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Home / Uncategorized / TCOOP 2017: PoluKalos KOs seven straight, wins Event #33 ($27+R NLHE Little Splash)

These Turbo Championship of Online Poker events are speedy, all right, the “Turbo” in the title no misnomer. Event #33, for instance, took just over four-and-a-half hours to complete, with the final table taking only the last 30 minutes.

The five-minute levels in this $27 buy-in no-limit hold’em event (with rebuys) — dubbed the “Little Splash” — were a primary reason for the fast finish. Another was the final table performance of PoluKalos of the United Kingdom who had the chip lead with nine left, then after the first bust went on to knock out the last seven players to win the title and a $20,444.30 first prize after a heads-up deal.

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That 1,640-entry field meant a total prize pool of $140,745.15, well over the event’s $100K guarantee. It only took about two hours and 20 minutes for the bubble to burst, and with 224 players left lindajuf had already assumed a big chip lead over nearest challenger Mikal “mikal12345” Blomlie and everyone else.

About an hour and 20 minutes later lindajuf was on the rail in 46th ($333.87), Blomlie was still near the top of the counts, and with 18 players left PoluKalos was the new chip leader.

1977liyuan (18th) was the next to fall, winning $630.13, followed by 2016 SCOOP Main Event (High) champion Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (17th), D&A.dream757 (16th), balaganoffff (15th), and BCE_MOE_05 (14th) who each took away $868.29. RhinoA1 (13th), Poncho1664 (12th), and Drento18 (11th) were next to go, then after the four-hour break came and went tandrevold was eliminated (10th), with those four each earning $1,196.50.

PoluKalos was still the chip leader with nine left as the first hand of the final table was dealt.

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Seat 1: fricirics (Hungary) — 3,069,395 
Seat 2: ImYourBluff (New Zealand) — 728,699 
Seat 3: LuckyPanch75 (Ukraine) — 605,192 
Seat 4: Mikal “mikal12345” Blomlie (Norway) — 1,005,860 
Seat 5: BuckFitchez (Estonia) — 1,238,260 
Seat 6: PoluKalos (United Kingdom) — 3,336,465 
Seat 7: zen_mec (Belgium) — 3,094,379 
Seat 8: Gustavo “22ehnutzz” Mastelotto (Brazil) — 836,908 
Seat 9: grindanugets (Malta) — 1,570,842 

On just the second hand of the final table, fricirics opened with a min-raise to 140,000 from the cutoff, ImYourBluff jammed all in over the top for 658,699, and fricirics called. ImYourBluff had A♥ K♥ and was racing versus the J♦ J♣ of fricirics, but the board ran out 10♦ 9♠ 8♣ 7♦ K♠ to make fricirics a winning straight and knock ImYourBluff out in ninth.

From there commenced the steamrolling run of PoluKalos to the finish, starting less than an orbit later.

That’s when a short-stacked Mikal “mikal12345” Blomlie open-shoved for 598,168 from early position and saw PoluKalos reraise-push to isolate from the cutoff. Blomlie had J♦ 10♣ and PoluKalos A♦ Q♦ , and five cards later — 7♦ 2♥ K♦ 7♥ 9♥ — Blomie was on the rail in eighth.

Almost five minutes later the blinds were up to 50,000/100,000 when grindanugets min-raised to 200,000 from under the gun, then PoluKalos reraise-shoved from the button and grindanugets called to commit the 1,560,842 left behind. grindanugets appeared in fine shape to double with A♦ Aâ™  versus PoluKalos’s 9♣ 9♦ , but a runout of 5♥ 7â™  3♦ 6♦ 8♥ made a runner-runner straight for PoluKalos and grindanugests was done in seventh.

Four hands after that LuckyPanch75 pushed for 475,384 (not quite four big blinds) from the button with A♦ 4♦ , PoluKalos called from the big blind with 7♥ 7♣ , and after the community cards came 6♥ 8♥ J♣ J♦ Q♦ LuckyPanch75’s tournament run had ended with a sixth-place finish.

Play continued, and soon PoluKalos raised a little over 2x to 352,000 from the cutoff seat. Gustavo “22ehnutzz” Mastelotto then three-bet jammed from the small blind for 1,123,816, and PoluKalos called, turning over J♣ J♥ while Mastelotto had A♣ 8♣ . The board went 10♦ Q♦ 4â™  6♦ 7♥ — no help for Mastelotto who took fifth.

On the very next hand, fricirics open-raised all in for 3,105,686 from the button and PoluKalos was there again with a call from the big blind. fricirics had 3♣ 3♦ but had run into a better pair as PoluKalos showed 8♥ 8♦ . The 9♥ 8♣ 3â™  flop gave both players sets while reducing fricirics’s outs to just one, and after the J♣ turn and J♥ river fricirics had finished fourth as PoluKalos continued to accumulate.

Three hands swiftly passed, then on the next one PoluKalos open-jammed from the small blind and zen_mec called with the 1,544,379 left after posting the big blind. PoluKalos had K♥ 7♣ and was behind zen_mec’s A♦ Q♦ , but the 5â™  J♥ 7♦ 7â™  9♣ board made trips for PoluKalos to knock out yet another, this time zen_mec in third.

PoluKalos started heads-up play with 13,022,960 to BuckFitchez’s 2,463,040, but after a few hands BuckFitchez had narrowed the difference to about a 2-to-1 chip advantage for the leader when they paused the tournament to discuss a possible chop.

At that point PoluKalos had 10,479,920 and BuckFitchez 5,006,080. Figures were produced (“ICM” and “chip chop” being the same heads-up) leaving $2,815 to play for, and both readily agreed to the deal.

It wasn’t too long after that when BuckFitchez limped in from the button for 200,000, PoluKalos made ot 560,000 to go, and BuckFitchez called. The flop fell 9♥ 3â™  Kâ™  , and after PoluKalos led for 732,000, BuckFitchez shoved for 4,242,160 and PoluKalos called.

PoluKalos: Jâ™  6â™ 
BuckFitchez: 8â™  7â™ 

Both players had flopped spade flush draws, but PoluKalos’s was to a bigger flush. The Q♣ and 4♦ completed the board, hitting neither player, and with just jack-high PoluKalos had won the last pot and a TCOOP title.

Congratulations to PoluKalos for knocking out the last seven opponents in a row to win TCOOP Event #33 and a $20K-plus first prize. Kudos also to BuckFitchez for weathering the PoluKalos storm the longest to make to heads-up and the deal to earn a nice $16K-plus as well.

TCOOP-33 ($27+R NL Hold’em [Turbo, Little Splash) results
Total entries: 1,640 (3,088 rebuys, 1,005 add-ons)
Prize pool: $140,745.15
Places paid: 224

1. PoluKalos (United Kingdom) $20,444.30*
2. BuckFitchez (Estonia) $16,545.63*
3. zen_mec (Belgium) $11,287.94
4. fricirics (Hungary) $8,191.64
5. Gustavo “22ehnutzz” Mastelotto (Brazil) $5,944.68
6. LuckyPanch75 (Ukraine) $4,314.04
7. grindanugets (Malta) $3,130.70
8. Mikal “mikal12345” Blomlie (Norway) $2,271.95
9. ImYourBluff (New Zealand) $1,648.74

* = Denotes deal among the final two

Event #33 marks the exact halfway point of this year’s 65-event Turbo Championship of Online Poker. Head over to the TCOOP home page to see what lies ahead this week on the TCOOP schedule.


 
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Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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