Russians and razz. As the ‘COOP series frequently demonstrate, there are a lot of razz masters playing from the Federation on PokerStars, and this week’s SCOOP Event #37-L (a $27 buy-in razz tournament) confirmed the point once again.
Three of the final four players in this one came from Russia, with two making it to a heads-up deal before Vovan7778 eventually proved the best at making the worst hands to win the title and a $7,520.26 prize. That makes nine titles overall for the Razzians — er, Russians — in this year’s SCOOP so far.
They had just reached the final table when Day 1 concluded, meaning only eight players were left from that big field to return on Thursday. Those three Russians were among them, with YaSashok86 leading the way.
Seat 1: Ozenc “ozenc” Demir (Netherlands) — 4,463,396
Seat 2: Vovan7778 (Russia) — 2,284,568
Seat 3: YaSashok86 (Russia) — 5,105,928
Seat 4: recusant_89 (Russia) — 2,057,158
Seat 5: Respect8871 (Hungary) — 2,777,889
Seat 6: Eric “AceQuad” Brix (Mexico) — 219,788
Seat 7: lautokastar (Australia) — 1,143,852
Seat 8: cardiaftw (Brazil) — 1,307,421
Eric “AceQuad” Brix came to Day 2 as the short stack with only a little more than a single big bet with which to play. Brix brought an impressive tournament résumé to this final table, having earned the 2013 SCOOP Player of the Series before while also having once won the Sunday Million.
Demir then led on both fourth and fifth streets, with lautokastar calling once and then folding, at which point Demir showed (7-5) / 4-8-2 for an 8-low while AceQuad had but (8-9) / 6-Q-K. Indeed, after drawing another queen on sixth, AceQuad couldn’t come back and so went out in eighth.
About 10 minutes after that it was lautokastar raising with a trey showing and Respect8871 calling with a seven up. lautokastar then led with bets on the next three streets, going all-in on sixth, and Respect8871 called the whole way.
By then lautokastar had a J-low with (2-4) / 3-2-9-J while Respect8871 had that beat with (4-6) / 7-Q-9-3. lautokastar could still draw to a better nine, but picked up yet another deuce on seventh to go out in seventh place. It was another great finish for lautokastar who last week took runner-up in Event #6-M ($215 NL Omaha Hi/Lo).
Just about 10 minutes after that the limits were up to 120,000/240,000 when Vovan7778 completed, YaSashok86 raised, and both cardiaftw and Vovan7778 called. cardiaftw led with bets on fourth and fifth, with both calling initially then only Vovan7778 sticking around. Then a leading bet by Vovan7778 earned an all-in call from cardiaftw, and the players’ hole cards were revealed:
cardiaftw: (10-A) / 4-2-Q-A
Vovan7778: (6-3) / 8-2-6-5
Alas for cardiaftw, that 10-low couldn’t improve enough on seventh to beat the 8-6-5-3-2 of Vovan7778, and cardiaftw hit the rail in sixth.
Just a few minutes later Respect8871 raised showing a five, Ozenc “ozenc” Demir reraised with a four up, and Respect8871 called. Ozenc picked up an ace on fourth and bet, and Respect8871 called despite drawing a king. Ozenc continued with another bet on fifth and Respect8871 called all-in, showing (3-6) / 5-K-7 while Ozenc had (7-A) / 4-A-J.
Respect8871 had the edge with two cards to come, but would draw a queen and a six to finish with a Q-7-6-5-3. Meanwhile Ozenc picked up a trey on sixth street and a king on the end, finishing with a J-7-4-3-A to knock Respect8871 out in fifth.
The final four all made it to the one-hour break of Day 2, with Ozenc having become the short stack with about 1.86 million and the other three players — recusant_89, Vovan7778, and YaSashok86 — all sitting in the 5.5-6.3 million range.
As the limits went up YaSashok86’s stack went down, then came a hand in which YaSashok86 opened, Ozenc raised, and YaSashok86 reraised all-in for 871,784 total (not two big bets). Ozenc called, and the pair watched fourth through seventh streets be dealt:
YaSashok86: (7-2) / A-A-Q-2 / (8)
ozenc: (8-7) / 4-10-9-3 / (10)
Ozenc ended with a 9-8-7-4-3, good enough to beat YaSashok86’s Q-8-7-2-A and the latter was out in fourth.
Soon after that a big hand played out between Ozenc and Vovan7778, one that began with Vovan7778 calling Ozenc’s third-street open, then saw them trade back and forth leading bets on the next three streets with Ozenc betting fourth and sixth while Vovan7778 led on fifth. Each kept calling, then seventh street saw Vovan7778 check-raise a bet from Ozenc which the latter then called all-in, having ultimately committed his whole stack of 2.73 million during the hand.
The showdown…
Vovan7778: Â (A-5) / J-2-4-K / (7)
ozenc: (7-10) / 6-4-4-3 / (2)
In the end both players made 7-low hands, and Ozenc might have thought that deuce on the end had made him best. But Vovan7778’s 7-5-4-2-A just beat Ozenc’ s 7-6-4-3-2 to send the latter out in third. Ozenc barely missed earning a second career SCOOP title after having won a PLO-8 event back in 2010.
Soon the tournament was paused for a deal discussion, with Vovan7778 leading with 11,569,116 and recusant_89 sitting with 7,790,884 (and limits up to 320K/640K). The pair quickly agreed to terms — leaving $500 and the SCOOP title for which play — and the dealing began anew.
Before long recusant_89 had been chipped down under 3.85 million while the limits increased again to 500K/1M. A hand then arose that saw Vovan7778 raising on third and recusant_89 calling, then recusant_89 led on fourth with Vovan7778 sticking around. After that recusant_89 started check-calling bets from Vovan7778 on fifth, sixth, and seventh, the last one putting recusant_89 all-in.
The hole cards were flipped, and recusant_89 saw the bad news:
Vovan7778: (4-6) / 3-Q-2-7 / (6) — a 7-6-4-3-2
recusant_89: (A-7) / 9-3-J-8 / (Q) — a 9-8-7-3-A
Having won a TCOOP before in a $27 stud event, recusant_89 had to settle for a near-miss in this quest for a SCOOP title, too. Meanwhile, congratulations to Vovan7778 who took down the event to earn a nifty $7,500-plus return on a $27 investment.
SCOOP-37-L ($27 Razz) results
Entrants: 1,936
Prize pool: $47,528.80
Places paid: 256
1. Vovan7778 (Russia) $7,520.26*
2. recusant_89 (Russia) $6,656.03*
3. Ozenc “ozenc” Demir (Netherlands) $4,515.23
4. YaSashok86 (Russia) $3,327.01
5. Respect8871 (Hungary)
6. cardiaftw (Brazil) $1,425.86
7. lautokastar (Australia) $950.57
8. AceQuad (Mexico) $475.28
*denotes two-way deal.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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