Sometimes players simply stand out. Something about their game flags up a bag full of talent. They win chips with ease and play as if it means nothing. It’s no surprise when they politely turn down a deal and even less of a surprise when they go on to win. Event #90, a $1 no-limit hold’em with rebuys, and a crazy fast structure, had two such players. But only one of them could win. Luckily that meant an enjoyable final table for anyone watching.

That is was ROMDOM82 who went on to take the title and a first prize of $6,838.98 was in part because he hardly put a foot wrong. That it wasn’t Zemachess was down to one loose call and the unluckiest of outdraws. But then who are we to doubt the decisions of SuperNovas with a MicroMillions 4 title to their name.

Final table line up

Seat 1. JustProSkill, 16,818,660
Seat 2. ROMDOM82, 36,144,886
Seat 3. Pokerpilla, 10,102,456
Seat 4. Scottv18, 18,921,960
Seat 5. NYJ LTD, 48,526,624
Seat 6. Zemachess, 61,250,446
Seat 7. Donbalon3, 12,230,260
Seat 8. Al1904, 11,348,076
Sear 9. Jessicaws2, 33,852,077

This being a 3x Turbo thinking time was minimal. It was more instinct that secured places for the final nine, their stacks never really telling the story of how each player handled the five previous hours. You simply assume it was like running the gauntlet.
Zemachess led coming in and looked, with the six stars on his avatar, every part the confident chip leader – truculent when faced with bets from NYJ LTD on his immediate right, quickly re-raising his stack up to 93 million.

Zemachess leads into the final table

Pokerpilla was experiencing life at the other end of the food chain, shoving with king-ten and running it into ROMDOM82’s pocket sixes, an outcome that left Pokerpilla out in ninth place. ROMDOM82’s star would ascend even further moments later when he clashed with Zemachess. ROMDOM82 shoved with ace-king and Zemachess wasted no time in calling with pocket queens. The ace on the flop turned the lead over to ROMDOM82, a lead he would keep.

Donbalon3 was out next, shoving his king-deuce into the jacks of JustProSkill to finish in eighth place. NYJ LTD soon followed in seventh, calling ROMDOM82 all-in move on a king-high board with king-jack, only to find ROMDOM82 had made tens and sixes on the turn.

Others were fighting to remain in the final. Al1904 doubled-up, then so did JustProSkill. Al1904 did so a second time soon after, flopping an ace against Zemachess who was reduced to less than 40 million, prompting the one-time leader to shove unchallenged a couple of times. That was a tactic shared by short-stacked Scottv18 who shoved four times without a caller before he found himself the beneficiary of a three-way pot of fireworks.

It was a call that would be critical to Zemachess who dropped to 30 million while JustProSkill departed and Scottv18 leapt up to 76 million.

Jessicaws2 was out second later. Having earlier miss-clicked away a large chunk of her stack they shoved with pocket threes. ROMDOM82 called with tens to see Jessicaws2 out in fifth place. Then Zemachess did himself a world of good, getting a first bit of luck to send Al1904 to the rail in fourth place when his queen-eight caught a queen on the turn to undo Al1904’s ace-seven.

ROMDOM82 – 137 million
Scottv18 – 64 million
Zemachess – 60 million

The chip counts promised a great three way contest. But that idea quickly vanished. Newly minted, Zemachess tanked on calling Scottv18 shove with ace-five. His call was genius, and looked set to pit him against ROMDOM82 on equal terms – a mouth-watering brawl between the two best players. But you never can count on the river card.

So it was straight to heads-up. ROMDOM82 edged it but for all intents it was all square. But as I said earlier, sometimes the better player is plain to see.

There was nothing bad to say about eventual runner-up Scottv18 – barring perhaps his Manchester United avatar. The Brit played solidly with a short stack and, even outdrawing Zemachess, was worthy of his second place finish.

Heads-up though, he found himself gradually slipping behind. Denied a chop he buckled down but, on more than one occasion, was forced to lay down hands in the face of a ROMDOM82 raise. Soon ROMDOM82 was close to 200 million and, with the big blind at 4.5 million, Scottv18 shoved with ace-nine. It was good, certainly better than ROMDOM82’s jack-nine. Or at least it was until the turn.

It was a result to make you reaffirm your believe in the fundamental skills of poker – that some players are good, better, at this game. Congratulations to ROMDOM82 on proving that, and earning his MicroMillions 5 title.

MicroMillions 5 Event #90 Results
Entrants: 8,303
Re-buys and add-ons: 37,494 and 4,265
Prize pool: $45,556.42 ($30k Gtd)
Places paid: 1,080

1st. ROMDOM82 (Mexico), $6,838.98
2nd. scottv18 (United Kingdom), $5,028.06
3rd. zemachess (Russia), $3,644.51
4th. Al1904 (Austria), $2,414.49
5th. Jessicaws2 (Brazil), $1,867.81
6th. JustProSkill (Russia), $1,412.24
7th. NYJ LTD 101 (Canada), $979.46
8th. donbalon3 (Germany), $546.67
9th. pokerpilla (Sweden), $353.06

Throughout the MicroMillions 5 series there has been more than $5 million guaranteed in prize money, across 100 events. Today is the last day of MM5 but there’s still time to play before the series comes to a close. All the details you might need are available on the MicroMillions 5 home page, including a full schedule as well as all the statistics so far, as well as coverage, leader boards and everything else.

Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter.

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