Today we learned the delayed final table is no more at the World Series of Poker Main Event. That is to say, the WSOP Main Event will be playing down to a winner this summer rather than halt things with nine players left and finish the tournament out months later. That means we’ve seen our last “November Nine” for a while — maybe for good.
Jerry “hummylun” Wong was part of that last group, finishing eighth in the 2016 WSOP Main Event, and he followed that success with a SCOOP title last week when he won Event #14-H ($2,100 Razz).
Today another member of the last November Nine duplicated Wong’s feat — Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert, last year’s sixth-place finisher. Like Wong, Hallaert had never won a SCOOP before, but now he has after topping a big 789-entry field to win the $1,050 buy-in Event #29-H, an eight-max no-limit hold’em event, taking away a handsome prize of $147,937.50 for doing so.
It was a big SCOOP Sunday on PokerStars, which led to a big SCOOP Monday, too, as the two-day tournaments continued. For Event #29-H, the big field meant a $789,000 prize pool, well over the $500K guarantee. The top 104 finishers made the money, and of those players 35 of them lasted to the end of Day 1.
Two-time WCOOP winner Patrick “pads1161” Leonard topped the overnight counts, with Hallaert also way up there in third position. Here’s how the top 10 looked to start Day 2:
1. Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (United Kingdom) — 586,749
2. Manuel “fellatiado” Ruivo (Poland) — 538,937
3. Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert (United Kingdom) — 399,694
4. EEE27 (Finland) — 395,238
5. Arne “juarnes” Coulier (Belgium) — 388,067
6. OLD TIME GIN (Canada) — 366,966
7. w1n@w4r (Latvia) — 364,776
8. Fold Machiii (United Kingdom) — 309,186
9. girafganger7 (Belgium) — 302,668
10. prsalute (United Kingdom) — 297,965
Others coming back on Monday included the aforementioned Jerry “hummylun” Wong (in 15th position), David “gauch2121” Paredes (17th), Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus (20th), Team PokerStars Pro Online member Lex Veldhuis (21st), Mike “SirWatts” Watson (24th), Anton “antesvante” Wigg (27th), and Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins (31st).
After one hour of play on Day 2 just 24 remained with Patrick “pads1161” Leonard still the frontrunner. Among the casualties of those first 60 minutes was Lex Veldhuis of Team PokerStars Pro Online who fell in 33rd ($3,156) after losing his stack to girafganger7.
By the two-hour mark they were down to two tables with girafganger7 having moved into the chip lead with David “gaucho2121” Paredes (17th) and Mike “SirWatts” Watson (24th) among the eliminated, both earning $5,128.50.
Another hour passed and they were down to just nine, with girafganger7 a short stack, Leonard back on top of the counts, and Jerry “hummylun” Wong (14th, $7,258.80) and David “gauch2121” Paredes (17th, $5,128.50) having hit the rail.
Soon thagrinda444 was nearly stacked by Luis “luisdono” Dono in a tens-versus-jacks preflop all-in, then went out one hand later to finish ninth ($9,468). The eight-handed final table was set.
Seat 1: Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus (Austria) — 317,943
Seat 2: Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (United Kingdom) — 1,625,419
Seat 3: Luis “luisdono” Dono (Netherlands) — 1,558,964
Seat 4: Anton “antesvante” Wigg (Sweden) — 1,043,111
Seat 5: girafganger7 (Belgium) — 382,062
Seat 6: Manuel “fellatiado” Ruivo (Poland) — 764,767
Seat 7: Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert (United Kingdom) — 1,051,433
Seat 8: Arne “juarnes” Coulier (Belgium) — 1,146,301
Just a few hands in Manuel “fellatiado” Ruivo was at risk in a preflop all-in situation holding A♣ Q♥ versus Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert’s 9♣ 9♦ , and when the pocket pair held Ruivo was done in eighth.
Nearly 40 minutes later Anton “antesvante” Wigg was reraise-shoving a stack of 24 big blinds over a Luis “luisdono” Dono open, and Dono called to show Aâ™ K♣ versus Wigg’s J♣ J♥ . The board was all Dono, coming 3♦ 8♥ K♦ A♦ K♥ to give him a full house and end Wigg’s run in seventh.
A few orbits later one-time WCOOP winner Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus was the short one, open-shoving for less than four BBs with Kâ™ 6♦ , watching girafganger7 reraise-push to isolate with 9â™ 9♦ , then missing the board to go out in sixth.
But even with that pot girafganger7 had fallen below the average, and just a couple of minutes later raised from the button, got three-bet by Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert in the small blind, shoved all in for just over 23 BBs, and Hallaert called.
girafganger7 — winner of a TCOOP title earlier this year — had picked up a pair with 6♦ 6♣ , but Hallaert had a bigger, better one with A♥ A♣ . No six came among the community cards, sending girafganger7 railward in fifth.
With four left Luis “luisdono” Dono led with about 2.6 million, with Leonard and Hallaert both hovering around 2 million and Arne “juarnes” Coulier last with 1.23 million but still plenty deep with 50-plus BBs.
They’d remain four-handed for nearly two hours more, over which time Hallaert built a big chip advantage with nearly 4.9 million while Patrick “pads1161” Leonard found himself down around 390,000 with the blinds at 20,000/40,000.
That’s when a hand arose that saw Hallaert min-raise from the button, Leonard call from the big blind, then after a 2â™ 8♦ 10♣ flop Leonard pushed and Hallaert called. Leonard had J♥ 7♥ for a gutshot while Hallaert had K♦ 2♥ for deuces, and after the 5â™ turn and A♥ river they were down to three.
Just four hands later Luis “luisdono” Dono limped from the small blind, Hallaert raised 3x to 150,000, and Dono called. The flop came 7♥ J♥ 3♦ and Dono checked. Hallaert continued for 116,500, Dono jammed for 939,410, and Hallaert called.
Dono turned over 9♥ 4♥ for a heart flush draw while Hallaert had a big pair this time with K♦ K♠. The turn was the J♣ and river the 2♦ , knocking Dono out in third.
Hallaert was well in front to start heads-up play with about 6.54 million to Arne “juarnes” Coulier’s almost 1.35 million. The pair did pause things to talk about a possible chop, and once numbers were produced Hallaert agreed but there was a delay on Coulier’s end.
SpaceyFCB: He’s probably feeding his chickens at the moment
juarnes: not enough to win kenny i’ll take the gamble maybe we can look again later glgl , unless you wanne give up 4k?
juarnes: yes just done feeding the chickens
SpaceyFCB: ok, np
SpaceyFCB: see your point
SpaceyFCB: gl
No word on whether anyone counted his chickens before they hatched — we trust smart eggs like Coulier and Hallaert both know better. In any event, the pair would play a dozen heads-up hands with Hallaert adding a bit to his lead as Coulier slipped below 1 million.
Then it was Hallaert raising the minimum to 100,000 from the button, Coulier shoving for 937,123, and Hallaert making the call.
juarnes: A♠8♣
SpaceyFCB: A♥ 6♦
A good spot for Coulier, but the flop fell 2♣ 10♦ 6♥ to pair Hallaert’s lower kicker. The turn was the 3♣ and river the 4â™ and it was all over — Hallaert had won!
Congratulations to Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert for following fellow November Niner Jerry Wong’s footsteps and earning a SCOOP title of his own.
SCOOP-29-H ($1,050 NLHE [8-Max]) results
Total entries: 789
Prize pool: $789,000
Places paid: 104
1. Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert (United Kingdom) $147,937.50
2. Arne “juarnes” Coulier (Belgium) $106,515.00
3. Luis “luisdono” Dono (Netherlands) $78,900.00
4. Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (United Kingdom) $59,175.00
5. girafganger7 (Belgium) $39,450.00
6. Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus (Austria) $27,615.00
7. Anton “antesvante” Wigg (Sweden) $17,752.50
8. Manuel “fellatiado” Ruivo (Poland) $11,835.00
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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