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Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP 2013: Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro rocks Event #3-H ($530+R NLHE 6-Max Action Hour)

The “Action Hour” tourneys featured in this year’s SCOOP perhaps recall bands that start their careers in the garage rocking land-speed-record style like there’s no tomorrow, then if they’re lucky enough to survive a couple of decades often see their beats per minute slow down as they unplug to sing less raucous, wistful folk.

For this Event #3-H — a $530 buy-in no-limit hold’em tourney with unlimited re-buys during that wild first hour — a total of 432 came out on Monday ready to rock. Then the long slow fade on Tuesday ended with an exciting finale as Finland’s Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro claimed the victory, a $143,295 first prize, and his second SCOOP watch.

The structure for “Action Hour” events ensures the aforementioned contrast, with five-minute levels during that 60-minute re-buy period, then (in this case) long half-hour levels thereafter. The 432 players took 610 re-buys then another 356 add-ons, building a total prize pool of $699,000 to exceed the tourney’s $500K guarantee.

All of those re-buys and add-ons also put a lot more chips into the tourney, further ensuring Kelopuro would have a lengthy solo to play to earn the victory. Here’s the story of how it went.

Day 1

After the crazy first hour on Monday and then five more had been played, the field had been nearly halved with 225 left and Leandro “leopeluca” Csome sitting atop the counts.

A little under three hours after that just 100 players remained, then led by James “croll103” Carroll. Meanwhile, Team PokerStars Pro Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero was in fourth position, with his teammates Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara of Team Online (in 19th), Toni Judet (44th), and George Danzer (in 78th) also still with chips.

By the time they were approaching the tournament’s 11-and-a-half-hour mark they’d neared the end of Level 30 and the scheduled stopping point for Day 1. At that point exactly 50 players remained — just two shy of the money — with Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen leading the way.

Among the Team PokerStars Pros Danzer had fallen in 60th, but the other three were still there with Barbero and Kihara both sitting just inside the top 20 and Judet hanging on in next-to-last position in 49th place. And that’s where those three would remain as the final 50 all made it to Day 2 with the cash bubble remaining intact.

Here’s what the top 10 looked like heading into Tuesday’s second day of play:

1. Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen (Netherlands) — 281,443
2. AJacejackAJ (Canada) — 226,966
3. Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi (Ukraine) — 209,584
4. Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (Ireland) — 209,158
5. CACIATORE (Canada) — 204,738
6. Adam “squee451” Sherman (Canada) — 192,235
7. UwouldntKnow (Norway) — 191,936
8. OGURI (Japan) — 190,867
9. Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro (Finland) — 184,028
10. Robert “Little Kraut” Deppe (Canada) — 183,071

One-time leader Leandro “leopeluca” Csome was still in good shape (in 11th), with Alex “Schildy1984” Debus (13th) and Chris “Moorman1” Moorman (14th) hovering nearby.

Team Pros Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero and Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara had stayed within the top 20, with Stefan “I’am_Sound” Huber, Dan “HundoFight” O’Brien, Jason “Taknapotin” Sommerville, Athanasios “Athanasios 9” Polychronopoulus, David “Betudontbet” Emmons, Tomás “T 54 T 97s” Paiva, Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen, and last year’s SCOOP “High” Main Event champion Nick “GripDsNutz” Grippo also still alive along with Judet (still in 49th).

Day 2

Play began Tuesday with Judet earning a quick, needed double-up through Alex “Schildy1984” Debus when his Aâ™  10♣ held versus the latter’s A♦ 6â™  . The bubble then burst shortly thereafter, with Tomás “T 54 T 97s” Paiva being the unfortunate 49th-place finisher.

The next half-hour saw several eliminations, including Nick “GripDsNutz” Grippo (48th, $3,495) and Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen (47th, $3,495). During that stretch Team PokerStars Pro Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara saw his stack slide as well, then he reraise-jammed his last 20 big blinds or so with 8♣ 6♣ only to run into !Mp!yavv’s Q♣ Q♦ and fall in 43rd place ($3,495).

Jason “Taknapotin” Sommerville would hit the rail next (42nd, $3,844.50), and a little while after that Toni Judet would take his short stack up against Schildy1984 again, once more playing with Aâ™  10♦ . A flop of A♦ A♥ J♣ looked inviting enough to Judet to commit the rest of his chips, but unfortunately for the Romanian, Debus had Jâ™  J♦ . No help came on the final two streets for Judet, and he finished 35th ($4,194).

Among those hitting the rail over the next couple of hours were Robert “Little Kraut” Deppe (34th, $4,194), Alex “Schildy1984” Debus (33rd, $4,194), Dan “HundoFight” O’Brien (30th, $4,893), David “Betudontbet” Emmons (26th, $4,893), Stefan “I’am_Sound” Huber (25th, $4,893), Leandro “leopeluca” Csome (24th, $5,592), and Athanasios “Athanasios 9” Polychronopoulus (22nd, $5,592).

Meanwhile, Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero hung on for much of that period with a short stack before finding himself battling for a pot versus start-of-Day-2 leader Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen.

After leading the betting on every street as the board rolled out A♦ 4♣ 6â™  K♣ A♣ , on the river Berndsen checked, Barbero shoved, and Berndsen called. Barbero had A♥ J♥ for trip aces, but Berndsen had made a flush with Q♣ 6♣ to knock “Nacho” out in 15th for a cash of $6,990.

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Team PokerStars Pro Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero

Barbero was followed to the exit by Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (14th) and !Mp!way (13th), each of whom also picked up $6,990, and with a dozen players left it was Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro on top with over 721,000 with Chris “Moorman1” Moorman next with 708,000.

They’d played four hours on Day 2, but thanks to all of the chips put into play during the re-buy period the stacks were still deep with the average more that 80 big blinds. It took another 75 minutes to play down to six, with moumalife84 (12th), AJacejackAJ (11th), and Frederik “Fred_Brink” Jensen (10th) each earning $9,786, and Face333X (9th), Adam “squee451” Sherman (8th), and UwouldntKnow (7th) taking away $16,077 apiece.

By then Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen (Netherlands) had retaken the chip lead to start the final table with more than 1.69 million, but with the blinds at 3,500/7,000 the average stacks had gotten even deeper at more than 116 BBs (!).

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Seat 1: Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro (Finland) — 932,872
Seat 2: Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen (Netherlands) — 1,694,512
Seat 3: nizmo jiz (Australia) — 420,193
Seat 4: Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi (Ukraine) — 1,113,312
Seat 5: Chris “Moorman1” Moorman (United Kingdom) — 155,456
Seat 6: abeainy (Lebanon) — 589,655

No more for Moorman, out in sixth

It took more than half an hour for the first final table elimination, during which period the blinds hiked up a notch to 4,000/8,000.

Following an early position raise to 16,000 by Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman reraised all in for 144,175 and when it folded back around Romanovskyi called.

It was 5♥ 5♦ for Moorman and A♥ 9♥ for Romanovskyi. The flop came 9â™  K♣ 8â™  to pair RomeOpro’s nine, and after the Q♦ turn and 4♣ river, Moorman was out in sixth.

nizmo jiz nixed in fifth

It would be 40 minutes more before another would fall, during which period Berndsen maintained the lead.

Finally a hand arose in Level 42 (5,000/10,000/1,250) in which abeainy opened for 22,999 from under the gun, then nizmo jiz reraise-shoved for 163,638 from the small blind. It folded back to abeaniy who called, showing A♦ Q♣ while nizmo jiz had K♦ 8♦ .

The flop came 2♠ A♥ 4♦ to pair abeaniy, then the K♥ turn gave nizmo jiz a pair and slim hope to survive. But the river was the 4♥ , and they were down to four.

abeainy bounced in fourth

They pushed on through the seven-hour mark of Day 2. Then with the blinds 6,000/12,000, Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi raised to 24,000 from the button, abeainy reraised to 59,999 from the small blind, and RomeOpro called.

The flop came 10♦ A♣ 4♦ , and abeainy led with another bet of 59,999. Romanovskyi called, and both saw the turn come Q♦ . abeainy bet again — 122,999 this time — and RomeOpro called once more.

Fifth street brought the 6♣ and a check from abeainy, and Romanovskyi responded with an all-in shove. abeainy called the bet with the 386,662 left behind, turning over 10♠ 10♣ for a set of tens. But RomeOpro had A♦ 8♦ for a turned flush, and abeainy was out in fourth.

RomeOpro run down in third

Another hour would pass, after which Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro had moved in front with more than 2.07 million, Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen was next with about 1.96 million, and Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi third with a little over 866,000.

The blinds had increased to 8,000/16,000, and Kelopuro opened for 2x with a raise to 32,000 from the button. It folded to Romanovskyi in the big blind who reraised to 88,800. Lrslzk came back to make it 193,527, RomeOpro pushed all in for 864,633, and Lrslzk called.

RomeOpro: A♦ 10♦
Lrslzk: 9♣ 9♥

It was a race, and after the K♥ J♦ 3♣ flop Kelopuro was still in front. The turn then brought the 9♠ , giving Lrslzk a set of nines and leaving RomeOpro hoping to hit a gutshot. The 6♦ then fell on the river, and Romanavskyi was out in third.

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Kelopuro KOs Berndsen

Each of the previous four eliminations had taken a long time to come, with the short-handed final table having lasted more than three hours. But once Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro and Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen reached heads-up, the long, slow jam would come to a relatively rapid conclusion.

Lrslzk had the edge to start the duel with 2,955,363 to Berndsen12’s 1,950,637, and after eight quick hands Kelopuro had chipped up further to more than 3.5 million.

Then with the blinds at 10,000/20,000, Berndsen12 raised to 40,000 from the button and Lrslzk called, and the pair saw a flop come 3♦ 8♦ 3â™  . Kelopuro check-called Berndsen’s bet of 60,000, then the turn brought the 4♣ . Kelopuro checked once more, Berndsen bet 160,000, and Lrslzk called.

The 10♦ appeared on fifth street, and like each of the previous post-flop streets, Lrslzk was checking. This time Berndsen pushed all in for 1,094,125, and Lrslzk called.

Kelopuro had A♠ 4♥ for fours and treys, and the call was a good one as Berndsen12 had but 9♥ 7♠ . It was over! Lrslzk had added a second SCOOP watch to go with the Main Event (High) title he won two years ago!

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Congratulations to Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro for another big performance versus a tough SCOOP field to win the watch and a $143K-plus payday!

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Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro

PokerStars 2013 SCOOP Event #3-H ($530+R No-Limit Hold’em, 6-Max, Action Hour) results

Players: 432
Re-buys: 610
Add-ons: 356
Prize pool: $699,000.00
Places paid: 48

1. Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro (Finland) $143,295.00
2. Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen (Netherlands) $104,850.00
3. Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovskyi (Ukraine) $78,637.50
4. abeainy (Lebanon) $54,172.50
5. nizmo jiz (Australia) $40,192.50
6. Chris “Moorman1” Moorman (United Kingdom) $26,212.50

Lots of excitement remains in store, as nearly two weeks’ worth of SCOOPin’ yet remains. Check the SCOOP site for all the details of what’s to come.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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