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Home / Uncategorized / SCOOP 2012: Victory no laughing matter for w00tLOL in Event 37-Medium ($2100 NLHE Heads Up)
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We’re getting to the end of the 2012 SCOOP now, and with the end come the priciest and most prestigious events. Day 15 of SCOOP saw the conclusion of 2012 SCOOP Event 37-Medium, $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em (Heads-Up). w00tLOL, a previous 2012 SCOOP final tablist, won four heads-up matches to claim the Movado watch.

Event 37-Medium was a sell-out. There was space for exactly 256 players, and all spaces were filled by the time play began at 12:30pm on Saturday. Cashing in the event required players to advance to the Round of 32 by winning three heads-up matches in a row.

Four Team PokerStars Pros and two members of PokerStars Team Online put up the $2,100 required to play in Event 37-Medium. Three, Team Pros Vicky Coren and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Team Online player Randy “nanonoko” Lew, did not advance past the first round. Viktor “Isildur1” Blom was eliminated in the second round; Eugene Katchalov did Blom one better but came up short in the third round.

Only Team Online player George “jorj95” Lind found the money, advancing as far as the Round of 16 before being eliminated by Helio TYF. The remaining Round of 16 matches were not as speedy, but eventually all the quarterfinalists were in place.

2012 SCOOP Event 37-Medium Final Table.jpg

The quarterfinals

The quarterfinals were an embarrassment of riches, in terms of poker talent. In the quarterfinals, the left side of the bracket pitted w00tLOL, final tablist in 2012 SCOOP Event 14-Medium, against C. Darwin2, winner of 2012 SCOOP Event 34-Medium, and 1BigAceHole, final tablist in 2012 SCOOP 14-High, against KRab42, a final tablist in 2011 WCOOP Event 5. The right side saw Chris “Moorman1” Moorman, a player well-known for online and live tournament success alike, square off against Helio TYF and Xereles battle Banderivets, the winner of 2011 SCOOP 28-High.

Xereles was first out, when a six-bet shove with A♦ 5♦ during the 30-60 level was snapped off by Banderivets, who tabled A♠ K♠ . Xereles never threatened for the pot on a board of 8♠ A♣ 6♣ Q♦ K♥ .

The other quarterfinal matches did not end as quickly, but they did eventually end. KRab42 opened a 2-to-1 chip lead before making A♦ Q♣ work against 1BigAceHole’s pocket 8s, all in pre-flop. w00tLOL soon joined Krab42 in the semifinals, finishing off C. Darwin2 with A♣ K♦ against C. Darwin2’s A♦ 9♦ , all in pre-flop. Neither player improved by the river.

That left just one quarterfinal match, the match between Helio TYF and Moorman. Moorman opened an early lead, but Helio TYF climbed back into contention by doubling with pocket aces. After an hour and a half of play, the stacks were dead even. They played another twenty minutes until Moorman was crippled after pushing a royal flush draw into Helio TYF’s flopped straight. Moorman bricked his outs and was eliminated a few minutes later.

The semifinals

The semifinals pitted KRab42 against w00tLOL and Banderivets versus Helio TYF. KRab42 and w00tLOL played even in the early-going; Helio TYF used a flopped two pair, 7s and 6s, to take a big pot from Banderivets and open a 3-to-1 chip lead. The final hand occurred just 25 minutes after the match began and was all pre-flop. Banderivets’ A♣ K♣ never improved against Helio TYF’s 10â™  10♥ , sending Banderivets to the rail and boosting Helio TYF into the finals.

The other semifinal match stayed mostly even until a daring all-in river call by w00tLOL swung the tide in w00tLOL’s favor:

RSS readers click through to see replay

KRab42 made a show of hanging on for a few minutes, and even got KRab42’s last 1800 chips in to the good with Big Slick against w00tLOL’s ace-deuce. Yet it was for naught; a river deuce paired w00tLOL and set up the finals.

2012 SCOOP 37-medium final.jpg

The 6pm break came just a few hands into the finals. During the break w00tLOL offered to make the prizes “a bit more smooth”. He suggested playing for “10-20k” and chopping the remainder, about 174k-184k.

“I don’t think I will take a deal unless I am a slight favorite. Sorry,” said Helio TYF.

“ok lets go then,” w00tLOL replied. “dude wants to play sng for 40k.” The difference between the scheduled 2nd prize, $71,680, and scheduled first prize, $112,640, was almost $41,000.

I’m a sng pro,” Helio TYF protested. “I have a big edge in allins.”

“I don’t need any deal,” said w00tLOL. “I just wanted to make 1st prize 100k, second 84k.”

Helio TYF relented. “hmm yeah fine we can play for 20k.” w00tLOL agreed to that suggestion. The deal was struck. 2nd place would be worth $82,160; the winner would still get six figures at $102,160.

w00tLOL drew first blood once play resumed. A three-bet pre-flop to 400 took the betting lead away from Helio TYF. Helio TYF called the three-bet, then called another 528 on the jack-high 3♣ 10♥ J♥ flop and 1,392 on the 7♦ turn. When the river fell 9♥ , w00tLOL made a large bet of 3,062 that finally folded Helio TYF.

It would be a long battle, however. Helio TYF responded with a flopped set of kings, resetting the stacks and re-starting the match from all-square.

Again, w00tLOL opened a lead of a few thousand chips, this time through a series of smaller pots. That lead extended to a 3-to-1 chip lead when w00tLOL put Helio TYF to the test with a large river bet in this pot:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Helio TYF got all those chips back by flopping quad sevens and playing them slow until w00tLOL rivered top pair. The stacks were level yet again.

The blinds were up to 40-80; each player had about 10,000 in chips. The tournament rated to last many more levels – so of course it ended in one fell swoop. Pre-flop, Helio TYF min-raised the button and w00tLOL called. Helio TYF continued for 160 on a 3♣ 6♦ J♦ flop, then called w00tLOL’s check-raise to 582. The turn was the 6â™  . w00tLOL, first to act, bet 979. Helio TYF raised to 2,528. It was w00tLOL’s turn to call.

The river came 10♣ . w00tLOL checked – a perfect, cunning check as Helio TYF responded by moving all in for 6,677. w00tLOL snap-called with 3♥ 3â™  , a full house, treys full of sixes. Helio TYF showed down Q♦ 6♣ , trip sixes, a hand not strong enough to claim the pot or to stave off elimination as the runner-up.

This was the second final table of the 2012 SCOOP for w00tLOL – and w00tLOL’s first SCOOP title and Movado watch.

2012 SCOOP Event 37-Medium, $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em results (including two-way deal):

Number of entrants: 256
Places paid: 32

1st: w00tLOL (Russia) ($102,160.00)*
2nd: Helio TYF (Canada) ($82,160.00)*

Semifinalists:
KRab42 (Canada) ($35,840.00)
Banderivets (Ukraine) $35,840.00)

Quarterfinalists:
Chris “Moorman1” Moorman (United Kingdom) ($19,968.00)
C. Darwin2 (Sweden) ($19,968.00)
1BigAceHole (Canada) ($19,968.00)
Xereles (Norway) ($19,968.00)

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

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