“That’s a tentpole of the schedule… I’ll be in there every week for sure.”
So reported Jason Somerville yesterday afternoon while referring to the Super Tuesday, PokerStars’ weekly $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament that routinely attracts fields of 500-600 or more to create huge prize pools and (often) six-figure scores for the winners. The newest member of Team PokerStars Pro was speaking to his viewers about his plans to play every day for 70 consecutive days — and stream on PokerStars’ Twitch channel as he does — with the Super Tuesday figuring prominently into those plans.
By the time late registration closed this week a lot of others had joined Somerville under the Super Tuesday tent, with a total field of 626 building a $626,000 prize pool that well exceeded the $400K guarantee. And after almost 12 hours and 20 minutes of play it was Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski of Canada who claimed all the chips and a $93,755.56 first prize following a three-handed final table deal, marking a third time Sikorski has won the event.
Alas for Somerville, he’d be knocked out shy of the money during the afternoon after losing his short stack with Aâ™ Q♥ versus Jonathan “OMGjonyctt” Concepción’s K♣ K♥ . If you’re curious, though, you can watch the archive of him playing the Super Tuesday, a number of sit-n-gos, and his PokerStars Home Game by clicking here.
By the time they were approaching the tourney’s six-hour mark some time later a few hundred others had joined him on the rail as the money bubble had burst, and with 72 players remaining it was 2014 WCOOP Main Event champion Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz sitting atop the counts.
An hour later as the field was whittled down under 40 players, Holz was still in the top five but pedro323 had surged way out in front, building a stack of nearly 380,000 — at the time more than twice that of the nearest challenger.
About a hour after that they’d crossed the eight-hour mark and just 18 remained, with pedro323 still on top and nearing half a million chips while groww was next in line with just over 400,000.
Meanwhile Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz had fallen back in the counts, soon to fall in 18th. Sh0w3rs4u (17th) and Alexander “Schildy1984” Debus (16th) would follow, each earning $5,008 like Holz, then Vlad “dariepoker” Darie (15th), MuckCallOK (14th), and loutrakiPKR (13th) went out as well, with those three picking up $6,260 apiece.
Mike “SirWatts” Watson (12th) and D_DIGGLER99 (11th) next went out, then with 10 left hand-for-hand play continued on through the tournament’s nine-hour mark. Then t8ofdiamonds was eliminated in 10th — earning $7,512 as the previous two knocked out players did — and with pedro323 back out in front with more than 800,000 the final table was underway.
Seat 1: Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski (Canada) — 575,843
Seat 2: iissrr (Romania) — 104,107
Seat 3: Mike ” StrungOut1″ Wasserman (Mexico) — 323,654
Seat 4: pedro323 (Canada) — 826,458
Seat 5: Ozgur “phaplap” Arda (Cyprus) — 398,694
Seat 6: Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes (Brazil) — 111,479
Seat 7: James “BizBills” Bills (Australia) — 192,722
Seat 8: groww (Brazil) — 406,982
Seat 9: Graftekkel (Netherlands) — 190,061
It took a while before the first final table elimination came. With the blinds up to 5,000/10,000, Graftekkel open-pushed for a little over 100,000 from middle position, iissrr reraised all in for almost 200,000 from a couple of seats over, and everyone else folded. Graftekkel had 6♦ 6â™ but iissrr 9â™ 9♦ , and when the board didn’t improve Graftekkel’s hand they were down to eight.
About 15 minutes later Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes — who won the Super Tuesday just last fall — open-raised from late position all in for just over 110,000 (not quite 10 big blinds) and groww reraise-shoved from the small blind to isolate. Moraes had K♣ 9♥ and was behind groww’s Aâ™ K♥ , and after the board came 7â™ 3♦ 4♦ J♥ J♦ Moraes was out in eighth.
Just two hands later, James “BizBills” Bills opened with a just-over-2x raise to 25,200, iissrr reraised all in from the small blind for just over 280,000, and Bills called. iissrr had 6♥ 6♦ this time while Bills showed Q♣ Qâ™ , and five cards later those sixes hadn’t been helped and iissrr was out in seventh.
They played on almost to the end of the tournament’s 11th hour, by which time the blinds had increased to 9,000/18,000. That’s when James “BizBills” Bills open-pushed from under the gun for just over 100,000, getting one caller in groww in the seat to his left. Bills had K♥ 10♣ and groww A♣ J♣ , and after a J♦ 10♦ 3♦ Jâ™ 2♥ runout Bills was done in sixth.
They pressed forward, with groww edging in front to lead the final five as the blinds moved up again to 10,000/20,000. Then a hand arose that saw Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski open for 42,150 from the cutoff, pedro323 reraise to 128,765 from the small blind, Sikorski shove all in, and pedro323 call the push to commit 456,111 total.
pedro323 had A♣ K♦ and was well ahead of Sikorski’s A♥ J♦ , but the J♥ 4♥ 6â™ flop swung the advantage the latter’s way by pairing his jack. The turn was the 3♥ and river the 6♥ , and as Sikorski typed “yikes gg man” pedro323 hit the rail in fifth.
A while after that it was groww min-raising to 50,000 from the button, then Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski three-betting to 121,405 from the small blind. StrungOut1 then pushed all in for 588,053 from the big blind, prompting a fold from groww but Sikorski quickly made the call.
StrungOut1 had but 8♥ 6♥ and was well behind Sikorski’s Qâ™ Q♥ , but the 6♦ 9â™ 8â™ flop suddenly put StrungOut1 in front with two pair. The turn was the 10â™ , keeping StrungOut1 ahead, but then the 9♣ fell on the river, giving Sikorski the better two pair and knocking StrungOut1 out in fourth.
That hand put Sikorski well in front with a little less than 1.75 million to groww’s almost 890,000 and Ozgur “phaplap” Arda’s just over 500,000.
groww would fall back a bit but then double up through Sikorski with pocket sixes versus the latter’s A♦ 10♦ . They’d battle a bit longer, then the three paused the tournament to discuss a possible deal.
At that point groww led with about 1.25 million, Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski was next with a little less than 965,000, and Ozgur “phaplap” Arda third with just under 915,000. “ICM”-based figures leaving $8,000 for which to play were presented to the trio, and after all three readily accepted the suggested payouts, play soon resumed once more.
A little while after play started back — right about the tournament’s 12-hour mark — Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski would double back up through groww after his A♥ K♦ held versus groww’s Q♣ 9♦ .
groww’s stack then started to slide, and as the blinds rose to 17,500/35,000 a hand came up in which Arda opened for 280,000 from the small blind and groww called all in from the big blind to commit 243,162 total. Arda had A♥ 10♥ and groww K♦ 10â™ . The community cards came 7â™ 3♦ 2♥ , then 4♣ , then A♦ , giving Arda aces and ending groww’s run in third.
The stage was set for heads-up. In one corner was Ozgur “phaplap” Arda who had previously won a WCOOP title in 2013. Meanwhile Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski had won the Super Tuesday two times before, once in January 2011 and most recently last May.
Sikorski started with the chip advantage with about 1.92 million to Arda’s almost 1.21 million. They played a couple dozen hands with Sikorski chipping up further, then Arda doubled up to grab the advantage for a short time when his A♥ 9♦ outdrew Sikorski’s A♣ 10♣ after a nine fell among the community cards.
But Sikorski soon retook the lead from Arda, and was sitting with about 1.67 million to Arda’s 1.45 million when the final hand took place.
It began with a min-raise to 80,000 from the button by Arda, after which Sikorski shoved and Arda called. Sikorski had 6♠6♣ while Arda showed two live cards with A♥ 7♠. The board then came K♣ 6♦ 8♣ 9♣ J♥ , meaning Sikorski had flopped a set and then dodged Arda filling a straight to win the pot and the title.
Congratulations to Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski for taking down his third Super Tuesday title, and kudos as well to Ozgur “phaplap” Arda and groww for making it to the three-way deal and ensuring themselves big paydays as well.
3/3/15 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold’em) results
Entrants: 626
Prize pool: $626,000.00
Places paid: 72
1. Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski (Canada) — $93,755.56*
2. Ozgur “phaplap” Arda (Cyprus) — $84,817.65
3. groww (Brazil) — $90,293.79
4. StrungOut1 (Mexico) — $48,202.00
5. pedro323 (Canada) — $33,804.00
6. James “BizBills” Bills (Australia) — $26,605.00
7. iissrr (Romania) — $20,345.00
8. Rafael “GM_VALTER” Moraes (Brazil) — $14,085.00
9. Graftekkel (Netherlands) — $9,577.80
*= reflects the results of a three-way deal that left $8,000 in play for the winner
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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