The ending of the $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up was no less exciting then the ending of the Super Bowl (but may have been watched a few less people). The excitement came from an excellent heads-up battle between alberto.m7 and Hoelle1. After a five-way chop the pair would play for over 40 minutes the extra $10K set aside from the deal. Alberto.m7 would finally claim the last of Hoelle1’s chips earning $74,679.96 total for the win.

Look below for alberto.m7’s road to victory:

A few minutes before the ninth hourly break saryura and Malario decided to play a sizable pot preflop with a cringe-worthy finish. saryura shoved from the UTG for a little less than a million as Malario with over four million chips called from the big blind. Malario’s A♥ J♠ started off in a big deficit when saryura’s queens Q♥ Q♠ flopped a set Q♦ 4♣ 2♦ . But, two more wheel cards later 3♠ 5♥ and saryura is on the sidelines wondering what happened in 16th place ($1,864.20).

While only 14 players would make it to the break, four eliminations in the first ten minutes left, opened up hand-for-hand play.

Two shortstacks, rubak787 and Heartthrob10, battled on Table 28 trying to deftly move on to the final table, but only one would make it. With the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K Heartthrob10 would shove for 222,706 chips from the small blind as rubak787 made the call holding 6♦ 3♣ . Two live cards behind Heartthrob10’s 9♦ Q♥ but a six on the flop changed that 7♥ J♣ 6♠ 10♣ 3♠ sending rubak787 to the final table below:

Seat 1: rubak787 (840412 in chips)
Seat 2: HustlerGrune (1988795 in chips)
Seat 3: Malario (6164520 in chips)
Seat 4: rflx1990 (1941989 in chips)
Seat 5: pokerok18 (5766318 in chips)
Seat 6: Hoelle1 (5132946 in chips)
Seat 7: molda79 (2269296 in chips)
Seat 8: alberto.m7 (1480093 in chips)
Seat 9: holla@yoboy (3095631 in chips)

Seven minutes into the final table the chip leader Malario three-bet all-in preflop over a min-raise by Hoelle1 and shove by molda79. Hoelle1 took a breather as molda79 flipped up A♣ K♣ against Malario’s queens Q♣ Q♠ . The 10♥ 9♦ 7♥ 4♥ 9♠ board lacked anything useful as molda79 took away $4,875.60 in ninth place.

Three hands later Hoelle decided to stick around after shortstacked rubak787 shoved all-in from early position. Hoelle’s J♦ A♦ would flop the jack J♣ 8♠ 4♠ 5♦ 3♥ necessary to take out rubak787’s nines 9♠ 9♥ . After two MicroMillions final tables, rubak787 can now add a Sunday Warm-Up, finishing in eighth place ($7,755.07).

Keeping up the fast pace of the recent TCOOP series, seven hands later the population of the final table would reach just six. rflx1990 shoved a little more than million chips from the cutoff as alberto.m7 was happy to call from the big blind with jacks J♠ J♣ . Unlucky for rflx1990’s nines 9♠ 9♥ as the 4♦ A♥ 6♥ K♠ 5♣ board changed nothing. rflx1990 walked away in seventh place earning $13,479.60.

Malario’s chip lead would be transferred to Hoelle1 after an attempted bluff was called shipping 13.4 million chips to Hoelle1 and leaving Malario with four million with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K.

Six minutes later alberto.m7 would open to 352,000 as Malario shoved all-in for four million from the button. Alberto.m7’s big slick K♠ A♠ made the call and knocked out the previous chip leader’s A♣ J♦ as the king heavy K♦ 10♥ 4♠ A♥ K♥ board did the talking. A decent two weeks for Malario getting $19,215.60 tonight for sixth place, and $54,518.47 for third place after a chop in TCOOP 2015 Event # 9.

The longest stretch between eliminations was due to the final five deciding to hash out a chop deal that would leave $10K on the board for tonight’s champion. After a few tweaks they were able to agree on the Puppy Bowl MVP and this deal below:

alberto.m7 $64,679.96
Hoelle1 $55,654.23
HustlerGrune $47,683.18
holla@yoboy $45,463.16
pokerok18 $40,376.21

Good thing pokerok18 made that deal as five minutes later the shortest stack would be at the cashier collecting those funds. pokerok18 tried to shove over a min-raise by holla@yoboy to capture some easy chips, but instead 8♦ 7♦ would fall short of holla@yoboy’s pocket sevens 7♣ 7♥ earning $40,376.21 from the chop in fifth place (a difference of almost $16K).

Hoelle1 would come storming back into the chip lead after taking a 5.4 million chip pot off holla@yoboy without even seeing a flop. Then, two hands later Hoelle1 knocked out HustlerGrune in fourth place ($47,683.18) claiming half the remaining chips.

Over 15 minutes of three-handed play with Hoelle1’s chip lead getting nicked at by alberto.m7 and holla@yoboy. That is until holla@yoboy decided to try to look up Hoelle1 after the chip leader shoved over the top of a raise with A♣ 7♥ . Hoelle1 showed a slightly better kicker A♥ 9♣ which claimed the rest of holla@yoboy’s chips after hitting a straight on the 8♣ J♠ 10♥ 7♠ A♠ turn. Chalk up another big final table for holla@yoboy who nearly captured a bracelet during the 2014 WCOOP series as a runner-up in Event #34.

Proof that neither Hoelle1 nor alberto.m7 had any intention on ending this tournament quickly, 30 minutes into their heads-up battle they were nearly even in chips. Then with the blinds up to 250K/500K ante 50K both players picked up pairs and decided to end things preflop. alberto.m7’s 4♠ 4♦ clearly behind Hoelle1’s jacks J♠ J♥ until a four hit the door 4♥ 6♠ Q♥ 6♣ 3♣ . Four hands later alberto.m7 would scoop up Hoelle1’s remaining chips claiming the extra $10K from the chop as this week’s Sunday Warm-Up champ!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (02-01-15):

Entrants: 2,868
Places paid: 414
Prize pool: $573,600

(* denotes part of five-way deal)

1. alberto.m7 (Dominican Republic) *$74,679.96
2. Hoelle1 (Germany) *$55,654.23
3. holla@yoboy (Mexico) *$45,463.16
4. HustlerGrune (Costa Rica) *$47,683.18
5. pokerok18 (Estonia) *$40,376.21
6. Malario (Mexico) $19,215.60
7. rflx1990 (Germany) $13,479.60
8. rubak787 (Russia) $7,755.07
9. molda79 (Canada) $4,875.60

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

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