As aejones’ pocket sixes turned a full house against nofingclue11’s flopped flush draw we shut the lights off of this Event #35-Medium Heads-up tournament as we’ll resume tomorrow with our final sixteen. Those sixteen are already assured $9,600.00 and will have a chance at taking the biggest chunks of the $640,000.00 256 player sold out prize pool. While the name implies “medium”, there was nothing small about the $2,600 price tag to lock heads with tournament great with WCOOP bracelets and SCOOP watches on their resume. One of which is the defending champion, RunThisTable, who will be returning tomorrow looking to defend the title. Let’s see how the other 15 got there as well.
Round of 256
Jason Mercier vs. Mike “Sowerss” Sowers
The battle that wasn’t.
Two highly regarded tournament players met in the first round with deep stacks (blinds starting at 25/50 and 10,000 chips) with 15 minute blinds in what was sure to be a great opening round battle…
… that took eight hands
Watch the fateful hand below as Jason got some rack time before meeting his next opponent.
In other early round action Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso caught some bad luck after getting all of her chips in preflop with pocket queens against her opponent soso9200’s pocket tens. The third ten wasted no time appearing on the flop and held to knock out the 2009 NBC National Heads-up Championships runner-up. George “Jorg95” Lind failed to acquire Player of the Series points after losing to Al K. Holick who stayed sober enough to knock out the hot Team PokerStars Pro in the first round.
Knocked out: t soprano (254th place), Sowerss (253rd place), Nordberg (238th place), ZeeJustin (227th place), 2009 WCOOP Event 17 champ iCeVeNoM (225th place), Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso (223rd place), Annette_15 (221st place), Victor Ramdin (204th place), Vicky Coren (196th place), Chad Brown (185th place), Ruben “rubenrtv” Visser (184th place), SirWatts (168th place), George “Jorj95” Lind (157th place), WCOOP and SCOOP champ James “Andy McLEOD” Obst (155th place), MrSmokey1 (146th place), Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis (129th place).
Advancing: Martin “AABenjaminAA” Hruby, djk123, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken, Gavin Griffin, George Danzer, 2010 SCOOP Event #5-M champ Joe “floes” Serock, Jason Mercier, Hevad “RaiNKhaN” Khan, David “RugDoctor” Williams, Jon “apestyles” Von Fleet, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Shawn Deeb, Steve “stevebets” Jacobs, teacuppoker (currently 2nd in the Player of the Series leaderboard).
Round of 128
Boeken would take control of this match in the 30/60 blind level when he made a button min-raise, and Deeb answered with a three-bet to 420. Not finished by a long shot, Boeken four-bet to 1,260 as Deeb five-bet shoved all-in covering Exclusive by 550 chips with pocket sevens 7♣ 7♦ . Holding pocket queens Q♥ Q♣ , Noah made the call and rubbed a little salt in the wound by hitting a set on the flop which held on 6♠J♠Q♦ 4♦ A♥ to win the 19,450 chip pot. Nine hands later Deeb would double up to 1,280 chips but got no further as eight hands after that the two would flip for the victory. Pocket sevens for Exclusive vs. A♣ Q♣ for Deeb, and with the seven on the turn for Boeken after Deeb flopped trips, the Team PokerStars pro moved on to the round of 64.
Knocked out: Ryan “djk123” D’Angelo (117th place), Shaun Deeb (112nd place), Hevad “RaiNKhaN” Khan (95th place), Martin “AABenjaminAA” Hruby (94th place), Gavin Griffin (78th place), apestyles (75th place), Steve “stevebets” Jacobs (73rd place)
Advancing: Jason Mercier, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken, George Danzer (currently 4th in the Player of the Series race), teacuppoker, rivermannl
Round of 64
Winners of this round were assured $6,400.00 and still in the running for the huge $96,000.00 and $172,800.00 prizes for our final two. A Team PokerStars Pro was assured to be in the money thanks to the match up below:
The turning point of this match happened in the 30/60 blind level after a min-raise and call both players bounced on the K♣ A♠Q♣ flop with a series of raises that had Danzer all-in. Pocket queens Q♥ Q♦ for Boeken and a pair with the nut flush draw 9♣ A♣ for Danzer. 10♣ gave Danzer the flush and the board failed to pair on the 8♦ river as Danzer scooped the 15,290 chip pot. From here Noah never recovered but would suffer a nasty beat on the final hand after the money goes in on the flop, watch below:
Flopped full house for Boeken’s ducks 2♦ 2â™ but the river 8♣ 8♦ 2♣ 7♣ 9♥ hit the German pro’s pocket nines 9♣ 9â™ and Danzer advanced.
Meanwhile, fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier battled teacuppoker who was trying to grab some needed SCOOP Player of the Series points with another cash. This roller-coaster came to a stop when Mercier turned two pair on a A♥ J♥ 7♣ 8â™ board and after betting 2,560 chips, teacuppoker tried to shove over the top as the two were nearly even in chips. Mercier made the call turning up 7♦ 8â™ as teacuppoker showed Q♦ 10♥ for an up and down straight draw. 10♣ paired up teacuppoker but wasn’t enough as Mercier advanced into the money.
The last table determining the field of 32 had Team PokerStars Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg knotted up with SquintNGo and after gaining the chip lead winning a flip holding 9♣ A♦ against SquintNGo’s pocket sixes Ruthenberg didn’t wait long to finish the match. With Ruthenberg up 12,878 to 7,122 the two would throw the chips into the middle preflop again. This time it was Ruthenberg with the pair 8â™ 8♥ and SquintNGo looking for help holding Kâ™ 4â™ . SquintNGo saw a flush draw on the flop but nothing more for the rest of the board 7â™ 10♣ 9â™ 7♥ 8♦ ending his night on the bubble in 33rd place as our final 32 were named.
Knocked out: 2010 SCOOP Event #5-High champ gcnmoo (63rd place), Noah “Exclusive” Boeken (53rd place), Keith “The Camel” Hawkins (48th place), teacuppoker (46th place),
Advanced: Jason Mercier, George Danzer, 2010 SCOOP Event #30-High champ gibralter11, Event #12 final tablist BreakRibs, Aaron “aejones” Jones, and looking for a repeat 2009 SCOOP Event #21 $2,600 Heads-up champ RunThisTable
Round of 32
In the 40/80 blind level Mercier with a 14,257 to 5,743 chip lead would have Ruthenberg all-in preflop. Pocket jacks J♣ J♠for Mercier and big slick K♠A♦ for Ruthenberg. The flop was safe for the jacks, but a king on the turn 2♣ 5♥ 10♠A♥ 10♦ gave the 11,486 chip pot to Ruthenberg and we played on.
Next all-in had Mercier’s tournament at stake. With the board reading 8♦ 8♣ 6â™ Qâ™ Aâ™ Mercier would check as Ruthenberg bet 1,278 chips. Mercier responded by shoving for 7,118 total as Ruthenberg turned over the nut flush 10â™ Kâ™ . Unfortunately for Ruthenberg, Mercier had flopped the mortal nuts 8â™ 8♥ and with quads Mercier would claim the 15,962 chip pot.
Four hands later Ruthenberg would even the score taking pocket sevens to the house against Mercier’s fives and the score was near even. The pair would fight until the second to last tables to break for the evening into the 80/160 blind level when both players would trade bets after the 6â™ A♦ 7♣ flop. Mercier would turn over top two pair A♥ 7♥ as Ruthenberg had the higher kicker with his ace Aâ™ 8â™ but well behind Mercier’s two pair. More outs for the German pro came on the 5♦ turn opening up straight outs, but the 6♦ wasn’t one of them and Jason Mercier would advance to tomorrow’s sweet 16.
Knocked out (all earning $6,400.00): thanksB, HHHUGO, N00000ooooo, blanconegro, LastChance11, George Danzer, sirhucksalot, KidCardiff6, UsualSspct, whaassuuppp, BradL, 2010 SCOOP Event 7-High Heads-up champ tcblade, BreakRibs, Sebastian Ruthenberg, nofingclue11
Table 1: Amoroso5 vs. lb6121
Table 2: ButchTimothy vs. El_Cañonero
Table 3: evanski vs. spamz0r
Table 4: gibralter11 vs. Team PokerStars pro Jason Mercier
Table 5: carryhero vs. Jord4n
Table 6: PURPLE”K”99 vs. Timv19
Table 7: 3Kingme3 vs. aejones
Table 8: Defending champion RunThisTable vs. Sasuke234
