Making a Sunday Major final table is quite the accomplishment. First, you need to have the means of buying into the tournament or the skill to acquire a ticket through the many satellite opportunities. Then, defeating past champions, Team PokerStars Pros and Team Online members, and several thousand players to claim a six figure prize after 11 hours of play takes a stroke of luck here and solid play there. Tonight’s champ phaplap sat at the final table of the $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up before winning $56,859.00 in third place during the last Sunday Warm-Up of 2012. The experience paid off for phaplap negotiating a three-way deal, and taking home $98,932.78 after defeating Poland’s Xart-Szopen heads-up.

Midway through the seventh hour of play stood one Red Spade left to take home the $103,903.68 sitting up top tonight. Team Online’s Caio Pessagno has been killing tournaments lately as seen by his TLB weekly win last month and scored another glob of points for passing up over 3,000 players tonight. Unfortunately, Caio would become shortstacked after being seated next to scorpchess who chopped up the Sunday Warm-Up last year for $80K and despite outlasting the Russian, Caio would eventually finish in 51st place ($1,257.42).

A fairly early start for the final two tables halfway through the eighth hour despite the low blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K. Included in the bunch as Peter “Se7enTr3y” Akery who was last seen collecting $18,250 from the 2012 WCOOP Main Event and SCOOP champ deamon10 were both trying to add a Sunday Major title.

At the nine hour mark only 13 remained alive as Poland’s Xart-Szopen would take a 7.6 million chip stack into the five minute break as the chip leader as GODofHU followed closely behind with 5.5 million and blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K.

2fingerz 2u would be crippled after flipping preflop with pocket eights versus lengera’s big slick, losing the 2.2 million chip pot on a turned king. Six hands later after scrapping by with only 6K in chips, 2fingerz 2u would lose to big slick again taking home $2,978.10 in 13th place. Shortly after, GODofHU would lay a nasty bad beat on koivu18. With the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K GODof HU would min-raise from the hijack seat as koivu18 tossed in a shortstack of 333,562 chips. GODofHU covered easily and called with 4♠ A♠ . koivu18 was sitting pretty while holding pocket aces A♣ A♥ until the board rained spades 4♥ 3♥ 9♠ Q♠ J♠ handing koivu $3,970.80 in 12th place.

Shane Gamble tried some luck against deamon10 by pushing from the button for 1.11 million and finding the Dane waiting to call from the big blind with pocket nines 9♦ 9♠ . Shane Gamble’s 10♣ A♠ was worth a flip but the board spat out deuces instead 6♦ J♣ 2♥ 2♦ 2♠ setting up a rather abbreviated hand-for-hand session.

Just five hands later someone tried pushing into deamon10’s big blind again. This time it was zanzas open shoving 869,716 chips from the hijack seat and deamon10 with 3.6 million in chips made the call with Q♥ K♥ . deamon10 would start out slightly behind zanzas’ A♦ 10♥ but every other card on the 5♥ K♣ 8♥ 7♣ 6♥ board was a heart to end zanzas’ run tonight on the final table bubble in 10th place ($3,970.80) starting up the final table below:

Seat 1: Carsandi (2399454 in chips)
Seat 2: Xart-Szopen (7587669 in chips)
Seat 3: GODofHU (6218099 in chips)
Seat 4: hank-mood965 (1118112 in chips)
Seat 5: deamon10 (4629429 in chips)
Seat 6: tashsaken (1385279 in chips)
Seat 7: Timorm1 (3163283 in chips)
Seat 8: lengera (2551432 in chips)
Seat 9: phaplap (4037243 in chips)

King for a day

Timorm1 with six neat VIP stars next to the blue avatar would min-raise from middle position shortly after the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K. Carsandi made it 485,888 from the button as the Supernova wasted no time in shoving for 3.3 million total. Back to Carsandi who let the clock run down a bit before calling with Q♦ A♣ . A good sight for Timorm1’s kings K♠ K♣ which turned even better after a king found its way to the 2♠ K♥ 9♥ 10♥ 3♥ board knocking out Carsandi in ninth place ($5,294.40). A profitable couple of months for Carsandi after chopping up the Sunday Million in February for $195K.

deamon10 done

Four hands later after wrecking the last table, deamon10 tried a four-bet shove for 2.9 million from the cutoff seat over raises by lengera and phaplap. lengera let it go easily enough but phaplap was not about to fold kings K♣ K♠ and snap called. deamon10’s big slick A♦ K♦ failed to find any helpful diamonds or aces on the 8♠ 6♦ J♥ 8♥ K♥ board exiting in eighth place ($8,272.50).

Slapped by phaplap

There’s “oh that might have hurt” like someone falling off a chair while enjoying a nice porterhouse. And then there’s something a little more painful like watching this hand between phaplap and lengera that could have worth $81K:

If you are going to crack aces, might as well do it in style. lengera’s A♠ A♣ would not even last past the turn after phaplap’s pocket nines 9♦ 9♠ flopped quads 9♥ 9♣ 3♠ 10♦ J♥ ending lengera’s night painfully in seventh place ($14,890.50).

Nines again

phaplap may have a new favorite hand after tonight. Only a few hands removed from the tenth hourly break and the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K phaplap would min-raise from the hijack as tashsaken made the call in the big blind. 7♣ 3♠ 9s] on the flop got tashsaken waking up from the blinds and leading out for 400,000 as phaplap made the call. 5♥ turn and tashsaken made it 800,000 this time as phaplap woke up and re-raised to 2.6 million. Holding pocket tens 10♦ 10♥ tashsaken made the call for less and the overpair could not top the flopped set of nines 9♦ 9♣ . Another 5.6 million chips for phaplap and the magical nines as tashsaken claimed sixth place ($21,508.50).

phaplap’s victory lap?

Showing no signs of slowing down phaplap would claim another big win just seven hands later. With the blinds holding at 100K/200K ante 20K GODofHU would lead out for a min-raise as Timorm1 called from the button and phaplap likewise from the small blind. The 3♠ A♥ 5♦ flop got everyone’s attention as GODofHU bet 500,000 and Timorm1 made it one million. A check-raise from phaplap to 1.865 million ended GODofHU’s betting but not Timorm1’s as the shortstack shoved for 3.58 million and phaplap called quickly with A♣ Q♠ . Timorm1 holding some kicker problems A♦ 10♣ watch the remainder of the tournament fade with the J♥ turn and Q♥ river earning $28,126.50 in fifth place.

Nines find phaplap again

The pocket pair of nines have paved phaplap’s road to the chip lead tonight and here they would they would take phaplap a little further. With the blinds up to 125K/250K ante 25K GODofHU would min-raise from the cutoff as phaplap three-bet to 1.26 million. Holding the infamous pocket nines 9♠ 9♦ GODofHU shoved for 3.08 million as the chip leader quickly called with jacks J♠ J♦ . Apparently only phaplap knows the hidden magic of the nines as the 7♣ 2♣ K♠ 4♦ 6♥ board ran clean for the chip leader who gained another 6.5 million as GODofHU’s night ended in fourth place ($38,053.50).

After a nearly 30 minute tangle of words and ICM talks, the chip chop would at last reach its destination shown below leaving an extra $10,000.00 for tonight’s champ:

phaplap: $88,932.78
Xart-Szopen: $70,000.00
hank-mood965: $67,000.00

Battle of the hyphens

As the blinds held at 125K/250K ante 25K and phaplap pulling away even more with a 23.6 million chip stack compared to hank-mood965’s 4.1 million and Xart-Szopen’s 5.3 million one of two shortstacks needed make a move. They both decided shove preflop both holding an ace, but Xart-Szopen’s 10♦ A♦ was one pip higher than hank-mood965’s 9♠ A♣ and the advantage held on the 5♥ 7♦ 3♦ K♣ 3♥ board to knockout hank-mood965 in third place ($67,000.00).

Rough road to the win

Despite starting with a 23.3 million to 9.7 million chip lead, phaplap’s run to tonight’s Sunday Warm-Up was anything but smooth. Five minutes into the heads-up battle Xart-Szopen would take the lead after showing down pocket pair of treys to phaplap’s three-bullet bluff.

But, phaplap would not give up and with the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and nearly knotted in chips (16.9 million for Xart-Szopen to 16.0 million for phaplap) they would fight this hand below to the river for 32.1 million:

With the board showing 6♠ 2♠ 9♥ 2♦ 5♥ phaplap would shove in the remaining 8.5 million as Xart-Szopen feeling good about top pair 9♠ 10♥ made the call. phaplap’s turned trips Q♠ 2♥ got max value after claiming the huge pot. Then, another shove by both players on the next hand with Xart-Szopen holding the preflop advantage of 8♦ 7♣ to phaplap’s 6♥ 7♥ hearts nearly covered the 2♦ K♥ 2♠ 4♥ Q♥ board to ship the extra $10K and Sunday Warm-Up victory to phaplap!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-21-13):
(* denotes part of three-way deal)

Players entered: 3,309
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $661,800.00
First place: *$98,932.78

1. phaplap (Turkey) *$98,932.78
2. Xart-Szopen (Poland) *$70,000.00
3. hank-mood965 (Israel) *$67,000.00
4. GODofHU (United Kingdom) $38,053.50
5. Timorm1 (Israel) $28,126.50
6. tashsaken (Kazakhstan) $21,508.50
7. lengera (Georgia) $14,890.50
8. deamon10 (Denmark) $8,272.50
9. Carsandi (Portugal) $5,294.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

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