Brazil’s lforoni had the chip lead as this week’s Super Tuesday final table began and never looked like anything other than a win was possible until the table was four-handed. A series of coin flips evened out the stacks a bit at that point and suggested a few other potential outcomes. But lforoni held fast, eventually eliminating one finalist from the WSOP 2017 Main Event and another from the SCOOP 2017 Main Event en route to a $52,201.51 win.
After working with an average stack or better for more than seven hours, lforoni first claimed the chip lead with three tables remaining. A few wins by other players dropped the Brazilian out of the lead as the field dwindled but lforoni was back in front when mjw006 busted on the bubble to set up this final table lineup:
Seat 1: lforoni (1,639,599 in chips)
Seat 2: Woodstock37 (460,159 in chips)
Seat 3: Kippling25 (1,333,122 in chips)
Seat 4: eska1312 (947,722 in chips)
Seat 5: Damián “pampa27” Salas (1,485,770 in chips)
Seat 6: TheDegenFund (247,451 in chips)
Seat 7: Iamapoopie (459,433 in chips)
Seat 8: cashcas (618,760 in chips)
Seat 9: sTFFR_ (482,984 in chips)
There was plenty of action from the earliest moments of the final table. Iamapoopie, returning to the Super Tuesday final for the first time since SCOOP 2016, doubled to 1.14 million chips on the fourth hand with Q♦ Q♣ against eska1312’s 10♣ 10♥ . And SCOOP 2015 champ TheDegenFund doubled to 506,902 on the next hand with 10♦ 10♥ after past Super Tuesday champ and WSOP 2017 Main Event finalist Damián “pampa27” Salas opened with Q♦ 7♦ and was priced in to call TheDegenFund’s re-raise.
But pampa27 got it all back and more after opening with J♣ Jâ™ in the cutoff seat a few hands later. cashcas jammed with Aâ™ K♣ and had a pair of aces before the river of the 4♥ 2♦ A♥ 3♥ J♥ board gave pampa27 a set of jacks. That put pampa27 in the lead with 2.04 million chips and ended cashcas’s run in ninth.
TheDegenFund followed five hands later after opening all-in for 398,902 chips under the gun with A♦ J♥ . lforoni was the lone caller in the hijack seat with A♣ K♦ , which remained ahead after the 7♥ 8♦ 9♣ Q♣ 9♠board to bust TheDegenFund in eighth.
That was the first of several big pots for lforoni, who soon expanded the newfound chip lead to more than 40 big blinds over the rest of the table without knocking anybody out. Meanwhile sTFFR_ stayed alive with Q♣ Qâ™ against Kippling’s A♥ K♣ , dropping the U.K. player’s stack to just over 389,000. Minutes later lforoni opened with Qâ™ 8â™ in the hijack seat and Kippling25 jammed on the button with Aâ™ Q♥ . Priced in, lforoni called and made three of a kind on the 8♦ 2♥ 9♣ 8♥ 5♦ board to knock out Kippling25 in seventh.
eska1312 avoided the same fate twice in the next six hands. The Austrian player hit a set on the river with 9♦ 9â™ to double to 448,278 chips against Iamapoopie’s K♣ Q♣ on the next hand, and then got 2♦ 2♥ to hold up against pampa27’s A♣ Q♦ for an 812,556-chip pot. Fellow short stack sTFFR_ didn’t enjoy the same good fortune with 9♥ 9♦ a few hands later. After min-raising in early position, sTFFR_ called when pampa27 jammed for 1.29 million in the big blind with 10♦ 10♥ ; the board fell 2â™ 2♥ J♥ 6♥ Aâ™ and sTFFR_ left in sixth.
Another pair of tens boosted Woodstock37’s stock a few hands later. The SCOOP 2017 Main Event finalist called for 77,000 in the cutoff with 10♦ 10â™ after lforoni raised under the gun, and those two were joined by Iamapoopie from the big blind in seeing the 10♥ 8♣ 6♥ flop. Iamapoopie, holding Q♥ J♥ , check-raised all-in for 671,427 there; Woodstock37 called and fell behind on the 2♥ turn, only to take down the 1.6-million-chip pot with a full house on the 2â™ river and eliminate Iamapoopie in fifth.
lforoni looked set to take a big lead – 3.32 million chips on the 17,500/35,000/3,500 level, with nobody else over 1.81 million – into the break minutes later. Then eska1312 got to see a cheap 9♣ 8♦ 8♦ flop from the big blind with 10♥ 9â™ and check-raised all-in for 739,056 after lforoni bet on the button with Jâ™ 9♦ . lforoni called with middle pair and a straight draw but didn’t improve, making things a lot tighter heading in the 11:55 p.m. ET break.
The pots remained small for the first 10 minutes or so after returning from the break. Then lforoni was dealt A♦ A♠in the big blind and extracted three streets of value out of pampa27, who check-called the whole way but mucked when lforoni showed down a set of aces on the 7♠9♥ A♥ 3♦ 8♥ board.
Take a shot at glory in next week’s Super Tuesday. Click here to open your PokerStars account today.
Woodstock37 siphoned some of those chips from lforoni over the next 10 minutes before losing a flip with 3♣ 3♦ against eska1312, whose A♣ 9â™ turned into an ace kicker for the two pair on the 6♣ 5♥ 6♦ Q♣ Q♦ board. That left the four players divided into two strata – lforoni and Woodstock37 both hovering around 2.3 million chips, and pampa27 and eska1312 hovering around 1.5 million – and the race for the title wide open.
The pot that took out pampa27 started innocuously enough with him limping for 50,000 on the button with 10♣ 9♦ and lforoni and Woodstock37 coming along in the blinds to see a 10♦ A♣ 5♦ flop. Both blinds checked to pampa27, who bet 50,000, and only Woodstock37 called to see the 8♥ turn. This time Woodstock37 check-raised from 69,999 to 381,227, which sent pampa27 to the time bank but still resulted in a call. Woodstock37 then led out all-in after the K♥ river – and showed down a Broadway straight with Q♥ J♦ when pampa27 called. The pair of tens was no good and pampa27’s bid for a second career Super Tuesday win ended in fourth.
Woodstock37 had the lead and all the momentum. The Canadian leaned in to win 10 of the next 13 pots but then lost with A♥ 7♥ against all-in eska1312’s 9♦ 9â™ and all that progress was reset. Six hands later lforoni’s 6♦ 6â™ held up against A♣ K♣ to cut eska1312’s stack back down to 1.43 million chips, moving the Austrian back into last place.
It looked like eska1312 was set to keep the cycle going a few hands later when Woodstock37 opened for 105,000 chips on the button with 3♦ 3â™ and eska1312 jammed for 854,010 in the small blind with 9♦ 9♥ . The favorite remained ahead after the 10â™ 8â™ A♦ flop and Jâ™ turn, but the 3♥ river gave Woodstock37 a set of treys and ended eska1312’s tournament in third.
lforoni and Woodstock37 immediately paused the game to talk over a deal. Even with a few minutes’ wait for the tournament host to appear, the agreement based on chip stacks took just seven minutes to reach. The remainder of the hour played out with Woodstock37 taking a 2-to-1 lead into the tournament’s final break.
The Canadian expanded the lead further after coming back but lforoni fought to pull to within 10 big blinds’ worth of chips. Then the Brazilian picked up A♣ Aâ™ on the button and Woodstock37 was dealt K♦ Kâ™ . All the chips went in and lforoni took down the 7.04-million-chip pot after the board came 8â™ 10♥ 10♦ 10â™ 9♥ board ran out. Woodstock37 rivered a jack with Jâ™ 7♣ to beat lforoni’s A♥ K♥ on the following hand, then got in with J♥ 8♣ on a 4♣ 8♦ 7♦ flop. lforoni called with 8♥ 2â™ and made two pair after the turn and river came A♦ –2♣ , bringing the tournament to a quick conclusion.
Congratulations to both lforoni and Woodstock37 on their heads-up deal, and to lforoni for coming out on the right side of the aces-versus-kings matchup to earn this week’s Super Tuesday title!
8/15/17 Super Tuesday ($1,050 NL Hold’em) results
Entrants: 307
Total prize pool: $307,000
Places paid: 44
1. lforoni (Brazil) $52,201.51*
2. Woodstock37 (Canada) $48,579.45*
3. eska1312 (Austria) $31,934.60
4. Damián “pampa27” Salas (Argentina) $23,734.47
5. Iamapoopie (United Kingdom) $17,639.94
6. sTFFR_ (Germany) $13,110.37
7. Kippling25 (United Kingdom) $9,743.90
8. TheDegenFund (Mexico) $7,241.88
9. cashcas (Denmark) $5,382.29
* – denotes results of a heads-up deal that left $5,000 for the winner
Take a shot at glory in next week’s Super Tuesday. Click here to open your PokerStars account today.
Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.
Back to Top
