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Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP 2014: Giannako91 grabs Event 23-L glory ($27 NLHE)

Sundays on PokerStars are known for tournament madness – so many options to fill your Sunday with events of all buy-ins and variations. And when SCOOP tournaments are offered, sometimes Sunday tournaments roll over into Monday.

Take Event 23. It was a regular ol’ NLHE event, and the Low buy-in tournament offered a massive $400K guarantee for a mere $27 buy-in. And for that elite group of players who made it through the first 40 levels of action, they were allowed the opportunity to return on Monday for even more of the tournament!

First, let’s take a look at the initial registration information:

Players: 22,805
Guarantee: $400,000.00
Total prize pool: $559,862.75
Paid players: 3,150

As Day 1 played through, the vast majority of players were eliminated. Thousands of them departed before the money bubble burst. When the payouts began, there were still some members of Team PokerStars in action. While none of them made it through all 40 levels, we wanted to highlight those who cashed.

632nd place: Team Pro Marcin “Goral” Horecki ($151.16)
1893rd place: Team Online’s Grzegorz “DaWarsaw” Mikielewicz ($61.58)
2106th place: Team Pro Marcel Luske ($55.98)
2406th place: Martin “AABenjaminAA” Hruby ($50.38)
3131st place: Team Pro Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero ($39.19)

Play stopped with 58 players remaining on seven tables, and the top 10 on the leaderboard were listed as follows:

1. Raccuu (Finland) 11,705,323
2. pepy715 (Romania) 11,272,153
3. DIEDZz (Netherlands) 11,031,265
4. Irbitis (Latvia) 10,392,190
5. marcospaolo (Brazil) 8,346,459
6. IGNIetFERR0 (Russia) 7,672,993
7. AquariusAA (Czech Republic) 6,789,131
8. GuiPSF (Brazil) 6,478,568
9. juci600 (Hungary) 6,277,695
10. stationftw (Netherlands) 5,714,331

Day 2

Play resumed on May 12 at the start of Level 41, with blinds still at 70K/140K and the ante at 17,500. It took less than two hours to thin the field down to two players, and after the 11th place elimination of RightDurrSir, hand-for-hand play was underway.

Juca1964 finally scored a double through IGNIetFERR0, which nearly crippled the latter. IGNIetFERR0 pushed all-in two hands later with K♥ 7♥ on a 4♠ K♠ 6♠ flop, but that was no match for the A♠ Q♠ of Copiaad for the nut flush. The 6♠ and 7♣ finished the hand to leave IGNIetFERR0 out in tenth place with $2,099.48.

TTimallin starts with strong lead

In the latter part of Level 51, with blinds at 600K/1200K and a 150K ante, the final table was set as follows:

Seat 1: HansGusen112 (28,357,565 in chips)
Seat 2: Copiaad (19,311,898 in chips)
Seat 3: somagolf33 (17,401,694 in chips)
Seat 4: GuiPSF (10,017,124 in chips)
Seat 5: Giannako91 (40,635,952 in chips)
Seat 6: Irbitis (11,756,522 in chips)
Seat 7: TTimallin (48,765,042 in chips)
Seat 8: juca1964 (22,135,818 in chips)
Seat 9: Gratitdude (29,668,385 in chips)

SCOOP 2014 - Event 23L FT.JPG

The players quickly picked up the pace.

On the third hand, Copiaad raised and Giannako91 called to see the A♣ 7♠ 5♠ flop. Giannako91 bet, and Copiaad check-called, and then received the A♥ on the turn. Giannako91 bet again, but Copiaad raised all-in that time. Copiaad check-called with A♠ Q♣ , which bested the A♦ 10♥ of Copiaad. The K♠ on the river made no difference, and Copiaad was gone in ninth place with $3,359.17.

Two hands after that, GuiPSF raised all-in UTG+1 with Q♠ 9♠ . Giannako91 reraised all-in with A♣ K♦ . Gratitdude called all-in with Q♦ Q♥ . The board delivered A♦ A♠ 3♠ 9♣ 2♥ , and Giannako91 won all of the chips with trip aces. That left GuiPSF out in eighth place with $5,038.76 and Gratitdude out in seventh with $7,866.07.

After another two hands, Irbitis moved all-in from the big blind after TTimallin made an UTG raise. TTimallin called with Q♥ 10♥ , and Irbitis showed [AS]K♣ . The flop of 2♥ 3♥ 8♦ was innocent enough, but the Q♦ on the turn gave TTimallin top pair. The 2♦ on the river solidified Irbitis’ exit in sixth place, which was worth $11,197.25.

Somagolf33 was the next to risk it all, doing so from the big blind after HansGusen112 raised from the small blind. Somagolf33 moved all-in with A♣ Q♣ , but HansGusen112 showed J♠ J♥ , which improved to two pair on the 8♥ 9♦ 10♦ 10♥ K♠ board. Somagolf33 departed in fifth place with $16,795.88.

Shortly after, juca1964 pushed little more than 9 million chips all-in with A♥ 5♣ . Giannako91 called, but when original UTG raiser TTimallin reraised, Giannako91 folded. TTimallin showed Q♦ J♥ , and juca1964 was at risk with A♥ 5♣ . The board of 10♥ 8♥ 5♦ A♠ 9♣ gave TTimallin a straight and eliminated juca1964 in fourth place for $22,394.51.

Deal for final three?

The answer was no.

The players took a break from the tournament to look at ICM and chip-chop numbers, and they were unable to agree on any breakdown for a deal. So, with these chip counts, they continued to play:

Seat 1: HansGusen112 (39,528,794 in chips)
Seat 5: Giannako91 (77,178,006 in chips)
Seat 7: TTimallin (111,343,200 in chips)

It didn’t take long short-stacked HansGusen112 to make a move. The hand started with an UTG raise from Giannako91 and raise from HansGusen112 in the big blind. Giannako91 raised it up again, and HansGusen112 pushed all-in with A♣ J♣ . But Giannako91 called with J♦ J♥ , and that pair turned into two pair on the 8♥ 6♥ 5♦ 2♦ 6â™  board. HansGusen112 exited in third place with $27,993.13.

Two tango for title

The two finalists took to their heads-up match with these stacks:

Seat 5: Giannako91 (121,831,800 in chips)
Seat 7: TTimallin (106,218,200 in chips)

The two exchanged chips for more than 30 minutes before this happened:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Shortly after, the two players paused the tournament to make another attempt at a deal. They immediately agreed to split the prize money down the middle with the obligatory $8,000 set aside for the winner.

Seat 5: Giannako91 (127,981,800 in chips)
Seat 7: TTimallin (100,068,200 in chips)

Giannako91 surged and took an even bigger chip lead, but TTimallin eventually quickly doubled back to 106 million chips. Then TTimallin started to run away with the lead, but Giannako91 doubled to 130.5 million. TTimallin soared into the lead again, but Giannako91 doubled to 97.5 million chips and then scored this double:

RSS readers click through to see replay

TTimallin finally risked 53 million chips with K♦ 4♣ , but Giannako91 called with A♣ 10♠ , and that ace was the best kicker on the 9♠ 8♦ 8♣ 7♥ 5♣ board. TTimallin accepted second place and the $44,802.41 that went with it.

Giannako91 won the SCOOP title, commemorative watch, and $52,802.41. Congrats!

SCOOP – 23L: $27 NLHE
Entrants: 22,805
Prize pool: $559,862.75
Places paid: 3,150

1. Giannako91 (Greece) $52,802.41*
2. TTimallin (Ireland) $44,802.41*
3. HansGusen112 (Poland) $27,993.13
4. juca1964 (Brazil) $22,394.51
5. somagolf33 (Hungary) $16,795.88
6. Irbitis (Latvia) $11,197.25
7. Gratitdude (Estonia) $7,866.07
8. GuiPSF (Brazil) $5,038.76
9. Copiaad (Sweden) $3,359.17

Payouts reflect two-way deal.

Jennifer Newell is a PokerStars freelance contributor.

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