The nine players at this final table had one thing in common-- none of them had ever won a 'COOP title. Two had come tantalizingly close. Pmahoney22 took second in Event #30-H ($2,100 NLHE) in the 2012 SCOOP and came away with an $86k consolation prize. Rounder3989 had a great deal of success in the Progressive Super-Knockout format, losing heads-up for a TCOOP title last year in Event #3, and final tabling Event #15-L ($11 NLHE Progressive SuperKO) in the 2015 SCOOP. However, tonight pmahoney22 was the one to shake the monkey off his back, taking down his first TCOOP title and over $144k.

Event #16 drew 2,058 players and closed late registration with a $1,368,570.00 total prize pool. Half of it ($684,285.00) comprised the bounty prize pool and the other half the regular prize pool. 270 players earned a share of the main pool with $109,486.76 set aside for first place.

Nearly four hours after cards went in the air, the field was down to its final ten players, each of them carrying bounties from $872 to nearly $17,000 on their heads. Having lost most of his chips when his [As][Kd] failed to improve against rounder3989's pocket sevens, muckit222 moved in for his last 55,507 with [Kd][2h] and Canibus555 reshoved from the small blind with [3s][8s]. Although he trailed in the hand when the money went in, Canibus555 hit a boffo [5d][3c][3d] flop, making him trip threes. Muckit22 did not catch up, the turn and river falling the [Tc] and the [2s] to send him to the rail one spot shy of the final table.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: GamblingPays (702,146 in chips)
Seat 2: rounder3989 (3,218,962 in chips)
Seat 3: pmahoney22 (1,476,346 in chips)
Seat 4: molswi47 (1,134,568 in chips)
Seat 5: FaNjkEEE (959,941 in chips)
Seat 6: Canibus555 (1,257,463 in chips)
Seat 7: TedSTRETCH (355,920 in chips)
Seat 8: NNNXX (892,876 in chips)
Seat 9: ICallYouAA (291,778 in chips)

High-stakes pro Will "molswi47" Molson wasted no time and got his chips in the middle on the first hand at the final table. Canibus555 open-shoved for 1.24 million with [Jh][Jd] and molswi47 called with [As][Qc]. Although a queen landed on the flop, a jack was right behind it, making Canibus555 a set. Molswi47 didn't improve further on the [Qh][Js][7c][6c][Kh] board and hit the rail in ninth place. Canibus555 added another $2,536.91 to his own bounty, bagged the same amount in extra cash, and moved up to 2.5 million, good for second in chips.

Hand #2 saw TedSTRETCH open-shove for his last 331,000 and NNNXX reshove right behind him. TedSTRETCH's pocket aces held up against NNNXX's [5c][5h] and he doubled to 912,000. NNNXX was left with 537,000. The action didn't abate for a second, and on Hand #3, ICallYouAA open-shoved for 254,278 from UTG+1. GamblingPays reshoved for 664,646 right behind him and FaNjkEEE moved in on the button, having both players covered.

ICallYouAA [8c][9c]
GamblingPays [Ks][Tc]
FaNjkEEE [Ac][Qc]

FaNjkEEE's [Ac][Qc] made top pair on the [Qs][Th][6d][5d][2c] board and scooped the entire pot, eliminating ICallYouAA in eighth place and GamblingPays in seventh. In the space of three hands, the field was down to six.

Three hands later, TedSTRETCH found [Ac][9s] and moved in for his last seven big blinds from the cutoff. Pmahoney22 called from the big blind and turned over [Ad][Ts]. TedSTRETCH's hand was dominated and didn't catch a miracle card on the [Ah][7s][6d][Kc][Js] board, ending his run in sixth place. On the next deal, NNNXX doubled his 3BB stack when his pocket jacks held up against FaNjkEEE's [Qd][9c], but he didn't hang around for long. Four hands later he moved in for 537,000 with [Kd][Qd] and pmahoney22 called with [Qs][Jh]. Although NNNXX had the upper hand preflop, the [Jd][6h][4s] flop paired pmahoney22's jack. The [Qc] turn gave him queens and jacks and the [Th] river spelled the end for NNNXX.

With the blinds up to 70,000/140,000, Canibus555 opened for 280,000 and FaNjkEEE called from the big blind. FaNjkEE checked the [Qh][7c][4d] flop, Canibus555 made a 350,000 continuation bet and FaNjkEEE moved in for 1.24 million. Canibus555 called, his [As][7d] leading FaNjkEEE's [Ah][4h]. Canibus555's pair of sevens hung on through the [Jc] turn and the [2h] river, and FaNjkEEE departed in fourth place.

When three-handed play commenced, Canibus555 led the pack with 4.1 million, rounder3989 was second with 3.33 million and pmahoney22 was the short stack with 2.85 million. After only four hands, the final three paused the action and ran numbers for a potential deal, but pmahoney22's insistence on an $80k minimum payday quickly ended the negotiations. Cards went back in the air and Canibus555 chipped up to 4.9 million while rounder3989 fell to 2.47 million. With the action folded to him in the small blind, rounder3989 shoved for [Qd][Jd] and pmahoney22 called with [Ah][5d] in the big blind. Pmahoney22's ace-high held up on the [9c][2d][2s][4h][6s] board sending him to heads-up play and rounder3989 to the rail in third place.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 3: pmahoney22 (5,411,188 in chips)
Seat 6: Canibus555 (4,878,812 in chips)

Pmahoney22 chipped up to 9.2 million after winning three seven-figure pots without a showdown. With less than 1 million remaining and the blinds up to 125,000/250,000, Canibus555 moved in with [Ah][9c] and pmahoney22 called with [Qs][9h]. Canibus555 flopped an ace and doubled to 2.04 million. Pmahoney22, however, won the next four pots in a row, and Canibus555 called all-in vs. pmahoney22's 1.65 million opening raise on the fifth. Canibus555's [Kd][7d] held up against [Jh][3h] and he moved up to 2.33 million.

The blinds rose to 150,000/300,000 and pmahoney22 open-shoved for 8.1 million with [Ks][Ts]. Canibus555 called and turned up [Qs][9c]. It looked like Canibus555 might be right back in this thing when the flop fell [9h][6s][5h], making him top pair. The [7d] turn gave pmahoney22 a few more outs with a gutshot straight draw, and now Canibus555 needed to fade an eight, a king or a ten to survive. However, the [Kc] spiked on the river and pmahoney22 emerged with the victory and his first TCOOP title.

Congratulations to pmahoney22, our newest TCOOP champion! All told, with the bounties and main prize pool shares added together, pmahoney22 banked $144,712,44 while runner-up Canibus555 earned a smokin' $104,356.74.

TCOOP-16 ($700 NLHE [Turbo, Progressive Super-Knockout]) results
Entrants: 2,058
Total prize pool: $1,368,570.00
Places paid: 270

1. pmahoney22 (Mexico) $109,486.76 + $35,225.68 (bounties) = $144,712.44
2. Canibus555 (Estonia) $82,114.20 + $22,242.54 (bounties) = $104,356,74
3. rounder3989 (Germany) $61,585.65 + $16,915.12 (bounties) = $78,500.77
4. FaNjkEEE (Ukraine) $43,896.88 + $19,653.69 (bounties) = $63,550.57
5. NNNXX (Netherlands) $30,792.82 + $16,996.33 (bounties) = $47,789.15
6. TedSTRETCH (Colombia) $23,949.97 + $872.81 (bounties) = $24,822.78
7. GamblingPays (United Kingdom) $17,107.12 + $6,151.20 (bounties) = $23,258.32
8. ICallYouAA (Hungary) $11,974,98 + $3,340.56 (bounties) = $15,315.54
9. Will "molswi47" Molson (Canada) $6,842.85 + $5,073.82 (bounties) = $11,916.67

Two final tables during the 2015 SCOOP series was not enough for woody1234321. After the opening weekend of the TCOOP 2016 series, woody1234321 now owns two titles defeating a field of 2,987 (and 797 re-entries) in the Event #17 $600,000 guarantee NL Hold'em Turbo Optional Re-Entry tournament. Friday woody1234321 earned $95K as the Event #3 champ and after four and half hours of work, grabbed $118,818.68 defeating Iamapoopie heads-up.

Thanks to the re-entry part of the tournament, woody1234321 took full advantage of the third bullet, read on to learn about the second title.

Current TCOOP 2016 Player of the Series (before this tournament ended...) leader KornmeisterX managed to claim the minimum five points after sneaking into one of the 495 paying spots while finishing 472nd ($348.12).

Making the most of his second bullet, Team PokerStars Online Pro Naoya Kihara managed a deep run. In the top 15 in chips for most of the second hour of play, Kihara fought to stay ahead of the blinds towards the latter half of the hour. With the blinds up to 8K/16K ante 2K Naoya shoved 177,923 chips from middle position holding [Ah][5h] as wrawras re-shoved for a little more with [Qs][Ac]. No fives and one heart short [6c] [9h] [4s] [Js] [Jh] would send the remaining Red Spade out in 87th place ($1,135.20).

Wrawras would use those chips as a springboard towards the top of the leaderboard at the third hourly break with 31 players remaining. Not that wrawras needs the $118K sitting up top after becoming the seventh millionaire while playing a $100 Spin & Go a few months ago but that big win now allows wrawras to take shots at the Majors.

Wrawras still stood tall as the penultimate table came out with 15 minutes left in the third hour of play. EPT9 London Event #13 winner Griffin 'Flush_Entity' Benger still alive and hoping for that six-figure payday. Several cashes in the weekly high rolling Super Tuesday and a SCOOP 2013 Event #10-H runner-up finish, gnetaren is looking to cross the -COOP threshold with a victory.

The PokerStarBlog hopes IamGrouchy! has a better night after finishing in 16th place earning $2,270.40 as the shortstacks milked the clock to the max hoping to earn a spot at the final table with a timely double-up.

A shortstacked Benger would be asked to leave in 12th place ($4,540.80) after his king-four got ran down by iTSReTSaM hitting a straight with jack-eight.

Wrawras claimed the chip lead after knocking out gnetaren in 11th place ($4,540.80) as hand-for-hand play lasted all of one hand. With the blinds up to 80K/160K ante 20K Iamapoopie shoved 3.2 million from the small blind to force p0008000 into a tournament life decision. Holding 389,483 behind in the big blind, p0008000 made the call with [6c][As] out in front of Iamapoopie's [7d][Jd]. But, a flopped flush [4d] [2d] [6d] [7s] [5s] quickly opened up the final table below:

Seat 1: Iamapoopie (3874186 in chips)
Seat 2: suarez_BG (852140 in chips)
Seat 3: wrawras (3890442 in chips)
Seat 4: woody1234321 (1441588 in chips)
Seat 5: kolja31 (690293 in chips)
Seat 6: !!f1ghtback! (1252506 in chips)
Seat 7: XXstardogXX (1578801 in chips)
Seat 8: beigale777 (2243589 in chips)
Seat 9: iTSReTSaM (3096455 in chips)

SCOOP 2012 Event #40-M champ suarez_BG needed a lot of help to claim the second leg of the Triple COOP.

This would not be that day.

Two hands into the final table, suarez_BG would push 792,140 chips from middle position as beigale777 made the call from the big blind holding a solid ace [9s][Ah]. Not as solid as suarez_BG's [Jh][Ac] but two nines on the flop [7h] [9h] [9c] [4c] [8h] turned the 1.8 million chip pot to beigale777 as suarez_BG collected $6,054.40 in ninth place.

Kolja31 politely asked for a new dealer after getting ground down to under a big blind nearly halfway through the fourth hour of play. The "new" dealer presented pocket deuces [2h][2d] to face the chip leader woody1234321's [Tc][Jh] for a 1.2 million chip pot. The pair did not last long as a ten on the flop [9s] [Ac] [Ts] [4c] [Qs] sent $9,460.00 in kolja31 in eighth place.

Woody1234321 as mentioned above already has a victory in this tournament series (Event #3) winning $95K in the Progressive KO format along with two SCOOP final tables in 2015.

The essence of the turbo tournament format was fully embraced by the final six as the winner was declared in seven minutes after the break.

First hand back from the break with the blinds at 150K/300K ante 37.5K Iamapoopie would min-raise from the cutoff as online poker pugilist !!f1ghtback! was nearly forced to call and did from the big blind for 80K holding [5d][8h]. Iamapoopie was not bluffing after turning over [Td][Ad] and running safely through the [As] [Jh] [7d] [Ks] [3h] board to eliminate !!f1ghtback! in seventh place ($17,028.00).

Three hands later wrawras would open shove 1.4 million holding [Kc][Qd] as severely depleted iTSReTSaM called all-in for 345,480 with [2s][Qs]. The one live card did not come through [Ah] [Ad] [7c] [As] [6d] as iTSReTSaM took away $24,596.00 in sixth place.

Wrawras was hoping for some momentum after knocking out iTSReTSaM and shoved again two hands later for 2.1 million. Chip leading woody1234321 was there for the call with pocket fives [5d][5s]. Wrawras' [Qh][As] looked good for another double up after flopping two pair [2d][Ad][Qd]. But, a third diamond on the turn [9d] was too much as the Spin & Go millionaire proved to be a solid player here as well notching $32,164.00 in fifth place.

On the next hand with the blinds moving up to 200K/400K ante 50K Iamapoopie min-raise from the cutoff as XXstardogXX made it 2.07 million to go after shoving from the small blind. Iamapoopie called with [Td][Jc]. XXstardogXX's dominate [Ad][Ts] was fine on the flop but a turned jack [3s] [4s] [Kd] [Jd] [8s] ended XXstardogXX's galactic run in fourth place ($43,516.00).

After eliminating XXstardogXX, Iamapoopie would only hold the chiplead for one hand. Testing out the new big stack, Iamapoopie shoved 9.6 million from the small blind with [Td][Ac]. A top hand heads-up but unfortunately ran into woody1234321 holding pocket kings [Ks][Kc]. A ten in the middle of the [Qh] [2c] [Tc] [6h] [Jd] board was not enough as woody1234321 collected the 15.9 million chip pot.

Four hands later beigale777 could barely afford the big blind as woody1234321 min-raised from the small blind. Beigale777 shipped the 36,979 chips holding [Jc][3s] as woody1234321 pulled up another big hand in pocket tens [Tc][Td]. The tens were good on the [Qd] [5h] [Ad] [Ks] [8h] board as beigale777 collected $62,436.00 in third place.

Holding a 16.5 million to 2.3 million chip lead it would take woody1234321 only three hands to claim a second TCOOP title during the 2016 series (which has another whole week to go!). Iamapoopie would call the button shove with [3h][Kd] as woody1234321 once again came up holding a dominating hand [7h][Ks]. The seven kicker was enough on the [5h] [4s] [Jd] [Ac] [7c] board to earn woody1234321 $118,818.68 as the TCOOP 2016 Event #17 champion!

TCOOP-17 ($215 NL Hold'em, Turbo, Optional Re-Entry) results

Entrants: 2,987
Re-entries: 797
Total prize pool: $756,800.00
Place paid: 495

1. woody1234321 [two re-entries] (Mexico) $118,818.68
2. Iamapoopie [one re-entry] (United Kingdom) $88,545.60
3. beigale777 (Israel) $62,436.00
4. XXstardogXX [one re-entry] (Canada) $43,516.00
5. wrawras (Brazil) $32,164.00
6. iTSReTSaM (Sint Maarten (Dutch Part)) $24,596.00
7. !!f1ghtback! (Austria) $17,028.00
8. kolja31 (Germany) $9,460.00
9. suarez_BG (Bulgaria) $6,054.40

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Players know to anticipate quick structures when they enter a TCOOP tournament, it is right in the title of the series. The opening Sunday of the series took a standard turbo structure and turned it up to 11, blinds climbing faster and bigger antes.

Event 15 was a $215 No Limit Hold'em tournament with a hyper-turbo structure and short-handed format. Players were given 30 minutes of late registration and the tournament drew 2,172 players to crush the $300,000 guarantee. They created a prize pool worth $457,857 with the eventual winner set to earn $72,113.

The last 276 players would earn piece of the prize pool and they were in the money shortly after closing down registration. Nothing could slow them down and it took less than 120 minutes of play to go from 2,172 players to the final table.

A perfect example of a hyper-turbo format.

One big name stayed near the top of the chip counts throughout the latter parts of the tournament. George "Jorj95" Lind was representing Team PokerStars with a big stack and continued to work his way up while others were dropping out.

Lind is no stranger to TCOOP (or any COOP) final tables with a handful of runner-up finishes and a six-digit payday in the 2013 TCOOP High Roller event. He already captured one COOP title when he was the last player standing in 2012 SCOOP Stud Hi/Lo Event 26-L.

Lind made this final table in the middle of the pack while WallXP hit it with a fraction of an ante. On the same hand that saw Djemps go out in 7th place on the other table, Lind was in trouble when he ran his [ac][3s] into WallXP's [ad][ks]. Lind was at risk but spiked the [3h] river to stay in the game.

Seat 1: PoluKalos (2,982,938 in chips)
Seat 2: arman359 (1,898,224 in chips)
Seat 3: pascualpro5 (1,726,422 in chips)
Seat 4: WallXP (5,742 in chips)
Seat 5: tycon87 (1,424,812 in chips)
Seat 6: George "Jorj95" Lind (2,821,862 in chips)

Blinds: 80K/160K with 32K Ante

Micro-ante not good enough for WallXP

WallXP had no choice in the matter and was all-in for his tiny stack. He did have better odds of staying alive with everyone folding to tycon87 in the big blind. Unfortunately he couldn't even luck into two live cards with [4s][3c] up against [kc][4d].

tycon87 had a virtual lock on the hand after the [kd][jc][4c] flop and WallXP was drawing dead to 6th place on the [2h] turn. It was tough back-to-back hands for WallXP but he picked up $9,660 for his 6th place finish.

Lind takes the lead

PoluKalos was leading the way with Lind sitting in second position before the two tangled it up. Lind shoved for his "big" stack under the gun and PoluKalos moved all-in next to act. The three smaller stacks played it smart and dropped their hands.

PoluKalos had a prime opportunity to stack up a huge lead with his [jd][js] dominating Lind's [2d][2c]. The [7s][5d][3c] flop changed little but Lind binked the [2s] turn to drag the huge, lead-changing pot.

PoluKalos goes from first to out

The hand against Lind left PoluKalos with less than two big blinds and he waited one hand out before getting them in the middle. arman359 shoved from under the gun and it folded to PoluKalos in the big blind, he called with [ks][js] to race against [7s][7h].

He missed the [as][qh][5c] flop but added a gut-shot straight draw, backdoor flush draw. PoluKalos found no extra love when with the [4h] turn or [qs] river to go out in 5th place for $17,169.

No deal, let's play

The four players decided to pause the tournament and look at some numbers to divide up the remaining prize pool. A reasonable idea considering the hyper conditions of the tournament. Lind was the chip leader and offered the biggest chunk of the money.

Lind: $56,243.97
pascualpro5: $45,478.06
aman359: $43,158.08
tycon87: $41,421.38

Left to play for 1st: $6,000

It didn't take long for Lind to shoot down the deal, his experience and lead giving him an edge. After a bit of pleading, action was back underway with no deal in place.

pascualpro5 falls first

Despite the quickly climbing blinds, the remaining four players went 20 hands without an elimination. A near marathon in this game. There were three double ups in those hands but none put a big dent in Lind's lead. He took the next one out when he moved all-in over the top after pascualpro5 shoved.

pascualpro5 had one over card with [ac][2h] versus [8c][8d] but never had a sweat as the board ran out [7h][6h][5d][ts][3s] to send him out in 4th place for $26,326.

There were three players remaining but only hands left to be dealt.

arman359 limps/ladders up

One interesting part in the pascualpro5 knockout hand was arman359's action. He opened that pot for 600,000 and folded to Lind's three-bet shove leaving only 83,000 behind.

It worked out for him as pascualpro5 dropped out in 4th place leaving arman358 without enough to post his ante and big blind. We'll never know what he had in the previous hand but this time around his forced [8c][3d] hand was no good against Lind's [th][5s].

The dry board [jc][9c][6d][7h][qd] helped neither and Lind's ten played to send arman359 out in 3rd place for $40,062. A nice little jump up the payouts with the micro-stack.

George Lind adds second COOP title with Event 15 win

Seat 5: tycon87 (3,757,508 in chips)
Seat 6: Jorj95 (7,102,492 in chips)

Blinds: 150K/300K with 60K Ante

The tournament went from four players to a winner in three hands, the nature of the hyper-turbo beast, but it looked like we might have a deal before the tournament closed out. Lind agreed to look at numbers before everything stopped anyway.

tycon87 said, "deal?"
Jorj95 said, "ok"

Lind said he'd look at the numbers and then shoved his chip-leading stack in the middle with [qh][3d]. tycon87 saw a chance to get back in the game and increase his negotiating position and called with [as][5s].

Lind ended the final table nearly the same way he started it, by hitting a needed three-ball. This time it came right on the [8h][7h][3s] flop and [tc] turn left tycon87 with three river outs. He couldn't hit his two overs on the [2c] river and had to settle for a runner-up result for $53,798. Better than the money he would have earned in the deal by more than $12,000.

The quick win capped off a second COOP title for George Lind, 2/3rds of the way towards a Triple COOP for the member of Team PokerStars. He earned $72,113 along with the title for his second biggest online tournament score behind a 2013 TCOOP High Roller final table finish. Lind needs only a WCOOP title to pick up the rare Triple COOP honor and he would be the fifth player to accomplish that feat.

TCOOP-15 ($215 NL Hold'em, 6-Max, Hyper-Turbo) results
Entrants: 2,172
Total prize pool: $457,857.60
Places paid: 276

1. George "Jorj95" Lind (Canada) $72,113.88
2. tycon87 (Norway) $53,798.26
3. arman359 (Israel) $40,062.54
4. pascualpro5 (Greece) $26,326.81
5. PoluKalos (United Kingdom) $17,169.66
6. WallXP (Russia) $9,660.79

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These bounty events in the Turbo Championship of Online Poker can prove especially lucrative to some. Just ask KornmeisterX of Germany who this morning won Event #14, a $215 buy-in no-limit Omaha high/low event played six-handed and following the progressive super-knockout format.

KornmeisterX topped a field of 722 for the win, earning $13,809.50 and the biggest share of the regular prize pool. But all of the additional knockouts KornmeisterX collected added another $8,578.86 in earnings -- well over twice the next-highest total of bounties collected.

That 722-entry field meant the event's $150,000 guarantee kicked in, with $77,800 going for the regular prize pool to be divided by the top 96 finishers and the other $72,200 going for bounties.

After just two hours of play they were already all of the way down to 38 players with Germany's Ioeda4789 leading the counts as the only player over 300,000. Also in the mix was Team PokerStars Pro Online member Jaime Staples, sitting in the middle of the pack with almost exactly an average stack of just under 100,000.

Alas for Staples he wouldn't last much longer, falling in 35th in a hand that saw KornmeisterX collect Staples's bounty. The Twitch streamer collected $373.44 from the regular prize pool, plus another $750 in bounties for just over two hours' work.

That pot helped sent KornmeisterX up into first position in the counts. Less than half an hour later they were already down to the final two six-handed tables, with Ioeda4789 having fallen in 20th for $536.82 (plus $1,281.25 in bounties), KornmeisterX still near the top, and Edgy420 the new leader with nearly 750,000.

flexmasterNL (12th), former TCOOP winner jungledancer (11th), and fire81147 (10th) were the next knockouts, each earning $1,011.40 from the regular prize pool (with both flexmasterNL and fire81147 earning even more than that from bounties). gangst3m1 (ninth), Przemo_oo3 (eighth), and desgrippes (seventh) soon followed them to the rail, picking up $1,556 each from the regular prize pool plus bounties.

With leader Edgy420 having edged up over the 1 million chip-mark, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: KornmeisterX (Germany) -- 1,093,255
Seat 2: RagVoen (Belarus) -- 581,465
Seat 3: TedyKGB88 (United Kingdom) -- 223,551
Seat 4: Edgy420 (Canada) -- 1,028,742
Seat 5: mickyb88 (United Kingdom) -- 224,172
Seat 6: Jonathan "Poker Own U" Bardier (Canada) -- 458,815

Just a few minutes into the final table, the blinds were 10,000/20,000 when RagVoen opened for 40,000 from under the gun, then mickyb88 reraised all in for 176,922 from the button. The blinds folded, RagVoen called, and the players opened their hands:

RagVoen: [As][Jd][Jh][2d]
mickyb88: [Ac][Kc][Qh][3s]

The board came [5d][8h][Jc][3h][7c], which meant RagVoen had the better high hand (a set of jacks) as well as the best low (7-5-3-2-A), and mickyb88 was out in sixth.

A short while after that KornmeisterX had reassumed the chip lead, having moved up over 1.65 million while Edgy420 sliped back down under 850,000. Then with the blinds at 12,500/25,000, KornmeisterX opened for 55,555 from the cutoff, Edgy420 three-bet shoved for 845,267 from the big blind, and KornmeisterX called to put Edgy420 at risk.

Edgy420 had [Jh][4s][3c][2d] while KornmeisterX showed [Ad][8s][3d][2c]. The board didn't provide any support for low hands, coming [Qd][Td][Ah][Ts][As]. That meant KornmeisterX's trip aces was best for the high, and Edgy420 was done in fifth.

Play continued, then suddenly came two more knockouts in successive hands to trim the field from four to two.

In the first, Jonathan "Poker Own U" Bardier had become short-stacked and open-pushed from under the gun for 160,190 (just over five big blinds), getting one caller in KornmeisterX. Bardier -- who won a TCOOP stud event back in 2012 -- had a strong starter with [Ac][Ad][Jd][5c] versus KornmeisterX's [Qc][Td][6d][2h], but a runout of [Th][7c][Qh][Jh][Tc] gave KornmeisterX a full house and sent Bardier railward in fourth.

The very next hand then saw an also-short TedyKGB88 shoving for just 91,801 over the small blind and KornmeisterX calling from the big blind, and five cards later TedyKGB88 was out in third. It was a fourth cash and second final table of the series for TedyKGB88 who took fourth in Event #5 ($82 PLO 6-Max Prog Super-KO) just a couple of days ago, pushing TedyKGB88 up to second place at this early stage of the TCOOP Player of the Series race.

Who is in first for Player of the Series right now, you are wondering? Keep reading.

Those two knockouts gave KornmeisterX a big advantage to start heads-up play with a better than 5-to-1 chip lead over RagVoen. The pair took turns for the first several hands pushing all in against one another with the other folding. Eventually RagVoen chipped up a little, then managed two straight double-ups to move up over 1.5 million while KornmeisterX dropped back to just under 2 million.

That's when the two players began discussing the possibility of a deal in the chatbox, and before long the tournament was paused with KornmeisterX back up to 2,241,228 versus RagVoen's 1,368,772. The pair couldn't agree to the suggested chop, however, and play continued.

KornmeisterX built up further, eventually getting up over 2.54 million to RagVoen's 1.06 million when the final hand took place.

The blinds were 20,000/40,000 with a 5,000 ante. RagVoen limped in from the button, KornmeisterX made it 120,000 to go from the big blind, and RagVoen called. The flop came [As][Kd][7c], and KornmeisterX led for 115,005. RagVoen responded with an all-in shove for 939,397, and KornmeisterX called.

KornmeisterX: [Kc][Tc][3c][2c]
RagVoen: [7d][6s][4c][2d]

Both payers had a pair with KornmeisterX's kings ahead of RagVoen's sevens, while both were additionally looking to make a backdoor low hands. But the [Jh] turn and [9d] river improved neither player's hand, meaning KornmeisterX had scooped to win the pot and the title.

Congratulations to KornmeisterX for taking just three hours and 16 minutes to best a 722-entry field and win Event #14 for a total of more than $22K. And with a fifth TCOOP cash in the first five events, KornmeisterX is now the frontrunner in that aforementioned TCOOP Player of the Series race just ahead of TedyKGB88, with RagVoen not too far behind in sixth!

TCOOP-14 ($215, NL Omaha H/L, 6-Max, Turbo, Progressive Super-KO) results

Entrants: 722
Total prize pool: $150,000.00 ($77,800.00 regular prize pool; $72,200.00 bounty prize pool)

Places paid: 96

1. KornmeisterX (Germany) $13,809.50 (+ $8,578.86 in bounties)
2. RagVoen (Belarus) $10,230.70 (+ $2,348.43 in bounties)
3. TedyKGB88 (United Kingdom) $7,780.00 (+ $1,095.31 in bounties)
4. Jonathan "Poker Own U" Bardier (Canada) $5,446.00 (+ $1,481.24 in bounties)
5. Edgy420 (Canada) $3,890.00 (+ $3,048.43 in bounties)
6. mickyb88 (United Kingdom) $2,334.00 (+ $768.75 in bounties)

There's still a week's worth of this year's Turbo Championship of Online Poker left to go, with more than 30 events still to play out. Check the TCOOP site for the remaining schedule.

The poker room at Crown Melbourne was absolutely bustling today. Four Aussie Millions events and a flurry of cash games were all running simultaneously here. The Accumulator event was winding down with its final table, the Terminator and the $100,000 Challenge were just kicking off, and of course it was the opening flight of Main Event Day 1a.

Despite some of the poker world's finest players busy in the $100k, the Main Event field was still stacked with an impressive line-up and notable names. Three of last year's final tablists were in attendance, including James Rann, Joel Douaglin and the reigning champion and hometown hero Manny Stavropoulos. Of the three, only Douaglin fell by the wayside today. Rann and Stavropoulos will start Day 2 with 47,100 and 17,500 respectively.

Joining Douaglin on the rail were Jack Salter, Tom Grigg, Kevin MacPhee, Oliver Gill, Kahle Burns and
Australian Hall of Famer Leo Boxell. They all failed to find momentum this afternoon, instead ending up among the 98 eliminations.

Team PokerStars pro Eugene Katchalov was also a Day 1a casualty. He got his last 15,000 in preflop with ace-king but couldn't improve against the pocket nines of Greg Goldberg. Katchalov was the only Team Pro at the tables today, but plenty more will be pulling up seats throughout the week.

For our 82 survivors however it was a different, happier story tonight. Those still in the running include Phillip Gruissem (97,900), Max Silver (84,300) and Aussies Michael Egan (133,600), Jonathan Karamalikis (70,000) and Andrew Hinrichsen (67,800). Over 10 hours of action failed to wear these players down. They'll get a well-deserved two days respite before returning on Wednesday for the official Day 2.

And leading the charge at this point is fellow notable Australian James Obst. He snagged the lead in the dying stages after an opponent six-bet jammed into Obst's pocket aces with jack-ten suited. The aces would hold and when all was said and done Obst bagged up 212,100 in chips.

Obst had a stellar 2015 online with a PokerStars SCOOP title as well as some impressive live WSOP cashes. He's off to a good start for another deep run in a big tournament here this week.

That's a wrap for tonight. We'll return tomorrow from 12:30pm for all your coverage needs throughout Main Event Day 1b. As is usually the case we're expecting even more players to join the hunt tomorrow and time will tell if we can eclipse last year's field of 648 runners.

If you missed any of today's excitement be sure to check out the live reporting page for all the fireworks on the felt. That's all from us now, we hope you can join us tomorrow!

The beauty of a TCOOP tournament? For a 5,000+ person event, the money bubble burst in under 100 minutes and the entire tournament was wrapped up in a little more than four hours. In that short time, MikeGG3 faded a field of 5,162 players to win TCOOP Event #13 or the Saturday Speedway Special Edition.

MickeyGG3 began the final table as the chip leader and went wire-for-wire. The Canadian only needed nine hands to win a heads-up bout and came from behind in miraculous fashion on the final hand to become the newest TCOOP champion. Canada's MikeyGG3 final tabled a 2014 WCOOP event, but never won an actual COOP... until tonight.

2016 TCOOP Event #13 $33 NL also dubbed as the Saturday Speedway Special Edition, which drew in 5,162 runners on the first Saturday of TCOOP. They created a prize pool worth $154,860. The top 675 places paid out with $24,297.72 set aside to the champion.

Out of a sea of turbo enthusiasts, one familiar face managed a min-cash... Team Online Jamie Staples cashed in 653rd place and busted just after the money bubble burst.

With 36 to go, Finland's sorakasa held the lead with 2.2M. With 18 to go on the final two tables, Maestro_Bolt seized the lead with 3.5M.

With action hand-for-hand on the final table bubble... MikeyGG3 surged to over 7M and the lead, which was 2x as much as Maestro_Bolt in second. MikeyGG3 also picked off mostafa99 on the bubble when mostafa99 made a stand with [Kd][Qc] against MikeyGG3's [Ah][8s]. mostafa99 didn't improve and bubbled off the final table in tenth place.

INSERT SCREEN CAP

TCOOP 2016 - Event #13 Final Table Chip Counts:
Seat 1: MikeyGG3 (8,311,146)
Seat 2: sorakasa (2,586,771)
Seat 3: allan sheik (1,144,366)
Seat 4: MrWhitie (2,220,552)
Seat 5: Maestro_Bolt (3,843,063)
Seat 6: po82m (2,701,754)
Seat 7: TheCorridor (2,663,608)
Seat 8: da Ape (1,014,294)
Seat 9: 3bila (1,324,446)

The final table kicked off during Level 39 with blinds at 90K/180K and a 18K ante. MikeyGG3 sat atop the big stack with 8.3M, while Germany's da Ape was last with a hair over 1M.

JOE AND THE LION: 3bila eliminated in 9th place

The final table was barely getting settled in before one of the short stacks rumbled. TheCorridor min-raised to 360,000, 3bila shoved for 1,042,446 with [6d][6s], and TheCorridor called with [Js][Jh]. The board ran out [Ks][4s][2h][Kh][7d] and TheCorridor's pocket Jacks held up. 3bila failed to improve and became the first layer to bust at the final table. For a ninth-place finish, Morocco's 3bila earned $1,238.88.

THE SECRET LIFE OF ARABIA: allan sheik eliminated in 8th place

Big-stacked bully MikeyGG3 shoved for an intimidating 11,866,146 with [As][Qh] and super-short allan sheik called all-in for 259,366 with [Kd][5c]. The board ran out [Qs][Tc][4d][Ac][4c]. MikeyGG3 flopped a pair and turned two pair, but allan sheil turned a Broadway gutshot draw. MikeyGG3 faded the straight on the river and won the pot with Aces Up. For an eight-place finish, Brazil's allan sheik collected $1,935.75.

SONS OF A SILENT AGE: MrWhitie eliminated in 7th place

MrWhitie open-shoved for 1,879,104 and po82m bombed it all-in for 1,897,450... and just a little bit more. MrWhitie led with [As][Js] versus po82m's [Ac][9c]. The board tan out [9h][3s][2s][Kh][5c]. po82m flopped a pair of nines to win the pot. MrWhitie was unable to avoid elimination and was dunzo in seventh place, which paid out $3,484.35.

With six to go, MikeyGG3 led with 12M and da Ape was last with 1.2M.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: da Ape eliminated in 6th place

Short-stacked da Ape moved all-in for 1,040,588 with [Jh][Td] and sorakasa called with [Ah][5c]. The board finished up [6c][3h][2c][Ac][6s]. sorakasa turned a pair of Aces and rivered two pair. Germany's da Ape busted in sixth place, which paid out $5,032.95.

MOSS GARDEN: sorakasa eliminated in 5th place

Battle of the blinds. The carnage was not pretty. When action folded to MikeyGG3 in the small blind, he shoved for 10.6M and sorakasa insta-called with 2,387,542. MikeyGG3 trailed with [6c][3d] against sorakasa's [As][Jc]. Alas, MikeyGG3 hit the flop and won the pot with two pair when the board ran out [Kh][Kc][6h][5d][7d]. For a fifth-place finish, Finland's sorakasa took home $6,581.55.

With four remaining... MikeyGG3 was out in front with 13.6M, followed by Maestro_Bolt (5.3M), TheCorridor (4.9M), and po82m (1.9M).

BLACKOUT: Maestro_Bolt eliminated in 4th place

Shorty Maestro_Bolt bombed it all-in for 1,067,852 with [Qh][5c] and po82m called from the big blind with [Kd][8s]. The board ran out [Ah][Td][4s][8c][Kh] and po82m won the hand with two pair -- Kings and eights. Maestro_Bolt failed to improve beyond Ace high. Russia's Maestro_Bolt busted in fourth place, which paid out $8,749.59.

SENSE OF DOUBT: TheCorridor eliminated in 3rd place

On the next hand...we saw another rapid-fire bustout. TheCorridor moved all-in for 3,454,108 with [Kd][5s] and MikeyGG3 snap-called with [Ad][Ks]. An ace on the flop clipped TheCorridor's wings. The board finished up [As][9s][9d][Ts][4c] and MikeyGG3 won the pot with Aces up. TheCorridor failed to stave off elimination and was knocked out in third place, which paid out $12,775.95.

HEADS-UP: MikeyGG3 (Canada) vs. po82m (Ukraine)
Seat 1: MikeyGG3 (20,426,148)
Seat 6: po82m (5,383,852)

MikeyGG3 held a 4-1 advantage, but in nine hands it would be all over.

HEROES: po82m eliminated in second place; MikeyGG3 wins Event #13

Lots of action packed inside a nine-hand heads-up bout. On the third hand, po82m landed a crushing blow and doubled up with [Ac][9h] against MikeyGG3's [Qs][Js] to win a 9.4M pot. MikeyGG3's lead was trimmed to 15M-10M. Just when po82m was attempting to seize the lead, MikeyGG3 went in for the kill.

On the final hand, po82m was all-in for 10.2M with a dominating hand.

po82m: [As][9h]
MikeyGG3: [Ad][8h]

An eight on the flop gave MikeyGG3 the lead and the Canadian never looked back when the board finished up [Kd][8d][7c][3d][2s]. po82m failed to come from behind and failed to stave off elimination. MikeyGG3 won the pot and binked the tournament.

Ukraine's po82m earned $18,041.19 for a gutsy runner-up performance.

Congrats to MikeyGG3 for winning TCOOP Event #13. First place paid out $24,297.72.

TCOOP-13 ($33 NL Hold'em, Turbo, Saturday Speedway SE) results
Entrants: 5,162
Total prize pool: $154,860
Places paid: 675

1. MikeyGG3 (Canada) $24,297.72
2. po82m (Ukraine) $18,041.19
3. TheCorridor (Germany) $12,775.95
4. Maestro_Bolt (Russia) $8,749.59
5. sorakasa (Finland) $6,581.55
6. da Ape (Germany) $5,032.95
7. MrWhitie (Austria) $3,484.35
8. allan sheik (Brazil) $1,935.75
9. 3bila (Morocco) $1,238.88

Pauly McGuire is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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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