When the blinds are rising and chip stacks stay the same, the slot machine feel of late tournament play sometimes has players placing the heavy end of the prizepool on the pull of any two cards coming before them. Of course slot machine player will try to claim there’s a strategy to pushing the buttons in a certain order or waving a lucky talisman across the screen as the symbols line-up to provide the result. Tonight’s $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up came down to the final table maneuvering much as possible before giving into the luck side of poker and letting the five board cards provide their tournament fate. Israel’s bar-bar9999 made the right plays and got hot at the right time while outlasting 3,534 other players tonight claiming $106,101.37 as this week’s champion after chopping and defeating Germany’s 1dönertasche heads-up.

After Team Online’s Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome busted out in the seventh hour of play collecting $1,060.50 for 87th place, there was only one Red Spade remaining viable for this week’s title as the tables one-by-one until only two remained.

Friend of PokerStars Pierre “Zoutechamp” Neuville fresh off a fun time at the inaugural UKIPT Isle of Man tournament already locked up his third cash in tournament in the last four weeks and was closing in on a final table appearance.

Neuville would be one of 16 players heading into the ninth hour as chip leader “goodvibe1” was looking to add a Sunday Warm-Up title next to his Sunday Million win in August for $200K. Right behind Neu in the chip standings was another Sunday Million champ. bmky88 claimed $161K in a two-way split for the title back in July 2011 and like Matthias, bmky88 would be hoping to claim a second Sunday Major title.

15 minutes into the ninth hour Neuville would be on fumes with a little more than five BBs with a blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K but holding on as D.END.49 and drogba060193 both busted in 14th and 15th place respectively after back-to-back hands. Ever the ladder climber with his long string of satellite wins, Neuville one more closer to the final table after MakeItReign, with several big final tables including a WCOOP 2013 Event #5 fourth place finish would bow out in 13th place ($3,181.50).

Neuville would finally score a double up against FCG Fanatic just as Charleshald lost a 3.8 million chip flip against nasukk to finish in 12th place ($4,242.00) with the blinds moving up to 65K/130K ante 13K. FCG Fanatic would get those chips back after knocking off bn freaks in 11th place ($4,242.00) to bring up the final table bubble.

Last week a Red Spade, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso, was forced to watch the final table from the sidelines after busting in 10th place. While it did not look likely for awhile, Pierre would survive the bubble. With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K Super Tuesday champ bar-bar9999 would shove from the cutoff seat for 2.8 million as Matthias “goodvibe1” Neu called all-in for less from the big blind holding pocket tens 10♥ 10♣ . Flipping against bar-bar9999’s K♠ J♣ , the Sunday Million winner would not add another Sunday Major title tonight as the jack on the A♦ A♥ J♦ 9♣ 7♥ flop was enough to send Neu home in 10th place starting up the final table below:

Seat 1: Friend of PokerStars Pierre “Zoutechamp” Neuville (2255156 in chips)
Seat 2: bar-bar9999 (5276051 in chips)
Seat 3: bmky88 (4279854 in chips)
Seat 4: VitinhO Dzi (4640085 in chips)
Seat 5: 1dönertasche (7320260 in chips)
Seat 6: Beneditine (1306120 in chips)
Seat 7: FCG Fanatic (5259393 in chips)
Seat 8: nasukk (3252664 in chips)
Seat 9: Sheeter 200 (1760417 in chips)

Dizzy from the exit

As the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K and the average stack holding just over 20 BBs VitinhO Dzi fresh off doubling up Sheeter 200, would shove all-in preflop the next two hands. The first hand was successful against Beneditine to get back to 591,979 chips then after a raise to 480,000 by Neuville, bmky88 would shove for 2.8 million as VitinhO Dzi called for much less and Pierre found something else to do while folding. VitinhO Dzi’s A♣ 8♠ was dominated pre-flop by bmky88’s 10♠ A♦ and dominated with a rivered straight 4♠ K♠ 9♦ Q♦ J♣ end the night in ninth place ($5,656.00).

Friend of PokerStars Pierre “Zoutechamp” Neuville finishes in eighth place

By the time the blinds reached 150K/300K ante 30K, nearly everyone was in shove-or-fold mode as only two players enjoyed a stack higher than 10 BBs. Neuville found an opening for his diminished stack of 1.18 million and shoved on the button holding Q♦ 10♥ . bar-bar9999 saw a chance to take out a dangerous opponent and re-shoved from the small blind with K♦ Q♠ . No twist from the preflop advantage as both players missed the 7♥ A♣ 3♥ A♥ J♦ board and Pierre took away $8,837.50 in eighth place.

Back-to-back departures

As mentioned the blinds would force our final seven to take some risks preflop and hope for the best. Two players took the plunge and two players left the table. With the blinds moving up to 200K/400K ante 40K nasukk would open shove for 3.3 million from the cutoff as Sheeter 200 called all-in for 1.23 million holding Q♥ A♥ . nasukk would caress pocket jacks J♦ J♠ nicely after a couple of hearts hit the flop. But, in the end, the jacks would prevail 4♣ 7♥ 10♥ 2♣ J♣ earning Sheeter 200 $15,907.50 in seventh place.

On the next hand Beneditine and 1dönertasche would meet up preflop for a three million chip pot as Beneditine looked to improve on a short stack. Watch below for the results:

Same but different hurt Beneditine as both players turned over king-queen. However the size of the diamond made the difference as Beneditine’s Q♦ K♠ queen-high flush on the A♦ J♦ 4♠ 9♦ 4♦ would be trumped by 1dönertasche’s K♦ Q♥ king-high flush sending Beneditine off in sixth place ($22,977.50).

Shooting for the double

bmky88 still searching for a Sunday Million/Sunday Warm-up double as just three minutes after the double KO, bmky88 would shrink the table to four. With the blinds holding at 200K/400K ante 40K nasukk shoved for 2.12 million as bmky88 shoved as well for 7.4 million holding Q♦ A♦ . nasukk’s two live cards J♥ 9♠ became four outs after bmky88 flopped two pair K♠ K♣ Q♣ . No ten on the turn 5♣ nor the river 4♦ earned nasukk $30,047.50 in fifth place.

The flip, flopped for bmky88

20 million chips in the middle preflop. The winner would take away a commanding chip lead. The loser would be out or left with 330,143 chips. With the blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K bar-bar9999 would min-raise from the cutoff as bmky88 looked down at big slick A♣ K♦ and deciding to go with it for 10.3 million. bar-bar9999 was not about to fold queens Q♠ Q♣ as the ladies safely slid across the 10♥ 3♠ J♠ 6♣ 9♦ board to claim the 20.8 million chip pot knocking the Sunday Million champ down to 300K. Those scraps would go to bar-bar9999 on the next hand earning bmky88 $40,652.50 in fourth place.

Bar Bar Bar JACKPOT!

BAR BAR BAR is usually a good line on the old-fashioned reel slot machines, and perhaps a sign that bar-bar9999 was not about to let anyone else claim this Sunday Warm-Up jackpot. Just seven hands after claiming all of bmky88’s chips, bar-bar9999 went looking for more. FCG Fanatic would button raise to 832,000 as bar-bar9999 three-bet to 1.79 million. The middle ace 8♥ A♠ looked good enough to FCG Fanatic to shove 8.3 million chips as bar-bar9999’s pocket aces A♦ A♥ were certainly good enough to call. Despite a small hitch of seeing an eight flopped K♣ 8♠ 3♦ K♠ 9♠ FCG Fanatic’s tournament would end in third place ($58,327.50).

Short work for the title? Not so fast

Just before the 11th hourly break with bar-bar9999 holding a 29.3 million to six million chip lead, 1dönertasche would find a double up after getting ace-ten to outflop the pocket sixes of bar-bar99999. Still holding a decent lead, bar-bar9999 saw the rapidly climbing blinds and opted to work out the chip chop deal shown below leaving $10,000 for tonight’s victor:

bar-bar9999: $96,101.37
1dönertasche: $87,616.63

Yo eleven

After the chop talks took over a few moments longer than the five minute hourly break, the tournament would come to an end. Eleven hands, six won by 1dönertasche, and the tournament clinching fifth win by bar-bar9999 is shown below:

We’ve seen big slick go up against queens a few times tonight. This time it was for $10K as 1dönertasche showed Q♣ Q♠ and bar-bar9999 flipped up big slick A♥ K♣ . The queens would not survive the flop as a king hit the flop and river J♥ 4♦ K♥ 4♣ K♦ to ship the Sunday Warm-Up win to bar-bar9999!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Results (11-10-13):

Players entered: 3,535
Places paid: 540
Prizepool: $707,000.00

(* denotes part of two-way deal)

1. bar-bar9999 (Israel) *$106.101.37
2. 1dönertasche (Germany) *$87,616.63
3. FCG Fanatic (Netherlands) $58,327.50
4. bmky88 (Singapore) $40,652.50
5. nasukk (Romania) $30,047.50
6. Beneditine (Brazil) $22,977.50
7. Sheeter 200 (Canada) $15,907.50
8. Friend of PokerStars Pierre “Zoutechamp” Neuville $8,837.50
9. VitinhO Dzi (Brazil) $5,656.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

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