With EPT Barcelona complete, the field for this week's Super Tuesday was back up again. The extra 115 players built a bigger prize pool and paid more places, not to mention setting up bigger prizes at the top of the payouts. A four-way chop at the end meant champion Dmaster681 ended up taking second-place money, but it was still the biggest share. Besides, "Super Tuesday winner" is one of those phrases that sounds great no matter how much money comes along with it.
This week's field of 509 players meant a $509,000 prize pool, 63 places paid, and $96,710 set aside for first place. The money bubble popped at 7:30 ET, five and a half hours in, and another three hours and 10 minutes reduced to field to its final nine players. With 3,600/7,200/900 blinds and antes, their stacks looked like this:
Seat 1: Piero Hace (212,215 in chips)
Seat 2: hannes_os333 (309,480 in chips)
Seat 3: Davide "GX91" Marchi (154,446 in chips)
Seat 4: bluffyou15 (305,069 in chips)
Seat 5: OMGACEACEACE (553,144 in chips)
Seat 6: tua133 (212,722 in chips)
Seat 7: Dmaster681 (249,929 in chips)
Seat 8: Monk532 (270,159 in chips)
Seat 9: Grayson "gray31" Ramage (277,836 in chips)
Nobody was in terribly desperate straits, but with more than half the table within 15 big blinds of one another a confrontation seemed likely to come sooner rather than later. Indeed, the first showdown came on Hand #10, and it came between two players with nearly identical stacks. 2012 SCOOP winner tua133 opened for 14,400 in early position and called with 7,527 chips left behind after hannes_os333 shoved for 149K from the small blind. tua133 had the dominating lead with [Ah] [Kd] against hannes_os333's [Ad] [Qc] but fell to just a 17.6 percent chance of winning the hand when the flop came [2h] [Qh] [7s]. The [3c] turn and [5h] river changed nothing and hannes_os333 doubled to 315K. Two hands later tua133 open-shoved with [Ah] [7d], ran into Dmaster681's [Ac] [Tc], and after failing to improve left in 9th place ($8,449.40).
hannes_os333 was in on the action on the next big confrontation, opening the hand for a minimum raise to 18,000. WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event winner Grayson "gray31" Ramage re-raised to 48K in the small blind and called with [Ac] [Kc] after hannes_os333 moved all-in for 178K, showing down [Qc] [Qh]. The coast was clear on the [5h] [3d] [8s] flop and [5c] turn but the [Ad] on the river made a pair of aces. That gave Ramage the pot and knocked hannes_os333 out in 8th place ($11,452.50).
Two short stacks clashed on the next hand when Monk532 opened for an oversized raise to 39K with [Ac] [Qc] and called all-in for 64K more when Piero Hace shoved from the small blind with [Ts] [Td]. Monk532, who took 2nd place in this tournament in 2012 and 8th in 2013, caught two pair on the [Qs] [As] [2d] [4c] [Jh] board to take the 225K-chip pot, and Piero Hace was left with 23K. Piero Hace picked up another pair on the next hand and got those chips in, but [2c] [2s] didn't hold up. bluffyou15 called in the big blind with [Qh] [Jc] and paired up on the turn of the [6h] [3h] [9s] [Js] [Kh] board, sending Piero Hace to the rail in 7th place ($16,542.50).
After that burst of activity, things slowed down for a while. Six-handed play would last for 70 hands, with one key pot two-thirds of the way through that span changing the direction of the tournament. gray31 opened the pot for a minimum raise to 28K under the gun and then called all-in after OMGACEACEACE moved all-in for 289K with [8c] [8d] and Dmaster681 re-shoved for 618K with [Ad] [Kd]. Both players were behind gray31's [Ks] [Kh], but OMGACEACEACE made a set to win the 894K-chip main pot when the board came [3s] [8s] [Jd] [5c] [9h].
gray31 settled for the side pot of 195K, moving into last place, and OMGACEACEACE, who had been in last going into the previous hand, took over the chip lead. Some 20 hands later they would clash and things would go badly for gray31, who re-raised all-in for 219K with [Ad] [4s] in the big blind only to be caught when original min-raiser OMGACEACEACE called with [As] [Ac]. Slim hope emerged for gray31 on the turn with the board reading [6h] [Js] [3s] [5d], but the draw was dashed when the [3c] came on the river. OMGACEACEACE took the 459K-chip pot and gray31 left in 6th place ($21,632.50).
Twelve hands later Dmaster681 got a chance to pick up some of those chips lost on the big three-way hand that had given OMGACEACEACE the lead. Dmaster681 opened for 33K under the gun with [Jh] [Jd] and was the only caller after Monk532 moved in for 198K from the cutoff with [Ac] [Kd]. The pair became top set on the [7s] [9d] [Jc] flop and held up through the [Ad] turn and [Td] river, busting Monk532 in 5th place ($27,995.00).
Dmaster681 let it ride on the next hand with [8c] [8d], three-betting GX91's opening raise under the gun and then calling all-in for 505K after GX91 jammed with [Ad] [Ks]. The pair not only held up but made a full house on the [Jh] [5s] [8h] [Jd] [5c] board, making Dmaster681 the new chip leader with 1.02M. That hand set off a spate of all-in moves and double-ups by GX91 and bluffyou15 that left all four players within 12 big blinds of one another. The clock was paused and within minutes they had agreed to a deal that left $8,000 on the table for the winner.
bluffyou15 would be the first to bow out after making the deal. GX91 opened the hand with a minimum raise to 40K and bluffyou15 re-raised all-in for 315K total with [6d] [6s]. Then OMGACEACEACE made it four bets and 770K to go, driving GX91 out of the way and setting up a coin flip against the sixes with [Kh] [Qh]. The board came [Kc] [7c] [7s] [Tc] [4d], the kings won the 681K-chip pot, and bluffyou15 left in 4th place ($64,684.71).
Seven hands later GX91 picked up [Ad] [5h] in the big blind and three-bet all-in for 403K after Dmaster681 opened for a small raise to 44K. Dmaster681 called with the dominating [As] [Jc] and won when neither player improved on the [7c] [4h] [2h] [8d] [2s] board. That eliminated GX91 in 3rd place ($61,416.98), another strong performance following up on a runner-up finish in the Sunday Million back in May.
With that, Dmaster681 enjoyed an 11-big-blind advantage as the heads-up match got underway:
Seat 5: OMGACEACEACE (1,146,385 in chips)
Seat 7: Dmaster681 (1,398,615 in chips)
The match would last 40 hands. OMGACEACEACE jumped into an early lead in a limped pot, hitting a wheel straight on the river and getting a check-raise in to drag a pot worth 835K. That lead was short-lived, though, as Dmaster681 took down the next four pots in a row, including one worth 465K with an uncalled bet on the river of a [5d] [6d] [Ad] [4s] [3c] board.
OMGACEACEACE pulled back to within a few big blinds 15 hands later with a small win, but that was a close as the two chips stacks would get for the rest of the tournament. The two soon ended up in a coin flip before the flop, with Dmaster681 holding [5d] [5s] against OMGACEACEACE's [Ks] [Qc]. OMGACEACEACE was still nearly 40 percent to win after the [Td] [3s] [Ac] flop, but the [5h] cut that chance to just the four jacks in the deck. The [2c] didn't make a straight to beat the set, and the tournament came to an end.
OMGACEACEACE's share of the deal for second place was $60,708.96, while the extra $8,000 on the table made a total first prize of $74,033.85 for Dmaster681. Congratulations to both players on the deal!
9/1/15 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants: 509
Prize pool: $509,000
Places paid: 63
1. Dmaster681 (Costa Rica) $74,033.85*
2. OMGACEACEACE (Poland) $60,708.96*
3. Davide "GX91" Marchi (Malta) $61,416.98*
4. bluffyou15 (Canada) $63,684.71*
5. Monk532 (Canada) $27,995
6. Grayson "gray31" Ramage (Canada) $21,632.50
7. Piero Hace (Poland) $16,542.50
8. hannes_os333 (Austria) $11,452.50
9. tua133 (Czech Republic) $8,449.40
* - denotes results of a four-way deal
Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.
