A blinding fast structure — just five-minute levels — plus an hour-long rebuy period suggested Event #5-High, the $1,050+R buy-in NLHE turbo event would likely be a wild ride.
And wild it was.
When the first hands were dealt, exactly 100 players were seated. Forty minutes later, 200 had registered, with 15 of those having already hit the rail deciding not to rebuy. And once they reached the one-hour break and the end of the rebuy period, a total of 233 players had entered the event, with just 184 left to battle on into the second hour of play.
Players started with 3,000 chips. In the end, there were 336 rebuys (3,000 more chips at $1,000 a pop) and 165 add-ons (5,000 chips for $1,000), which made the total prize pool $734,000. The top 27 finishers would make the money, with the first-place finisher due $157,810.
Race to the Bubble
With such short levels and no more rebuying to be done, eliminations came quickly. Over the next hour the field shrunk from 184 to just 50 players, at which point calamitas had the lead with almost 200,000, well ahead of second-place tom6969222 with just over 136,000.
Over that stretch, four of the five members of Team PokerStars who had signed up were eliminated — Martin “AABenjamin” Hruby (182nd), Anders “Donald” Berg (Team Online, 170th), Lex Veldhuis (94th), and Johnny Lodden (88th) — leaving just Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth of Team PokerStars UK & Ireland left to represent them.
At that point Ainsworth sat in 11th place with 50 remaining. Others of note with 50 left included MUSTAFABET in fourth, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman in sixth, and Caio “caio_pimenta” Pimenta (he of the stunning call versus Viktor Blom in Event 1-H) in 21st.
Within a half-hour 20 more had fallen and the cash bubble was approaching. After tjbentham went out in 30th, Ainsworth lost a flip with Cinderella03 to become short-stacked and in danger of missing the cash. Soon after e1mdopp was all in with A♥ 2♥ and up against Doeks’ 7♥ 7♣ , but couldn’t catch and they were down to 28.
Hand-for-hand play lasted for a while, relatively speaking, with three different players surviving all-ins to make the bubble continue.
First turataika was all in with A♥ 4♣ against xSuPrA’s Aâ™ 9♣ , but caught a four on the turn to survive. Then QcKimo survived with pocket eights versus calamitas’ K♦ J♦ . And nanu mare — down to less than a big blind — somehow ran his pocket tens through two opponents, XTheDecanoX and freekick71, to stay in the game.
That’s about when Catenaccio opened with a min-raise, Eifffel reshoved for just over five big blinds, and Catenaccio called. Eifffel had A♣ 10♦ while Catenaccio tabled 9♦ 3♥ . Two treys on the flop spelled doom for Eifffel, though, who two cards later was out in 28th.
Next Stop: Final Table
It would take only 20 minutes for the field to be quickly trimmed down to a final table. Along the way came the elimination of Jude Ainsworth in a three-way hand versus JIZOINT and treezer.
In that one, Ainsworth held 10♣ 8♥ , JIZOINT K♣ 3♥ , and treezer 7♦ 7â™ . “Hold?” typed treezer uncertainly. His sevens did manage to hold through the turn, as the board had come 2♦ 5â™ 3♣ 9♥ , but the Kâ™ fell on the river, knocking out “j.thaddeus” in 21st place ($7,340) and awarding the pot to JIZOINT.
Subsequent table commentary on the hand exemplified lingo special to online poker:
Bandano: zomg
treezer: blah
JIZOINT: shipppppity
Soon 10 more players had been shipppppitied to the rail, at which point tom6969222 pushed all in for two-and-a-half blinds with A♦ Qâ™ and was hoping to outrace Bandano’s 3♦ 2♦ . Just like on the cash bubble, the final table bubble was decided similarly with a couple of treys landing on the flop. Soon tom6969222 was out in 10th ($12,845), and the final table was set.
Seat 1: Catenaccio (314605 in chips)
Seat 2: Face333X (274234 in chips)
Seat 3: Bandano (501853 in chips)
Seat 4: Moorman1 (370496 in chips)
Seat 5: xSuPrA (415231 in chips)
Seat 6: Doeks (136519 in chips)
Seat 7: QcKimo (116826 in chips)
Seat 8: calamitas (107707 in chips)
Seat 9: Fishenzon (294529 in chips)
The three-hour break soon followed, giving the final nine a chance to catch their breath and note who among them were leading. Bandano and xSuPrA were currently out in front, but with the blinds already at 10,000/20,000 (and swiftly rising), it still was anyone’s game.
A couple of orbits went by, then with the blinds at 12,500/50,000 Doeks open-shoved all in from middle position for 146,163. calamitas was sitting in the cutoff with but 4,442 which he committed to the middle, then Catenaccio reraised all in from the small blind over the top. Face333X folded, and the three hands were shown:
Catenaccio 8♥ 8♦
Doeks 10♠10♣
calamitas K♠J♦
The board ran out 9♦ 8♠6♥ Q♥ J♣ , giving Catenaccio a set, Doeks a straight, and sending calamitas out in ninth.
The xSuPrA Express
From there came one of the more blistering sequences of run-good you’re going to encounter at a final table. With eight players left, xSuPrA had the chip lead with just over 550,000, Moorman1 his nearest foe with a little under 480,000.
xSuPrA had the lead. And for the next brief stretch he had all the cards, too. Sorry to remove the suspense here, but this was the sort of run that must be summed up all at once. Heck, it happened so fast, it was all a blur, anyhow.
Over the course of just eight hands, xSuPrA caught middle pocket pairs a total of five times, each time eliminating an opponent! No shinola!
Catenaccio was the first victim, open-shoving from UTG for 104,692 with 9♠7♠and watching as xSuPrA reraised all in from the cutoff to force everyone else out with 10♥ 10♠. The board came 5♣ 4♣ Q♠10♣ 10♦ , and Catenaccio was out in eighth.
That extra ten on the end, giving xSuPrA quads, wasn’t needed. Except perhaps as a bit of foreshadowing.
Three hands went by, then with the blinds at 17,500/35,000 Fishenzon open-shoved all in from middle position for 116,404 and xSuPrA called from the big blind. Fishenon had Q♥ 9♣ and xSuPrA 7♣ 7♦ . Five community cards later — 5♥ 4â™ 6♥ 8â™ Q♦ — xSuPrA had made a winning straight and they were down to six.
On the very next hand, QcKimo open-shoved all in for 257,611 from UTG with
9♠9♣ , xSuPrA reraised from the small blind with 8♥ 8♣ , and Doeks folded.
Then came the flop — 8â™ 6♦ 6â™ . Boom! Full house for xSuPrA. The turn was the 4â™ and river the 10â™ , giving QcKimo a no-good flush and sending him out in sixth.
Although doing so will unrealistically slow things down a bit, why not stop and take a look, perhaps dreaming as you do that you could run this well?
On the very next hand after that, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman open-raised all in for 479,582 from the cutoff and xSuPrA happily reshoved over the top from the button. (We say “happily” because his stack had climbed close to 1.2 million by this point.) Moorman had a pair — 8â™ 8♥ . And of course xSuPrA did, too — 9â™ 9♦ !
The community cards came A♦ 5♣ 10♦ 3♣ 10♠, and Moorman was out in fifth.
The next hand saw xSuPrA open-shoving from UTG and a severely-short Face333X calling from the small blind. Face333X had 9♦ 5♦ . xSuPrA? 8♥ 8♦ .
The board came 2♣ 6â™ Q♣ 3♦ J♥ , and within the space of five minutes they’d gone from eight down to three.
The Finale
The blitz left xSuPrA with more 1.87 million, well ahead of Doeks’ 354,893 and Bandano 305,603. xSuPrA would take it easy over the next short sequence, letting the two short stacks battle for most of the pots.
Bandano soon became desperately short, down to just a little over one big blind. The blinds had moved to 20,000/40,000 when a hand arose in which xSuPrA folded from the button, Doeks raised to 120,000 from the small blind, and Bandano pushed all in with the 49,460 he had left. Bandano had Jâ™ 2♥ and Doeks 9â™ 3♥ , but like we’d seen a couple of times already earlier, three was a magic number as the flop came 3â™ 7â™ 3♦ . The turn was the 8♣ and river the 6♥ , and Bandano was gone in third.
Heads-up play began with xSuPra sitting with 1,766,504 chips, more than twice Doeks’ stack of 765,496. The pair battled for a half-dozen hands, then came a wild one in which Doeks was all in before the flop with Jâ™ 10♦ against xSuPrA’s J♥ 5♥ . A five flopped, and it looked like xSuPrA might take it down right here. But the turn and river were kind to Doeks. Take a look:
Soon thereafter, Doeks would edge out in front. Then came a hand in which xSuPrA was all in on the turn, holding A♥ 7♦ against Doeks’ 9♦ 5â™ with the board showing Aâ™ 8♥ 9♣ 10â™ . The river brought another eight, enabling xSuPrA to survive and crippling Doeks.
The very next hand — coming less than three-and-half hours after the tourney had begun — would be the deciding one. Doeks open-raised all in for 232,484 with 10♦ 7â™ and xSuPrA called with K♣ 3♣ . xSuPrA had the advantage, and after the next five came A♣ 7♣ 8♥ 2♣ 2â™ xSuPrA had a club flush and a shiny new SCOOP watch.
Congratulations to xSuPrA, winner of Event #5-H!
SCOOP Event #5-High, $1,050+Rebuy NLHE, Results:
1st: xSuPrA ($157,810)
2nd: Doeks ($113,770)
3rd: Bandano ($86,245)
4th: Face333X ($64,225)
5th: Moorman1 ($44,040)
6th: QcKimo ($36,700)
7th: Fishenzon ($29,360)
8th: Catenaccio ($22,020)
9th: calamitas ($14,680)
What a wild one! And this year’s Spring Championship of Online Poker is just getting started, as there are two more weeks and about a hundred more SCOOP watches to be won. Check out the SCOOP page for all the scoop on winners, the schedule, and more.
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