Blink and you’ll miss it. That’s one way to describe this final table. Maybe that’s not quite fair, but the 20 minutes it took this bunch to go from eight players to a winner is less time that it takes to watch an episode of The Office, get your car washed, or have Chinese food delivered. Much of that brevity resulted not only from the 120 big blinds left in play and the late hour on the European continent, but an eight-way chop that saw the vast majority of the prize money divvied up only a few hands into play. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Let’s back up a moment since we can afford a more leisurely pace.

Event #8-Medium, a $109 buy-in turbo NLHE affair, drew 4,803 players to the virtual felt on Tuesday. The $480,300 prize pool more than tripled the $150,000 guarantee. 630 players cashed with first place set to earn $75,352.02. More than two dozen members of Team PokerStars Pro and Team Online entered the fray, with Fredy “sirfreddy83” Torres (14th), Gualter Salles (159th), George “gkap13” Kapalas (331st), Jude Ainsworth (404th), Grzegorz “DaWarsaw” Mikielewicz (421st), Anders “Donald” Berg (555th), and Bryan Huang (556th) all finishing in the money.

Andre Coimbra finishes 11th

Team Online’s Andre “acoimbra” Coimbra made the deepest run of the Team Pros, finishing in 11th place. He seemed poised to go even further, but in the span of three hands went from second in chips to on the rail. First, he shoved from the button, having both blinds covered, but received a call he obviously didn’t want; Coimbra turned over 2♦ 5♦ and shipped 4 million of his 7.5 million stack over to joejoe1337, who called from the big blind with A♠ 9♥ . On the next hand Coimbra shipped it in again and Krc321 made the call with Q♦ J♣ , but Coimbra’s pocket kings were run down on the Q♣ 10♥ Q♠ J♦ 7♣ board. Left with 1.8 million at the 200,000/400,000 blind level, he moved all-in from under-the-gun with A♣ 7♣ on the next deal, but DuckPoker89 turned two pair with K♠ J♥ to claim the rest of Coimbra’s chips.

Team Online’s Andre Coimbra

Double bubble elimination

Less than a minute later, two simultaneous all-ins unfolded, one on each table. Down to 164,000, bertkvi was all-in from the small blind against DuckPower89 and joejoe1337, who checked down the 10♣ J♣ 10♠ A♥ A♦ board. DuckPower89’s queen kicker ended up playing with the aces and tens on the board to win the pot and end bertkvi’s run in tenth place. At the same time, Nocturnick open-shoved for just over 4 million from the small blind with K♦ 4♥ and cocosbeen woke up with pocket jacks in the big. The jacks held up and Nocturnick finished in ninth place, leaving us with an eight-handed final table.

Final table chip counts:

Seat 1: 2outerjames (3,619,579 in chips)
Seat 2: Krc321 (3,451,476 in chips)
Seat 3: joejoe1337 (8,280,350 in chips)
Seat 4: power_up45 (1,722,607 in chips)
Seat 6: ryanmack91 (2,205,794 in chips)
Seat 7: cocosbeen (8,878,775 in chips)
Seat 8: Skintz (12,890,766 in chips)
Seat 9: DuckPower89 (6,980,653 in chips)

Let’s make a deal. An eight-handed deal.

Only a few hands went by before everyone agreed to pause the tournament and run some numbers for a potential chip count deal. With 120 big blinds left in play and an average stack of only 15 big blinds, everything could be over for any of these players in one or two hands. After about a half hour of discussions, remarkably everyone settled on an eight-way deal that left $3,000 in play for the winner. In terms of money earned, this tournament was essentially over. Big stacks Skintz, cocosbeen, and DuckPower89 all scored better than third-place money while the other five negotiated for paydays north of sixth-place money.

Power_up45 KOs two

Shortly after the action restarted, Krc321 moved all-in for just under a million in chips and power_up45 reshoved for 2.75 million on the button. Ryanmack91 got out of the way in the small blind but cocosbeen made the call for an additional 2.15 million.

Krc321 K♦ 5♥
power_up45 K♥ J♣
cocosbeen A♣ 4♦

Cocosbeen retained the lead on the 7♣ 7♦ 3♥ flop, but krc321 found a ray of hope on the turn when the 5♦ fell. The river, however, favored power_up45, the J♥ falling to triple him up to 7.38 million. Krc321 departed in eighth place, $17,738.41 richer.

Cocosbeen arrived at the final table third in chips and sealed up $42,000 worth of prize money in the deal, more than $31,000 more than seventh place paid. That’s where he ended up going out on the very next hand, after three-bet shoving for just over 7 million from the big blind behind power_up45’s 1.2 million opening raise. Power_up45 made an easy call with A♥ A♠ , which held up against cocosbeen’s A♦ 7♥ . Although cocosbeen had nothing to regret, power_up45, now the chip leader,was starting to question his decision to make a deal so early.

power_up45: fml 🙂
joejoe1337: still a watch power 🙂
power_up45: yeah mate
joejoe1337: plus some of us have a shot at the scoop leaderboard 🙂

Falling like dominoes

2outerjames was the next to bust. His last 529,000 went in the middle with the lowly 3♦ 9♠ , which did not improve against DuckPower89’s A♠ Q♣ . For sixth place, he earned $22,118.26. Following him out the door two hands later was ryanmack91, who called power_up45’s small blind shove with pocket fives in the big. Power_up45 turned over K♠ 4♠ , but a river ace on the 8♥ 9♥ A♦ 8♠ A♣ board counterfeited ryanmack91’s small pair. He took home $25,000 for fifth.

Meanwhile, joejoe1337, DuckPower89 and Skintz played a three-way all-in that ended up decimating Skintz’s stack, and if not for the king on the river, DuckPower89 would have moved into the chip lead:

JoeJoe1337’s reprieve ended up being most temporary, as he was eliminated on the next hand. Following an opening min-raise from power_up45, joejoe1337 shipped his 13 million stack in with 7♣ 7♥ only to watch as power_up45 rolled over another pair of aces. No seven for joejoe1337 on the K♦ 10♦ J♥ 2♦ 2♠ board and he ended his run in fourth place with a $20,000 payday.

Although Skintz entered the final table as the chip leader and claimed the largest share of the prize money in the eight-way deal, he could not lock up the SCOOP champion’s watch to go with it. Down to 5.2 million with the blinds up to 400,000/800,000, Skintz open-shoved from the button with K♠ 3♠ , but DuckPower89 was waiting for him in the small blind with A♣ K♥ . The dominated hand stayed dominated on the 7♠ 7♣ 2♠ 10♣ J♣ board and Skintz hit the rail in third place with a $56,500 score.

Can you feel my power?

Power_up45 had about a 2 to 1 chip lead over DuckPower89 as heads-up play commenced…

Seat 4: power_up45 (31,610,160 in chips)
Seat 9: DuckPower89 (16,419,840 in chips)

…however it was all over four hands later. Power_up45 opened for 1.6 million on the button and DuckPower89 defended his big blind. The flop came down 10♠ 9♦ 7♠ and DuckPower89 checked to power_up45, who bet 2.4 million. DuckPower89 put in a raise to 6.4 million and was met with a shove for 29 million. DuckPower89 made the call, turning over 10♥ 5♣ for top pair, but power_up45 had two pair with 7♦ 9♣ . The turn was the 2♣ , the river was the 6♦ , and in less time than it takes to blow-dry my hair in the morning, power_up45 finished off the final table and bagged himself a SCOOP championship along with a snazzy new watch.

SCOOP Event #8-Medium ($109 NLHE turbo) results
1. power_up45 ($23,000)*
2. DuckPower89 ($44,500)*
3. Skintz ($56,500)*
4. joejoe1337 ($20,000)*
5. ryanmack91 ($25,000)*
6. 2outerjames ($22,118.26)*
7. cocosbeen ($42,000)*
8. krc321 ($17,783.41)*

*= reflects an eight-way deal that left $3,000 and the champion’s watch for the winner

If you’re looking for even more SCOOP news, check out the daily web show “Inside SCOOP” on PokerStars.tv, hosted by Nick Wealthall and Joe Stapleton. It airs live every night at 22:00 GMT and features a $500 prize giveaway in each episode!

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