After the utter madness of the recent record-breaking Sunday Million, you might have expected PokerStars players to take some time away from the tables to catch their breath. But if you thought that, you don’t know PokerStars players very well.
About 38 hours since all the weekend’s chaos abated, Super Tuesday was upon us. The PokerStars tables welcomed 406 players for the weekly $1,000 tournament, boasting a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000 – as well as another very late night for anyone making the deepest stages.
By the time 403 of them had disappeared, the clock had ticked around to 5am ET – and three players were negotiating a deal for the biggest of the prizes. DonkeyWrenn, from Berkeley, took the lion’s share – picking up $65,789.80 based on his larger chip stack. Udon Wannit, from Long Beach, took $57,279 for second, and Gorrioncello, from Madrid, $55,327 for third.
And when they played it out for the bragging rights and TLB points, DonkeyWrenn completed the job to oust Gorrioncello heads up, rivering a set of tens against the Spanish player’s aces up. So ended a long night – in which many familiar faces had come and gone.
LODDEN AND VARICO LOOK FOR BACK-TO-BACK
Last week’s Super Tuesday was notable for the remarkable appearance around the final table of the Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden, who fired up his laptop to play the tournament only moments after playing a full day of EPT Copenhagen. Lodden was back this time around, and made another deep run, but busted in 128th place, short of the money.
The Team PokerStars Online Pro Alvaro “VARICO” Blanco, who also made last week’s final table and finished fifth, followed Lodden again into the deep stages. But he too couldn’t make it back-to-back cashes and perished in 97th. That left the stage set for Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc to keep the Team Online Pro flag flying through the bubble. spacegravy would eventually finish in 49th place for a $2,030 score.
Also in the mix but out of the money were the tournament stalwarts apestyles, FunkiMunki, ImaLuckSac and BeLOWaBOVe. The familiar name of BrynKenney departed in 13th. Having played a short stack for an hour or so, he eventually lost a race with K♦ Q♥ against DonkeyWrenn’s pocket sevens.
CHIP LEAD SHARED AT FINAL TABLE BUBBLE TIME
The chip lead changed hands multiple times on the final three tables, with no player seemingly able to cling onto it for more than a couple of orbits. Gorrioncillo’s kings beat SHIPP IT’s queens to make his the first player beyond the half-million chip mark, but he soon yielded much of it to Udon Wannit, best known as the runner up in last year’s WCOOP main event, who became table captain.
THE D0NAT0R went on a sensational run two tables out. Down to less than 20,000, he double up twice in successive hands, once with an off-suit A-K and then with A-J, out-racing the pocket nines and pocket fives of DonkeyWrenn and liutas.a respectively. He then move into six figures when gavc1212 found queens at the same time as THE D0NAT0R had aces. It all went in and the aces held up.
DonkeyWrenn, after busting BrynKenney, then sent muffnlube to the rail – an ace-high flush in clubs cooling the king-high version. That put DonkeyWrenn into the temporary chip lead and us into hand-for-hand play across two tables, looking for the final nine.
Although brief, this short period proved to be pivotal for SLips713 as he got aces to stand up against Gorrioncillo’s flopped flush draw and rivered top pair of queens. He won a pot of more than 400,000 and temporarily made him the leader. But by the time that final table bubble finally did burst — an unfortunate PrinceAndrew running A♥ K♣ into Gorrioncillo’s aces — Udon Wannitt had again ground himself to the top of the ladder, with DonkeyWrenn hot on his heels.
FINAL TABLE SET
The final table began in the middle of level 29, with blinds at 2,400-4,800 and an ante of 600. It looked like this:
Udon Wannit (Long Beach): 420,472
JohnnyBax (Syosset): 199,013
Gorrioncillo (Madrid): 225,895
gavc1212 (Lisbon): 84,515
Erciyes@38 (Groningen): 294,038
the_schmenx (San Francisco): 72,736
The D0NAT0R (Vanderbilt): 43,231
SLips713 (Dallas): 277,097
DonkeyWrenn (Berkeley): 402,503
Despite having played for about seven-and-a-half hours already, there could be no room for further patience, especially among the short stacks. And so they began to shove — and began to fall.
Folded to him on the button, the_schmenx moved all in for his last 61,736 behind Q♠10♠. SLips713 snapped him off in the big blind with A♠9♦ , and although a queen flopped, so did an ace. The nine on the turn all but sealed it. the_shmenx picked up $6,739.60 for his troubles and left us with eight.
JOHNNYBAX RUES JACKS, LEAVES IN EIGHTH
SLips713 was also responsible for the next elimination, but this one was for a monstrous pot and accounted for the best-known name at the final table. JohnnyBax made it 10,275 from early position, but SLips bumped it up to 27,550 from the small blind. It wasn’t done yet. DonkeyWrenn, in the big blind, wanted to get involved, and he four bet to 62,500.
That put the decision back on JohnnyBax, and he was emphatic, moving all in for 289,913. Call, said SLips713, who had JohnnyBax covered by 30,000-odd chips. DonkeyWrenn got out the way, and SLips712’s pocket kings were never threatened by JohnnyBax’s jacks.
Hit the road, Bax.
DONKEYWRENN WRECKS GAVC1212
During the same orbit, gavc1212 was dispatched back to Portugal by DonkeyWrenn. DonkeyWrenn raised to 10,500 and gavc1212 called on the button. The two went alone to a flop of 9♦ A♣ Q♦ and DonkeyWrenn bet 16,500. gavc1212 called. The turn was 2♥ and DonkeyWrenn bet 35,000, which was called again by gavc1212.
On the J♥ river, DonkeyWrenn kept up the aggression, betting 44,000. gavc1212 responded with a shove for 88,590, but DonkeyWrenn called with A♥ 7♦ , which beat gavc1212’s K♣ Q♣ . Another one down.
THE D0NAT0R DONATES AS KINGS CRACKED
At this stage, THE D0NAT0R was the only player with a measly five-figure stack, while three others had close to half a million. His 37,331 was less than seven big blinds when he found a hand worth getting it in with, doubling up with pocket kings against Erciyes@38’s 9♥ Qâ™ .
But THE D0NAT0R was soon back on the ropes and although he again found pocket kings, his shove of 45,262 was not enough to get DonkeyWrenn to fold J♦ 10â™ . That’s the hand many players like for its monster-slaying potential, and the flop this time of 7â™ 8♥ 9♦ was like an arrow in the eye of those kings. THE D0NAT0R left in sixth.
USA 3 EUROPE 1
The final five had a cosmopolitan feel about it: three players were from the United States, but both Spain (Gorrioncillo) and Holland (Erciyes@38) also had their hopes. But for the man furthest east, for whom Super Tuesday was now most definitely Daytime Wednesday, the party would soon be drawing to a close.
DonkeyWrenn made it 14,750 from the cut off, and Erciyes@38 defended his big blind with a shove for about 175,000, which DonkeyWrenn called instantly. They were off to the races, as Erciyes@38 showed A♣ Q♣ against DonkeyWrenn’s 7♣ 7â™ .
The flop brought no real help for either player, but the 7♥ on the turn left the Dutchman drawing to an inside straight on the river. It didn’t materialise, sending Erciyes@38 to bed, $22,736 richer, and leaving Gorrioncillo to battle it out with the Americans.
FOUR FOR IT
The four-handed stacks were pretty even, and the first rumblings of a deal started to come from DonkeyWrenn. He wanted a chip-chop based on the following stacks:
DonkeyWrenn: 570,713
Udon Wannit: 670,582
SLips713: 403,597
Gorrioncillo: 385,108
As they discussed it, SLips713 opened from under-the-gun to 19,250 and DonkeyWrenn, on the button, called. At this stage, neither knew what one another had, of course, but the benefit of hindsight allows us to know that the flop of 4♥ 5♣ K♠was very nasty indeed.
SLipds713 had hit hot top pair, top kicker with his ace-king, but DonkeyWrenn’s pocket fives were even more dangerous.
SLips713 bet 25,550, DonkeyWrenn made it 60,500, and SLips called. The turn was J♦ SLips713 checked. DonkeyWrenn fired 88,500 with his set – and got the all in move that he was looking for. SLips713 had 271,397 when he shoved; DonkeyWrenn snap-called and the fives were good for a monstrous three-handed chip lead.
That’s when they did manage to seal on a deal, with the now-dominant DonkeyWrenn happy to take the 65 big ones, leaving the other two with about 10,000 apiece less. HostJoanne invited them to play on for the honour of being Super Tuesday champion, and for the TLB points, but it’s fair to say the play loosened a touch.
Udon Wannit was first to perish, all in pre-flop and out-run by DonkeyWrenn. And although Gorrioncello managed to wrestle the heads-up chip lead for a moment, the massive cooler at the end — Gorrioncello flopping top pair, turning two pair, only to be rivered by DonkeyWrenn’s set of tens, ended it all.
Super Tuesday final results:
DonkeyWrenn (Berkeley): $65,789.80*
Gorrioncillo (Madrid): $55,327.46*
Udon Wannit (Long Beach): $57,279.14*
SLips713 (Dallas): $32,480
Erciyes@38 (Groningen): $22,736
The D0NAT0R (Vanderbilt): $17,255
gavc1212 (Lisbon): $13,195
JohnnyBax (Syosset): $9,135
the_schmenx (San Francisco): $6,739
* based on three-way deal
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