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Home / Uncategorized / Mike “munchenHB” Telker tops tough final table, takes 12/2/14 Super Tuesday

There are two constants with the Super Tuesday, the weekly $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament on PokerStars — big fields and big names.

Every week the event routinely draws over 500 entrants — that’s happened all but a handful of times this year — and often more than 600. In fact this week’s turnout of 664 represents one of the largest the tourney has drawn and a hefty jump of more than 100 entrants over last week. It also built a prize pool of $664,000, well clear of the weekly $400K guarantee.

Meanwhile for railbirds the Super Tuesday probably can’t be beat as the one tournament that almost always culminates with a final table full of online poker’s best. That was also true this week, with WCOOP star Mike “munchenHB” Telker beating out an especially tough final nine that included Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen, Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart, and other top opponents to earn a handsome $124,832 prize.

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It was just after they’d crossed the tournament’s five-and-a-half-hour mark when spaise411 took a short stack up against this year’s WCOOP Main Event champion Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz with A♥ K♣ versus Holz’s A♦ 10â™  , watched a ten come among the community cards, then hit the rail in 82nd place as the unfortunate last player to be eliminated before the money.

That hand gave Holz an above-average stack with 81 left while Christian “Lyngman” Lyng, rideniuk, and Ka Kwan “kaju85” Lau sat atop the counts. A little over two hours later they were down to 18, with Mike “SirWatts” Watson leading the way, Lyngman and rideniuk still above average, and Feder “CrownUpGuy” Holz (34th, $2,988) and Ka Kwan “kaju85” Lau (55th, $2,324) among those on the rail.

thagrinda444 (18th), Bagofsandddd (17th), and McBluff17 (16th) were the next to go, picking up $4,980 apiece. jenej (15th), Georgios “gkap13” Kapalas (14th), and christianje (13th) followed, earning $6,308 each. Then Christian “Lyngman” Lyng (12th), nicelife (11th), and Victor church (10th) successively went out, each taking away $7,636 for not quite making the final table.

With nine left and Mike “munchenHB” Telker the new chip leader, the final table was underway.

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Seat 1: Mike “munchenHB” Telker (Cyprus) — 651,228
Seat 2: Mike “SirWatts” Watson (Canada) — 535,043
Seat 3: Mads “moumaife84” Smith-Hansen (Denmark) — 585,122
Seat 4: Jose Carlos “TryToExploit” Garcia (Poland) — 526,602
Seat 5: Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen (Canada) — 207,051
Seat 6: Miguel “Gandalf MR” Riera (United Kingdom) — 153,640
Seat 7: Onadownswing (Austria) — 153,528
Seat 8: Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart (Netherlands) — 305,670
Seat 9: rideniuk (Lithuania) — 202,116

About a half-hour into the final table came the first knockout in a hand involving a couple of familiar PokerStars players, Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart and Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen. Following a series of preflop bets culminating with a four-bet shove by Stammen and a five-bet reshove by van den Bijgaart to chase Mike “munchenHB” Telker from the hand, it was Stammen showing A♦ Aâ™  and appearing in good shape versus van den Bijgaart’s Qâ™  Q♥ .

But alas for Stammdogg a queen came on the flop, and when no saving ace followed Stammen was out in ninth.

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Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen

About 10 minutes later Onadownswing three-bet shoved from the big blind over an open from Jose Carlos “TryToExploit” Garcia and the latter called, turning over A♥ K♥ to Onadownswing’s A♦ 10♣ . The board brought no help for Onadownswing who was eliminated in eighth.

The tourney moved past the 10-hour mark, then about 20 minutes later a couple more confrontations involving big hands reduced the field by two. First Mads “moumaife84” Smith-Hansen ran A♦ K♥ into Mike “munchenHB” Telker’s Kâ™  K♦ to fall in seventh.

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Mads “moumaife84” Smith-Hansen

Then a few minutes later Jose Carlos “TryToExploit” Garcia — who won a Sunday Million earlier this year — fell with A♥ J♦ to Miguel “Gandalf MR” Riera’s A♣ K♣ , and Garcia collected sixth-place money.

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Jose Carlos “TryToExploit” Garcia

Next to go in fifth was rideniuk after having fallen short then losing the last of what was about a 13-big blind stack with A♥ 9♥ versus Mike “munchenHB” Telker’s 7♦ 7♣ .

At that point Mike “SirWatts” Watson led the final four with just over 1 million, Miguel “Gandalf MR” Riera was next with close to 930,000, Telker third with just over 770,000, and Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart fourth with a little under 620,000. But by the time they reached the 11-hour mark Telker had grabbed the advantage again after building a stack of nearly 1.2 million.

Like others at this stacked final table, we’ve seen Telker deep in big PokerStars events before, including his WCOOP event victory in 2011 and his fourth-place finish in the 2012 WCOOP Main Event for which he earned more than $1 million after a final table deal.

A while later it Mike “SirWatts” Watson had slipped to just under 200,000 when he followed a Mike “munchenHB” Telker open with an all-in push and Telker called. Watson had A♥ 7♣ versus Telker’s 10â™  9♣ , then the 8♣ 7♥ 10♣ flop hit both players’ hands while giving Telker the better pair. The turn was the 6♣ and river the 5♣ , and Watson was done in fourth.

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Mike “SirWatts” Watson

They’d just made it to the 11-and-a-half-hour mark when one-time TCOOP winner Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart open-pushed from the button for a bit more than half a million chips (about 17 big blinds) and got called by Miguel “Gandalf MR” Riera in the big blind. Riera had Aâ™  J♥ and the edge against van den Bijgaart’s K♣ Q♣ , although the 6♦ 5â™  K♥ flop put the Dutch player in front. The 3♥ on the turn was good for van den Bijgaart, too, but the A♣ fell on the river to give Riera the hand and end van den Bijgaart’s run in third.

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Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart

That hand gave Miguel “Gandalf MR” Riera the lead to start heads-up play with about 1.78 million to Mike “munchenHB” Telker’s 1.53 million. But Riera’s chip advantage did little to lessen Telker’s confidence as he took the first hand between them.

munchenHB: if u just wanna save time i can give u 2nd and we can stop now
Dealer: Gandalf MR has a pair of Jacks
Dealer: Hand #126188323413: Gandalf MR wins pot (260,100) with a pair of Jacks
Gandalf MR: nh
Dealer: Hand #126188348062: Gandalf MR wins pot (37,500)
munchenHB: thanks
Dealer: Gandalf MR, it’s your turn. You have 14 seconds to act
munchenHB: ur cute
munchenHB: u actually think its possible to win
munchenHB: so adorable

Soon Telker had gained the chip lead and pushed ahead well up over 2 million. Then came a hand that saw Riera all in and at risk before the flop with A♣ 10♥ against Telker’s A♦ 3♣ , and when a trey fell on the turn it appeared the tourney was about to end. But a ten came on fifth street and Riera kept his seat.

Telker would soon start chipping away again, however, and by the tourney’s 12-hour mark had more than 2.52 million to Riera’s 793,000. Riera would chip back up over 1 million, then came another key hand that saw Gandalf MR calling a preflop reraise by munchenHB, then the pair watching the flop come 10♦ 8♥ J♣ . Telker led with a bet, Riera shoved, and Telker called, turning over A♣ J♥ for top pair of jacks. But Riera had flopped a straight with Q♣ 9â™  , and the hand held up to push Riera up to a 3-to-1 chip advantage.

The edge would swing back to Telker, however, after he won a preflop all-in with A♥ Q♥ versus Riera’s 2♥ 2♦ when a queen flopped then Telker turned a straight. Before long Telker would be back up over 2.7 million while Riera slipped to less than 575,000. That’s when the final hand took place.

After a button shove from Telker, Riera called all in for 566,341 total, turning over A♥ 3â™  . That hand was ahead of Telker’s K♣ 5â™  , but the 5♣ 10♣ 5♥ flop swiftly changed things by giving munchenHB three of a kind. The K♥ turn made a full house for Telker, making the river no matter — Riera was the runner-up while Telker had captured the win.

Congratulations to Mike “munchenHB” Telker for topping a tough final table to claim yet another big PokerStars score and a Super Tuesday title. He earns nearly $125K for his effort, even more than he did for winning a $5,200 buy-in preliminary event at the 2013 PCA after which the picture below was snapped.

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Mike “munchenHB” Telker

12/2/14 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants: 664
Prize pool: $664,000.00
Places paid: 81

1. Mike “munchenHB” Telker (Cyprus) — $124,832.00
2. Miguel “Gandalf MR” Riera (United Kingdom) — $90,968.00
3. Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart (Netherlands) — $67,064.00
4. Mike “SirWatts” Watson (Canada) — $50,464.00
5. rideniuk (Lithuania) — $35,457.60
6. Jose Carlos “TryToExploit” Garcia (Poland) — $28,220.00
7. Mads “moumaife84” Smith-Hansen (Denmark) — $21,580.00
8. Onadownswing (Austria) — $14,940.00
9. Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen (Canada) — $9,960.00

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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