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Home / Uncategorized / Super Tuesday: Late surge pushes AaronBeen to $48K win (8-22-17)

Five times prior to tonight, Aaron “AaronBeen” Been had found himself at the final table of the Super Tuesday. Other than the first of those – a runner-up finish back in 2011 – he hadn’t been particularly close to pulling off a win. And when tonight’s final table began with him third from the bottom in the chip counts, it didn’t look to hold much more promise than the last four trips had. But three hours later, thanks to a few well-timed wins, AaronBeen had overcome the slow start to take the chip lead with three players remaining – and shortly afterward he earned his first Super Tuesday victory.

The competition at this week’s final table was filled with familiar screen names, including two players who have won the Super Tuesday in 2017, Renato “bauruzito” Valentim and Stian “SlemPastor” Hansen. They were joined by several other past finalists and runners-up, along with one or two newcomers, at the final after eight and a half hours of play:

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Seat 1: FTFT.726 (307,542 in chips)
Seat 2: MkMyWishFish (1,197,736 in chips)
Seat 3: Renato “bauruzito” Valentim (231,153 in chips)
Seat 4: Daniel “dougiedan678” McAulay (636,309 in chips)
Seat 5: Stian “SlemPastor” Hansen (1,499,351 in chips)
Seat 6: Aaron “AaronBeen” Been (461,424 in chips)
Seat 7: BC1989RF (320,954 in chips)
Seat 8: hello_totti (809,943 in chips)
Seat 9: p0k3rj0e88 (810,588 in chips)

It was a good time to be short-stacked. The very first hand of the final saw bauruzito, appearing at his fourth Super Tuesday final table of 2017, double up with Q♥ Qâ™  . Four more pots in the next 20 minutes went to players who were all-in, prompting SlemPastor, whose A♣ 10♣ lost out on the first hand against bauruzito, to say, “just like a month ago, the shortstacks always hits.”

He didn’t know the half of it at that point. The next hand saw hello_totti min-raise to 40,000 chips in the hijack seat. MkMyWishFish, a two-time SCOOP 2017 finalist returning to the Super Tuesday final for first time since 2013, re-raised to 114,500 in the small blind. hello_totti, a Super Tuesday runner-up in 2016 who bubbled the final table earlier this year, called to see a 2♥ 3♥ 7♥ flop. hello_totti bet 124,885 when checked to before MkMyWishFish, after some consideration, check-raised to 290,500. hello_totti thought for a bit and then called, then called all-in for 457,766 more on the J♣ turn after MkMyWishFish open-shoved. MkMyWishFish was drawing to the nuts with A♥ 10â™  but hello_totti’s flopped flush with 9♥ 8♥ stayed ahead after the 5♦ river.

hello_totti scooped up the 1.76-million-chip pot and left MkMyWishFish with less than four big blinds’ worth of chips. They all went in on the next hand with A♥ J♥ as a re-raise of hello_totti’s opener, only for MkMyWishFish to find out hello_totti had A♣ Kâ™  in the hole. The 10â™  7♥ Q♦ 8â™  Q♣ board changed nothing and MkMyWishFish departed in ninth.

The other half of the final table’s United Kingdom contingent, SCOOP 2016 High Roller Heads-Up runner-up Daniel “dougiedan678” McAulay, limped in from the small blind on the next hand with A♦ 10♥ and then moved all-in for 351,581 when SlemPastor made it 60,000 to go in the small blind. SlemPastor called with Q♣ Qâ™  , which was still good after the board came 7♥ K♣ 5♥ Kâ™  4♣ , and took down the pot to bust dougiedan678 in eighth.


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hello_totti scored another massive pot a few hands later to trim the field by one more. BC1989RF opened the action for 48,000 chips with A♦ 2♦ in the cutoff seat and then re-raised all-in for 688,472 total when hello_totti made it 156,999 to go on the button. hello_totti called with J♦ J♠ and promptly made a set on the J♣ Q♠ 5♣ flop. The 9♦ turn and A♠ river locked up the 1.42-million chip pot for the Russian player and sent BC1989RF to the rail in seventh.

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That left the table six-handed as the hourly break approached. When they returned at 11:00 p.m. ET to continue, though, all the momentum from those pre-break knockouts was gone. In fact the next hour passed with neither a single knockout nor any drastic changes in the chip counts. The big shift toward whittling the field down some more didn’t come until 12 minutes after midnight, when SlemPastor min-raised to 80,000 under the gun with Kâ™  Q♣ and bauruzito re-raised all-in for 562,056 with A♣ Q♦ in the big blind. SlemPastor called and lost to trip aces after the board came Aâ™  A♦ 2â™  Jâ™  5♣ .

One orbit later SlemPastor tried to steal the pot from the small blind, jamming for 421,420 chips with J♦ 3♦ when the action folded around. AaronBeen called with A♣ Q♥ and took down the pot unimproved after the board came 6♥ 6♣ 4â™  7♥ 2♦ , ending SlemPastor’s bid for a second title in sixth.

AaronBeen struck again two orbits later. He re-raised all-in with Aâ™  Q♣ in the small blind after p0k3rj0e88, who took fifth in this past weekend’s Sunday Grand NLHE, open-shoved for 813,759 with A♦ 9â™  under the gun. A loss would have left him with less than two big blinds’ worth of chips. Instead he won on kickers when the board came 5♥ A♣ 10♥ J♦ 5♦ to give both players aces and fives, sending p0k3rj0e88 to the rail in fifth.

Instead of being on the verge of elimination, AaronBeen was now in second place with 1.78 million chips. The amount of big action dropped as he and chip leader hello_totti leaned on the two shorter-stacked players, pushing both of them under 20 big blinds. bauruzito managed to snag a few wins here and there but FTFT.726 wasn’t as fortunate. The Chinese player, who was the runner-up in the $109 Sunday Kickoff two weekends back, finally ended up jamming for 443,887 chips on the button with A♣ 4♥ after hello_totti opened for 134,444 under the gun with J♦ 9♦ . hello_totti called and made a diamond flush on the 5♦ 10♦ 5♥ 7♦ 10♥ board to eliminate FTFT.726 in fourth.

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As had been the case for much of the final table, hello_totti enjoyed the chip lead with three players left. The Russian player had 3.43 million chips, about seven big blinds more than AaronBeen and bauruzito combined. But that only lasted until a major pre-flop coin flip between the two bigger stacks changed the order of the table five minutes later. AaronBeen min-raised on the button with 8♥ 8â™  and then four-bet all-in for 2.14 million after hello_totti re-raised to 402,555 in the small blind. hello_totti called with Aâ™  Kâ™  and missed a guthsot draw to Broadway as the board fell 10♣ Q♦ 2♥ 7♣ 9♦ , shipping the 4.34-million-chip pot AaronBeen’s way.

Any ace, jack, or king could have ended his day, but now AaronBeen was in the driver’s seat. He came back from the next break at 1 a.m. and promptly took the field down to two, calling with K♥ K♦ in the big blind when bauruzito desperately tried to steal the pot from the small blind with Jâ™  3♦ . The board came 3♣ A♦ 5♣ 5♥ 6♦ , kings and fives beat fives and treys, and bauruzito’s stab at Super Tuesday title number two came to an end in third.

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That gave AaronBeen 5.33 million chips to hello_totti’s 935,626 as heads-up play began. And though the eventual result was never in much doubt, it wasn’t for a lack of effort from hello_totti. The Russian player, looking to break through and top that runner-up finish from last year, battled valiantly for 20 minutes. But every time hello_totti made some headway, AaronBeen struck back – hello_totti was never able to clear the 2-million-chip mark.

It looked like hello_totti was ready to keep the fight going even longer when AaronBeen raised to 2.38 million chips on the button and the Russian picked up Q♥ Qâ™  in the big blind. A huge favorite over AaronBeen’s J♦ 9♥ , hello_totti was left hoping for a split or a runner-runner flush after the 7♥ 10♥ 8♦ flop gave AaronBeen a jack-high straight. The A♦ turn and 2♦ didn’t deliver, though, and the tournament came to its conclusion.

Aaron Been

Congratulations to this week’s Super Tuesday champion, Aaron “AaronBeen” Been!

The runner-up finish was hello_totti’s second since 2016 in the Super Tuesday. As for AaronBeen, his sixth trip to the final table in as many years finally ended with the result he’s always wanted. Congratulations to both players on their hard-earned results!

8/22/17 Super Tuesday ($1,050 NL Hold’em) results
Entrants: 251
Total prize pool: $251,000
Places paid: 35

1. Aaron “AaronBeen” Been (Mexico) $48,279.06
2. hello_totti (Russia) $35,985.14
3. Renato “bauruzito” Valentim (Brazil) $26,821.91
4. FTFT.726 (China) $19,991.99
5. p0k3rj0e88 (Belgium) $14,901.24
6. Stian “SlemPastor” Hansen (Norway) $11,106.80
7. BC1989RF (Hungary) $8,278.58
8. Daniel “dougiedan678” McAulay (United Kingdom) $6,170.53
9. MkMyWishFish (Untied Kingdom) $4,599.27


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Jason Kirk is a Freelance Contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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