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Home / Uncategorized / Relentless raulbcn wins December 4 Sunday Warm-Up
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Every week, the Sunday Warm-Up offers players the chance to get in on some early online poker action before events like the Sunday Million require their presence. Warm-Up seems a bit of a misnomer, though, when the $215 buy-in tournament offers a whopping $500K guarantee! Big stakes, prestigious title, more like a main event in itself.

With that said, let’s get to some of the action in this so-called Sunday Warm-Up! When registration closed, the guarantee was once again shattered, and it looked something like this:

Players: 3,585
Guarantee: $500,000
Actual prize pool: $717,000
Paid finishers: 540

As the hours passed, so did the opportunity to get in the money. One of those exiting right before the bubble was Team PokerStars Pro Toni Judet, who left the crowd in 550th place. The first player to cash was georges2011, who received $301.14 for making it to 540th place, and the eliminations happened then at a quicker pace.

Some of the members of the PokerStars teams made it further, as Team Online’s Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen departed in 360th place, followed by Team Pro Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth in 266th, Stavros “IDOLLS” Kalfas in 247th, and Team Pro Ana Marquez in 95th.

Still waving the team flag as the field thinned was Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero, who stayed in the middle of the pack as four tables turned to three and then two.

Jose Barbero.jpg

But Barbero couldn’t keep up the momentum and finally pushed little more than 1 million chips all-in preflop from the big blind with Aâ™  7♥ against the 5â™  5♥ of original raiser OliverDK. The board of Kâ™  8♣ J♥ 3♦ J♦ gave OliverDK two pair, and Team PokerStars Pro Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero exited in 14th place with $3,226.50.

After HTH666 was eliminated in 11th place, hand-for-hand action eventually led to the all-in move by ReD-ClouD777 for less than 225K. Randall37 and 3591omanyd both called and checked down the board of 4♣ J♠ 5♣ J♣ 3♣ , at which point Randall37 showed 5♠ 3♥ for the winning two pair. ReD-ClouD777 simply mucked before leaving in tenth place with $4,302.00.

Randall37 roars to final table with chip lead

In Level 33, with blinds at 50,000/100,000 and a 10,000 ante, the final table was set as follows:

Seat 1: OliverDK (6,234,868 in chips)
Seat 2: Obär89 (4,398,000 in chips)
Seat 3: Bookie1978 (3,355,202 in chips)
Seat 4: 942003 (5,578,100 in chips)
Seat 5: mi777 (1,761,097 in chips)
Seat 6: pezler06 (1,632,236 in chips)
Seat 7: Randall37 (6,645,395 in chips)
Seat 8: 3591omanyd (3,523,200 in chips)
Seat 9: raulbcn (2,721,902 in chips)

Sunday Warm-Up FT 12.04.11.JPG

It didn’t take long for pezler06 to make a move and double through mi777. Raulbcn also doubled through Obar89.

Mi777 never recovered and pushed all-in soon after for 490,861 with 7♣ 7♥ from early position, and Randall37 and Bookie1978 both called. After the 10♥ A♦ 4♣ flop, Bookie1978 led out with a bet, and Randall37 got out of the way, at which point Bookie1978 showed A♥ 8♥ for top pair. The running hearts of J♥ and 4♥ finished a flush, leaving mi777 out in ninth place with $5,736.00.

The next double-up was 3591omanyd courtesy of OliverDK, who soon after doubled through Bookie1978 in a 7.2 million-chip pot.

Bookie1978 then moved all-in with A♣ J♣ , and 3591omanyd called from the button with 3♥ 3♠ . The flop of 9♥ A♦ 8♣ gave Bookie1978 top pair and hope, but the 3♣ hit on the turn to give 3591omanyd the set of threes. The 2♦ on the river ended the tournament for Bookie1978, who took home $8,962.50 for eighth place.

Raulbcn doubled through OliverDK, and Pezler06 then scored another double, this time through Obar89. Then Randall37 doubled through OliverDK to jump back into the top spot on the leaderboard.

OliverDK waited only a few hands to move and did it preflop from the small blind. Original raiser pezler06 called, as did Obar89. They checked down the board of 6♣ 4♥ 5♠ 8♦ 9♥ , and pezler06 showed A♣ 9♠ for the pair of nines to collect the main and side pots. OliverDK mucked and left in seventh place with $16,132.50.

On the very next hand, Obar89 pushed preflop, and pezler06 came over the top all-in. Original raiser 3591omanyd folded, and Obar89 showed 9♠ 9♦ for tournament life. Pezler06 turned over K♠ K♥ , though, and took down the pot after the board revealed J♠ 4♠ 7♣ Q♣ J♣ . Obar89 exited in sixth place with $23,302.50.

Not long after raulbcn doubled through 3591omanyd, the final five paused the tournament to discuss a potential deal, but no agreement was in the cards. Play resumed.

Then 3591omanyd doubled back through raulbcn, but mostly cautionary play ruled the action.

Finally, Randall37 moved all-in with 7♠ 7♣ on the button, and raulbcn called from the big blind with A♠ 2♠ . The board came 10♣ 8♥ 6♥ A♣ 4♦ , and raulbcn pulled out a win with the pair of aces. Randall37 left in fifth place with $30,472.50.

More failed deal talks then led to short-stacked pezler06 moving all-in with 9♠ 8♠ , and 3591omanyd called with a dominating A♣ 8♣ . The board of 3♠ A♦ 2♥ 2♦ 4♦ gave 3591omanyd two pair and eliminated pezler06 in fourth place with $41,227.50.

Third time is a charm for a deal

The final three paused the action again in hopes of coming to a financial arrangement, and after some discussion, they did! With $10,000 left over for the eventual winner, they agreed to the following guaranteed payouts:

Seat 4: 942003 (10,089,801 in chips) = $78,926.60
Seat 8: 3591omanyd (18,428,181 in chips) = $93,000.00
Seat 9: raulbcn (7,332,018 in chips) = $73,683.90

Soon after, raulbcn found an opportunity to double through 942003, as shown here:

RSS readers click through to see replay

942003 did double through 3591omanyd to stay in the game, but another push was imminent. It came when 942003 picked up A♦ 7♦ , and raulbcn called with A♠ Q♥ . The board came 2♦ 2♥ 3♣ 6♠ 10♥ , and the A-Q kickers played to eliminate 942003 in third place with $78,926.60.

Heads-up for the title and $10K

The final two players started as follows:

Seat 8: 3591omanyd (11,980,398 in chips)
Seat 9: raulbcn (23,869,602 in chips)

And it only took three hands. Raulbcn took the reins on the second hand, and when 3591omanyd tried to make an initial raise on the third hand, raulbcn responded by pushing all-in. 3591omanyd called all-in with Q♠ 9♣ , but raulbcn dominated with K♣ 9♥ . The board of 7♦ 6♦ A♣ 5♣ 5♦ changed nothing, and the king kicker played to eliminate 3591omanyd in second place with $93,000.00.

Raulbcn won the tournament and collected $83,683.90 in cash, along with the Sunday Warm-Up title. Congrats!

Sunday Warm-Up Results for 12/04/11 (reflecting chop):

1st place: raulbcn ($83,683.90)*
2nd place: 3591omanyd ($93,000.00)*
3rd place: 942003 ($78,926.60)*
4th place: pezler06 ($41,227.50)
5th place: Randall37 ($30,472.50)
6th place: Obar89 ($23,302.50)
7th place: OliverDK ($16,132.50)
8th place: Bookie1978 ($8,962.50)
9th place: mi777 ($5,736.00)

*results of a three-way deal

Information regarding weekly Warm-Up tournaments can be found on its home page.

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