As another successful MicroMillions series concludes tonight with the $1 million Main Event (which ended up with a $1.157 million prize pool) the Sunday Majors roll on for the higher stakes players looking for a big score before the 2014 WCOOP starts up on September 8th. After 11 hours of play, Bigdaft and jorginho88 would battle it out heads-up for the Sunday Warm-Up title tonight. jorginho88 used a strong heads-up game to come from behind and win $91,382.17 while claiming this week’s crown.
He’s been in this position many times before and was looking again tonight to add yet another major tournament win at PokerStars. EPT , WCOOP, and SCOOP champ Nicolas “niccc” Chouity outlasted 2,881 players but would have to settle for 20th place ($1,595.55) and try again next week.
Two more eliminations through eight and half hours of play, the final two tables set up with $91,382.17 sitting up top. Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver held the chip lead coming and was looking to improve on his final table in Sunday Warm-Up back in 2010, taking home $61K in third place. In the next 30 minutes, the field would only shrink by three as 15 players took to the five minute break before starting up the ninth hour of play.
Oliver would lose the chip lead to jorginho88, who made a TCOOP final table this year banking $11K in Event #34, shortly after the break but still held on to an average amount of chips heading into hand-for-hand play. 20 minutes into the ninth hour with the blinds just moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K thunder32us would raise to 209,000 from the hijack seat as it folded to DaEngineer in the small blind holding big slick A♦ K♣ and 2.4 million chips. Da_Engineer would shove all-in as thunder32us called for less with pocket tens 10♣ 10♦ . The tens looked good for a double up but 8♣ 8♥ 7â™ 6♦ A♥ the ace on the river had other ideas, closing out the table and setting up for tonight’s Sunday Warm-Up final table below.
Seat 1: Da_Engineer (4498824 in chips)
Seat 2: Bigdaft (2663415 in chips)
Seat 3: AaronBeen (4473507 in chips)
Seat 4: ImDaNuts (3291107 in chips)
Seat 5: IKnewwwIt (2399088 in chips)
Seat 6: jorginho88 (5243886 in chips)
Seat 7: graffd (1265516 in chips)
Seat 8: bolivianSWAG (2088124 in chips)
Seat 9: sickyjimmy (3086533 in chips)
Knew it but pushed anyway
The first hand of the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level turned out to be the last hand for one player. IKnewwwIt would open-shove from the hijack seat as play folded around to sickyjimmy with 2.9 million chips in the big blind. Pocket nines 9♣ 9♥ would be plenty for sickyjimmy to make the call as IKnewwwIt flipped up A♣ 10♣ . The excitement of hitting top pair quickly went away as the next card on the flop made sickyjimmy’s set 5â™ 10♦ 9♦ 2♥ 3♦ knocking out IKnewwwIt in ninth place ($4,931.70).
Lifted from the table
Seven minutes later sickyjimmy was at it again looking to eliminate a shortstack this time. The blinds would hold at 80K/160K ante 16K sickyjimmy min-raised from UTG as it folded around to graffd in the small blind with just 769,516 left and decided to take a shot and shove holding 10♣ Q♦ . sickyjimmy however was not folding jacks J♠J♣ in this spot and despite a couple of extra outs on the turn 2♥ K♥ 7♠A♦ 6♥ graffd would be removed from the table in eighth place ($7,844.30).
Nemesis for a day
jorginho88 removed Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver from the chip lead going into the final table, and now would be responsible for removing Oliver from contention tonight. Just two hands after graffd left, and the blinds holding at 80K/160K ante 16K Oliver would open shove from early position for 1.72 million as jorginho88 made it 4,000,088. The three-bet got all folds as Oliver flipped up pocket jacks J♥ J♣ and jorginho88 showed a slightly better pair with kings K♣ K♦ . No two-outers for Oliver as the 4♣ 7â™ A♥ 10♣ 4♦ sent him off with $13,634.70 in seventh place.
Big SWAG
Moving into the 100K/200K ante 20K blind level two of the shorter stacks decided to combine their efforts in order for a better shot at that $91K up top. Bigdaft shoved from the hijack seat for 2.24 million as it folded around to bolivianSWAG in the small blind holding A♥ 10♣ . 1.18 million chips quickly slid into the pot as Bigdaft turned up a popular hand tonight, pocket jacks J♥ J♣ . This time the jacks would find the other two left in the deck on the 7♣ J♠J♦ 9♥ 6♠flop sending bolivianSWAG some serious cash in sixth place ($19,436.70).
All systems down
Despite some rumblings for a chop talks, nothing would materialize after the five minute hourly break. On the first hand back from the break Da_Engineer would min-raise from the hijack seat as it folded around to jorginho88 who bet 5.6 million from the small blind. That was enough to set Da_Engineer all-in and with pocket nines 9♦ 9♥ Da_Engineer made the call flipping against jorginho88’s Qâ™ A♣ . The queen decided to photobomb the flop Q♥ K♣ Kâ™ 4â™ 8♣ sending Da_Engineer out in fifth place ($25,238.70).
Calling in sick
sickyjimmy might have a reason to call in ill to work tomorrow after getting through over ten hours of play and nearly becoming a Sunday Major champion. With the blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K AaronBeen would open shove from the button for 5.7 million as sickyjimmy had a decision to make with A♣ J♣ and 5.26 million chips. The choice was to call as AaronBeen’s pocket fours took a dive after the flopped jack 5♣ J♦ 8♦ . But the second club on the board was a four 4♣ and with a blank on the river 3♦ AaronBeen collected the 11.2 million chip pot while sickyjimmy took away a healthy score in fourth place ($33,361.50).
Has-Been
The chat box cooled off after the first denial to sit down for chop talks as the final three were determined to award the entire $91K to the winner tonight. Aaron “AaronBeen” Been has several big tournament final tables here at PokerStars including nearly capturing the Super Tuesday back in 2011. Tonight only two player stood between Been and that victory. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K Bigdaft min-raised from the button as Been three-bet to 1.5 million. Bigdaft came back and shoved for 9.4 million as Aaron called for 7.4 million while turning up J♥ A♣ . Pocket tens 10â™ 10♣ held by Bigdaft proved to be too much as the 4♦ 7♥ 8♣ Q♥ 9♣ board did not help and Been took away $48,736.80 in third place.
Long road to victory
The final two would swing chips back and forth for over 30 minutesas Bigdaft started heads-up play with the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and a 18.7 million to 10.2 million chip lead. However, by the time the blinds moved up to 250K/500K ante 50K jorginho88 would use a five-hand win streak to reverse the chip lead to jorginho88’s favor (19.7 million to 9.27 million). After a standard button raise to 500K, Bigdaft would shove for 9.22 million from the big blind holding 3♣ A♥ . jorginho88 with pocket fours 4♥ 4â™ made the call and watched the blank 10♦ 2â™ 10♥ 6♣ 7♥ board deliver this week’s Sunday Warm-Up victory worth $91,382.17!
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (07-27-14):
Entrants: 2,901
Places paid: 414
Prize pool: $580,200.00
1. jorginho88 (Portugal) $91,382.17
2. Bigdaft (United Kingdom) $68,173.50
3. Aaron “AaronBeen” Been (Mexico) $48,736.80
4. sickyjimmy (United Kingdom) $33,361.50
5. Da_Engineer (Canada) $25,238.70
6. bolivianSWAG (Malta) $19,436.70
7. Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver (Costa Rica) $13,634.70
8. graffd (Russia) $7,844.30
9. IKnewwwIt (Canada) $4,931.70
David Aydt is a freelance contributor
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