Fifteen winners were determined on Day 9 of the SCOOP.
It’s been said that to succeed in poker one must “have the patience of Buddha.” As it happens, it appears that a handful of men took that a bit too literally. In a scandal that has shaken South Korea, a group of Buddhist monks were caught drinking and playing high stakes poker in a luxury hotel.
The poker game was allegedly recorded by a fellow monk, but it is unknown whether he was present at the festivities or simply hid the camera in the room knowing the game was going to take place. In the video, eight monks, who are members of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, can be seen sitting on the floor drinking, smoking, and playing cards. The footage was leaked to the South Korean media and in turn broadcast to the entire nation.
A former chief priest of the monk order, Seong-ho (his real name is Jeong Han-young), said that more than 1 billion won ($865,000) exchanged hands during the 13-hour poker session. He personally received the USB drive containing the video from the person who recorded it, but is keeping the man’s identity a secret for his protection (another report says that Seong-ho found the drive on the floor of his temple, though in either case, it does appear that he knows from whom it came).
The revelation that these activities occurred has been devastating to many of the estimated 10 million to 15 million followers of the Jogye order. Not only is gambling outside of casinos illegal in South Korea, but most or all of the money that was gambled in the hotel poker game likely originated from followers’ donations. The Jogye order is the dominant order of the Seon school, which is also the primary school of Korean Buddhism.
Jogye order president Ja-seung released a statement, saying, “We deeply apologize for the behavior of several monks in our order. The monks who have caused public concern are currently being investigated and will be punished according to Buddhist regulations as soon as the truth is verified by the prosecution.”
Six high-ranking officials of the Executive Office of the Jogye Order have resigned, according to an order spokesman. “Six officials, including the director of the administration and the director of finance, stepped down,” he said, adding that Ja-seung has ordered the offending monks to be punished according to Jogye code.
Since the video came out, Seong-ho has also told a morning radio show that two Jogye leaders, including Ja-seung himself, paid for sex at a “room salon” in southern Seoul. Room salons are upscale clubs that tend to cater to well-to-do businessmen, offering alcohol, music, dancing, karaoke, strip shows, and female “companionship.” Sex is not a standard service, though it can be had for the right price.
The female-for-hire incident allegedly took place before Ja-seung was elected president of the order in 2009. Seong-ho said that he protested in front of Jogye Temple in Seoul for more than three months after finding out about what happened. He alleges that he was beaten up by members of the order for his protest, resulting in a three week hospital stay.
Seong-ho was kicked out of the order last year for “bad behavior,” which allegedly included spreading baseless rumors and violence.
May 152012
PokerNews and Winner Poker bring you the $30,000 Winner Wednesday Dozen promotion!
May 152012
PokerNews and Winner Poker bring you the $30,000 Winner Wednesday Dozen promotion!
May 152012
On Sunday, May 6, PokerStars kicked off the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), a series of 40 events, which offers three buy-in levels, for a total of 120 tournaments. With $30,000,000 guaranteed the year prior, anticipation was high for this year’s series, especially among members of Team PokerStars Pro.
Perhaps no one was more excited for the long grind more than online sensation, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom, who was taking a break from his usual cash-game surrounding. “Gon bad in cash games lately, so looking forward to play many nice scoops now! #SCOOP2012 @PokerStars,” he tweeted prior to the May 6 kickoff.
Now, Blom may have been running bad in the cash games, but nothing could have been further from the truth in tournaments. In SCOOP 2-M $200 N0-Limit Hold’em, the Swede was one of 8,240 entrants looking to claim a share of the $1,648,000 prize pool. Much to the delight of the railbirds, Blom made it all the way to the final table and went on to square off against “RaisingRay91″ in heads-up play with a 4-1 chip lead.
In the fifth hand between the two, “RaisingRay91″ opened with a raise on the button and was met with a three-bet by Blom. “RaisingRay91″ responded with a four-bet shoved for 30 big blinds with and Blom called with the superior . The board ran out and Blom won his first-ever SCOOP title, not to mention the $247,200 first-place prize.
Then, just a day later, Blom conquered a field of 486 players in SCOOP 3-H: $500 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max with Rebuys for $160,000 and his second title. “Nice to win the two scoops, can’t have a single winning day in PLO tho, don’t know what I’m doing wrong there. #SCOOP2012,” Blom said in a tweet, showing that even in victory, the allure of cash games were on his mind.
Daniel Negreanu was another pro excited for action, thought he couldn’t play right away. “Playing my first #SCOOP2012 2-7 Single Draw NL playing all three, the $11 $109 and $1050,” Negreanu tweeted. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have things exactly right: “Haha OMG I have been playing the wrong game this whole time! It’s 5 card draw HIGH oops! Too funny.”
Once he knew he was playing SCOOP #6-H: $1,000 No-Limit 5-Card Draw, Negreanu quickly got busy navigating the 84-player field. “11 players left 5 Card Draw #SCOOP2012 and I’m chip leader with a decent lead. This game is way more fun than its given credit for.”
Negreanu went on to make the final table, where he was joined by “Maestro Shao” and fellow Team Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier; in fact, the triumvirate were the last men standing. Then, when the blinds were blinds were 1,250/2,500, “Maestro Shao” opened for 5,500 from the small blind and Grospellier reraised all in for 110,561 from the BB. “Maestro Shao” made the call and took two cards while Grospellier took just one. The latter showed for two pair, but it no good against the of his opponent.
After the hand, Grospellier tweeted: “Sick fished out to finish 3rd… oh well good luck to @realkidpoker . was lots of fun anyways. #SCOOP2012.”
Likewise, that prompted Negreanu to take to his own account: “I’m heads up for a SCOOP bracelet. He has the lead after busting @elkypoker,” though his enthusiasm didn’t last long: “Another 2nd HA! Had him all in with KK vs JJ lost then a big one with AATT vs 444. Oh well. No more SCOOPs for me this week unfortunately.”
Despite Kid Poker’s runner-up finish, the members of Team PokerStars Pro were on a roll in this year’s SCOOP with many others having their eyes firmly fixed on obtaining online glory. Here’s just a small sample of the excitement whipped up on Twitter in the last week:
Jason Mercier: “Gonna be playing #scoop2012 starting on thursday. Really excited! Haven’t played an online tourney in 13 months #soundslikeimDUE”
Liv Boeree: “Landed in Amsterdam… Only a few hours til home and two weeks of Scooping the #SCOOP2012.”
Jude Ainsworth: “Roll on the SCOOP. Feeling good today can’t wait to start playing”
Chad Brown: “playing in 1knlh @pokerstars scoops. wsop champion pius heinz is at my table. i final tabled the 215 badugi last night coming in 6th place.”
Victor Ramdin: “#Scoop5 i just made my 1st cash of the series still in the 215 turbo and a few other tourneys here on PokerStars”
Eugene Katchalov: “Playing day 3 of #SCOOP2012 today. Never played 5 card Draw NL before but I like it!”
There are plenty of SCOOP tournaments remaining on this year’s schedule, so be sure to take part and test your talents against the game’s best.
May 152012
Multiple wins seem to be the story in this year’s Spring Championship of Online Poker. It’s happened a few times already that a SCOOP superstar has picked up two watches in one festival. Saša “Krumpir” Zorc is not one of those people, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a two-time winner.
Zorc comes from Zagreb, Croatia, a place where he almost didn’t make it to adulthood. He discovered he had cancer at age 16. And he beat it.
“I don’t really like talking about it, but I guess its kinda important since it really helps to put things in perspective,” Zorc said. “Losing sessions are nothing horrible really.”
After a fight like that, you might imagine Zorc would be too tired to fight for anything else in life. Perhaps he would have just enough left in him to enjoy the little things the universe provides. Maybe that would be just enough.
Not so much. Instead, Zorc attacked life, learned everything he could, and has done more than three people could reasonably be expected to do in one lifetime. He got an advanced degree in math specializing in decision theory. During his college years, he spent a good deal of time, in his words “geeking out” in high level gaming. It was around that time he also started playing poker.
“(I was) winning a lot more than I could possibly make with any starting salary in east Europe,” he said.
Meanwhile, he started an IT company that focused on payment solutions, got into management consulting, and worked 70-hour weeks. Oh, and he also got his MBA during that time.
He’s since taken a break…to pursue his PhD, of course.
“It’s left me a lot more time to spend on poker,” he said. “I am a HU PLO specialist, and spend most of my time on those tables, where I am, as far as I know, one of the bigger winners.”
He’s not exaggerating about his speciality. Last year, he finished runner up in the PLO HU high buy-in SCOOP event. This year, he won the medium buy-in of the same event.
“Just another day at work,” he said with a wink. “But, seriously, the win is nice, but it’s within the normal monthly variance of the stakes I play, so doesn’t really affect my life nor my bankroll in a significant manner.”
That, folks, is the outlook of a man who has already won the biggest fight of his life. He may go on to win a lot more watches, WCOOP bracelets, or whatever he wants. It will all be just another day at work. Once you’ve won your life, it seems, SCOOP wins may not seem all that monumental. That said, when you’re looking to keep track of the extra life you’ve earned, the hands of a SCOOP championship watch will do the job just fine.
Almost exactly eight months ago pistons87 was beating the best in the $10,300 WCOOP Heads-Up Championship. It was far from a soft field but Pistons87 nevertheless came out on top of the 32-player capped field to win $119,000, despite having to face Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Max Lykov and Daniel Negreanu on his way to the final.
Although the players pistons87 had to beat for his SCOOP title may not be as well known, definitely less photographed, there was certainly some talent to beat. g.karolis and AaronBeen had $1,593,536 and $1,597,257 in online winnings to their names respectively, nutsinho had racked up $421,958 while JRADF79′s $209,062 was hardly to be sniffed at.
pistons87 had proved that he could do it at the highest levels and also when it was up close and personal. He was always going to be a threat, but first he had to reach the final table, the only time in the entire comp the action was as large as – gasp – five-handed. The player to go was a short stacked takechip who had shoved [8s][9s] and was looked up by nutsinho with [as][2c]. An ace on the turn was good enough to take the action down to five after 24 30-minute levels had played out, a good half-a-day of online battle.
Looking at the numbers
The money jumps were considerable – $28,029 for fifth and $208,797 for first – and with no breakaway big stack or tiddly short stack (AaronBeen was shortest with 95 big blinds, nutsinho largest with 150 big blinds) numbers were quickly suggested and accepted. No wrangling, just a satisfied acceptance that each would be striking a huge return on their $2,100 investment. The title, the SCOOP watch and the not-so-small matter of an additional $6,000 was still to play for. These five had outlasted 390 other players, a field of which had cumulatively built up a $790,000 prize pool.
Players that made the money but were knocked out before the chop included Tom ‘kingsofcards’ Marchese (9th, $12,600.50), Team PokerStars Online’s Diego ‘vgreen22′ Brunelli (8th, $12,600.50) and Joseph ‘subiime’ Cheong (16th, $9,361.50), who final tabled the Gardner-Mercier-Galfond flip event just a couple of days ago.
Hat tips should also be made in the general direction of both pyszalek, a final table finisher at the beginning of this series, and three-time WCOOP winner Dan ‘Djk123′ Kelly who also enjoyed deep runs finishing 23rd and 24th for $6,912.50 each. Plenty of other threats bobbled around, including Jim ‘Mr_bigQueso’ Collopy (38th, $5,180.70). But the tournament was no longer about them.
The final four five
After the deal had been struck it still took a full two hours for a winner to be crowned. Did players take a more aggressive line than they would have otherwise? Most likely. Did they shovel it in with any two? Certainly not. The final table was toughly contested with big hands and some even larger calls. Following a double big slick chopped pot of half-a-million chips (1,975,000 were in play), JRADF79 correctly refused to believe the check-raise of AaronBeen and jammed it in with [qd][4d] on the turn of a [2c][Qh][7h][Ks] board. AaronBeen called it of with a big [jh][th] draw with but failed to get there with the [7s] dropping on the river.
That left AaronBeen short and he open-shoved for 15 big blinds (59,508) with [jh][th]. He was called by pistons87 with [7s][7c], who was at that time the second shortest player at the table. That pulled pistons87 back into the tournament, now effectively a winner-takes-all freeroll. The extra ballast would come in handy less than five minutes later.
The 8-bet shove
Four players remained when JRADF79 min-raised under-the-gun to 8,000 and was called by nutsinho in the small blind before pistons87 three-bet squeezed to 26,850. JRADF79 came back over the top for 45,795 and, pistons87 pumped it up 88,500, which was returned for 140,000, re-min-raised to 191,500 and finally shoved by JRADF79. pistons87 made the call for his remaining 286,000 with [kh][kc] way ahead of JRADF79′s pocket tens. That rocketed pistons87 into the chip lead, a position from which he never wavered.
The same could not be said for the previous chip leader JRADF79, another ten minutes and he was out. JRADF79 called a three-bet from g.karolis on the button with [jh][th] and shoved for 2,59,439 over a 33,093 c-bet on a [td][5h][7s] flop. g.karolis made the call and showed pocket jacks. No suck out and JRADF79 was sent to the rail $100,308 richer leaving pistons87 with two players with combined PokerStars online tournaments winnings of more than $3,000,000. It was one of those tournaments titans to go next; nutsinho calling all-in with a flush draw against the flopped straight of pistons87.
That set up the heads-up finale with pistons87 weighing in with a 1,356,000 to 619,000 chip lead, but with almost 400 big blinds in play neither player would need to rush in for a double or a knockdown. The heads-up took 40 minutes.
It was mainly small pots and pre-flop raises but there was moment where g.karolis couldn’t seem to find the trigger to fire the river of a [3d][kh][5h][ks][4c] board, which is not to say that pistons87 would not have called with his pocket eights. That 313,770 pot gave pistons87 a three-to-one chip lead and some 20 minutes later the knockout blow was finally landed, a flip with pocket nines up against two over cards. pistons87 came out on top to take the title, the SCOOP watch and the extra $6,000 of cheese.
The final table payouts
1. pistons87, Canada, $106,336*
2. g.karolis, Lithuania, $100,308*
3. nutsinho, Canada, $107,054*
4. JRADF79, Belgium, $89,09*
5. AaronBeen, Mexico, $76,504*
*Indicates a deal was made.
Number of players: 395
Players paid: 44
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In an epic heads-up battle that lasted 154 hands Russian forhayley overcame a ten to one deficit to defeat Luke ‘LFmagic’ Fields, who once again had to settle for second place in a SCOOP event.
Four-max might be a relatively new poker format but the players, 2205 of them, turned out in their droves to create a prize pool of $441,000 that more than doubled the guarantee of $200,000. Amongst the 280 who shared the prize pool were Team Pro Marcin “Goral” Horecki (271st), Team Online’s Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger (259th) and current overall SCOOP leaderboard leader Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb (268th).
At the start action was, as expected, fast. It took just five hours for 2205 to become 200, but another five hours to reach the final five. A quirk of this format is that the final table is the only juncture at which the table is not four-max as it starts with five players to avoid an imbalance of three on one table and two on another during hand for hand play.
So hand for hand play began with half a dozen left and would last 27 minutes. The unfortunate six place finisher was Hattenaf from Denmark. He five-bet all-in with [Ks][Qs] but ran into swordfish007′s pocket kings. This pot meant that swordfish007 – who finished fourth in SCOOP-08-H $1,050 NL Hold’em – would go to the final table as chip leader.
Final table chip counts
Seat 1: forhayley, 2,228,010
Seat 2: LFmagic 1,534,775
Seat 3: pkrbt 894,617
Seat 4: wywrotX 1,871,262
Seat 5: swordfish007 4,496,336
Oo Oo Oo it’s magic
It was a deepstacked final table as blinds were just 8,000 – 16,000 ante 2,000 when the final table got underway, but it took just five hands for the first significant action to take place as LFmagic doubled through swordfish007, queens against tens all-in pre-flop.
Although this double up didn’t give LFmagic the chip lead from this point on he was very much the pilot, dictating the action and seemingly involved in all the significant pots.
Five become four
The shortest stack coming to the final table was Sweden’s pkrbt and he was the first to exit. With blinds at 10,000 – 20,000 ante 2,500 he three-bet all-in for 629,563 with [Ah][4c], forhayley made a brave call with pocket fives and the pair held up on the board of [Jc][4s][Kh][3s][2h], pkrbt collected $9,371.25 for his deep run.
Down to four and with stacks close:
Seat 1: forhayley 2,938,993
Seat 2: LFmagic 2,975,050
Seat 4: wywrotX 2,013,316
Seat 5: swordfish007 3,097,641
Talks of striking a deal began:
swordfish007: u guys wanna look at numbers or not?
wywrotX: would not mind taking a look
LFmagic: happy to have a peep
forhayley: sorry guys, dont wanna make any deal
LFmagic: np
swordfish007: alright good luck
wywrotX: cool
wywrotX: more fun this way
With a deal shot down play continued.
Magic action
As previously mentioned, the UK’s LFmagic was involved in most pots and the major battles were taking place against Canada’s wywrotX.
The opening salvo was a mere four million chip pot in which both players held king-jack on a board of [Kc][5d][Js][6d][6c]. Amazingly they would chop another 1,750,000 pot soon after when both holding king-jack. But this was the appetiser for what was to come.
With blinds now 17,500 – 35,000 ante 4375 wywrotX found himself as the short stack with just under a milllion. He min-raised to 70,000, it folded to LFmagic in the big blind who set him all-in and he made the call.
wywrotx: [9c][9d]
LFmagic: [2c][2d]
The board came [Ac][Ah][4c][3d][9h] and the Canadian took a chunk from LFmagic, but just 10 minutes later the magic man would get his man.
Wrot can you do?
With all the history that wywrotx and LFmagic had created between them at this final table you might expect the former’s exit hand to involve some deep thinking levelling war, fact is it was just a cooler.
Jacks into queens four-handed meant wywrotX was sent packing in fourth, winning $14,636.79.
Three is the magic number
As three handed play began the stacks looked like this
Seat 1: forhayley 3,871,610
Seat 2: LFmagic 5,287,655
Seat 5: swordfish007 1,865,735
For much of the final table swordfish007 had taken a back seat, letting the others duke it out, during three-handed play he would be in the thick of it though, perhaps sensing that it was now or never.
But it was mostly bad news as he took two big hits. First he 4-bet folded button versus small blind against forhayley, then on the river with the board reading [Jh][As][Jc][5c][5s] with 1,000,000 in the pot and 1,467,690 back he folded to LFmagic’s bet of 1,500,000.
Although he managed to double through LFmagic with pocket sevens against [As][Qs] on a board of [6h][7c][Kc][5c][Kd] the reprieve would not last long as LFmagic found himself on the right side of a cooler once again.
With blinds at 20,000 – 40,000 ante 5,000 swordfish007 made it 80,000 to go with [Ah][Qc], LFMagic three-bet to 200,000 with [Ad][Ks], swordifsh007 moved all-in and LFMagic called. The board ran [2s][5s][Th][6s][Td] and just like that we were heads-up.
Double-double
As heads-up began LFMagic had the advantage with 8,069,642 to forhayley’s 2,955,358, with blinds still at 20,000 – 40,000 ante 5,000 there was still plenty of room to play.
Although forhayley won his fair share of pots, heads-up was a one way tide chip wise as LFmagic won the significant pots. He had ground forhayley down to just 874,333 over 42 heads-up hands, when we had the first all-in showdown. It was all-in pre-flop and the players showed:
LFmagic: [Ac][2c]
forhayley: [4h][4d]
The pair held up as the board ran [2d][10c][10s][6h][Qh].
14 hands later forhayley did it again, he’d been knocked back down to just over a million when he found pocket fives and LFmagic had [Ac][8d], again the pair held up.
Tide turns
The momentum was now with forhayley he closed the gap to 4,750,000 plays 6,250,000 as momentum swung his way. He then took the chip lead after he picked off a LFmagic three-barrel bluff.
Another double double
Then came the key hand of the 164 heads up battle, as if LFmagic is to be believed he was this time on the wrong end of the cooler.
Holding [tc][9c] forhayley flopped a straight on a [Kc][Qh][Jc] flop there was betting on the flop the [Js] turn and the [4s] river, where LFmagic called and mucked.
Upon seeing forhayley’s hand he said: “ommfg, had AJ, is that real. Have you 10-1,some blow this.”
Indeed that pot meant that the chipstacks at the start of heads-up play were now reversed with forhayley holding a 8.7m to 2.3m chip lead.
But LFmagic was not done, it was his turn to double up twice as the short stack.
23 hands later down to just over 1,100,000 he was all-in and at risk for the first time during heads-up play. Forhayley set him in from the small blind with [qc][4s], LFmagic called all-in with [Kd][10s]. A board of [Ah][8h][7d][5c][7c] gave him the double up.
Another 23 hands passed before he would score another double up. During those hands forhayley had held the upper hand and LFmagic was down to just under 1,500,000. From the button forhayley min-raised to 120,000, LFmagic moved all-in for 1,467,692 and forhayley made the call.
LFmagic: [7h][7c]
forhayley: [Js][td]
The board ran [kd][kc][6d][kh][8c] and meant stacks were now close to 8,000,000 for forhayley and 3,000,000 for LFmagic.
Maxed out
This gargantuan heads-up battle continued for another 20 hands before yet another cooler sent the title to Russia.
A rivered straight against two pair saw all the chips fly in on the river. The pot, the title and $68,125.68 were shipped to Russia as forhayley took down this 4-max event.
Final table payouts:
1st – forhayley, Russia, $68,125.68
2nd – LFmagic, United Kingdom, $41,511.33
3rd – swordfish007, Germany, $24,065.37
4th- wywrotX, Canada, $14,636.79
5th – Pkrbt, Sweden, $9,371.25
Number of players: 2205
Number of players paid: 280
Total prizepool: $441,000
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Four.
It’s a number that conjures up many random images, like four wheels on a car or the infamous Fab Four, those mop-topped lads from Liverpool otherwise known as The Beatles. Sometimes it seems like four is everywhere. The Four Noble Truths. The Fantastic Four. The Four Tops. Four Seasons. Final Four. Four Corners. Connect Four. Four Loko.
Then there’s the rare four-leafed clover, a genetic anomaly which is a symbol of good fortune.
Four is the special number for Event #23 because it featured four-handed tables. The twist caters to players who loved to play super-short-handed. SCOOP Event #23-L $27 NL (4-max) attracted 10,523 runners who created a prize pool worth $263,075. The top 1,400 places paid out a cut of the delicious prize pool with $25,439.50 set aside to the eventual champion.
Notables who cashed included Team PokerStars Online Kevin “WizardOfAhhs” Thurman (175th), Team PokerStars Pro João “jomane” Nunes (462nd), and Team PokerStars Pro Dag Palovic (1,414th).
With two tables remaining and eight left in the hunt for a SCOOP crown, HustlerGrune held the lead with over 10.7 million.
Yaovivan hit the road in eighth place when he was ambushed by a cooler — yaovivan’s [Kh][Kc] lost to Faaalk’s [Ac][Ad]. Faaalk won a 7 million pot and he snagged the chip lead with over 13 million… for a brief moment.
NinjasTyle87 bowed out in seventh place when he ran into marodon’s set of fives with [5d][5h]. That pot pushed marodon into the lead with 15 million.
Short-stacked svenstar23 made a final stand with [9s][8s] against marodon’s [Ad][Qd]. The board ran out [As][9d][3h][Jc][3s] and marodon won the pot with a pair of Aces. Unfortunately, svenstar23 bubbled off the final table in sixth place for a $2,180.89 payday.
A pseudo-final table for this event occurred with five players (to avoid hand-for-hand with uneven tables of two and three players). The final five were seated at the same table. With five to go, marodon held the lead with 19 million and capeta333 brought up the rear with 5.8 million.
BLUE TRAIN: HustlerGrune eliminated in 5th place
After almost an hour of five-handed action, a player finally was knocked out.
HustlerGrune min-raised to 400,000, marodon raised to 796,521, and HustlerGrune called. The flop was [Jd][Ts][3h], which prompted marodon to fire out 651,425, and HustlerGrune called. The turn was the [9s]. marodon bet 1,365,878 and HustlerGrune called. The [Td] fell on the river, which slowed down marodon, who checked. HustlerGrune shoved all-in for 5,865,584 and marodon called. HustlerGrune bet with nothing, except Ace-high holding [As][5s]. Meanwhile, marodon won the pot with [Js][9h] for two pair. HustlerGrune bubbled off the final table in fifth place and won $3,501.52.
Event #24-L NL 4-max – Final Table Chip Counts:
Seat 1: marodon (25,758,023)
Seat 2: capeta333 (3,131,662)
Seat 3: Faaalk (8,499,588)
Seat 5: saadleb (15,225,727)
The final table of four was officially set with marodon leading everyone with 25.7 million. Action was paused while the final four players discussed a deal. The original deal was shot down by capeta333, who was seeking a little more. After a tense discussion, the players figured out how to chop up the money, with a non-negotiable $2,000 set aside for the champion. Thus, play resumed.
MOMENT’S NOTICE: saadleb eliminated in 4th place
An escalating war of aggression broke out and when the dust settled, someone went home. The fracas began when saadleb opened to 550,000, and marodon responded with a re-raise to 1,135,478. The response from saadleb was loud and clear — he four-bet shoved for 13,995,907. marodon inta-called with [Tc][Ts], and was ahead against saadleb’s [Ah][7s]. The flop was [Kc][Td][3d] and marodon improved to a set of tens. The turn was the [Qs] and the river was the [9c]. The pot went to marodon, and saadleb busted out in fourth place, which was good for a $14,135.95 payday courtesy of the deal.
That hand pushed marodon over 35.7 million. Faaalk held around 9.2 million and capeta333 was just under 6 million.
LAZY BIRD: capeta333 eliminated in 3rd place
It didn’t take very long before someone busted in third place. Here’s how it happened…. capeta333 min-raised to 500,000, Faaalk bumped it up to 1,146,785, and capeta333 called. The flop was [Ac][As][7h]. Faaalk fired out 1,064,785, capeta333: shoved for 4,629,039, and Faaalk called. Faaalk held [Ah][Ts] for trip Aces, while capeta333 showed [7d][6c] for a meek two pair. The turn was the [Jh] and the river was the [Qd]. Faaalk’s trips held up and capeta333 was busto in third place, which paid out $8,323.88.
HEADS-UP: Sweden vs.Moldova
Seat 1: marodon (28,179,110)
Seat 3: Faaalk (24,435,890)
Despite the monster leas, Faaalk pulled somewhat close to marodon. Only 3.7 million separated the two.
Faaalk struck first blood. On a board of [Qc][7d][3c][5d][Ad], marodon took a stab with a 2,875,414 bet, but Faaalk popped him to 7,456,785. It looked as though marodon knew he was in trouble, and bailed from the hand. Faaalk won the pot without a showdown and improved to 33M, while marodon slipped to 19K.
Over the next four hands — Faaalk won three small pots and another sizable pot to add more chips to his arsenal. On a board of [Qs][5s][2c][Ac][7h], marodon check-called a bet of 1,806,785 from Faaalk. Faaalk showed [Ad][7d] for two pair — Aces and sevens — and marodon mucked. That hand pushed Faaalk over 36.7 million. Faaalk picked up momentum and passed 40 million. It was only a matter of time before Faaalk finished off marodon and ate his lunch.
LOCOMOTION: marodon eliminated in 2nd place; Faaalk wins SCOOP title
On the final hand, Faaalk held over a 4-1 chip advantage. Faaalk opened with a min-raise to 600,000, marodon re-raised to 1,212,547, Faaalk four-bet to 2,106,785, marodon five-bet to 3,001,023, Faaalk six-bet shoved for 43,041,892, and marodon called all-in. Faaalk felt confident that his [Jh][Jc] would hold up against marodon’s [Ah][4h]. The board ran out [7d][4s][3s][6h][9c]. Faaalk’s Jacks held up and he won the pot to ship the tournament. Meanwhile, marodon busted out in second place and based on the deal that was made with monster lead. Madolva’s marodon won $20,165.18 for a runner-up performance.
Faaalk from Sweden, earned $12,676.12 for first place and also won a cool watch for his first SCOOP title.
Event #23-L NL 4-Max – Final Table Payouts and Results:
Entrants: 10,523
Places Paid: 1,400
1. Faaalk (Sweden) – $12,676.12 **
2. marodon (Moldova) – $20,165.18 **
3. capeta333 (Brazil) – $8,323.88 **
4. saadleb (Lebanon) – $14,135.95
** denotes a deal was cut among the final four
Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.
May 152012
Time to mix things up.
No-Limit Hold’em is still the most popular form of poker in the world. The game’s balance of revealed information and mystery make mastering it a lifetime goal. The “No-Limit” limit to betting attracts all the gambling fanatics and thrill seekers.
But another game has also gained popularity with gambling and strategy junkies. That game is Pot-Limit Omaha.
With four hole cards at a player’s disposal, the action is relentless. There are straight and flush draws in almost every hand, there are pairs of pairs and the pots are large.
If only there was a way to combine these two games for players…hmmm…
Wait, we can! We have the technology.
Event #22-H let players from around (most of) the world play a PLO and a NLHE tournament for the price of one. The cost? $1,050. What did you get? A 5,000 starting stack, 30-minute levels alternating between PLO and NLHE and a chance at a $436,000 prize pool.
436 players made the $1,050 investment today, including 14 members Team PokerStars Pro and Team PokerStars Online.
Out of those 14, George “jorj95″ Lind would be the only one to cash. The top 54 players made the money in Event #22-H, and Lind finished 53rd.
While Lind’s finish won him $2,180, the tournament champion would have a $83,668 payday.
That payday went to marroca5, who had to best a field of some of the best PLO and NLHE players in the world.
There was a combination of WSOP bracelet winners, EPT Champions, and WCOOP and SCOOP watch owning players like ElkY, Isildur1, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Vanessa Selbst, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet and Julian “MrCoco” Gardner in today’s field.
While marroca5 had a dominating lead throughout most of the final table, it’s safe to say that he didn’t have an easy road to victory.
ROAD TO THE FINAL TABLE
marroca5 would start the final table as chip leader but, like every player in the tournament, he only started with 5,000 chips.
He had to work his way to the top. marroca5 first closed in on the chip lead with 14 players left.
In a PLO round with 1,500/3,000 blinds, Sira Al Aziz raised to 6,000 from UTG. marroca5 called and the flop came [ad][jh][jc].
Sira Al Aziz led out for 8,250 and marroca5 raised to 21,000. Sira Al Aziz called and a [4c] came on the turn, marroca5 raised to 29,800 and Sira Al Aziz moved all in for 85,394.
marroca5 called and Sira Al Aziz showed [ac][as][kd][qd] for a full house. But marroca5 could beat a full house, he showed [jd][js][5c][6s] for quad jacks.
That’s Pot-Limit Omaha.
The turn was an uneventful [8d] and Sira Al Aziz was eliminated while marroca5 saw his stack grow to 325,587. Python817 held the lead at the time with 339,623, but marroca5 would win a few more hands and snatch the lead away.
marroca5 really pulled away when he burst the final table bubble.
The game was NLHE and the blinds were 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante. marroca5 raised to 8,000 from UTG and Exclusive re-raised to 22,500. Action was back to marroca5, who 4-bet to 44,800, Exclusive then moved all in for 278,836, a bet that marroca5 quickly called.
Exclusive showed [ah][kh] while marroca5 turned over [kd][kh].
The [10h][qd][5h] gave Exclusive hopes for a straight draw, but the turn was a [5c] and the river brought another 4, the [4d].
Exclusive was elimated in 10th place and marroca5 entered the final table with the chip lead.
FINAL TABLE
When our final table was set, it looked something (exactly) like this:
Seat 1: JIZOINT – 353,239
Seat 2: benzidebuc – 95,841
Seat 3: RunThisTable – 215,930
Seat 4: charder30 – 296,118
Seat 5: ZeeJustin – 86,929
Seat 6: birs320 – 56,569
Seat 7: Python817 – 263,629
Seat 8: marroca5 – 727,911
We reached the final table on the last hand hand before the break. When the final nine came back from their five-minute intermission, we had our first elimination.
The game was NLHE and on the first hand of the final table, MrCoco — who recently won Event #18-H — moved all in for 83,334.
benzidebuc called and MrCoco showed a pair of 6s. If he was hoping for a flip, he must’ve been incredibly disappointed to see benzidebuc’s [ks][kc].
The board fell [jh][3c][5h][4d][8h] and MrCoco was eliminated. His 9th place finish earned him $7,237.60.
The next elimination came with the next round of Pot-Limit Omaha. Blinds were 2,500/5,000 and birs320 raised to 10,000.
marroca5 — who had 760,000 compared to birs320′s 79,000 — called and the flop came [7h][5d][4h]. birs320 checked and marroca5 bet 12,500. birs320 raised and marroca5 re-raised, prompting birs320 to move all in.
marroca5 called and showed [5h][6h][8h][8s] while birs320 showed [ad][qc][jh][3h]. The turn was an [ac] and a [6c] came on the river, giving marroca5 an 8-high straight.
birs320 was eliminated in 8th place, a finish worth $9,810. marroca5, on the other hand, saw his lead grow to 872,035. Christian “charder30″ Harder was sitting in second with 443,443.
A few hands later, benzidebuc raised from UTG:
benzidebuc was eliminated in 7th place, earning $14,170.
benzidebuc’s elimination left Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo as the tournament short stack with just under 90,000.
In the same round of PLO, ZeeJustin raised to 10,000 from UTG and marroca5 called from the button. RunThisTable re-raised to 42,500 and ZeeJustin moved all in for 88,429.
RunThisTable called and showed [ac][6s][qc][kd], while ZeeJustin held [kc][ks][qs][js].
The [9c][2d][8h] flop gave ZeeJustin a straight draw and the river would complete it with a [10c].
ZeeJustin doubled up to about 190,000 while RunThisGame saw his stack shrink to 50,000.
The game switched back to NLHE and the blinds were 3,000/6,000 with a 750 ante.
JIZOINT raised to 144,000 from the small blind and RunThisTable called from the big, putting himself all in.
RunThisTable showed [jd][8d] and was up against JIZOINT’s [ad][ks].
The flop brought an [as] and RunThisTable was eliminated in 6th place. His finish would add $18,530 to his bankroll.
THE SLOW FOUR
ZeeJustin entered the table short-stacked but managed a double up. But despite his double up, he’d find himself short-stacked again with five players to go
Python817 raised to 12,655 and ZeeJustin called from the big blind. The flop came [6d][4h][10s] and Python817 bet 17,455. ZeeJustin raised to 44,000 and Python817 moved all in for 230,624.
When ZeeJustin called, Python817 showed [as][ad]. ZeeJustin’s [6c][4c] was significantly worse pre-flop, but now he had two-pair.
ZeeJustin’s hand would hold up and he’d double up to 337,966.
Python817 — on the other hand — was left with around 70,000. He wouldn’t last long.
Python817 moved all in for 66,421from the button and JIZOINT called from the big blind.
JIZOINT showed [qs][10s] and was going to need some improvement to knock out Python817, who held [as][7h].
The [3s][10h][8s] flop brought the help JIZOINT needed, and a [qd] on the turn brought even more. A [5c] came on the river and Python817 was eliminated in 5th place. He’d take home $24,416 for his finish.
When play got down to four players, Justin Bonomo suggested a deal.
“4-way even chop?” asked Bonomo. “it’s 56K for all.”
“serious question?” morroca5 asked. At the time, Bonomo had around 238,000 while marooca5 had more than 1MM.
The table didn’t agree on Bonomo’s deal.
But then Bonomo started chipping up:
Bonomo would keep winning pots until — all of the sudden — he snatched the lead away from marroca5 for the first time:
THE QUICK ONE
Four-handed play had been going on for about an hour without an elimination. Then, all of the sudden, marroca5 re-claimed his tournament dominance.
In a NLHE round with 5,000/10,000 blinds and a 1,250 ante, ZeeJustin raised to 20,000. marroca5 re-raised to 50,800 and ZeeJustin made it 100,000 to go.
marroca5 called and the flop came [6h][8s][10c]. ZeeJustin led out for another 100,000 and — after thinking for a bit — marroca5 raised to 220,000.
ZeeJustin folded and was left with 445,571 while marroca5 was back up to over 1MM. Two hands later, marroca5 would get himself a double kill.
marroca5 raised to 20,000 and JIZOINT moved all in for 253,296. Charder30 reshoved for 396,293 from the small blind and ZeeJustin folded from the big blind.
Action was on marroca5, who tanked for a bit before making the call.
marroca5: [10h][10c]
JIZOINT: [4c][4h]
charder30: [ac][jc]
The board came [6h][6c][8d][3d][8s] and all of the sudden we were heads up.
JIZOINT was eliminated in 4th — earning $34,880 — while charder30 got 3rd place, a finish worth $45,780.
This last hand also gave marroca5 a 3-1 chip lead in the heads up match.
marroca5: 1,679,274
ZeeJustin: 500,726
ZeeJustin raised to 20,000 in the first hand of the heads up match and took down the blinds.
The next hand would be the last.
marroca5 raised to 20,000 and ZeeJustin called. ZeeJustin checked the [7d][8d][ks] flop and marroca5 bet 21,800. ZeeJustin raised to 52,000 and marroca5 made it 110,000.
ZeeJustin then 4-bet to 180,000 and marroca5 moved all in. ZeeJustin made the call and showed [kd][5d] for a pair of kings.
marroca5 held [kc][8h] for a pair of kings and a pair of 8s. The turn was an [8c], giving marroca5 the full house and the title of Event #22-H Champion.
ZeeJustin was eliminated in 2nd place for $63,130 while marroca5 won his first SCOOP watch and $83,668.
2012 SCOOP Event #22-H ($1,050 NLHE/PLO) Results:
1st place: marroca5 ($83,668.40)
2nd place: ZeeJustin ($62,130)
3rd place: charder30 ($45,780)
4th place: JIZOINT ($34,880)
5th place: Python817 ($24,416)
6th place: RunThisTable ($18,530)
7th place: benzidebuc ($14,170)
8th place: birs320 ($9,810)
9th place: MrCoco ($7,237.60)
There’s still plenty of SCOOP action to go. Be sure to check out the SCOOP homepage for a full schedule of the remaining events. Congratulations to marroca5 for his first SCOOP victory, we’ll see you next time.
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