It takes a special type of person to enjoy playing Razz, a game where the object is to find a hand worse than your opponents. Players love to voice frustrations from the game but that doesn’t stop them from coming out. The 31st tournament of the 2014 Spring Championship of Online Poker gave them a chance at a big payday for running bad.

The low version of the event had a $27 buy-in and the 1,959 entries nearly doubled the guarantee. The final 256 players in the tournament would get a piece of the pool with the winner slated to make a very nice $8,369. The stack sizes and limit betting meant they needed to play more than five and a half hours just for a min-cash.

It was nine hours after the start of the tournament when nine players were eyeing up one of eight seats at the final table. kaigor seemed to be the obvious choice to be the bubble boy with few chips and the antes climbing. Turned out to be Nutty who would not have the nuts and sent out in 9th place at the hands of mentos65.

One player at the final table was looking for added glory. Polish grinder maciekzbg has past success including a 2013 TCOOP title in Event #18 and a victory in this tournament would but him 2/3rd of the way to the elusive Triple COOP. He was firmly in the middle of the field as the final table got underway.

Final Table chip counts:

Seat 1: Don Den4ik (1,064,130 in chips)
Seat 2: maciekzbg (1,373,613 in chips)
Seat 3: valkyros (1,461,664 in chips)
Seat 4: u5qj7hj (2,324,426 in chips)
Seat 5: footsteps (1,351,027 in chips)
Seat 6: kaigor (81,690 in chips)
Seat 7: mentos65 (1,563,613 in chips)
Seat 8: framerica (574,837 in chips)

Limits: 50k/100k with 10k ante, 15k bring in

kaigor comes in short, eliminated in 8th

kaigor was one lucky player to slide his way onto the final table, nursing that micro-stack nicely, but he began play with less than one big bet. The Russian doubled up on the very first hand at the table but was gone shortly after when he took another shot.

mentos65 was the bring in before valkyros completed with (X-X)8♠ and kaigor raised with (X-X)7♣ , mentos65 let his hand go and valkyros put in a third to put kaigor all-in. The small bet was called and they both turned up big starting hands.

kaigor: (4♠ A♦ )7♣
valkyros: (2♦ 3♦ )8♠

valkyros paired on 4th street with 3♥ while kaigor picked up the J♦ . kaigor had a poor low on 5th street with the 10♠ while valkyros was drawing big with 8-4-3-2 after the 4♦ . The 8♦ improved kaigor on 6th while valkyros made a not-so-pretty K-8 thanks to the K♥ . kaigor was in the lead with one card to come but was unlucky when valkyros pulled the 10♦ against kaigor’s Q♠ .

valkyros: (2♦ 3♦ )8♠ 3♥ 4♦ K♥ 10♦
kaigor: (4♠ A♦ )7♣ J♦ 10♠ 8♦ Q♠

The better T-8-4 was enough to end the tournament for kaigor in 8th place for $480, a nice bump considering what he was looking at earlier.

footsteps out the door, eliminated in 7th

kaigor was the only short player at the start of the final table and his elimination meant they were on somewhat equal footing. They passed chips around the table with few major hands until footsteps lost of big pot against u5qj7hj to be left with just over 100k.

A nice chunk of those were in the middle in the form of a 16k ante and the rest went in with (X-X)6♦ after u5qj7hj completed with (X-X)7♥ . framerica let his 24k bring in go along and the cards came running.

u5qj7hj: (K♦ 6♠ )7♥
footsteps: (A♠ 8♥ )6♦

footsteps had the better starting hand before picking up K♣ on 4th versus u5qj7hj’s 10♦ . 5th street paired footsteps with the K♥ while u5qj7hj made a vulnerable K-Q with the Q♥ and then improved with the 2♠ on 6th with footsteps picking up a big draw thanks to the 2♥ . u5qj7hj was unable to improve by pairing 6♥ on 7th but didn’t need to improve when footsteps pulled a third King. Someone had to be the next out and it was footsteps in 7th place for $961.

u5qj7hj: (K♦ 6♠ )7♥ 10♦ Q♥ 2♠ 6♥
footsteps: (A♠ 8♥ )6♦ K♣ K♥ 2♥ K♠

framerica tag-teamed, eliminated in 6th

Six players remained with u5qj7hj and valkyros taking command but Don Den4ik moved up the boards with a big, three-way pot. framerica completed with (X-X)A♥ , Don Den4ik raised with (X-X)5♥ and valkyros called with (X-X)2♦ .

framerica responded with a shove for his final 201,674 which brought another raise from Don Den4ik. valkyros simply called once again. framerica was in danger but Don Den4ik was soon all-in as well on 5th street for a possible double elimination.

Don Den4ik: (2♣ 7♥ )5♥ Q♦ 4♠
framerica: (5♦ 8♠ )A♥ 9♣ 6♠
valkyros: (3♠ 4♥ )2♦ 10♣ 10♥

valkryos was the only player not at risk but was also trailing his two opponents. framerica had the best made hand but Don Den4ik had plenty of outs to come from behind. framerica improved to an 8-7 with the 6th street 7♦ while Don Den4ik paired the 4♦ and valkyros the 3♥ . Don Den4ik hit his draw on the river with the 6♣ for 7-6 and framerica paired the A♠ for the good, yet inferior hand to go out in the 6th place for $1,442.

Don Den4ik: (2♣ 7♥ )]5♥ Q♦ 4♠ 4♦ 6♣
valkyros: (3♠ 4♥ )2♦ 10♣ 10♥ 3♥ 5♠
framerica: (5♦ 8♠ )A♥ 9♣ 6♠ 7♦ A♠

Don Den4ik done, eliminated in 5th

There was minor chatter about making a deal throughout most of the final table and it finally happened after framerica was sent out. Hands at the five-handed table rarely went deep into the deck, most hands getting picked up with a complete or bet on 4th street. There were few huge pots and Don Den4ik hung around after his near triple up before taking another chance.

valkyros was the bring in with (X-X)K♠ and called when Don Den4ik completed showing (X-X)4♣ . Don Den4ik led out when he picked up (X-X)4♣ Q♠ , valkyros raised with (X-X)K♠ 4♥ , and Don Den4ik was all-in with the third bet.

Don Den4ik: (6♥ K♦ )4♣ Q♠
valkyros: (3♠ A♠ )K♠ 4♥

Don Den4ik needed a lot of help to stay alive and improved with the 7♦ but was drawing dead when he paired the 6th street 6♠ when valkyros made J-9 at the same time. It was a good run for the Russian and he picked up $4,718 for the 5th place finish.

Don Den4ik: (6♥ K♦ )4♣ Q♠ 7♦ 6♠ 5♥
valkyros: (3♠ A♠ )K♠ 4♥ J♥ 9♦ A♣

valkyros, son of Kyr, eliminated in 4th

The string of bad luck for players post-knockout hand continued with valkyros the next to catch a bad end. He wasn’t the shortest stack at the table so it took a good hand to get the job done. valkyros final hand began when he completed with (X-X)5♣ and u5qj7hj came along with (X-X)4♦ .

u5qj7hj bet out after picking up 5♥ before valkyros called with 9♠ and they repeated the bet/call process on 5th street. valkyros raised all-in on 6th street and was at risk needing a good river.

u5qj7hj: (7♦ 3♣ )5♣ 9♠ 2♥ 8♥
valkyros: (6♣ 8♠ )4♦ 5♥ 6♠ 2♦

Both players paired up on 7th leaving valkyros just barely outdone with 8-7 versus 8-6 to be the next player out, gone in 4th place for $4,931.

mentos65 not fresh, eliminated in 3rd

The tournament again moved into the familiar run of smaller hands with minor pots until two players picked up major hands. The end came for mentos65 when he capped betting with (X-X)2♥ against u5qj7hj with (X-X)2♦ . If tournament rules allowed for it, mentos65 would have been all-in and did just that after getting K♦ on 4th against u5qj7hj’s 3♣ .

u5qj7hj: (4♥ 5♣ )2♦ 3♣
mentos65: (A♥ 4♣ )2♥ K♦

u5qj7hj had the superior hand but paired 3♥ on 5th while mentos65 picked up 8♥ to improve. A 6th street 9♣ gave mentos65 a nice 9-8 with u5qj7hj still drawing live with Q♦ . mentos65 didn’t improve with the 10♥ on 7th but the 9♠ gave u5qj7hj the better 9-5 for the win. The hand shipped a nice pot to u5qj7hj while mentos65 was sent out in 3rd place for $3,793.

maciekzbg adds SCOOP title with Event #31-L victory

Seat 2: maciekzbg (2,587,613 in chips)
Seat 4: u5qj7hj (7,207,387 in chips)

maciekzbg had a lot of work ahead of him with a significant chip deficit if he wanted to add a SCOOP title. His comeback began just two hands later when he picked up a near double without a showdown to pull the stacks closer. As the stacks evened out, the two settled into a long heads up battle which lasted over 200 hands and more than 30 minutes.

The lead swapped hands several times until maciekzbg was able to extend his advantage to nearly 8-to-1 and u5qj7hj needed to take a chance to get back into the match. They both put in three bets showing a Six and u5qj7hj called all the way down until he was all-in on 6th street.

u5qj7hj: (4♥ 3♥ )6♣ Q♦ 4♠ J♠
maciekzbg: (7♦ 8♠ )6♥ 3♣ 2♠ 2♦

u5qj7hj was drawing thin on 5th street but completely dead when the chips went in on 6th. No card could come on 7th to make a different and u5qj7hj was the runner-up for $6,374 a bigger payout than the winner. maciekzbg picked up $4,865 for the victory and 2/3rd of a Triple COOP.

SCOOP 31-L: $27 Razz
Entrants: 1,959
Prize pool: $48,093.45
Places paid: 256

1. maciekzbg (Poland) $4,865.92*
2. u5qj7hj (Austria) $6,374.65*
3. mentos65 (Ukraine) $3,793.54*
4. valkyros (Poland) $4,931.81*
5. Don Den4ik (Russia) $4,718.94*
6. framerica (Canada) $1,442.80
7. footsteps (United Kingdom) $961.86
8. kaigor (Russia) $480.93
* – denotes five-way deal

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