In a little more than 13 days all eyes at PokerStars will be on becoming the next World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) bracelet winner. All 70 WCOOP events will be covered of course right here at the PokerStarsBlog as players vie for $45 million in guaranteed tournaments. Speaking of guarantees, the $400,000 Sunday Warm-Up held a small overlay after coming up short with 1,972 runners. Hhecklen would overcome Bagelakis23 heads-up to claim the win and $64,000.00.
Read on below for hhecklen’s victory dance (and possible funding for the WCOOP High Roller tournament):
MicroMillions champ dev209 was searching to add a Sunday Major title with only two tables remaining. But, the two-time Sunday Warm-Up final tablist would not make it three collecting $1,600.00 in 18th place.
Fifteen minutes into the eighth hour Bagelakis23 would speed up play a bit taking out 88118811 and ihaterivers in a three-way all-in preflop with pocket jacks in 15th ($2,300.00) and 16th ($1,600.00) place respectively.
Nine minutes later antepia27 would pick up a key 2.5 million chip pot with the blinds at 25K/50K ante 5K. All with pocket tens 10♣ 10â™ facing hhecklen’s big slick Aâ™ K♥ covering all bets and Raistj’s A♥ Q♣ . The clean 5♦ J♣ 8♦ 7♥ 2♦ board would send Raistj to the rail in 13th place ($2,300.00) and knock hhecklen down to 546K.
Evan “PURPLE”K”99” Parkes would stretch a shortstack as far as the elastic would go, finally bowing out in 11th place ($3,000.00) just ten minutes before the ninth hourly break.
On the final hand before the break, Foxxy13 was fresh off losing a big flip against Chancew and forced all-in in the small blind between a raising WhoAreYoux1 and Bagelakis23 in the big blind. Both players would check down to the river 10♥ 2♥ A♣ 7♥ 7â™ as WhoAreYoux1 slid out a small bet and Bagelakis23 got out of the way of WhoAreYoux1’s jacks J♥ J♣ . Foxyy13’s king-high 2♦ Kâ™ would not be enough to continue as the Sunday Warm-Up final table commenced below:
Seat 1: Bagelakis23 (7149013 in chips)
Seat 2: hhecklen (3399493 in chips)
Seat 3: Grayson “gray31” Ramage (919490 in chips)
Seat 4: Contado (2081700 in chips)
Seat 5: chisna (789837 in chips)
Seat 6: antepia27 (1235232 in chips)
Seat 7: Chancew (1608018 in chips)
Seat 8: WhoAreYoux1 (1671785 in chips)
Seat 9: ImluckNuts (865432 in chips)
Ten minutes after the ninth hour break, Bagelakis23 would make a small button raise into a shortstacked gray31. However, WCOOP 2014 Challenge Series Main Event champ Grayson “gray31” Ramage had no thoughts of going quietly into the night. Ramage would shove 753K with pocket sevens 7♦ 7â™ and racing against Bagelakis23’s 9â™ Aâ™ . With an ace and a nine on the A♣ 2♥ 5â™ 9♥ 3♥ board, Grayson would settle for ninth place ($3,800.00).
Three hands later with the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K antepia27 would shove from the button holding pocket deuces 2♠2♥ looking to pick off the blinds. WhoAreYoux1 looked down at pocket tens 10♦ 10♣ , called, and watched the 3♦ 3♣ K♠5♥ 8♠board ship the 2.3 million chip pot. Antepia27 would chalk up a decent sized score, earning $6,800.00 in eighth place.
Another three hands later hhecklen would double up to 3.2 million after the bullying chip leader, Bagelakis23, chose the wrong time to open shove from the small blind. On the next hand, Chancew would lead with a min-raise as ImluckNuts shoved for 914K, and hhecklen’s new-and-improved stack would also shove for 3.2 million. Chancew folded as hhecklen’s A♣ K♦ found enough clubs on the 2♥ 8♣ 2♣ 9♣ Q♣ board to overcome ImluckNuts’ rivered pair Q♥ A♥ as ImluckNuts took away $10,000.00 in seventh place.
Barely past the first quarter hour, we lost yet another player. The blinds remained at 50K/100K ante 10K as Chancew needed some luck after running pocket tens into WhoAreYoux1’s aces. Chancew would lead off for a 591K chip shove as Bagelakis23 and chisna both called. Both would check down the entire 8♥ 4♦ J♦ 5♥ 7â™ board as only chisna’s K♥ A♣ would become visible (until tomorrow’s replay with hole cards shown) knocking out Chancew in sixth place ($14,000.00).
Things would calm down a bit until back-to-back eliminations with twenty minutes left in the first hour of final table play woke up railbirds a bit. First, with the blinds moving up to 65K/130K ante 13K Bagelakis23 would defend the big blind from a 1.83 million chip shove by WhoAreYoux1 in the small blind. Bagelakis23’s pocket nines 9♣ 9♥ would trump WhoAreYoux1’s 3♦ K♣ on the Jâ™ A♥ 4♦ 4â™ 5♥ board sending $18,000.00 to WhoAreYoux1 in fifth place.
The next hand, Contado’s shortstack would hit the middle after the flop 3♣ A♣ 9♥ and continuation bet by chisna. But, the shove with pocket sevens 7♣ 7♥ was not enough to dissuade chisna from calling with 4♥ A♦ . No two-outer on the J♦ turn nor Q♦ river as Contado took home $24,000.00 in fourth place. Not a big as Contado’s SCOOP 2013 score, taking away $38K after chopping Event #32-M, but definitely will help with WCOOP 2015 on the horizon.
Several all-ins would pepper three-handed play but all three would safely make it to the ninth hourly break.
After the break was a different story.
The threesome would play for twenty minutes as the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K and chisna would three-bet all-in for 4.9 million. Bagelakis23 made the call holding A♥ 10♥ and managed to side-step chisna’s J♥ K♣ on the double paired 8â™ 4♦ 4â™ Qâ™ 8♦ board. Chisna would claim $36,000.00 in third place as Bagelakis23 would start heads-up play with a 14 million to 5.7 million chip lead.
That lead would not hold.
Hhecklen was not going down without a fight especially doubling up with pocket fives versus big slick ten minutes into the race for the $64K up top.
Nine hands later with the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K Bagelakis23 tried shoving a smaller stack over a min-raise by hhecklen. But, hhecklen backed up the play with a call holding J♦ A♦ , towering over the 8♥ A♠held by Bagelakis23. A lack of eights on the 5♥ Q♥ 4♠7♥ 7♠board gave hhecklen a 15.4 million to 4.2 million chip advantage.
Another eight hands later they would settle the title over a preflop flip. Bagelakis23’s A♦ J♥ would not catch up to hhecklen’s tens 10♣ 10â™ on the seven-high board 5♥ 7♦ 7â™ 2♦ 2â™ shipping $64,000.00 and this week’s Sunday Warm-up title to hhecklen!
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (08-23-2015)
Entrants: 1,972
Places Paid: 288
Prize Pool: $400,000.00
1. hhecklen (Denmark) $64,000.00
2. Bagelakis23 (Greece) $48,000.00
3. chisna (Russia) $36,000.00
4. Contado (Norway) $24,800.00
5. WhoAreYoux1 (Belgium) $18,000.00
6. Chancew (Mexico) $14,000.00
7. ImluckNuts (Russia) $10,000.00
8. antepia27 (United Kingdom) $6,800.00
9. Grayson “gray31” Ramage (Canada) $3,800.00
