Normally knocking out each player at a MTT means you are one step closer to the money or bigger money. As the “currently playing” tally shrinks, the amount of assured money for yourself goes up as final table and its riches get closer. But, if you have been watching ESPN for the past couple of weeks or playing on PokerStars looking in the lobby for tournaments and SnGs with a little target to the left of them, you would know there’s another way to claim some cash during a MTT. Enter the Knockout tourney, as seen from the replay of the NAPT Mohegan Sun $25,000 High Roller Shootout as Team PokerStars pro Jason Mercier notched three knockouts during the first day worth a total of $15,000. Had he not taken down the table he would have walked away with that $15,000 regardless of finish (but decided to win the whole thing anyway, watch the video below from PokerStars.TV)
Enter today’s first knockout style tournament at a major tournament series at PokerStars with SCOOP Event #12. This Medium buy-in event added an extra $50 to the buy-in of $215, meaning each one of the 2,901 entries had a floating $50 bill sitting above their heads waiting to be taken by adding all of their chips to your stack. Neat thing about this is if you ran like god early knocking out at least six players but did not making it to the final 414 (which were paid from the prize pool), you still made a profit on the day. While the extra $50 is a great incentive, the toppings on top of a golden brown Belgian waffle if you will, the big money lay beneath the whipped cream and strawberries, within the regular prize pool of $580,200 which pays out $91,382.17 to our winner this morning.
Team PokerStars pro Thierry van den “BOKPOWER” Berg found himself just outside of the money in 446th place, but others like German pro Jan Heitmann (366th place $336.51), JP Kelly (311th place $377.13), Angel Guillen (276th place $417.74), Emad Tahtouh (237th place $464.16), Vadim Markushevski (180th place $580.20), Joep van den “Pappe_Ruk” Bijgaart (138th place $696.24) took away prize pool cash along with any bounties that picked up along the way.
The cash bubble time hit right after the players went on their sixth hour dinner break leaving some ultra-short stacks a lot of time to think about the difference between $0 and $324.91 for cashing. Congrats to copernic67 who cashed with just 626 chips with blinds at 350/700 ante 85 when benza13 busted out during hand-for-hand play and copernic67 was assured the $324.91 plus the one bounty ($50 each) mentioned in the chat box.
Fast forward another eight hours when we were down to five players a piece on two tables with dcoop4506 and Proudflop all-in preflop facing a different situation than 13 hands earlier. Proudflop had dcoop4506 all-in for his tournament life holding A♥ K♥ but dcoop4506’s pocket queens Q♥ Q♣ would win the race for the near two million chip pot. But, now the situation was reversed and Proudflop tried three-betting dcoop4506 all-in with Qâ™ 9♦ . dcoop4506 was going nowhere with big slick K♣ Aâ™ and made the call. The all-low 4♣ 6♦ 8♥ 8â™ 3♣ board meant dcoop4506’s ace-high was king and Proudflop’s pride was history in tenth place ($3,626.25).
Seat 1: miamihawk99 (970809 in chips)
Seat 2: ubon1 (2425963 in chips)
Seat 3: zenmaster666 (751226 in chips)
Seat 4: MaxBNuts (758923 in chips)
Seat 5: asdf78 (983953 in chips)
Seat 6: dcoop4506 (2831637 in chips)
Seat 7: eljay42 (2307556 in chips)
Seat 8: bankrollme87 (2481197 in chips)
Seat 9: manifest23 (993736 in chips)
Max lacks the nuts
Hour 14 of this knockout tourney began the final table and the blinds at 17.5K/35K ante 4,375. It only took two orbits for our first million chip pot. eljay42 would raise to 80,222 from UTG +2 as short-stacked MaxBNuts would shove from the small blind for 610,173 chips as eljay42 snap-called with pocket aces A♦ A♥ . MaxBNuts could only produce K♦ Q♥ and while we won’t comment on Max’s mental state, MaxBNuts tournament state was finished in ninth place ($4,931.70) after the J♦ 5â™ K♣ 7♥ J♥ board came down.
Bing. Bang. Pow!
Four hands later within the same blind level bankrollme87 and zenmaster666 would take us on a roller-coaster thru the five community cards. Watch the hand play out below:
Again pocket aces A♥ Aâ™ make an appearance, this time in bankrollme87’s hand while up against the pocket tens 10â™ 10♦ of zenmaster666. The flop was a tepid 2♥ K♥ 9â™ but the turn brought the BANG! 10♣ hitting a set of tens for zenmaster666. But, the POW! A♣ matched the two outer on the turn sending the chips to bankrollme87 who hopefully didn’t chuck a mouse across the room after seeing that ten on the turn. zenmaster666’s sereneness allowed for zero anger and total enlightenment after the river sent the player packing in eighth place ($7,844.30).
eljay42 kindly request you to hand over that $50 bounty
As the blinds moved up to 20K/40K ante 5K, shortstacked miamihawk99 needed some blind money after dwindling down to just 507,859 chips and shoved from UTG + 2. Folded around the table to eljay42 sitting on a fattened stack and Jâ™ A♣ in the big blind and made the call. Ducks 2♥ 2♣ for miamihawk looked even worse after the Qâ™ 4â™ 10â™ flop which gave eljay42 flush and straight outs to go with the overcards. This time the excitement wouldn’t wait for the river as the 7â™ on the turn had miamihawk99 drawing dead. eljay42 claimed another $50 bounty at the final table, and miamihawk99 claimed $13,634.70 in seventh place.
The manifest cannot escape the coop
Lost manifests are an accountant’s scourge, but one less manifest at the final table meant getting closer to that big $91,382.17 first place prize. dcoop4506 would start the hand off with a raise to 112,440 as it folded around to manifest23 in the small blind holding 739,228 chips and pocket fours 4â™ 4♣ . manifest23 decided to gamble and shoved as dcoop4506 would make the call with big slick Kâ™ A♣ creating a 1.5 million chip pot. The ace on the door was all dcoop4506 needed as the rest of the Aâ™ 6♥ 10♦ 3â™ 8♥ board ran dry as manifest23 was rubber stamped and paid $19,436.70 for sixth place. manifest23 also made a final table appearance at the Sunday Million back in 2008, scoring $97K in the process.
The break refreshes dcoop4506’s stack
Shortly after the hourly five minute break and the blinds moving up to 25K/50K ante 6,250 dcoop4506 and asdf78 tangle all-in preflop for a hefty 2.9 million chip pot. Check out the results below:
Once again big slick K♠A♣ was gold for dcoop4506, but this time there would be no race as asdf78 turned up J♦ A♥ for the dominated hand. No surprises on the 2♠2♥ Q♦ 7♦ 6♥ board and after 15 hours of play asdf78 would take home $25,238.70 in fifth place and dcoop4506 claimed another bounty.
Perhaps a round of leftover tequila shooters would help?
The remaining four would play a few orbits then summoned Team PokerStars pro Hevad Khan to the table to discuss a deal. After the numbers did not agree with the player’s appetites Khan press the go button on the dealer and cards were back in the air.
The pain was on par with a kick to the nuts
After eljay42 made a huge call with top pair against ubon1’s busted flush draw for a 3.5 million chips immediately after the chop talks broke down four hands later came one of those hands which can make you hate or love poker. Watch bankrollme87 flop perfect and… well cover your eyes because it ain’t pretty.
eljay42 just completes the small blind as bankrollme87 checked the option as the pair sees a 4♠4♦ 10♠flop which both check. 8♣ on the turn and eljay42 wakes up to bet 120,000 as bankrollme87 flat calls. The river seems to bring a harmless lady Q♦ as eljay42 pushes out an 180,000 chip bet. This time bankrollme87 also wakes up and raises to 543,210. Three-bet shove is the answer from the chip leading eljay42 as bankrollme87 snap called with the flopped boat 4♥ 10♥ . Unfortunately, eljay42 could do one better hitting queens full on the river after slowplaying pocket queens Q♠Q♣ and claiming the huge 6.2 million pot and eliminating bankrollme87 in fourth place ($33,361.50).
ubon1 tells the banker NO DEAL!
Shortly after bankrollme87’s elimination ubon1 won three consecutive pots off eljay42. One flip for a double up, one flush draw made for another double up, and a game of chicken preflop for a 1.4 million pot as ubon1 took the chip lead into renewed chop talks.
ubon1 wanted much more than eljay42 and dcoop4506 were willing to give and RaiNKhaN coaxed the tired dealer into continuing into hour 16 of the tournament with blinds at 40K/80K ante 10K.
Flown the coop
No eliminations during the 40K/80K ante 10K blind level but shortly after the update to blinds at 50K/100K ante 12.5K our threesome would become a couple. dcoop4506 would start the betting by raising to 232,000 and was re-raised by ubon1 to 477,779. dcoop4506 came back with a four-bet to 895,999 as ubon1 just shoved covering dcoop4506. Snap call by dcoop4506 holding big slick A♣ Kâ™ set up the race against ubon1’s pocket nines 9♣ 9â™ . The race seemed to stop after a third nine hit the 6â™ 9♦ 10♣ flop. But the Q♣ on the turn at least made the river viable with a gutshot straight draw for dcoop4506. No jack on the river, rather a quiet lady Q♦ would send dcoop4506 back to St. Louis Park with third place cash ($48,736.80).
The man who can’t miss
The blinds moved up to 60K/120K ante 15K as ubon1 carried an 11 million to 3.4 million chip advantage into the final hand. Watch below as eljay42 just couldn’t seem to fade a draw from ubon1 tonight and finished second:
Both hit a piece of the Qâ™ 2â™ K♦ flop as eljay42 got top pair-top kicker with big slick A♥ K♣ and ubon1 pressed the flush draw after trade a couple of raises holding 7â™ 4â™ . The turned 8♥ was safe as it looked to be a double up for eljay42 with the 6.9 million chip pot but as stated, it was ubon1’s night and the third spade found its way to the felt 10â™ as the runner-up check found its way to eljay42 ($68,173.50).
For the win and lack of a chop agreement, ubon1 takes home the full $91,382.17 as this morning’s SCOOP Event #12-Medium champion!
$200,000 Guarantee SCOOP Event #12-M No Limit Hold Em’ Knockout Results
1. ubon1 (seuzach) $91,382.17
2. eljay42 (Aliquippa) $68,173.50
3. dcoop4506 (St. Louis Park) $48,736.80
4. bankrollme87 (Wakefield) $33,361.50
5. asdf78 (Cologne) $25,238.70
6. manifest23 (Victoria) $19,436.70
7. miamihawk99 (Cincinnati) $13,634.70
8. zenmaster666 (Ã…lesund) $7,844.30
9. MaxBNuts (Ekaterinburg) $4,931.70
