The PCA 2014 Main Event hits its final table tonight awaiting to crown a new EPT champion (and possibly a two-time champ, Mike McDonald) tomorrow. Tonight however, this big final table would find a conclusion. The $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up would feature SCOOP champ Michael “Skämmes” Tureniec taking down the Sunday Major for $106,012.79 after a two-way and lengthy heads-up match against Mateus#9.

SCOOP 2010 High Roller heads-up champ Michael “Skämmes” Tureniec would head into the final two tables with an excellent chance to add a Sunday Major to his list of titles. He would quickly double up off tasos80 with pocket kings and two hands later found aces against DarthJules to spin up his stack from 1.4 million to nearly four million with blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K.

Another familiar face and SCOOP champ, Charlie “JIZOINT” Combes sat on the adjacent table recently coming close to the WCOOP Challenger Series Main Event final table (24th place, $12,328.00) to go with his two SCOOP titles most recently in 2013 when he almost took down two watches in the same day.

Only 14 players would make it to the ninth hourly break with $115,081.00 sitting up top after tasos80 finished in 15th place ($3,298.50) and failed to return to the Sunday Warm-Up final table after doing so in November. Combes would not last much longer after pushing Q♣ K♣ into kfaxMTL’s jacks J♣ J♥ . The jacks would find a third one sitting on the flop 9♦ J♦ 2♣ 8♥ 7♥ ending JIZOINT’s night in 14th place ($3,298.50).

Tureniec’s stack however, was going in a better direction after busting anaocgms in 13th place ($3,298.50) thus increase his stack to over six million with blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K. Shortly before the bump to the 65K/130K level, ante 13K level kfaxMTL would also take a seat on the rail in 12th place ($4,398.00).

After sami stan took down Rounder63 in 11th place ($4,398.00) hand-for-hand play kicked off for just a few hands before Skämmes decided he would like to take the chip lead into the final table. With the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K Tureniec would raise to 262,600 as nutzho shoved from the small blind for 2.1 million. Holding big slick A♣ K♦ Tureniec made the call as nutzho turned over pocket tens 10♣ 10♥ . An ace on the flop 5♦ A♦ 4♥ 3♥ Q♠ would shoot Skämmes into the chip lead and start up the final table below:

Seat 1: bdklizm (5630525 in chips)
Seat 2: jude187 (3343445 in chips)
Seat 3: Skämmes (8806569 in chips)
Seat 4: RerereraiZ (7243185 in chips)
Seat 5: phasE89 (3057462 in chips)
Seat 6: sami stan (2128706 in chips)
Seat 7: Hyggemorfar (1087899 in chips)
Seat 8: Mateus#9 (1561583 in chips)
Seat 9: Rikimarro (3790626 in chips)

sami joins the sidelines

Just one hand before the tenth hourly break sami stan would be the first player at the final table to be asked to leave. With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K play would fold to phasE89 on the button as phasE89 made a min-raise. This incited sami stan to make a statement in the small blind holding Q♥ A♦ . The announcement was to shove for 2.69 million as Hyggemorfar quickly folded the big blind. But, phasE89 was happy to make the call with pocket kings K♠ K♦ and happier when a third one hit the turn 8♠ 8♣ 6♣ K♥ 2♦ sending sami stan off in ninth place ($5,864.00).

Phased out

One minute before the blinds were ready to move up to 125K/250K ante 25K it would be phasE89’s turn to leave. Michael “Skämmes” Tureniec, still holding the chip lead, would raise to 404,000 as phasE89 wanted no post-flop action and shoved for 5.29 million from the cutoff. Once again finding big slick K♠ A♠ for a big hand Tureniec made the call and dominated phasE89’s A♦ J♥ . A king on the flop that also carried three hearts actually increased phaseE89’s outs. But, a dry board from there K♥ 8♥ 2♥ 9♠ A♣ sent phasE89 off in eighth place ($9,162.50).

Number nine makes it six

Holding just 437,596 chips with the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K Hyggemorfar decided to go with A♥ 2♥ in the cutoff for the last stance. Unfortunately, one chair over Mateus#9 was seated with pocket queens Q♦ Q♠ and re-shoved for 2.2 million chips. The rest of the table got out of the way as the board spread out no card over a ten 9♥ 5♣ 3♦ 7♠ 8♥ to hand 1.4 million chips to Mateus#9 and $16,492.50 to Hyggemorfar in seventh place.

Chip lead grows

A few minutes later still within the 125K/250K ante 25K blind level Tureniec was looking to tighten his grip on that $115K sitting up top. As the action folded to Skämmes in the small blind, he would shove for 23 million chips leaving RerereraiZ up for a decision in the big blind. Watch below for the results of that choice:

A flip for RerereraiZ’s sixes 6♣ 6♥ would not turn out well as Skämmes’ Q♥ 10♠ found a queen on the river 2♣ 8♥ K♣ 5♦ Q♦ to send RerereraiZ away in sixth place ($23,822.50).

Runaway victory?

Just three hands later with the blinds holding at 125K/250K ante 25K Tureniec went hunting for more chips after raising to 505,000 from the hijack seat. Two seats over Rikimarro’s shortstack of 933,214 chips would find its way into the middle as the action folded back to Skämmes. Holding a chip leader’s stack and hoping for the best, Tureniec made the call with 10♦ 6♥ facing Rikimarro’s big slick K♥ A♣ . Again the river would deliver for Skämmes as a six landed 5♠ 2♠ Q♦ 2♦ 6♠ to knockout Rikimarro in fifth place ($31,152.50).

Check-Mate(us)

With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K jude187 would raise to 1.2 million from the button as Mateus#9 three-bet to 2.7 million. Back to jude187 holding another 1.1 million and A♦ 5♥ the German would four-bet all-in as Mateus#9 made the call with the better kicker 8♣ A♥ . Both players would pair their kickers on the flop 5♠ 8♦ 3♥ 4♦ 10♥ but Mateus#9’s better pair sent jude187 as another body deposed in fourth place ($42,147.50).

Would you like to make a…

… deal? Actually the chatter for a three-way would not have a chance to start as two hands later this tournament would be set for heads-up play. Blinds holding at 150K/300K ante 30K bdklizm tried to carve out a shot at getting back into the tournament with a shove for 4.2 million from the small blind. Tureniec however was right there in the big blind to make the call with a small ace 5♠ A♣ . bdklizm’s J♠ 10♣ failed to connect with the K♠ 2♦ 4♣ A♥ 9♣ board and collected $60,472.50 in third place. Quite the eventful run for bdklizm as the Norwegian also notched a big finish in the Sunday Million just last month, chopping for $229,450.46 in fourth place.

Skämmes for the win

Our final two would head into the eleventh hourly break as Mateus#9 tried to broach the possibility of a chop. Tureniec stood firm on playing this one out or at least playing until the blinds got a little too big. The two would spar through the rest of the 150K/300K ante 30K along with the two levels after that. However, when the blinds moved up to 300K/600K ante 60K and the chips flattening out a bit, both players were able to deal quickly as shown below:

Skämmes: $96,012.79
Mateus#9: $94,829.21

Good timing on the deal as four hands later this hand happened:

Somehow both players got to the turn to show their big starting hands. Pocket kings K♣ K♥ for Skämmes and queens Q♥ Q♣ for Mateus#9. While both hit a flush on the 3♣ 10♠ J♣ 2♣ 9♣ board, Skämmes would collect the 35 million chip pot and two hands later he would collect $106,012.79 as this week’s Sunday Warm-Up champion!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (01-12-14):

(* denotes part of two-way deal)
Players entered: 3,665
Places paid: 540
Prizepool: $733,000.00

1. Michael “Skämmes” Tureniec (Sweden) *$106,012.79
2. Mateus#9 (Brazil) *$94,829.21
3. bdklizm (Norway) $60,472.50
4. jude187 (Germany) $42,147.50
5. Rikimarro (Russia) $31,152.50
6. RerereraiZ (Greece) $23,822.50
7. Hyggemorfar (Denmark) $16,492.50
8. phasE89 (Czech Republic) $9,162.50
9. sami stan (Romania) $5,864.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

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