It’s a long way from Australia to Las Vegas. It’s the other side of the world. It’s a journey that might sound exciting at first, but for many Down Under, the lure of Sin City is not as appealing as you might think. Instead, many Aussie poker pros make the choice to stay at home and grind online. The fields are devoid of many of the usual pros and you get to sit around in your pyjamas. That was the choice made by Aleks “Berkyy” Brkovic. While we can’t confirm the PJ’s, we can confirm that his decision to grind online, during the chills of Melbourne’s winter, was a wise one after taking down today’s Super Tuesday for almost $70,000 in prize money.
The WSOP Main Event may have stolen many of the regular entrants, but that didn’t stop this week’s $1,050 Super Tuesday attracting a healthy 388 runners. They came together to form a $388,000 prize pool with the top 45 players finishing in the money.
Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero was an early casualty, while fellow red spade Caio Pessagno lasted a little longer before falling in 109th place. That was short of the money, but the pain wasn’t as intense as it was for Israel’s yarggen who was our unfortunate bubble in 46th place to miss out on the $2,328 min-cash.
When Malta’s 1mDonuts (mmmm donuts) shoved a short stack with K♥ 8♥ and lost the preflop race with FV17com’s pocket sixes, the final table of nine was reached in a little over seven hours of total play:
Final Table Line up
Seat 1: Aleks “Berkyy” Brkovic (221,471 in chips)
Seat 2: Eyal_A (232,265 in chips)
Seat 3: Faith#1Virtu (117,422 in chips)
Seat 4: 007Mango (132,269 in chips)
Seat 5: FV17com (288,369 in chips)
Seat 6: luckyTonicek (184,083 in chips)
Seat 7: cwirek1982 (197,199 in chips)
Seat 8: Tony “RunLkMercier” Della Sciucca (229,438 in chips)
Seat 9: MrAleks1981 (337,484 in chips)
The final table had been reached rather quickly, so the blinds were still at 1,600/3,200/400 which gave all of our final tablists plenty of room to move.
Faith#1Virtu would land an early double up with ace-queen against luckyTonicek’s suited ace-jack, but Eyal_A wasn’t quite so fortunate.
Eyal_A wasn’t a short stack, but did suffer some pretty unfortunate luck after getting A♥ A♣ all in on a flop of 9â™ 3♣ J♥ . cwirek1982 was the opponent who gleefully called the all-bet with J♦ J♣ for top set to have the pocket rockets in a world of hurt. The 7♣ turn and 8♦ river didn’t provide a miracle ace and, just like that, Eyal_A was bounced out. Eyal_A chopped the TCOOP Main Event for over $200k back in February this year, but will have to be content with $6,790 today for ninth place.
cwirek1982 was into a commanding chip lead but FV17com was challenging after the elimination of 007Mango. A raise from 007Mango was met with a three-bet from FV17com, but 007Mango decided to respond with a four-bet all in with 3♦ 3♥ . The timing wasn’t the best as FV17com made the call with J♦ J♥ to have the treys in bad shape. The community cards offered a glimmer of hope with a straight draw on the turn, but the 2♣ 4♦ A♦ 6♦ Q♥ board would ultimately leave the jacks in front. 007Mango picked up $9,312 for eighth place.
FV17com was back in the thick of the action a few moments later when the short-stacked luckyTonicek moved all in from under the gun for around twenty big blinds. FV17com was sitting in the big blind with A♣ Q♦ and decided to make the call to be ahead of luckyTonicek’s K♥ Jâ™ . That advantage was only extended when the board arrived 8♣ 6♣ A♦ Aâ™ 2♥ . Trip aces for FV17com and $13,192 for seventh place for luckyTonicek.
RunLkMercier flopped middle set against top pair to double through Faith#1Virtu, before MrAleks1981 also found a bit of luck with ace-queen pairing the lady twice to better Faith#1Virtu’s ace-king.
It was a bad couple of minutes for Faith#1Virtu and it only got worse with a three-bet all in holding A♥ 9♠when MrAleks1981 made the call with a dominant A♠K♣ . The board fell K♠Q♣ 5♦ 4♦ 2♦ which was no help to Faith#1Virtu who was out in sixth place for $17,072.
Momentum was heading towards MrAleks1981, and that continued in a big clash with Tony “RunLkMercier” Della Sciucca.
When RunLkMercier raised the button, MrAleks1981 speculated with a call from the small blind holding K♦ 7♦ and flopped gin when the all-diamond flop of 9♦ 2♦ 8♦ landed. MrAleks1981 check-called a bet and the Q♥ hit the turn. MrAleks1981 checked and RunLkMercier moved all in with MrAleks1981 happily making the call with a flush. RunLkMercier showed K♥ K♠and was drawing dead as the A♥ completed the board on the river. RunLkMercier, A♠K♠and got action from cwirek1982 who decided to call in the big blind with A♣ 8♦ . The board cruelly landed 9♣ 8♥ 10♠2♦ 3♣ to see cwirek1982 spike the three-outer for the fatal blow. FV17com had to be content with $32,010 for fourth place.
cwirek1982 continued to surge with the elimination of MrAleks1981. The hand started with a raise from Berkyy on the button with both blinds calling to see a flop of J♥ 6♦ 7♠. From the small blind, cwirek1982 led out with a bet and MrAleks1981 made the call as Berkyy got out of the way. The turn was the 8♣ and fireworks erupted. cwirek1982 checked, MrAleks1981 bet and cwirek1982 check-raised all in. MrAleks1981 called what was left with K♠J♦ for top pair but there were kicker problems as cwirek1982 showed A♦ J♠. The river was the 9♣ to leave MrAleks1981 to depart in third place for $42,680 in prize money.
Heads-up Chip Counts
Seat 1: Berkyy (894,993 in chips)
Seat 7: cwirek1982 (1,045,007 in chips)
cwirek1982 said, “num?”
Berkyy said, “ill take a peek”
With the players pretty even in chips, they quickly decided to pause the clock and take a look at a potential deal, and it didn’t take long for them to agree to chop it up based on chip count, leaving $6,000 and the title to play for.
When play resumed it was Berkyy who got off to a quick start, turning a flush to take over the chip lead. cwirek1982 made an unlikely two pair with 3♦ 8♥ to claw it back and then flopped a set of fours to reclaim the advantage.
However the crucial hand came in a preflop raising war. Berkyy would six-bet jam with A♠Q♥ and cwirek1982 made the call with a dominated A♦ J♥ . Two more ladies on the flop gave Berkyy the double up as cwirek1982 was in trouble.
cwirek1982 fought valiantly and landed one double up with Aâ™ 9♥ making a flush to better Berkyy’s J♣ J♦ but the big pairs kept coming for Berkyy at the right time.
It was a 10♥ 4♣ 2♣ flop that sparked the final action of the tournament with another raising war exploding to see all the chips committed in the middle. cwirek1982 was drawing with A♣ 8♣ for nut flush draw and overcard but he’d have to get past Berkyy’s K♦ Kâ™ . The turn was the 6â™ and river the 6♥ to eliminate cwirek1982 in second place for a post-deal total of $63,265.68.
That left one man standing and it was Aleks “Berkyy” Brkovic. The Aussie young gun had topped the biggest weekly online poker tournament in the world to capture the title and $68,072.32 in cash. Congratulations!
Super Tuesday (8th July 2014) – Final Table Results
Entrants: 388
Prize pool: $388,000.00
Places paid: 45
1. Aleks “Berkyy” Brkovic (Australia) $68,072.32*
2. cwirek1982 (Poland) $63,265.68*
3. MrAleks1981 (Belarus) $42,680.00
4. FV17com (Germany) $32,010.00
5. Tony “RunLkMercier” Della Sciucca (Canada) $22,116.00
6. Faith#1Virtu (Canada) $17,072.00
7. luckyTonicek (Czech Republic) $13,192.00
8. 007Mango (Denmark) $9,312.00
9. Eyal_A (Israel) $6,790.00
* denotes heads-up deal
Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.
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