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Home / Uncategorized / Super Tuesday: Up-and-down final table nets Tuczas $67K (6-13-17)

Tuczas looked set to roll to the title. After entering the final table of this week’s Super Tuesday with a middle-of-the-pack stack, the player from Poland ran it up into the chip lead. Then a 90-minute-plus drought of major pots turned what should have been a deep stack of ammunition into a buffer against misfortune. Just when things looked at their worst, barren flops and weak hole cards yielded to pocket pairs and connecting boards, sparking a run that ended half an hour later with Tuczas’s first major tournament title.

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Seat 1: Alex “dynoalot” DiFelice (622,703 in chips)
Seat 2: Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren (794,945 in chips)
Seat 3: EvnomiYa (1,636,647 in chips)
Seat 4: pepe120271 (568,618 in chips)
Seat 5: antepia27 (1,368,059 in chips)
Seat 6: binebine666 (1,212,362 in chips)
Seat 7: david owie (1,278,870 in chips)
Seat 8: YRWTHMELTHR (735,082 in chips)
Seat 9: Tuczas (957,714 in chips)

This week’s Super Tuesday field was completely in character, flush with highly experienced players, well-bankrolled players, and the intersection of a Venn diagram of those two groups. Recent $150K+ Sunday Million winner L1veYRdrEams from Australia entered and finished in 15th place. EPT10 Barcelona finalist Andreas “daskalos20” Christoforou of Cyprus, who was the runner-up in this tournament in late December 2016, busted on the final table bubble with A-2 against A-Q. And Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren, the past Super Tuesday champ who finished second in this tournament two weeks ago, left in ninth place just 20 minutes into the final after trying to steal the blinds on the button with A♦ 7â™  and running into past Sunday Warm-Up champion EvnomiYa’s K♣ Kâ™  in the small blind.

Tuczas picked up two nice pots just after that within a four-hand span on the 12,500/25,000/2,500 level. The first, worth 1.4 million chips, came after opening with A♦ 8♦ in middle position and making two pair on the same J♣ A♠ 8♠ flop that gave binebine666 top pair after defending the big blind with A♣ 6♠ . Three hands Tuczas was in the big blind with A♣ Q♣ and moved all-in after pepe120271 opened with 9♣ 9♠ ; original caller binebine666 folded but pepe120271 called all-in for 401,864 chips and fell in eighth when Tuczas made queens full of aces on the Q♥ Q♠ 10♣ A♥ J♣ board.

binebine666 opened for 105,000 chips under the gun three hands later with K♥ 9♥ , called past SCOOP and Sunday Million finalist david owie’s raise to 250,000, and then open-shoved for 347,792 when the flop came Qâ™  10â™  7♥ . david owie called with J♣ J♦ , which held up after the 7♦ turn and 3â™  river to bust binebine666 in seventh.

Tuczas finished up the first wave of knockouts 15 minutes later after opening for 69,600 chips with 9♦ 9♥ in the cutoff seat and calling a 221,103-chip all-in raise on the button by Alex “dynoalot” DiFelice, the past Super Tuesday finalist who most recently made three Omaha Hi/Lo final tables at SCOOP 2017. dynoalot’s A♦ K♣ flopped a gutshot draw to a Broadway straight but didn’t get there, sending him to the rail in sixth.

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Just under an hour of final-table poker had passed and Tuczas was riding high. The blinds and antes were still at 15,000/30,000/3,000 so the Polish player’s 2.52 million chips were worth 84 big blinds. But Tuczas’s stock would fall over the next hour as two-time Sunday Warm-Up finalist antepia27 became the table’s main driver of action.

antepia27’s run began after re-raising with 5♦ 5â™  in the cutoff seat. Original raiser EvnomiYa folded after a fourth bet from david owie on the button, but antepia27 jammed with the fives. david owie called with A♦ K♦ but failed to connect with the board, boosting antepia27 from last place to third with 1.83 million chips. Another 1.1-million-chip win came without showdown in a multi-way pot with EvnomiYa and two-time Super Tuesday finalist YRWTHMELTHR, moving antepia27 into the lead by 10 big blinds on the 20,000/40,000/4,000 level.

antepia27 used those chips to continue attacking small pots for the next 30 minutes and expanded the lead to more than 40 big blinds before min-raising to 100,000 chips under the gun with J♣ 8♣ . david owie re-raised to 300,000 in the cutoff, then bet 350,000 after antepia27 called and checked the 2♥ 9♦ 10♥ flop. antepia27 check-raised all-in with the open-ended straight draw and david owie called with A♥ Q♦ . The overcards had 56.9-percent equity there but was drawing dead after the 7♦ turn card; the 2â™  river made david owie’s departure official in fifth.


Prestige. Big prizes. No wonder we call it the Super Tuesday. Click here to open your PokerStars account today.


That 2.5-million-chip pot gave antepia27 57 percent of the chips in play, a share that increased five hands later after calling for 561,643 chips with Q♦ 10â™  in the big blind after EvnomiYa shoved in the small blind. The Russian player’s K♦ 6♥ stayed ahead only until the A♣ 7♦ 10â™  flop made antepia27 a pair of tens, and the 2♥ turn and 6â™  river eliminated EvnomiYa in fourth.

antepia27 looked set to float away with the title but YRWTHMELTHR poked a hole in that balloon on the very next hand, shoving for 2.06 million chips in the small blind with 8♣ 8♦ and watching the pair hold up against antepia27’s button-raising Aâ™  10♦ .

Now YRWTHMELTHR and antepia27 were within 10 big blinds of one another. Tuczas was still in the running, too, though with a third of the chips. Aside from a few small pots won without showdown, the Polish player mostly waited for a strong enough hand to make a move before the flop. That came along 10 minutes later in the form of A♥ 10♣ , which held up against antepia27’s K♣ 10♦ for a double to 2.4 million chips.

Tuczas picked up K♦ Kâ™  on the button three minutes later and once again antepia27 had a playable but dominated hand in 2â™  2♥ . Tuczas was all-in after the 9♣ 8♦ 4♣ flop and doubled to 4.84 million chips after the 6♥ turn and 4♥ river. antepia27’s fall to earth would be complete three minutes after the player from the U.K. moved all-in with 5♥ 4â™  on a 7♥ 6♣ 7â™  flop; original raiser Tuczas called with 6♥ 3♦ and won with sevens and sixes to eliminate antepia27 in third.

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After moving up and down the chip counts for the final table’s duration, Tuczas looked set to put the tournament away on the fourth hand of heads-up play. YRWTHMELTHR opened for 135,000 chips on the button with Q♦ J♦ and called for 2.08 million when Tuczas shoved with A♣ 8♦ . A jack hit the flop, though, and put YRWTHMELTHR into contention with 4.1 million chips to Tuczas’s 5.07 million.

Tuczas maintained an aggressive posture and took the majority of the pots for the next 20 minutes before finally picking up A♥ Kâ™  in the big blind, re-raising to 625,995 after YRWTHMELTHR opened the betting on the button, and calling the Canadian player’s 2.73-million-chip all-in bet. YRWTHMELTHR’s dominated Aâ™  10♥ needed a ten or plenty of spades but got neither on the 7â™  5♦ J♦ 2â™  A♦ board, bringing the tournament to a close.

So in the end, the player who dominated the early portions of the final table walked away with the title. The route to get there just took longer than any observer could have expected. If it’s true that nothing makes you appreciate what you have more than having to work hard for it, Tuczas is going to treasure this victory as much as any tournament champion ever has. Congratulations to the player from Poland on enduring at a wild final table.

6/13/17 Super Tuesday ($1,050 NL Hold’em) results
Entrants: 367
Total prize pool: $367,000
Places paid: 53

1. Tuczas (Poland) $67,158.24
2. YRWTHMELTHR (Canada) $49,313.60
3. antepia27 (United Kingdom) $36,210.60
4. EvnomiYa (Russia) $26,589.22
5. david owie (United Kingdom) $19,524.28
6. Alex “dynoalot” DiFelice (Canada) $14,336.56
7. binebine666 (Switzerland) $10,527.21
8. pepe120271 (Switzerland) $7,730.08
9. Andreas “mrAndreeew” Berggren (Sweden) $5,676.13


Prestige. Big prizes. No wonder we call it the Super Tuesday. Click here to open your PokerStars account today.


Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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