Thursday, 28th March 2024 14:19
Home / Uncategorized / Sunday Warm-Up: Read Only Magic, ROMDOM dominates in $80K win

Imagine opening a basket containing fermented pig feet, corn flakes, flat grape soda, and jicama and being asked to create a dessert in less than 20 minutes while playing for $10,000. Well, the $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up is not hosted by Ted Allen and does not require its contestants to have working knowledge of how to cook (personally I feel making microwaved macaroni and cheese is a bit challenging). ROMDOM and ForzaVaxholm would square off tonight heads-up for $10,000 playing poker after making a two-way deal. ROMDOM wasted no time during heads-up play to claim the extra funds for a total of $80,234.12.

Read below for ROMDOM’s road to victory

Maybe it was the hour of sleep lost from daylight savings time as the final two tables set up a little past the eight hour mark and only 14 left after the ninth hourly break.

Among those surviving was former Sunday Warm-Up champ heißtercamp who won this tournament back in 2011. heißtercamp also nearly notched a TCOOP win last year in Event #47 claiming $104K with the fifth place finish.

The former would not become the current weekly winner as ForzaVaxholm went on a tear knocking out heißtercamp in 13th place ($2,533.65) and five hands later notching a 6.2 million chip pot off LBBigSlickAK. This gave ForzaVaxholm the temporary chip lead with 11 players left.

While eliminations of quickly piled up after the break, hand-for-hand play would last nearly 25 minutes. scheisserle would open the doors to the feature table as neckbr4ke found the wrong time to pick up pocket queens Q♥ Q♦ . After shoving over the top of Hancock1489 and scheisserle, only scheisserle stuck around to make the call with aces A♣ A♦ . Another ace appeared on the flop A♥ 9♠ 4♥ 9♦ K♦ as neckbr4ke would not be returning to the final table (like in 2012) opening up the final table below:

SundayWarmUp_030815.jpg

Seat 1: remcoow1982 (2708369 in chips)
Seat 2: ForzaVaxholm (5441876 in chips)
Seat 3: scheisserle (5006775 in chips)
Seat 4: pokersoul_AA (821469 in chips)
Seat 5: lightshirt (666751 in chips)
Seat 6: Hancock1489 (2687842 in chips)
Seat 7: elhilario (2020814 in chips)
Seat 8: RunLkMercier (2287029 in chips)
Seat 9: ROMDOM (5029075 in chips)

RunLKMercier did not run like Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier. About ten minutes into the final table RunLKMercier would sprint Qâ™  A♦ head first into scheisserle’s queens Q♦ Q♥ . The final lady hit the flop Q♣ 4♥ 9â™  J♦ 5♦ and RunLkMercier hit the door in ninth place ($4,533.90). Unfortunately this also meant RunLkMercier would not improve on a fourth place finish in this tournament back in November 2013.

Mercier-not-Mercier.jpg

Did not run like this guy – RunLkMercier ninth place ($4,533.90)

Nearing the tenth hour of play ForzaVaxholm would take the chip lead away from scheisserle thanks to back-to-back knockouts. First, the Swede would play the part of bully and send shortstacked pokersoul_AA to the poker afterlife in eighth place ($7,211.56). Then, while facing a 2.5 million three-bet from Hancock1489, ForzaVaxholm made the right decision to call with J♣ A♦ . Hancock1489’s 9♥ A♥ would not turn the tide Kâ™  K♥ 6♥ 8♦ 10♣ finishing in seventh place ($12,534.90).

The final hand before the break, lightshirt’s dance with a shortstack would take an exit stage right. ForzaVaxholm’s min-raise was enough to get lightshirt to call all-in from the small blind as elhilario declined to play the mighty deuce-four (which actually would have won). lightshirt’s 4♥ 7♣ and ForzaVaxholm’s 10â™  K♥ would both miss the 8♦ 9♥ Q♥ Aâ™  2♦ board ending lightshirt’s tournament in sixth place ($17,868.90).

In a role-reversal after the hourly break scheisserle would become the shortstack. With the blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K scheisserle found an excellent spot to double up. ForzaVaxholm shoving 4.7 million with A♠ 9♥ from the small blind while scheisserle held kings K♠ K♦ . However, an ace on the J♥ 3♠ A♦ 10♣ 7♥ flop would send scheisserle home in fifth place ($23,202.90).

Eight minutes later ace-nine was just fine for ROMDOM as well. In another blind versus blind battle elhilario would shove Q♣ J♣ as ROMDOM covered making the call with A♥ 9♣ . The was not needed this time, but showed up on the flop again 7♦ Aâ™  2â™  5♦ 3â™  ending elhilario’s run in fourth place ($30,670.50).

Usually around this time the players would get chatty about breaking up the final money spots. But, the $84,010.64 stayed up top as our remaining three seemed determined to play it out.

Well… that train of thought lasted until the seemingly unstoppable ace-nine appeared in ROMDOM’s hand again. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K remcoow1982 on the shortstack would shove 3.4 million from the button with pocket sixes 6♣ 6♦ . ROMDOM however had 9â™  A♣ and found an ace 10♥ 7♣ 10♣ Aâ™  J♥ to shutdown remcoow1982 in third place ($44,805.60).

Good thing ForzaVaxholm took the deal because this tournament would end two hands later. With ROMDOM’s sizable chip lead, the chip leader would take $70,234.12 while ForzaVaxholm carved out an extra $4K ($66,451.32) leaving $10K for the champ.

There would be no sudden reversals or heads-up mind games as ForzaVaxhom would min-raise from the button and ROMDOM shoved the massive 17.5 million chipstack over the top. Holding J♦ K♦ ForzaVaxholm took the 8.2 million chip plunge as ROMDOM showed Aâ™  10♥ . Even without ace-nine, ace-ten was just enough on the 7♥ 7♦ 7â™  6â™  10♣ board for ROMDOM earning the extra $10K and this week’s Sunday Warm-Up title!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (03-08-15)

Entrants: 2,667
Places paid: 396
Prize pool: $533,400

(* denotes part of two-way deal)

1. ROMDOM (Mexico) *$80,234.12
2. ForzaVaxholm (Sweden) *$66,451.32
3. remcoow1982 (Netherlands) $44,805.60
4. elhilario (Argentina) $30,670.50
5. scheisserle (Germany) $23,202.90
6. lightshirt (Belgium) $17,868.90
7. Hancock1489 (Russia) $12,534.90
8. pokersoul_AA (Russia) $7,211.56
9. RunLkMercier (Canada) $4,533.90

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app