by Joanne Haslam
Week 1 of the Twitter Poker League means a fresh start but some work ahead. League prizes are worth earning, but it will be a while before we get to the business end of awards and naming proud winners. No point writing your thank you speeches just yet. Just buckle down, play your best poker and get busy with that point collecting mission.

Taketime won the first game of the last season then went on to take the win, but he would bust early in this week’s game. It certainly won’t put him out of the running for another league win. There are as many ways to win the league as there are to make numbers add up to… about 40. You can do it with a 2nd, a 5th and 2 cashes (18+14+5+5) or a win, 3 cashes, and 4 appearances (20+5+5+5+1+1+1+1) a third, a cash… I’m sure you get the idea.

You can score points any which way, but in week 1 only one player will boast 20 points for the league-topping win. WimHC holds that honour today; here’s how he earned those 20 points.

I.M- THE.Bubble
I.M-THE.I.M busted on the bubble, re-raising busy carzzzzz4u with A♥ 7♣ and finding his timing was off when chip leader carzzzzz4u made an easy call with K♥ K♣ .

So the final table was set with chips like this:
Seat 1: KOTYRA NSK (420,509 in chips)
Seat 2: wimHC (196,491 in chips)
Seat 3: Sysyk12 (254,546 in chips)
Seat 4: Kalich73 (182,046 in chips)
Seat 5: pokerdjiq_90 (110,968 in chips)
Seat 6: mjc1948 (56,314 in chips)
Seat 7: ksp1887 (70,098 in chips)
Seat 8: oleg 1011 (53,945 in chips)
Seat 9: carzzzzz4u (543,583 in chips)

But the chip positions would quickly change, with some firsthand fireworks making for a lively start to the game.

Oleg1011 found A♣ Q♥ ] and a reason to get his 53,945 chips in play. Carzzzzz4u took him on with A♦ J♦ , so a chunk of carzzzzz4u’s chips were driven across the table to the ace with the better kicker.

The shortest of short stacks
As ever, there is an innovative live commentary from @tpokerstars and as their reporter was noting, “Shortest of short stacks ksp1887 is down to 7k, he has to move in soon.” ksp1887 made exactly that move, pushing with J♥ 9♦ and surviving by finding a straight to beat pokerdjiq_90’s A♦ Q♦ .
Ksp1887’s double-up chips wouldn’t keep him alive for long, his 8♥ 8♠ soon fell to Sysyk12’s A♦ K♦ and we’d lost our first player.

Oleg1011 was next to go, the K♦ 10♠ he1 played wouldn’t beat wimHC’s A♠ Q♠ . He claimed $23.92 and 11 points for his 8th place finish.

Double-ups at the double
When Sysyk12 took on a couple of short-stacked all-in players their survival hit him hard. Pokerdjiq_90 doubled-up with 5♦ 5♥ beating Sysyk12’s A♣ [ Qc], then Kalich73 fielded K♦ K♥ with Sysk12 taking him on with 2♣ 2♦ .

It was third time lucky for Sysyk12 in his attempt to rid the table of a player. Pokerdjig90 might not have appreciated the third time fortune. Pokerdjig90 pushed with 5♦ 5♥ and Sysyk12 took him on with A♣ Q♣ . The board ran out K♣ 9♥ 6♣ 9♠ K♦ and the ace played so pokerdjiq_90 finished in 7th place.

It wasn’t long before we lost another short stack. Mjc1948 moved all-in with Q♣ J♦ and wimHC found A♦ A♣ and took his chips. Mjc1948 received $49.10 and 13 points for his 6th place.

Good call
WimHC was gathering chips with good hands and some not so good. He won with aces, then won a 216,000 pot with 3♦ 3♠ calling carzzzzz4u’s weighty turn and river bets with the board showing Q♠ 8♥ 2♦ 6♦ 2♥ . It was a good call by wiimHC, the small pair was ahead, and carzzzzz4u was playing the twos on the board with his 9♣ 10♣ .

WimHC would win another significant pot when his J♥ 7♦ hit two sevens. He called down carzzzzz4u’s bets yet again, carzzzz4u managing only a pair of fours with his A♦ 4♥ .
Carzzzzz4u had started as the final table chip leader, but the chips were sliding to wimHC’s side of the table.

One bad beat for you, one bad beat for me…
KOTYRA NSK ran into trouble when his Q♦ Q♥ was beaten by Sysyk12’s A♠ 3♦ , the river ace left him short of chips, but it was Sysyk12 who was eliminated next, this time he was on the receiving end of a bad beat when his A♠ A♣ was beaten by carzzzzz4u in a hand he may wonder if he could have survived.

Sysyk12 called carzzzzz4u’s raise, the flop was 8♦ 4♥ 3♦ and both players checked. Sysyk12 bet the 9♣ turn and carzzzzz4u called. The river was the 9♥ Sysk12 bet again, carzzzzz4u re-raised, and Sysyk12 moved all-in, but his aces were no good to carzzzzz4u’s A♥ 9♠ . Sysyk12 exited in 5th place for $61.69.

Next up a big, big pot, which can happen when one player has a big hand, and another finds one nearly as big. It was A♥ A♠ for wimHC and K♥ K♣ for Kalich73. The aces took it, and we were down to three players.

WimHC was the table millionaire, carzzzzz4u was the half-millionaire, KOTYRA NSK was not too wealthy. You want exact numbers..?

wimHC 1,224,299
carzzzzz4u 571,704
KOTYRA NSK 92,497

If there were final table yearbooks KOTYRA NSK would be described as ‘player most likely to make a move’ and move he did, possibly at the wrong time. He was dealt A♦ 6♦ and called from the small blind, then checked the 10♦ 5♣ 8♠ flop, moving all-in on the 7♠ turn. It was the turn that gave wimHC’s 7♦ 5d] two pair, so KOTYRA NSK was out.

Our heads-up chips were unbalanced, wimHC with 1,477,046 and carzzzzz4u playing 411,454. As you might have expected heads-up play didn’t take long. In the final hand carzzzzz4u raised, wimHC re-raised and both saw a flop of 9♥ J♠ J♥ . WimHC bet out, and carzzzzz4u called all-in. Carzzzzz4u showed 4♥ 4♣ , wimHC played 7♣ 9♣ so it was all over.

Well done to wimHC, right now those 20 points put him at the top of the table, but as we explained with our 1+5+20+y=mc2 formulas – anyone can still catch him. We hope you’ll try to score Twitter tourney points of your own, if you want more facts and figures about the Twitter Poker League you can visit our website or if you like your facts and figures in 140 characters or less you might try @PokerStars.

We’ll be back with more point scoring, tweet talking and tourney reporting next week, hope you’ll join us.

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