With more than $5.7 million in cashes and a final table appearance at the EPT8 Grand Final Main Event in Monte Carlo, Mike “Pipedream17” Dietrich has enjoyed considerable success over the last decade. By the time he cut a heads-up deal in tonight’s Sunday Million he’d already set a new personal best with his largest cash of the past ten years.
But instead of settling for just a single superlative, he battled for an hour and a half with former WCOOP and Sunday Warm-Up champ RichieA7s of Lithuania, coming back from a 29-big-blind deficit to add “Sunday Million champion” to the top of his lengthy resume.
“Well that was nice. hope u enjoyed my chips guys 🙂“
RichieA7s had been a force for much of the tournament. He first took the lead with five tables remaining and reclaimed it with 16 players left. Then he began having connection issues, bleeding away more than 2 million chips before returning in fourth place on the 125,000/250,000/25,000 blind level. “well that was nice,” he typed. “hope u enjoyed my chips guys 🙂“
From 10 to 2 in an hour
All those chips and more came back to RichieA7s on the bubble. He open-shoved on the button with 10♣ 7♣ and two short stacks in the blinds. torino2000, who had been dodging elimination for the past hour, called for 3.9 million with A♠Q♠in the big blind and had a pair of queens to become a 3-to-1 favorite after the 8♣ Q♥ 6♦ flop. But after a blank on the turn, the 9♦ on the river made a ten-high straight for RichieA7s. That locked up the 8.1-million-chip pot for him and knocked torino2000 out in tenth place, sending these players to the final table:
Seat 1: CrazyLissy (3,490,526 in chips)
Seat 2: RichieA7s (10,927,994 in chips)
Seat 3: Robert “Little Kraut” Deppe (2,980,782 in chips)
Seat 4: Vissam78 (7,250,743 in chips)
Seat 5: botteonpoker (3,335,646 in chips)
Seat 6: xXOLIVATOXx (4,136,226 in chips)
Seat 7: Mike “Pipedream17” Dietrich (9,340,360 in chips)
Seat 8: mr.sun279 (9,293,973 in chips)
Seat 9: Evoryan (8,723,750 in chips)
The short stacks wasted no time trying to improve. Former SCOOP and Super Tuesday winner Robert “Little Kraut” Deppe called all-in for 2.9 million chips early on from the big blind with A♣ 5â™ and caught an ace on the flop to beat RichieA7s’s pocket eights.
Four hands later RichieA7s opened for 627,000 but had to fold after Brazil’s former SCOOP and WCOOP finalist xXOLIVATOXx jammed for 2.28 million in the small blind with A♣ 4♣ and Mike “Pipedream17” Dietrich re-raised to 9.8 million in the big blind. He made a set with A♥ A♦ when the case ace appeared on the turn and xXOLIVATOXx became the first casualty of the final table.
He made a set with A♥ A♦ when the case ace appeared on the turn and xXOLIVATOXx became the first casualty of the final table.
The table’s other Brazilian, a past $11 Mini Sunday Wrap-Up winner and $44 Sunday Marathon runner-up, looked likely to go out next with a stack worth just 1.8 million chips. Then botteonpoker picked up Q♦ Q♥ and called all-in when Vissam78 open-shoved for 3.8 million with A♣ K♥ . mr.sun279 called with 10â™ 10♥ in the cutoff seat, boosting botteonpoker’s take to 6.2 million chips after the board ran out Jâ™ 7♦ 2♦ 5♥ 2â™ . mr.sun279 took the 4-million-chip side pot and Vissam78 left the tournament in eighth.
Past SCOOP-Low finalist CrazyLissy opened the action under the gun a few hands later with A♦ A♠, putting in a small raise to 729,999 chips. Evoryan called from the big blind and led for 1.08 million on the 5♣ 2♦ 7♦ flop; CrazyLissy flat-called and then called all-in for 2.5 million when Evoryan led on the 7♠flop. That card gave Evoryan trip sevens with 7♥ 6♥ , and the J♦ river eliminated CrazyLissy in seventh.
The tournament hit a turning point when botteonpoker picked up another big pocket pair just before the hour closed out. Unfortunately for botteonpoker, the turn would swing in RichieA7s’s favor thanks to an even bigger pair. RichieA7s re-raised to 2.6 million chips and then called when botteonpoker jammed for 8.9 million. RichieA7s showed down Aâ™ A♥ to the Brazilian’s Jâ™ J♥ and the board brought no help for botteonpoker, who exited in sixth as RichieA7s collected the 18.3-million-chip pot.
Seek your fortune in the Sunday Million. Click here to open your PokerStars account today.
As if one pocket pair of aces weren’t enough, RichieA7s was dealt A♥ A♦ in the small blind 11 hands later. Little Kraut had Q♣ J♥ and ended up calling all-in with a pair of jacks on the river of the 2♣ 4♣ J♦ 5â™ K♥ board. That wasn’t enough and his run ended in fifth. RichieA7s’s roll continued a dozen hands later when short-stacked Evoryan opened with A♣ 5♣ and then called all-in for 4.9 million chips on the button after RichieA7s re-raised with A♦ Q♣ in the small blind. A gutshot draw materialized on the turn only to be whisked away on the river of the 2â™ 9♥ J♥ 4♣ Jâ™ board, eliminating Evoryan in fourth.
As if one pocket pair of aces weren’t enough, RichieA7s was dealt A♥ A♦ in the small blind 11 hands later.
RichieA7s had a significant lead now with 37.4 million chips, a stack worth about 26 big blinds more than mr.sun279’s and Pipedream17’s stacks combined. Those two players picked up A♥ J♥ and A♣ K♥ in the big blind and small blind, respectively, on the very next hand and Pipedream17 ended up all-in before the flop. mr.sun279 whiffed on a nut flush draw after the flop and was left with about three big blinds’ worth of chips when Pipedream17 won unimproved. RichieA7s finished the job on the next hand with A♥ 6♦ to mr.sun279’s Qâ™ 2â™ , sending the player from China to the rail in third.
A pitched championship battle
The table had shrunk from nine seats to two in just over an hour of play. RichieA7s’s dominance during that period resulted in a 38.3-million-to-21.1-million chip lead as heads-up play began, so he suggested looking at numbers for a potential deal. It didn’t take long to reach an agreement that gave both players six-figure scores and left $20,000 for the winner. The matter of who would claim that cash remained disputed for almost an hour and a half.
It took 15 minutes for Pipedream17 to take over the lead for the first time by claiming a 14.1-million-chip pot with an uncalled all-in bet on the river of a 6♥ Q♦ Jâ™ Q♣ 10♦ board. They traded the top spot for another 20 minutes before a pre-flop raising war ended with Pipedream17 all-in for 25 million chips, holding 9♦ 8♦ against RichieA7s’s 7â™ 7♦ . Pipedream17 ended up with nines and sixes – and five of every six chips in play – after the board ran out 6♥ 2♥ 2â™ 9♥ 6♣ .
RichieA7s had open-shoved with J♠10♥ and lost out when the board offered him nothing.
RichieA7s got back into the game after flopping two pair with Q♥ 5♦ on the same board that made a pair of queens for Pipedream17’s Q♣ 8♦ . Four hands later an all-in bet on the turn of a 3â™ 4â™ Kâ™ 7♣ board earned RichieA7s another 19.3 million chips – and a return to the chip lead for the next 30 minutes. It only slipped away when Pipedream17 put his tournament on the line with 8♦ 8♣ ; RichieA7s had open-shoved with Jâ™ 10♥ and lost out when the board offered him nothing.
Even then Pipedream17 was only ahead by three big blinds – but that proved to be enough four minutes later after he opened the action all-in with K♣ J♥ . RichieA7s called as a favorite with Kâ™ Q♥ but caught a tough break when the Jâ™ 3â™ A♣ flop paired Pipedream17’s jack. The hope of drawing a Broadway straight evaporated after the 5♣ turn and Aâ™ river locked up the title for Pipedream17.
Congratulations are due not just to Mike “Pipedream17” Dietrich on his new personal best cash and Sunday Million title, but also to RichieA7s, who fought a tough battle in search of another major title against top competition.
10/15/17 Sunday Million ($215 NL Hold’em) results
Entrants: 5,948 (4,853 entries, 1,095 re-entries)
Total prize pool: $1,166,400
Places paid: 1,052
1. Mike “Pipedream17” Dietrich (Canada) $142,031.04*
2. RichieA7s (Lithuania) $131,300.13*
3. mr.sun279 (China) $79,098.40
4. Evoryan (United Kingdom) $55,508.87
5. Robert “Little Kraut” Deppe (Canada) $38,954.52
6. botteonpoker (Brazil) $27,337.12
7. CrazyLissy (Russia) $19,184.44
8. Vissam78 (Netherlands) $13,463.17
9. xXOLIVATOXx (Brazil) $9,448.16
* – denotes results of a heads-up deal leaving $20,000 for the winner
Seek your fortune in the Sunday Million. Click here to open your PokerStars account today.
Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.
Back to Top
