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Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP: SNGMaster knows MTTs, too! He wins Event #12-L, NLHE Knockout
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If you think life is tough, wait until you play a knockout tournament.

See, when you go to work, there are certainly people working to get ahead. They’ll probably stab you in the back along the way and lubricate their passage with your blood. Some of them will probably laugh when they do it.

With that understood, there aren’t many endeavors in life that give people a guaranteed financial incentive to make sure you fail. That’s exactly what a knockout tournament is all about. It gives players a bonus for making sure their opponents are miserable, miserable failures. It’s not just part of the game. It’s financially encouraged to put people to death.

SCOOP 2010 is the first big tournament series at PokerStars that’s featured a knockout tournament, so it’s little surprise that more than 14,000 people showed up for the $27 Event #12 tourney. It’s only surprising that more of them didn’t bring pikes on which to put their opponents’ heads.

By the time the event reached the final table, here’s the people who had collected the most bounties, chips, and bad karma.

Seat 1: pantely24 (1493005 in chips)
Seat 2: bucurone (1541648 in chips)
Seat 3: SNGWizard (2434100 in chips)
Seat 4: chokdee1980 (10766982 in chips)
Seat 5: Illini213 (23298599 in chips)
Seat 6: rehzz (15802306 in chips)
Seat 7: marado_pkr (5239000 in chips)
Seat 8: Ljolja777 (7954244 in chips)
Seat 9: edmundtrebus (5025116 in chips)

DON’T GO AWAY MAD

The players has barely greeted each other properly when they started killing each other off. While one player flirted with the table’s host, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, another went to work with the killing.

The opening salvo came from rehzz and a raise to 420,000. Everybody folded around to bucurone who moved all-in for 1,279,148 more. Rehzz made the call for some 800,000 chips. And why wouldn’t he? He was only very, very behind with a pair of fives up against bucurone’s aces.

“Ouch,” he said.

Ouch, indeed, until the flop came out 10♦ 5♠ J♣ .

And then he said, “Yesss,” which translates loosely to, “Look what I managed to do to you! I cracked your aces and am happy about it!”

So, then, rehzz picked up a $5 bounty and sent poor bucurone to the rail in ninth place for $1,765.

JUST GO AWAY

It was just a few minutes later that we found ourselves seven-handed. It didn’t happen in a long drawn-out battle of strategery. It was once again a sniper’s shot to the head, with pantely24 raising all-in for 1,318,005 and Illini213 snap-calling with kings. Up against only 7♦ 7♥ , Illini213 flopped a king and sent pantely24 out in eighth for $2,647.

Some things just don’t make for a good story, you know?

…AND THE HORSE YOUR RODE IN ON

You might have noted in that last hand that Illini213 picked up a few chips. By this point, he seemed to have become slightly addicted to the idea of knocking people out.

A few hands later, he sat in the big blind and called a raise from rehzz. Ou remember him, right? He was the guy who cracked aces with a pair of fives? Karma can be a real bear.

Both players checked the 9♣ 3♣ 8♣ flop. When the turn came the 10♦ , Illini213 bet out 598,420, rehzz raised to 1,800,000, and Illini213 put him all-in for 4,386,244 more. Rehzz showed J♣ J♥ . Normally, that would be an okay hand, but in this case Illini213 was sitting on J♦ Q♠ . No club fell on the turn and rehzz missed the other couple of outs for the chop. He was gone in seventh for $5001.

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NO BOUNTY FOR YOU?

The one sort of sick thing about a bounty tournament is when you get all but your opponent’s last few chips. It’s like his last opportunity to stick up his middle finger and say, “You may have gotten most of my chips, but I’m giving my bounty to someone else just for spite.”

Ol’ marado_pkr found a way to get around that. He just beat up edmundtrebus on consecutive hands. The first one was sort of ugly: marado_pkr raised to 416,000 and edmundtrebus called to see a flop of 8â™  [5]K♥ . Edmundtrebus bet out 600,000, marado_pkr raised 1,400,000, and edmundtrebus called. It would turn out to be a fateful decision.

The turn was the 9♦ , a card that gave both players two pair. Edmundtrebus held 9â™  8♥ to marado_pkr’s K♣ 9♣ . There was no change on the river and edmundtrebus was crippled…but still held onto his bounty.

On the very next hand, however, marado_pkr’s A♦ 10♣ outran edmundtrebus’ 4â™  4♣ to send edmundtrebus out in sixth place for $7,355.

LISTEN, JACK-ACE

With the blinds 150,000/300,000 Ljolja777 was sitting with 5,154,244 in chips. It wasn’t a lot and it seemed like a good time to get them in. And so he raised to 800,000 then called all-in when SNGWizard put him all-in.

Ljolja777 J♣ A♥
SNGWizard 8♣ 8♦

Ljolja777 missed five times and went out in fifth place for $10,297.

ANOTHER RACE, ANOTHER ELIMINATION

Sometimes you get finial tables with technical players. Sometimes you get racers. This event was all about the race.

The fourth place elimination came courtesy of an 11,000,000 chip race and marado_pkr’s tournament life on the line. He held A♥ 9â™  to chokdee1980’s 7♥ 7♦

The sevens held up and marado_pkr was out in fourth place for $13,329.

WAIT, YOU HAVE WHAT???

Illini213 came in for a raise to 1,611,185 and SNGWizard called. On a flop of 4♥ 4♦ 4♠ , Illini213 bet out 1,711,885 and SNGWizard raised to a rather cheeky 4,000,000. Illini213 then raised to a whoping 27,436,991 all-in.

SNGWizard called.

Yeah, he had quads.

Illini213 onlye held A♣ 8♠ , aka, air.

Illini213 was left with an ante, was all in on the next hand, and was eliminated in third place for $19,124.

HEADS UP FOR THE FINAL BOUNTY

Here’s how the players stacked up going into heads up play.

SNGWizard:56,222,663
chokdee1980: 17,332,337

It was looking fantastic for SNGWizard until chokdee1980 managed to flop a set of deuces and get paid on them. With that, he was able to turn the tables and jump completely reverse the starting chip counts.

It wouldn’t last long. A few hands later, chokdee1980 must have sense some weakness in SNGWizard and called and all-in on a 5â™  Q♣ 9♣ 10♥ board. He only had big slick. SNGWizard had Jâ™  9â™  and doubled up.

With that, it was time to talk about a deal. After the numbers were run through the digital abacus, SNGWizard wanted a few hundred more bucks and was standing firm. The request scuttled the deal. Just a few hands later, the lead was back in chokdee1980’s hands. See how it happened in the replayer below.

While it looked bad for SNGWizard, he persevered. Within just a few more hands, he managed to make his A♦ Q♠ hold up against 6♥ A♥ all-in pre-flop. With the lead back, he got J♣ K♥ in against 4♦ A♠ and caught both a king and a jack. Finally, after sixteen hours of play, it was over. For second place, chokdee1980 earned $25,099. SNGMaster got the final knockout bounty ($5) and the first place prize, $34,422.

SCOOP Event #11-L NLHE Knockout Results:

1. SNGMaster $34,422
2. chokdee ($25,099)
3. Illini213 ($19,124)
4. marado_pkr ($13,329)
5. Ljolja777 ($10,297)
6. edmundtrebus ($7,355)
7. rehzz ($5001)
8. pantely24 ($2,647)
9. bucurone ($1,765)

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