Your average TCOOP tournament is already a whirlwind experience, taking just a few hours from start to finish and awarding tens of thousands of dollars to its top finishers even on modest buy-ins. For those with the need to mix things up even more, one of the events on the schedule for the final day of play in this year’s series was exactly what they were looking for.

Event #48, a $320 buy-in tournament, featured a mix of eight different poker variants to test its players’ skill. Beginning at 13:30 ET, the game changed every three minutes between the standard HORSE variants, 2-7 Triple Draw, No-Limit Hold’em, and Pot-Limit Omaha. Late registration closed after the first 25 rounds had gone by, giving the tourney a field of 555 players. The top 72 places paid out shares of the $166,500 prize pool, with $31,635 for the last player standing.

As the final table began at 16:50 ET, the game was 50K/100K/10K Stud Hi/Lo and these six players were still in contention:

Seat 1: robban 28x (305,344 in chips)
Seat 2: dumBBass86 (283,452 in chips)
Seat 3: GVOZDIKA55 (147,404 in chips)
Seat 4: mikal12345 (360,544 in chips)
Seat 5: tvtotaliwin (1,353,566 in chips)
Seat 6: Kukoc69 (324,690 in chips)

50K/100K/10K Stud

Switzerland’s tvtotaliwin came in with a lead of more than 1 million chips. Looking to improve on last week’s career-high, 4th-place finish in Event #24, the Swiss player wasn’t shy about putting it to work. The game was 50K/100K/10K Stud as play began and on the second hand tvtotaliwin, who had the bring-in with the 8♣ showing, raised a completed bet by short-stacked dumBBass86 of Russia, who was showing the 8♦ . dumBBass86 made the call before getting all-in for the last 163K on fourth street with (4♦ 8♠ ) / 8♦ J♠ for a pair of eights. That was ahead of tvtotaliwin’s (9♠ 10♦ ) / 8♣ 2♣ and remained so when neither player improved from there.

50K/100K/10K Stud Hi/Lo

The game changed on the next hand, and tvtotaliwin took on another short stack. The Swiss player started with three to a low but couldn’t get there after putting Finland’s robban 28x all-in for 395K total on fifth street. The Finn had started with rolled-up sixes and showed (6♥ 6♣ ) / 6♦ 5♣ 10♥ 3♠ / (Q♠ ) to beat tvtotaliwin’s (3♥ 7♣ ) / A♦ 9♠ Q♣ 9♣ / (2♠ ) for the scoop. That actually gave robban28x the chip lead with 900K, while tvtotaliwin dropped into second with 729K.

Russia’s GVOZDIKA55 was on the verge of busting on Hand #6 but picked up a split pair of jacks and completed the bet on third street for 50K. The Russian player then called for another 22K after Norway’s mikal12345 raised with (3♠ 8♣ ) / 7♠ . mikal12345 picked up the Q♠ on fourth street and paired it on the river, but GVOZDIKA55 had made two pair, jacks and nines, to win the 219K-chip pot after catching the 9♥ on sixth street and the 9♣ on seventh. That dropped the Norwegian player to 213K, but a double-up was in store on Hand #7. mikal12345 missed the low again after starting with (3♦ 6♥ ) / 4♣ but caught 3♠ 4♠ 10♣ / (K♥ ) for two pair, treys and fours, to beat tvtotaliwin’s split pair of kings that never improved by the end of the (A♠ K♦ ) / K♠ 7♦ 4♦ 5♦ / (Q♣ ) board.

15K/30K/3.75K No-Limit Hold’em

With seven hands in the books, the chips counts had changed a bit heading into the big-bet games:

Seat 1: robban 28x (865,688 in chips)
Seat 2: dumBBass86 (521,904 in chips)
Seat 3: GVOZDIKA55 (209,808 in chips)
Seat 4: mikal12345 (466,280 in chips)
Seat 5: tvtotaliwin (506,630 in chips)
Seat 6: Kukoc69 (204,690 in chips)

The table got in just two hands of hold’em, the second of which saw GVOZDIKA55 three-bet all-in for 172K over the top of robban 28x’s 65K opening raise. The Finn called with 9♠ 7♥ and lost out to K♠ Q♥ on the 8♠ 8♣ K♦ 7♣ 2♥ board, boosting GVOZDIKA55 to a 397K-chip stack.

15K/30K Pot-Limit Omaha / 80K/160K 2-7 Triple Draw

Three uneventful hands of PLO followed before the game changed to triple draw. That round lasted three hands as well, with mikal12345 doubling up on the last. The Norwegian three-bet from the big blind and called all-in for 253K after original opener robban 28x re-raised. Both players took one card on all three draws and mikal12345’s 10♥ 8♦ 7♥ 5♥ 2♦ beat robban 28x’s K♣ 8♠ 7♦ 6♥ 5♠ for the 547K-chip pot.

80K/160K Limit Hold’em

The next hand, the 16th of the final table, saw the game switch to limit hold’em for the first time, and the two players who had squared off on the previous hand clashed once again. robban 28x, holding 6♣ 6♦ , opened for 160K in the hijack seat and made it four bets with 87,100 chips behind after mikal12345 three-bet from the small blind. The Norwegian called, then led out on the 4♠ Q♣ 2♦ flop, and called for 7K more with 8♠ 8♣ after robban 28x moved all-in. The turn and river came 10♥ K♠ , the eights held up, and robban 28x was gone in 6th place ($5,328).

The next three hands of Hold’em passed without incident, save dumBBass86 taking down a 520K-chip pot with a check-raise on the Q♣ 2♣ A♠ flop of Hand #17.

100K/200K Omaha Hi/Lo

That brought on the first round of Omaha Hi/Lo, and with it plenty of action, starting with this last-ditch triple-up by Croatia’s Kukoc69:

RSS readers, please click through for replay

GVOZDIKA55 split the next pot with dumBBass86, winning the low with A♣ 4♦ 9♣ Q♥ on a 10♥ 7♣ 6♠ 8♥ 4♣ board while the Russian took the high with 2♣ 7♠ 9♠ 9♦ for a straight. The same two showed down again on Hand #24, the last of the O/8 level, with different results. GVOZDIKA55 made it four bets and all-in for 367K from the big blind, and original opener dumBBass86 called in the small blind. dumBBass86 had 5♣ 6♦ 8♦ 8♥ this time and was up against GVOZDIKA55’s 9♣ 9♦ A♦ A♥ . The 5♥ 3♣ 7♣ flop was bad news for GVOZDIKA55, giving dumBBass86 a made low and an open-ended straight draw. But the 4♠ on the turn was worse, as it locked up the entire pot for dumBBass86. The 10♦ on the river closed out GVOZDIKA55 in 5th place ($8,325).

100K/200K/20K Razz

With 24 hands played and the game shifting once again, the chip counts now looked like this:

Seat 2: dumBBass86 (1,306,520 in chips)
Seat 4: mikal12345 (745,280 in chips)
Seat 5: tvtotaliwin (424,130 in chips)
Seat 6: Kukoc69 (299,070 in chips)

Kukoc69 hadn’t had many opportunities to move ahead at the final table but picked up a decent one on Hand #26, the second of the Razz round, starting with (4♣ 10♦ ) / 3♦ . The Croatian player completed the first bet for 100K, leaving 159K behind, and raised all-in after mikal12345 came in for a second bet. The Norwegian called and was trailing with (10♥ 5♠ ) / 8♣ , and the 8♥ on fourth street was no help as Kukoc69 picked up the 7♠ to improve to T-7-4-3. In order to win the hand mikal12345 not only had to catch nearly perfect, but also to have Kukoc69 brick all three remaining streets. The Norwegian’s 4♥ A♠ / (5♦ ) on fifth through seventh streets was nearly perfect; Kukoc69 paired on fifth, paired again on sixth, and left the tournament in 4th place ($11,655) after catching the K♠ on the river.

Another four hands of Razz went by without incident before tvtotaliwin won this pot on the seventh and final hand of the lowball game:

RSS readers, please click through for replay

120K/240K/24K Stud

That ended the first full rotation of games and brought the table back to Stud, with mikal12345 in the lead with 1.15M of the 2.77M chips in play. After the first hand of the level – the 32nd of the final table, a clash between dumBBass86 and mikal12345 that ended without a showdown on sixth street – dumBBass86 was holding about half of all the chips and tvtotaliwin and mikal12345 had roughly equal shares of the other half.

mikal12345 had a great chance to get those lost chips back and then some on the very next hand. The Norwegian player had the bring-in with the 3♣ showing, but with (Q♣ Q♦ ) for a buried pair of queens had good reason to raise dumBBass86’s 120K completion with the 7♦ showing. The Russian player called and promptly caught a pair on the board thanks to the 7♥ on fourth street, following through with the allowed double bet of 240K. mikal12345 showed 3♣ 4♦ and raised to 480K, then called all-in for another 26K. dumBBass86 was behind with (4♥ 8♣ ) / 7♦ 7♥ but jumped into the lead with two pair on fifth street thanks to the 4♣ . mikal12345 caught the J♥ and needed another queen, jack, four, or trey to move back ahead. But with K♠ on sixth street and 9♥ on seventh while dumBBass86 caught A♦ / (5♥ ), mikal12345 failed to catch up and left the tournament in 3rd place ($17,066.25).

120K/240K/24K Stud Hi/Lo / 40K/80K/10K No-Limit Hold’em

The game changed again as heads-up play began with the chips distributed like so:

Seat 2: dumBBass86 (2,074,740 in chips)
Seat 5: tvtotaliwin (700,260 in chips)

The Hi/Lo round lasted nine hands, none of which made it past fourth street. The No-Limit round started off just as quietly when dumBBass86 open-folded Hand #43 on the button. Hand #44 opened in the opposite fashion when tvtotaliwin shoved for 848K on the button, holding A♥ 3♥ . dumBBass86 called quickly with A♣ J♥ , building a pot worth 1.71M that would either give tvtotaliwin the chip lead or bring the tournament to a close. Neither player improved on the 9♦ K♣ 10♠ 6♥ K♦ board, dumBBass86’s jack played, and tvtotaliwin was eliminated in 2nd place ($23,310). That bested the Swiss player’s previous career high, set last week, by nearly $9K.

The top prize of $31,635 was also a new career high for dumBBass86, whose previous best of $3,859 came for 8th place at a WCOOP final table in Razz just last year. With past successes in HORSE, No-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, and most stud variants, it’s probably a safe bet that dumBBass86 will be using the proceeds of today’s experience to fund buy-ins for most of the games that were in the mix.

TCOOP-48: $320 8-Game (Turbo)
Entrants: 555
Prize pool: $166,500
Places paid: 72

1. dumBBass86 (Russia) $31,635
2. tvtotaliwin (Switzerland) $23,310
3. mikal12345 (Norway) $17,066.25
4. Kukoc69 (Croatia) $11,655
5. GVOZDIKA55 (Russia) $8,325
6. robban 28x (Finland) $5,328

Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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