A win looked like a sure thing at this point. After entering the final table near the back of the pack, remaining patient for more than an hour and a half before finding an opening, and then surging ahead to a 77-big-blind lead as heads-up play began, Finland’s jobetzu had more than six times as many chips as Germany’s smir9david. But being a top poker player means being ready for anything, including an advantage like that evaporating within minutes and leading to an hour and a half of heads-up poker. That’s exactly what happened here, and jobetzu came prepared. The Finn never gave up and finally emerged at the end as the latest Super Tuesday champion.

smir9david has enjoyed a pretty good year at the tables, appearing at one Sunday Million and two WCOOP finals in 2017. The German player had the chip lead as this week’s Super Tuesday final table bubble arrived and added to it on the last hand, spiking the 10♦ on the river for a set to crack aabas’s Q♦ Q♥ and send these players through for a shot at this week’s title:

Seat 1: MuckCallOK (1,207,374 in chips)
Seat 2: NY17PATS14 (305,872 in chips)
Seat 3: Chopper100 (1,323,929 in chips)
Seat 4: jobetzu (628,475 in chips)
Seat 5: Leonard “Gerritss” Gerritss (506,332 in chips)
Seat 6: Belqi (1,000,876 in chips)
Seat 7: djleet1337 (1,064,333 in chips)
Seat 8: Ami “Uhhmee” Barer (342,584 in chips)
Seat 9: smir9david (3,095,225 in chips)

The shorter stacks had their way for the first hour of the final table. It wasn’t until 55 minutes in that NY17PATS14’s 10♦ 10♠ ran into past Sunday Warm-Up champ and Super Tuesday finalist Belqi’s Q♣ Q♥ . NY17PATS14, who bubbled the final table of the WCOOP 2017 Main Event last week, settled for one spot better here, bowing out in ninth. Four hands later three-time COOP winner and Aussie Millions Main Event champion Ami “Uhhmee” Barer tried to steal the blinds from the cutoff with Q♠ 8♥ , only to have past Super-Sized Sunday runner-up Chopper100 come along with K♦ Q♥ in the big blind. Neither player’s hand improved and UhhMee was out in eighth.

smir9david’s stack was slightly diminished as the second hour of play began, though still good for the lead at 2.4 million chips with blinds and antes at 17,500/35,000/3,500. djleet1337 soon jumped into second place after flopping a straight flush draw and winning a 1.7-million-chip pot with a turned flush heads-up against past Sunday Warm-Up champ and three-time Super Tuesday finalist MuckCallOK. And Belqi moved into a solid third after flopping a pair of jacks with K♣ J♣ to take down A♣ 10♦ and send past WCOOP and Super Tuesday finalist Leonard “Gerritss” Gerritss out in seventh.

Then jobetzu leapfrogged all three of those players with two big wins. First came a double to 1.7 million with A♠ Q♦ in the small blind against Belqi’s A♦ 2♠ in the big. On the next orbit jobetzu called from the small blind with A♣ 10♣ after djleet1337 opened under the gun for 125,000, check-called with a draw to the nuts on the 6♥ 7♣ Q♣ flop, and then hit the pair that would win the 2.1-million-chip pot on the A♠ turn. jobetzu solidified the lead four hands later, flopping a king to win with K♥ Q♠ against MuckCallOK’s A♠ Q♦ and knock the Austrian player out in sixth.

jobetzu and smir9david traded places at the top of the leaderboard back and forth over the next hour, mostly based on which one was doubling up a shorter stack. First Belqi defended the big blind with K♦ 9♥ against jobetzu’s steal attempt in the small blind with 7♣ 6♥ , doublign to 1.3 million chips. Then Chopper100 flopped two pair with 10♦ 5♦ in the big blind against smir9david’s A♠ J♥ for 1.5 million. djleet1337 re-entered the conversation, winning a 2-million-chip pot with A♠ K♦ against Belqi’s K♠ 10♠ to knock out the Estonian player in fifth. But the Canadian ran 8♦ 8♥ into smir9david’s Q♣ Q♥ a few minutes later, falling in fourth.

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That timely win boosted smir9david’s stack to 3.6 million chips, good for second behind jobetzu’s 4.3 million and well ahead of Chopper100’s 1.4 million. smir9david closed the gap with jobetzu a bit, but the German’s fortunes took a dip soon after that. The hand began with smir9david opening for 147,000 chips on the button. jobetzu re-raised to 480,000 from the small blind and, after smir9david called, proceeded to bet out on every street of the 10♥ 7♦ 2♣ 7♥ A♦ board: 286,444 on the flop, 874,624 on the turn, and 1.4 million on the river. smir9david called them all but mucked, left with about 12 big blinds’ worth of chips, after jobetzu showed A♣ J♠ for a rivered pair of aces.

jobetzu looked ready to fly away with the title then and there, holding 102 big blinds, but Chopper100 doubled through the Finn on the next hand with 10♥ 10♠ against A♦ 2♣ to prevent departure. Then smir9david won two crucial pots: first for 1.7 million chips with A♦ J♣ against against Chopper100’s 2♣ 2♥ , then making a set with J♣ J♥ to beat jobetzu’s A♠ 4♠ for 3.2 million. The back-and-forth doubles continued for a bit with Chopper100 and smir9david changing positions for about 20 minutes, looking like they would end when smir9david jammed with K♣ 4♣ on the button and got caught out by Chopper100’s 8♦ 8♥ in the small blind. Then smir9david spiked the K♥ on the river, staying alive with the 1.8-million-chip win. Chopper100 dropped to 401,949 chips and doubled once with A♣ K♣ , but a loss with pocket fives a few hands later to jobetzu’s K♥ 9♣ ended Chopper100’s run in third.

jobetzu’s 77-big-blind lead as heads-up play began suggested the Finn would soon be adding a Super Tuesday victory to a tournament resume that already included a victory during WCOOP 2012. And while the win came eventually, it wasn’t nearly as breezy as it first looked like it might be. smir9david doubled up in desperate straits early on, spiking a king on the flop with K♥ 8♦ to top jobetzu’s J♣ J♥ and make a match of it. Then smir9david’s Q♠ Q♥ held up against A♣ K♠ on the next hand to bring the chip deficit back under 2-to-1.

They sparred over small pots for the next 15 minutes before three consecutive seven-figure pots broke out that left smir9david within 15 big blinds of the lead. jobetzu took down 14 of the next 15 small pots to move back ahead comfortably, but smir9david flopped trip nines with 9♣ 7♥ in the big blind and got back to within a double-up of the lead once again. smir9david’s high point came a few hands later after defending the big blind with K♠ 4♠ and making top pair on the J♦ K♦ 5♦ flop. jobetzu had A♦ 2♠ for the nut flush draw and bet when checked to on every street – but smir9david called them all to win the 4.5-million-chip pot and move into the lead.

An hour and a half into the match things still could have gone either way. smir9david had pulled back from the brink to take the lead, but then the German player had the misfortune of flopping top pair with J♠ 10♦ on the button after jobetzu had flat-called before the flop with K♣ K♠ . jobetzu moved back into the lead with that 6.5-million-chip win, crippled smir9david minutes later after flopping top pair with A♥ J♥ , and closed things out with Q♠ 6♦ against 7♦ 6♥ , winning on kickers on the 3♣ J♣ 9♦ 4♥ 4♣ board to close out the tournament.

Congratulations to both jobetzu and smir9david, who earned their paydays by putting on a worthy show during the 86-minute heads-up portion of the tournament!

10/3/17 Super Tuesday ($1,050 NL Hold’em) results
Entrants: 379
Total prize pool: $379,000
Places paid: 53

1. jobetzu (Finland) $69,354.07
2. smir9david (Germany) $50,926.04
3. Chopper100 (Canada) $37,394.60
4. djleet1337 (Canada) $27,458.62
5. Belqi (Estonia) $20,162.68
6. MuckCallOK (Austria) $14,805.33
7. Leonard “Gerritss” Gerritss (Netherlands) $10,871.42
8. Ami “Uhhmee” Barer (Canada) $7,982.83
9. NY17PATS14 (Canada) $5,861.72

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Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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