This week's $1,050 buy-in Super Tuesday at PokerStars drew the typically tough field, with another big turnout of 488 adding another challenge to those hoping to win. During the tournament's final stages there were several familiar players making it close to the final table, and a few more among the final nine, too, including Sweden's Daniel "42ayay" Erlandsson and Canada's Robert "Little Kraut" Deppe.
In the end, though, it was Argentina's Nacho "PokerLoans1" Barbero grabbing the chip lead with five players left and never looking back, with the two-time Latin American Poker Tour champion ultimately taking down the tournament for a handsome $92,720 first prize.
That big field meant a $488,000 prize pool, besting the $425K guarantee. It would take about five-and-a-half hours for the 488 who started to play down to 63, at which point BARBARVSSA2 was leading the chip counts by a wide margin.
Also still in the hunt at that point were a couple of red spade-sporters, Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer and Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara of Team PokerStars Pro Online, both with below average stacks.
Danzer managed to last a short while longer. His end came in a hand that started out four-way, then by the river involved just himself and Seth "SFisch4" Fischer. At that point Danzer committed what he had left with the board showing [Qs][6s][Jh][5c][4h] and Danzer having two pair with [5s][4s]. But Fischer called with [8s][7s] for an eight-high straight and Danzer was done in 47th ($2,293.60).
Kihara made it a bit further before finally committing the last of his stack with [Jd][Jc] versus BARBARVSSA2's [Ah][Kh], and when an ace came among the community cards Kihara hit the rail in 27th ($2,928).
A while later they were down to 18 gathered around the final two tables, with Robert "Little Kraut" Deppe the new chip leader and BARBARVSSA2 still near the top of the counts in second position.
Miltos "Miltos14″ Kyriakides (18th), Pedro "PaDiLhA SP" Padilha (17th), and Seth "SFisch4" Fischer (16th) were the next three to be eliminated, earning $3,904 apiece. They were followed by bolivianSWAG (15th), Carter "cswidler" Swidler (14th), and Dani "supernova9" Stern (13th) who took away $4,880 apiece. Then RunLkMercier (12th), Dönig (11th), and Benjamin "SPEKTAH" Leblond (10th) were knocked out, earning $5,856 each for not quite making the final nine.
They'd just crossed the tourney's eight-hour mark, and the final table was underway with Robert "Little Kraut" Deppe the new frontrunner.
Seat 1: Daniel "42ayay" Erlandsson (Sweden) -- 354,750
Seat 2: all in 2526 (Israel) -- 170,577
Seat 3: gnetaren (Sweden) -- 667,967
Seat 4: antispeed (Lebanon) -- 104,451
Seat 5: brights88 (Lebanon) -- 222,477
Seat 6: katenok3388 (Russia) -- 137,140
Seat 7: BARBARVSSA2 (Russia) -- 132,088
Seat 8: Nacho "PokerLoans1" Barbero (Argentina) -- 171,957
Seat 9: Robert "Little Kraut" Deppe (Canada) -- 478,593
The very first hand of the final table saw an elimination.
katenok3388 opened with a min-raise to 11,200 from middle position and BARBARVSSA2 called from the next seat. The flop came [9c][4h][Ts], prompting a bet of 14,840 from katenok3388. BARBARVSSA2 then raised to 81,620, katenok3388 reraised again, and BARBARVSSA2 called all in with the 38,568 behind.
BARBARVSSA2 had top pair with [Ac][Td], but katenok3388 had that beat with [Qh][Qc]. The turn was the [6s] and river the [Kh], and BARBARVSSA2 was out in ninth.
A little less than 15 minutes later the blinds were 3,200/6,400 when all in 2526 -- who has won multiple Super Tuesdays in the past -- open-pushed from the cutoff for 47,743 holding [Qc][Td] and brights88 called from the big blind holding [Ah][3d]. The flop came [2h][5c][4s], giving brights88 a wheel and leaving all in 2526 essentially drawing dead. The [Qs] and [Jh] completed the board and all in 2526 was eliminated in eighth.
A few minutes later they were in the same level when brights88 min-raised to 14,400 from the button, katenok3388 reraise-shoved for 66,426 from the small blind, and brights88 called. katenok3388 had [6s][6h] and brights88 [Ks][Th], and five cards later -- [4c][Js][Ts][Qs][2s] -- brights88 had made a flush and katenok3388's run was over in seventh.
They moved past the nine-hour mark, with brights88 the new leader and Nacho "PokerLoans1" Barbero the short stack. Barbero would soon manage a double-up through brights88, however, to tighten things up again a bit among the six players. Then a little later Barbero min-raised to 18,000 from the cutoff, Daniel "42ayay" Erlandsson reraised all in for 100,821 from the small blind, and Barbero called.
Barbero had [As][Qd] and the edge versus Erlandsson's [Ac][6c]. The board came [Kc][3d][2d], then [9c], then [3h], and Erlandsson had been ousted in sixth.
Play continued, with Barbero eventually moving into the chip lead with five left. Then came a hand in which antispeed min-raised to 20,000 from the cutoff and got two allers in Nacho "PokerLoans1" Barbero (small blind) and Robert "Little Kraut" Deppe (big blind).
The flop came [2d][Kd][3h] and Barbero led with a bet of 24,567. Next to act, Deppe responded with a raise to 76,000, then antispeed shoved all in for 246,005. At that Barbero folded, but Deppe called all in with the 152,331 he had behind.
Deppe showed [Td][6d] for a flush draw while antispeed had top pair, top kicker with [Ac][Kh]. The turn was the [5h] and river the [9s], and having failed to improve his hand Deppe was knocked out in fifth.
As they moved through the tournament's 11th hour Barbero continued to pressure the others, and when the topic of a possible deal arose he said he wasn't interested. Then after winning a big hand versus gnetaren, Barbero had moved up over 1.1 million while the other three all were hovering between 400,000 and 500,000.
By the time they crossed the 11-hour mark and moved into hour number 12, Barbero was pushing up close to 1.5 million with gnetaren closest with just over 600,000, antispeed third with almost 208,000, and brights88 fourth with just under 147,000.
Soon it was brights88 open-raising all in from UTG for 144,328 (a little over seven big blinds) and Barbero the only caller from the small blind. brights99 had [9s][6s] and Barbero [Ac][Td]. The flop came [6c][Ts][4c] to give each player a pair, then after the [7d] turn and [4h] river brights88's Super Tuesday ended with a fourth-place finish.
That knockout just improved Barbero's position even further, and a while later when antispeed open-pushed from the small blind for 315,484 (just uder 13 BBs), Barbero called in a snap. antispeed had [Jh][8h] but Barbero had picked up [Ac][Ah]. The board came [Kd][Qh][Qc][3h][2s], and antispeed had been stopped in third.
That put Barbero up over 2 million to start heads-up play, and with 2,032,776 had almost a 5-to-1 chip lead over gnetaren's 407,224. Their duel would last almost 15 minutes, with gnetaren earning one double-up along the way but getting whittled back down under 200,000 when the last hand finally took place.
With the blinds at 15,000/30,000, gnetaren open-pushed for 171,848 over the small blind and Barbero called. gnetaren had [Jh][6s] and a couple of live overcards to Barbero's [3d][3h], but the [Kc][4d][Ac][9d][Ts] kept the treys in front and it was over -- Barbero had won!
Congratulations to Nacho "PokerLoans1" Barbero for topping this week's Super Tuesday field for a $92,720 first prize!
2/2/16 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants: 488
Prize pool: $488,000.00
Places paid: 63
1. Nacho "PokerLoans1" Barbero (Argentina) $92,720.00
2. gnetaren (Sweden) $68,320.00
3. antispeed (Lebanon) $50,020.00
4. brights88 (Lebanon) $38,064.00
5. Robert "Little Kraut" Deppe (Canada) $26,840.00
6. Daniel "42ayay" Erlandsson (Sweden) $20,740.00
7. katenok3388 (Russia) $15,860.00
8. all in 2526 (Israel) $10,980.00
9. BARBARVSSA2 (Russia) $8,100.80
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Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
