Taking the chip lead into the final table and winning the tournament from there sounds like an easy thing to do. Now try taking the chip lead to a SCOOP limit hold’em table as an unsung player against Shaun Deeb and four other players used to playing major PokerStars finals. If that still sounds easy to you, you might just be the player from Russia known as LetsJustRun, who came to the final table of Event #36-M with the chip lead against just that lineup and took very few detours en route to victory.

A total of 337 players turned out for this $215 fixed-limit hold’em tournament, which made up to three re-entries available for each player. With 166 re-entries total at the end of extended registration, that made for a $100,600 prize pool to be split among the top 66 finishers. Day 1 lasted for the first 22 levels of play, ending after the 4K/8K stakes level with 27 players remaining in the field. PAW717 led the way with 457,360 chips, followed by tretbootlion (434,330) and I’am_Sound (382,110). Right behind that group was Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, sitting in fourth place with 379K, while Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer was holding on with 75K toward the bottom of the leaderboard.

Deeb didn’t take long to build the biggest stack on Day 2, and once he was there it looked like he might hold it indefinitely. Only in the immediate run-up to the final did LetsJustRun rack up some big wins on the other table to take overtake Deeb for the lead, setting the two of them up well ahead of the other four players with the stakes at 16K/32K when the final table began.

Seat 1: chokitin (657,825 in chips)
Seat 2: LetsJustRun (1,708,425 in chips)
Seat 3: José Manuel “nadalon” Nadal (616,525 in chips)
Seat 4: Gambler4444 (221,870 in chips)
Seat 5: Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb (1,152,545 in chips)
Seat 6: lulDocuments (672,810 in chips)

There was plenty of action in the early going, and most of it went against lulDocuments, last seen around these parts at the Sunday Warm-Up final table back in April. The first loss was a 450K-chip pot to Deeb, getting four bets in when the same river card gave Deeb a full house with 7♣ 7♠ and lulDocuments a flush with Q♦ 9♦ . Then short-stacked Gambler4444, the past Sunday Million, Super Tuesday, and SCOOP 2015 winner, defended the big blind with K♣ 5♥ against lulDocuments’s raise, getting a cheap look at a near-perfect 5♠ K♠ 5♦ flop and doubling to 373K after lulDocuments showed down A♦ A♠ for aces and fives.

Gambler4444 picked up another 370K-chip pot two hands later after raising on the button with A♠ 9♥ and betting when checked to on every street of the 10♠ 3♦ 5♠ K♠ 9♠ board, making a spade flush on the end as lulDocuments mucked. One more loss to Deeb a few minutes later had lulDocuments down to 122K at 20K/40K stakes, and even after a few wins to climb back above 400K, lulDocuments wound up heading into the 7pm ET break back down to 119K.

On the second hand back, lulDocuments was under the gun with A♦ 10♥ and raised, calling the third and fourth bets from chokitin and nadalon, respectively, to see a 4♦ 7♦ J♥ flop. chokitin bailed after that and lulDocuments was heads-up against nadalon’s A♣ A♠ . Those aces became sevens full after the 7♠ –7♥ turn and river, and lulDocuments exited in 6th place ($3,219.20).

Both Gambler4444 and LetsJustRun had finished the first hour of the final table up from where they’d started. The others had fared less well, notably Deeb, who had a little under half of his previous chips at 524K. With stakes now at 28K/56K, that was more dangerous territory than it had been an hour earlier. After folding on the flop of one hand and the turn of two moreA♥ J♦ under the gun, raised, and then made it four bets and all-in for 104K after José Manuel nadalon” Nadal, a Super Tuesday finalist in 2010 and again in April 2016 who chopped a WCOOP 2014 event six ways, re-raised from the small blind. Nadal’s Q♣ Q♠ flopped a set and turned a full house on the Q♥ 9♠ 8♣ 9♥ 9♣ board, and Deeb collected his series-leading 26th cash, finishing in 5th place ($5,030).

That win was a lifeline for nadalon, giving him double the chips of WCOOP 2014 and SCOOP 2015 finalist chokitin. Another win an orbit later gave him triple chokitin’s chips, and chokitin picked up A♦ Q♣ in the big blind and got aggressive after LetsJustRun had opened with A♥ K♣ . All-in by the turn of the 3♠ A♣ 10♦ 4♦ 8♣ board, the underdog remained dominated and chokitin bowed out in 4th place ($7,042).

LetsJustRun had a solid lead now, holding 50 big bets to Gambler4444’s 27 and nadalon’s 12. The Russian player was able to solidify that lead and pave the way to eventual victory with a win just three minutes into three-handed play. After three-betting Gambler4444’s button raise from the big blind with 7♠ 6♠ , LetsJustRun led out with middle pair on the 7♦ 10♥ 3♠ flop. Gambler4444 called and then bet when checked to on the J♠ turn, and LetsJustRun called again, making a flush with the 2♠ on the river. LetsJustRun got a check-raise in there and grabbed the 588K-chip pot, moving over 3.1M and dropping Gambler4444’s stack to 1.07M.

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Gambler4444 managed a few more wins after that and climbed over 1.2M, but that ended up being a momentary high point before a stretch of 16 hands sank the player from Austria’s chances at a second SCOOP win and put LetsJustRun on the path to a first. To get things going, LetsJustRun picked up A♣ A♠ in the small blind, getting two bets in on every street but the river to win 640K against nadalon. Then the Russian player raised on the button with Q♣ 8♠ , flopped middle pair, and got check-raised by Gambler4444; after being called down on the turn and river, Gambler4444 turned over 7♣ 5♦ for a busted straight draw and another 528K went to LetsJustRun.

After nadalon defended the big blind against Gambler4444’s button raise and won with jacks and nines, holding 10♠ 9♣ on a 2♣ J♦ 9♠ J♥ 6♠ board, the final six hands of the run all went to LetsJustRun at Gambler4444’s expense. The big one came with Gambler4444 in the small blind and LetsJustRun in the big, holding K♣ 4♥ . The Russian player raised after Gambler4444 limped, and both checked the K♠ J♥ 9♦ flop after Gambler4444 called. He led out on the 8♦ and called LetsJustRun’s raise and then check-called 64K more on the river, mucking when LetsJustRun showed down three of a kind. Left with 47K, Gambler4444 got it in with K♦ 6♠ from the button on the next hand, losing out unimproved to LetsJustRun’s A♠ 9♠ to leave the tournament in 3rd place ($10,311.50).

Aside from a few early bumps, LetsJustRun’s entire final table trajectory had been straight upward. To turn that around, nadalon would need a few big wins in heads-up play, but they never came. He dropped almost half of the 878K stack he began with a few minutes in, in a single hand without showdown. After raising and then four-betting on the button, nadalon bet when checked to on the K♥ 5♦ 6♥ flop and then called the check-raise from LetsJustRun to bring the K♠ on the turn. nadalon raised after LetsJustRun led for 80K there, but a third bet from the Russian player drove him away and gave LetsJustRun the 800K-chip pot without revealing any hole cards.

Seven hands later, both players would begin the hand with nearly identical hands, nadalon with A♥ 9♦ and LetsJustRun with A♠ 9♠ . nadalon ended up all-in by the turn with the board reading 8♠ Q♥ A♦ 3♠ and would have split the pot with anything but a spade on the river. The 4♠ came, though, giving LetsJustRun the pot and closing out the tournament.

At $19,114, it’s the biggest PokerStars win of LetsJustRun’s career, topping a $3,422 cash in another limit hold’em tournament way back in 2008. It also comes with a nice Movado SCOOP champion’s watch to commemorate the occasion – and given the competition at hand, it’s certainly one worth celebrating. Congratulations!

SCOOP-36-M ($215 FL Hold’em, 6-Max) results
Entrants:  503 (337 entries, 166 re-entries)
Total prize pool: $100,600
Places paid:  66

1. LetsJustRun (Russia) $19,114
2. José Manuel “nadalon” Nadal (Mexico) $14,084
3. Gambler4444 (Austria) $10,311.50
4. chokitin (Argentina) $7,042
5. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb (Mexico) $5,030
6. lulDocuments (Mexico) $3,219.20

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