Nearly an hour and a half before the final hand of the $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up one card would have changed the title of this recap. A small stack that was about to perish before the spotlights of the final table but instead became Sunday Major champion. After a three-way deal with dekat15 and sdsff, tom0202 was still the shortstack, still clawing away to make a breakthrough. The effort paid off as tom0202 earned the extra $10K aside from the three-way deal winning a total of $69,489.37.

Read on below for tom0202’s story that almost ended before it started.

Heading into the ninth hour of play, a rash of bustouts right before the break left only 11 players vying for the $87,381.33 up top.

To start off the ninth hour, jambeyang rode a roller coaster of emotions. With the blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K jambeyang shoved 594,594 chips as killerrog three-bet all-in holding pocket sevens 7♥ 7♦ . Jambeyang would turn over 7♣ Q♣ and despite hitting two pair 9♠ 7♠ Q♥ the shortstack actually lost an out. The 6♦ did not help but the Q♠ did to double-up.

Two hands later Untoran would min-raise as tom0202 jumped all-in with 652,752 chips. Jambeyang had no problem shoving with pocket aces A♦ A♠ as Untoran covered all bets and called with jacks J♥ J♠ . Tom0202’s A♥ Q♠ needed a lot of help and found it. As the final card gave jambeyang life, it took it away this time 4♦ 10♥ K♥ 7♥ J♣ giving Untoran a set and tom0202 a straight to finish in 11th place ($3,467.50).

Six hands later mikkemusman’s set of fives would send sup-sport777 to the rail setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: wiper222 (773033 in chips)
Seat 2: Untoran (5214384 in chips)
Seat 3: tom0202 (2140256 in chips)
Seat 4: theibru (2518696 in chips)
Seat 5: mikkemusman (4120635 in chips)
Seat 6: dekat15 (3328630 in chips)
Seat 7: killerrog (2518836 in chips)
Seat 8: voina040484 (3397614 in chips)
Seat 9: sdsff (3727916 in chips)

The shortstacked wiper222 came in for a cup of coffee and left early again. This was not wiper222’s first shot at a major title having won the weekly Sunday razz event last year and making it here five years ago finishing in ninth. It would be another quick ending for wiper222 after running 8♠ Q♠ into theibru’s pocket kings K♦ K♠ to finish in ninth place ($4,715.80).

Cracked aces would come again as voina040484 notched a flopped two-pair and after shoving all-in, earned a double up at theibru’s expense. Two hands later theibru’s scraps would go into the middle and voina040484 was there to pick them up, knocking out theibru in eighth place ($7,500.89).

Although the final table would start with chips fairly spread out, the table seemed to tilt towards sdsff. The chip leader would rack up a near 12 million chip stack with the help of knocking out killerrog. Killerrog was hanging by a thread and finally lost the last million after running 2♠ A♣ into sdsff’s A♠ 8♣ to earn $13,037.80 in seventh place.

Just before the tenth hourly break Untoran would triple up through voina040484 and sdsff taking over third in chips with five million and blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K but only holding half as many as sdsff.

Seat 2: Untoran (5,182,227 in chips)
Seat 3: tom0202 (3,170,512 in chips)
Seat 5: mikkemusman (2,835,872 in chips)
Seat 6: dekat15 (5,049,260 in chips)
Seat 8: voina040484 (1,448,649 in chips)
Seat 9: sdsff (10,053,480 in chips)

Last year mikkemusman came one player away from becoming a TCOOP champion taking away $92K in Event #34. While there is no take away from winning the Sunday Warm-up except lovely bricks of cash, mikkemusman would miss out on a major victory again, finishing in sixth place ($18,585.80).

Two hands later sdsff decided to flex those chip leading muscles by shoving over the top of a min-raise by Untoran. Untoran was happy to oblige calling with pocket queens Q♥ Q♦ . The ladies towered over sdsff’s 10♠ 7♦ until an array of spades 9♠ K♠ 2♠ J♠ 3♠ was placed on the board and Untoran earned $24,133.80 in fifth place.

While sdsff continued to increase the chip lead dekat15 and voina040484 squared off pre-flop to combine the two shortstacks and sdsff joined the party trying to sink both of them. Dekat15’s jacks J♠ J♥ would defat sdsff’s 8♠ Q♣ and voina040484’s treys 3♣ 3♦ on the 10♥ K♦ 6♦ 7♦ 7♠ board. As a consolation voina040484 received $31,901.00 in fourth place.

The players wasted no time cutting up a three-way deal leaving $10,000 on the table for the weekly champion.

sdsff $67,067.92
dekat15 $62,616.24
tom0202 $59,489.37

sdsff said, “for me its good money“

Unfortunately the good money would not include the extra $10,000 awaiting the winner. At the time of the chop sdsff held 50 percent of the chips in play. Eight minutes later, sdsff would hold none. After doubling up tom0202 once and losing the chip lead, sdsff continued to play aggressive by open shoving for nine million with the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K. However, tom0202 was waiting again, this time with kings K♣ K♦ and a large enough stack to cover the bet. The 7♣ 8♠ 9♠ K♥ 6♦ board tried to help sdsff’s J♣ 8♦ as the once large chip leader took away $67,067.92 in third place.

Seat 3: tom0202 (21,951,884 in chips)
Seat 6: dekat15 (5,788,116 in chips)

That was the chip count starting up heads-up play with blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K. It would have been a decent bet to see dekat15 take home the title without much struggle. But, since that two-outer right before the final table tom0202 was not going away easily.

Instead tom0202 went away with the extra $10K. After 39 minute duel, it would tom0202 with a huge advantage going into the final hand. After getting whittled down to 4.4 million, dekat15 would throw in the remaining chips preflop holding 2♠ A♣ as tom0202 was happy to call with K♦ Q♥ . No river two-outer needed here as a king on the flop 9♠ 7♦ K♥ 8♥ 8♠ was enough to lock up the Sunday Warm-Up win and $69,489.37 for tom0202!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up (04-26-15)

Entrants: 2,774
Places Paid: 396
Prize Pool: $554,800.00

(* denotes part of three-way deal)

1. tom0202 (Israel) *$69,489.37
2. dekat15 (Netherlands) *$62,616.24
3. sdsff (Austria) *$67,067.92
4. voina040484 (Russia) $31,091.00
5. Untoran (Poland) $24,133.80
6. mikkemusman (Norway) $18,585.80
7. killerrog (Germany) $13.037.80
8. theibru (Hungary) $7,500.89
9. wiper222 (Netherlands) $4,715.80

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

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