Friday, 29th March 2024 08:23
Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP 2017: Third time’s the charm for anti-durrr in Event #12-H ($1,050 NLHE Super Tuesday SE)

A few hundred players enter the Super Tuesday every week, putting up $1,050 for a deep stack and the chance to put it to use against top players with a slow blind structure. The stacks at the final table are deep and the best players shine through, making it the closest thing online poker has to world championship tourneys from the ’70s and ’80s, minus the smoky rooms and players popping away into the bathroom every few minutes for a “pick me up.” Greece’s anti-durrr nearly won this tournament on two different occasions back in 2011, making today’s victory in Event #12-H, the first of SCOOP 2017’s Super Tuesday Special Editions, that much sweeter.

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Befitting the elite status of the Super Tuesday, victory in this Special Edition was hard-earned. The first day of play lasted for 19 levels and weeded out 97 percent of the field. Day 2 kicked off at 1:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday and offered nothing but the promise of a long, hard fight on the road to SCOOP glory.

anti-durrr started the day third in chips but held just a fifth as many chips as then-leader and twotime past Sunday Million champ Peter “twirlpro” Turmezy when the field was down to three tables. It took another three hours to cut those three tables to one. FourSixFour, the winner of Event #2-H earlier this week, lost a race with A♥ 3â™  to chip leader jani890311’s Q♥ Jâ™  and popped the bubble in 10th place. With five more hours of poker still to play, the soon-to-be champion was lurking in the middle of the pack:

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Seat 1: DSmunichlife (539,058 in chips)
Seat 2: gusmaa (976,413 in chips)
Seat 3: Grayson “gray31” Ramage (867,479 in chips)
Seat 4: wiciu777 (943,233 in chips)
Seat 5: anti-durrr (914,631 in chips)
Seat 6: alimounda (2,823,091 in chips)
Seat 7: MrMaximize (923,397 in chips)
Seat 8: jani890311 (3,267,359 in chips)
Seat 9: Robin “robinho” Ylitalo (2,825,339 in chips)

jani890311, who took third in a SCOOP-Low event last year, put that incoming chip lead to work right away. With plenty of room to fire of raises and re-raises, the Hungarian player built up several big pots against two-time past Sunday
Warm-Up finalist alimounda of Greece and won them at showdown. It was enough to push jani890311’s stack all the way up to 200 big blinds when nobody else had as much as 100.

But alimounda kept firing consistently and after an hour of play, Grayson “gray31” Ramage took a direct hit. The TCOOP 2016 and 2014 WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event winner limped on the button with Aâ™  9♥ and made top pair on the same flop that gave alimounda’s 10♣ 8â™  an open-ended straight draw. The draw got there on the turn and Ramage might have gotten away if not for an ace on the river giving him two pair. Instead alimounda scooped an 83-big-blind pot and Ramage left in ninth. An ace on the river 45 minutes later gave the Greek player’s A♥ J♥ aces and fours, beating past SCOOP finalist gusmaa’s pocket treys to sink the Brazilian in eighth.

It was a game of aces again 15 minutes later. DSmunichlife, who took third in a $1,050 HORSE event yesterday as well as in two different installments of the Super Tuesday earlier this year, opened with A♥ J♦ and called when MrMaximize jammed from the small blind with A♦ Kâ™  . Big Slick won out, and DSmunichlife jammed for 270K under the gun on the next hand. jani890311 called with A♥ 9♦ and made a pair of nines on the turn to end DSmunichlife’s run in seventh.


More than $55 million is up for grabs during SCOOP 2017. Click here to open your PokerStars account today!


The old-school vibe was still in full effect after two hours of play. The stacks were still deep – 55 big blinds each, on average, with even short-stacked wiciu777 from Poland enjoying the luxury with 20 big blinds of waiting for a big hand before diving into a pot. That was enough chips to survive a loss to anti-durrr’s flopped diamond flush and still build back into a playable stack. wiciu777 finally put it all on the line three hours into the final table, calling in the small blind with J♦ Jâ™  and less than one big blind left behind after two-time TCOOP winner Robin “robinho” Ylitalo shoved on the button with A♥ 6â™  . An ace on the flop and missed flush draw the rest of the way gave robinho the win, and moments later wiciu777’s tournament ended in sixth.

In the meantime, anti-durrr had been steadily building a stack to rival chip leader jani890311’s. The Greek actually surpassed it before defending the big blind with Aâ™  2♦ heads-up against jani890311’s button raise, flopping trip deuces, and then getting a check-raise in on the river. jani890311 paid that bet, dropped to just over 2 million chips, and wouldn’t come near the chip lead again.

anti-durrr, on the other hand, now had the biggest stack at the table and put it to use against anybody who was willing to play a hand. Eventually that included robinho, who defended the big blind with 9♣ 6♣ against an anti-durrr opener and made two pair on the Aâ™  6♦ 9â™  flop. That was enough to commit to, but it fell short when a third spade on the river made a flush for the leader’s Kâ™  Jâ™  and bounced robinho in fifth. The fourth hour of the final table closed out with anti-durrr taking the rest of jani890311’s stack, the Hungarian falling in fourth when 9♦ 9♣ couldn’t touch anti-durrr’s A♦ A♥ .

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That left MrMaximize, TCOOP 2017 Draw finalist and past Sunday 500 champ, with just over 20 big blinds and two opponents to double through or die trying. The latter looked more likely when MrMaximize got in with A♣ 8â™  early on against alimounda’s A♥ Jâ™  , but the 8♦ kept the story going. That was the opening that led to their final confrontation a half-hour later, when MrMaximize opened small on the button with K♣ Kâ™  and then called when alimounda jammed for 20 big blinds with K♦ 9♦ . The two diamonds on the flop never amounted to anything else, and alimounda left in third.

anti-durrr had a three-to-one chip advantage at the start of heads-up play and used it for two things: leverage in cutting a deal that guaranteed $200,000, and attacking ceaselessly after the deal was in place. MrMaximize found no major openings in the next half-hour, earning just one pot worth at least 20 big blinds before finally earning a desperate double-up after flopping middle pair with 8♦ 7♥ and moving all-in. anti-durrr called with J♥ 10♥ for a combination straight-and-flush draw but missed out, delaying the inevitable by just a few minutes. Finally anti-durrr’s A♣ Q♥ out-flopped MrMaximize’s 5♣ 5♥ , winding down SCOOP 2017’s first Super Tuesday Special Edition.

In the end, the old-school vibe of the Super Tuesday only goes so far. There was no gold bracelet awarded to our winner, who made up for those two missed opportunities at past Super Tuesday finals and earned a SCOOP title in the bargain. Nor was there an interview given before the ESPN cameras with Gabe Kaplan. But then again, nobody had to play in the springtime wind outisde on Fremont Street and everyone got to sleep in their own bed at the end of the night. Maybe the Super Tuesday is just a Special Edition unto itself – new-school with old-school characteristics – and this SCOOP version is the Special Edition of Special Editions. Call it whatever you want – just don’t forget to congratulate anti-durrr for winning it.

SCOOP-12-H ($1,050 NL Hold’em, Super Tuesday Special Edition) results
Entrants: 1,408
Total prize pool: $1,408,000
Places paid: 180

1. anti-durrr (Greece) $220,000*
2. MrMaximize (Mexico) $186,982.40*
3. alimounda (Greece) $129,536
4. jani890311 (Hungary) $95,744
5. Robin “robinho” Ylitalo (Sweden) $68,992
6. wiciu777 (Poland) $54,912
7. DSmunichlife (Germany) $40,832
8. gusmaa (Brazil) $26,752
9. Grayson “gray31” Ramage (Canada) $14,643.20
* – denotes results of a heads-up deal that left $20,000 for the winner


More than $55 million is up for grabs during SCOOP 2017. Click here to open your PokerStars account today!


Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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