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Home / Uncategorized / TCOOP 2014: styggert bowls over Event #50 (Hyper-Turbo, Sunday SuperSonic Wrap-Up)

Can you spare two hours and twenty minutes for a chance at over $100,000?

3,796 players said yes to this proposition and as the Super Bowl’s kickoff was underway and prop betters with an affinity for safety were jumping for joy, a $500,000 guarantee was blown out with a final prize pool of $800,196.80 in TCOOP Event #50.

Did we mention it was a hyper-turbo format? That meant the last tournament of the series was also going to have the fastest pace, the rising tides of blinds on a three-minute interval. Only in this nautical analogy not all boats were raised in the process, in fact, 3,795 were sunk, their starting stacks rolled into one, the stack of Dane styggert, who , navigated treacherous waters, rode a wave if you will, to $105,603.91 worth of TCOOP glory!

Red Hot Spades

Newest PokerStars’ Team Online member Marc-Andre “FrenchDawg” Ladouceur was receiving some good-natured ribbing from their fellow French Canadian Duhamel, mostly on account of the former’s Sunday run-hot. That blazing heat would reach an abbreviated nova however as Ladouceur flamed out in 20th for $2,040.50. The hopes of the Red Spades (et les habitants) were left with the champ, Duhamel, who had maintained a top ten stack since one hundred players remained.

Carnage-a-trios

With Brandon-Tino of the United Kingdom already eliminated in tenth on the other table, EddyMerckx3 was dealt A♣ 9♥ first to act, in a rare (for a full ring tournament) four-handed quirk of the seating algorithm. They had seven-and-a-half big blinds and could hardly be blamed for making it rain, electronically, with 1.8M chips. Duhamel moved in for 4.3M with 5♦ 5♥ , then in the small blind bEatNicK”OG” considered their 10♥ 10â™  good enough to overcall for their tournament life. metallist353 took this as a cue to expose their Q♦ 10♣ in the big blind before folding and EddyMerckx3 would be in good shape if they could just hit that ace.

J♣ 6♦ 2♠ flop, just the three cards the frontrunning tens wanted to see.

2♥ 6♣

bEatNicK”OG” more than doubled, Duhamel almost halved, and EddyMerckx3 had the worst of the fractional fates, the one with the zero in the numerator. They were eliminated ninth for $6.401.57.


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So it would be an eight-handed final table, hosted by Dale “DaleRoxxu” Philip, approximately forty-two times more exciting than the Super Bowl, which by this time was deflating, as the chips jumped from stack to stack.

Interestingly enough, the UK’s nurabsal plays well when handegg stakes are highest, this final table took place exactly one year removed from their Super Bowl Sunday Warmup win, which was good for a cool $84,611.17, a mark they had opportunity to best.

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Final Table Chip Counts

Seat 1: metallist353 (Russia) — 2,843,008
Seat 2: Macieq (Poland) — 659,649
Seat 3: Retschy (Austria) — 2,646,222
Seat 5: johnduhamel (Canada) — 2,610,870
Seat 6: nurabsal (United Kingdom) — 2,102,598
Seat 7: bEatNicK”OG” (Canada) — 4.077.872
Seat 8: styggert (Denmark) — 2,150,218
Seat 9: tupacmn (Germany) — 1,889,563

Out of the gates

The Pole with the lacrymose feline avatar, Macieq, was in for almost half their stack already when their first, and only, decision of the final table was upon them. Chip-leading bEatNicK”OG” had already moved all-in from the button and they held Aâ™  3♣ . No decision at all, really, but they had run into a big hand in the A♦ J♣ of the counterculturally-named Canadian. Q♥ 10♦ 4♣ on the flop gave no hope for Macieq, in fact, they had turn outs to be drawing dead. Though they were live on the 7♥ it was irrelevant on the A♥ river, Macieq out in eighth, winning $10,002.46.

Four hands later, for a shade over five big-blinds, it was all-in for tupacmn, under the gun, with the Q♦ Jâ™  . The German had had previous ‘COOP success, taking down SCOOP-12-M, a relatively dissimilar format, in 2011 for $81,536.00. They got action from Retschy, who moved their stack across the line with five more players behind, not a good sign. Not good indeed, it was A♥ Qâ™  for the covering player. The Aâ™  8♦ 4♣ gave a come-from-behind narrative about as much hope as a Peyton Manning pick-six and hte 6â™  turned sealed that fate. It was seventh for tupacmn, who won $18,004.42.

Jacks don’t always serve for Duhamel

One might recall a certain famous televised hand that broke the heart of a certain Matt Affleck and fashioned the champion fate of Jonathan Duhamel. The hand he held (to Affleck’s aces) was of course jacks. Well jacks giveth and jacks taketh away, like absolutely every other poker holding. Taketh away was on order this time as Duhamel moved all-in for 2.6M chips under the gun, six-handed, with blinds at 150,000-300,000, and Jâ™  J♥ . Getting action this far up one’s range is usually desired and fellow Canuck bEatNicK”OG” obliged next to act with Aâ™  Qâ™  . It was a flip.

A♦ 9♦ 5♠ the champ was in deep trouble on the dry flop.

The 10♣ was one rank too low and the 7♦ was an immaterial blank. After a sick run the PokerStars red spades would be best represented in sixth as the charismatic French-Canadian banked $26,006.39 for his two hours of work.


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bEatNicK”OG” would sport a stack of over 8.4M chips, nearly double second place, following the coin well flipped.

The next hand, metallist353 open-shoved the button for six big-blinds with [A] [ and nurabsal, with seven (big blinds, that is), was lurking with [J] [J]. It was more flop fratricide when the first three cards debuted A♥ K♣ 8â™  , nurabsal just as at-risk as their opponent with prospects of having two-thirds of their stack in the pot in the small blind next hand should they not re-suck. The deck’s suction sequence was complete however, as the turn and river fell 3â™  , 7♣ respectively, metallist353 back in the running with 4M chippies.

Though they held on for another orbit, the last of their chips got in before the flop with 9♣ 6♦ against the 10♣ 7♥ of Retschy. The J♣ 8♠ 7♠ 7♦ board had them drawing to four fives for survival, and it was a pairing 6♣ instead. That meant nurabsal was your fifth place finisher, a meaty $34,008.36 added to their PokerStars account.

metallist353 had their pocket queens cracked by the 2♣ 4♣ of styggert not too long after and seemed to be the player in peril from there on out. Even though they had doubled in the interim, they still managed to be all-in, such is the character of hyper-turbo tournaments, under the gun with A♣ 2♥ . Their nemesis styggert called in the big blind with Aâ™  3â™  . There are few cases of no-limit hold’em domination that resolve themselves in a tie half the time, but this was one such instance. The K♦ 5♦ 3♥ flop squelched that in short order and the wheel draw that was metallist353’s flop consolation was not to be this time on the Q♦ 6♣ runout. They were out fourth for $46,011.31.

Three’s a deal

The remaining three players smoothed out the payouts a bit, making a deal that would see chip-monster bEatNicK”OG” guaranteed the most money:

bEatNicK”OG” : $98,415.27
styggert : $90,603.91
Retschy: $81,253.35

There was still a mouth-watering five-figure sum up for grabs when the break-neck place of hyper-turbo play resumed.

Matters resolved quickly.

styggert shoved on Retschy in blind versus blind with 9♦ 8♦ and was called by Kâ™  3â™  . The 6â™  4♦ 3♣ flop didn’t change the out-tracker for the covering stack, but the 8â™  turn would make things interesting. Any spade, three, or king for Retschy or they would be glad they had chopped the prizepool up just moments before. The river was the J♣ , which meant styggert would take a 10.4M to 8.5M lead to heads-up play, and the Austrian Retschy would be out third for $81,253.35.

It took just one hand for styggert to min-raise Aâ™  4♥ and for bEatNicK”OG” to three-bet shove sixteen big-blinds with K♦ Qâ™  . It was a veritable cooler and the 10♥ 6♣ 4♣ 7♥ 3♦ board offered no help and no sweat. bEatNicK”OG” was eliminated second but had $98,415.27 reasons to refrain from cursing their luck.

What a rollercoaster it was for styggert, all-in with 2♣ 4♣ at one point to pocket queens (making a flush by the turn, no problemo) was just one of the fateful all-ins that winning a large-field hyper-turbo tournament requires. They seized the $15,000 that was up for grabs and added it to the money they locked up for a six-figure score and the title!


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Congratulations once again to styggert for blasting through a dangerous field to turn it on late and take home $105,603.91 as well as the last TCOOP title of 2014!

TCOOP-50: $215 No-Limit Hold’em (Hyper-Turbo, Sunday SuperSonic Wrap-Up)

Entrants: 3,796
Prize pool: $800,196.80
Places paid: 495

1. styggert (Denmark) $105,603.91*
2. bEatNicK”OG” (Canada) $98,415.27*
3. Retschy (Austria) $81,253.35*
4. metallist353 (Russia) $46,011.31
5. nurabsal (United Kingdom) $34,008.36
6. johnduhamel (Canada) $26,006.39
7. tupacmn (Germany) $18,004.42
8. Macieq (Poland) $10,002.46
9. EddyMerckx3 (Norway) $6.401.57

*Denotes a three-way deal which left $10,000 remaining for the winner.

TCOOP 2014 is a wrap! It was fifty times short, fifty times sweet as overpopulated fields of contestants wrapped things up in short order without having to miss a meal. Congratulations to all who participated and see you across the virtual felt next ‘COOP!

Gareth Chantler is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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