213,338 with [Ks][Ts], getting called by Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino in the BB with [Qh][6h], then watching the board roll out [Kd][Ah][2s][5h][3h] to give Fazzino a flush and stop Loxagos in fourth.
At the start of three-handed play Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino led with just under 7 million, Seven_DV was next with about 4.16 million, and max-horror third with just over 2 million.
Soon Fazzino was shoving that leading stack all in from the small blind and getting a call from Seven_DV from the BB for just over 2.73 million total. Fazzino had [6d][5d] and Seven_DV [Ah][4s], and the [6s][Jh][3c] flop swiftly swung the edge Fazzino's way. The turn was the [9h] and river the [4d], and suddenly they were down to two.
Fazzino held the big edge to start heads-up play with 10,237,366 to max-horror's 2,927,634. max-horror managed one double-up with jack-ten versus Fazzino's ace-five when a ten came among the community cards. Then a few hands later max-horror doubled again with king-nine versus ace-deuce thanks to a saving king.
max-horror would get all in with the best hand shortly after that after pushing with [Ah][9c] and getting called by Fazzino who had [Ac][2s], but a [Jh][Th][Qd][Kd][6c] runout added up to a split pot, and Fazzino still held the big advantage with more than 10.4 million to max-horror's almost 2.75 million.
They'd get it all in again on the very next hand after Fazzino open-pushed from the button and max-horror called, with max-horror showing [Ah][Ts] and again being ahead of Fazzino who had [Jd][8c]. But the [Qc][8h][Kd] flop paired Fazzino, and after the [5s] turn and [5h] river it was all over -- Fazzino had won a second TCOOP title!
Congratulations to Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino for securing a second TCOOP win in less than a week. And with three other TCOOP cashes as well, Fazzino now moves into first place in the TCOOP Player of the Series race!
TCOOP-28 ($82 NL Hold'em, Turbo, Optional Re-Entry) results
Entrants: 2,633 (1,935 entries, 698 re-entries)
Total prize pool: $197,475
Places paid: 342
1. Sal "ugritaly" Fazzino (Australia) $31,202.54
2. max-horror (Russia) $23,434.35
3. Seven_DV (Russia) $16,785.37
4. Loxagos (Germany) $11,552.28
5. SimonToronto (Netherlands) $8,787.63
6. villepn (Finland) $6,812.88
7. TiltStarter (Russia) $4,838.13
8. gpainn (Philippines) $2,863.38
9. flip flop250 (United Kingdom) $1,678.53
There are still more than 20 events left to go in the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, including this Sunday's $700 buy-in Main Event with a $2 million prize pool guarantee. Check the TCOOP page for information about all of the remaining events.
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Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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