With the SCOOP about to take place next month on PokerStars, many of the higher buy-in specialists are gearing up and putting in the hours with their fellow grinders in the hopes of being in top form when the 22-event series rolls around.
This week’s $1,000 tournaments all met and surpassed their guarantees, meaning huge prizes for the eventual winners. Read the recaps for the $1K events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker below.
Full Tilt Poker — $1K Monday
The $1K Monday on Full Tilt boomed to 431 entrants this week, up from last week’s total of 378. The field offered up an additional $131,000 on the usual $300,000 guarantee.
A total of 45 players were paid, and just missing out on the money was bubble boy Jonathan "Fatal Error" Aguiar (46th). Aguiar lost a crucial coin-flip with Russell "rdcrsn" Carson (16th), which crippled him just two spots from the money. He tried to hang on and surpass fellow short-stack Mike "Bonzo9876" Katz (42nd), but he was inevitably ante’d to death during hand-for-hand play to send him to the virtual rail empty handed.
Among the notables to make the money were mendieta19 (44th), Laurence "whatariver1" Houghton (39th), Carter "ckingusc" King (36th), Ryan "g0lfa" D’Angelo (35th), Paul "uclabruinz" Smith (29th), Anthony "holdplz" Spinella (25th), Jon "sketchy1" Eaton (21st), BadcardsAA (20th), Sashi "yoshdog22" Bobba (18th), cool0813 (17th), Mario "Pokerccini" Puccini (13th), Ben "bmf823" Fineman (12th), and final-table bubble boy Todd "tbt4653" Terry (10th).
The final table was also stacked, featuring Darryl "DFish" Fish (eighth), eisenhower1 (sixth), Aaron Hacker (fifth), Casey "bigdogpckt5s" Jarzabek (fourth), Benny "1Mastermind" Chen (second, pictured above right) and Jeff "jpapola" Papola (first, pictured left).
Interestingly, this was the second consecutive fourth-place finish for Jarzabek in this event. Last week, he earned $34,965 for his finish. This week he got a slight raise in payday of about $4,000.
After Masterhp went out in third, heads-up play continued with Papola having a 3-1 chip lead over Chen. Both players got it all in preflop, and Chen’s A
9
held up against Papola’s K Q
. Suddenly, the stacks were even, and both players agreed to chop it up. Both players went all in on the next hand, and Papola officially won the tournament, later sending the difference in prize money over to Chen.
Here are the final table results:
- Jeff "jpapola" Papola — $87,277*
- Benny "1Mastermind" Chen — $87,277*
- Masterhp — $49,565
- Casey "bigdogpckt5s" Jarzabek — $38,790
- Aaron "Aaron_Hacker" Hacker aka ImTheJackal — $29,093
- eisenhower1 aka XRIVERISTAX — $21,550
- swd805 — $14,008
- Darryll "DFish" Fish — $10,775
- ilovemypuppy — $8,620
*Based on a two-way chop at the final table.
PokerStars — Super Tuesday
The PokerStars Super Tuesday tournament fell a bit this week, dropping from 419 players to 383. The $383,000 prize pool still cleared the guarantee and was paid out over 45 spots.
The money featured notables such as Todd "koolkeith13" Lewis (45th), Daniel "djk123" Kelly (39th), Matt "ADZ124" Marafioti (31st), Stu "THE D0NAT0R" Paterson (27th), Chris "QTgirlE3" Kline (25th), Carter "devinr12" Gill (21st), Randal "RandALLin" Flowers (20th), Eric "Ericb09" Blair (19th), Jerry "sandler1860" Payne (17th), Michael "rusostreet" Caruso (14th), Pat "TorontoToro" Pezzin (13th), Philip "USCphildo" Collins (12th, pictured right) and Jamie "pokerjamers" Armstrong (10th).
The final table featured Michael "YrrsiNN" Huber (ninth), Evan "PURPLE"K"99" Parkes (seventh), Geoff "GeoffRas22" Rasmussen (sixth), and Jonathan "xxjondxx" Delong (first).
Amazingly, Rasmussen has cashed in five of the last six Super Tuesdays, each time making at least the final two tables. Despite his run, this was his first final table during that stretch, pocketing $17,235 for his sixth-place finish.
Delong got heads up with iCeVeNoM and held a slight lead. Eventually, both players got it all in holding an ace. iCeVeNoM held A
10 and was in good shape against Delong’s A 8. Instead, the board ran out 8 7 7 4 3, giving Delong the pot and the tournament win.
Delong has been a force thus far in 2009, having made four final tables, including a win in the Sunday Second Chance three weeks ago. In total, Delong has earned $190,583 in OPOY-qualifying tournaments this year and sits in ninth place in the rankings.
Here are the final table results:
- Jonathan "xxjondxx" Delong aka shipitobv — $74,685
- iCeVeNoM — $56,493
- ags104 — $42,130
- Norm427 — $32,172
- kalixalven — $22,023
- Geoff "GeoffRas22" Rasmussen — $17,235
- Evan "PURPLE"K"99" Parkes aka PURPLEPILS99 — $13,405
- edfelson — $9,575
- Michael "YrrsiNN" Huber — $6,703
Absolute Poker — $150,000 Guarantee
The two-headed monster that is the Cereus Network drew 164 entrants, clearing their guarantee of $150,000 by an additional $14,000.
The smaller field meant that 18 places would get paid, with John "JohnnyGstaks" Hayes being the bubble boy in 19th place. Those that cashed included recent World Poker Tour final tablist Blake "Balla-B13" Cahail (18th), Frank "Gator93" Hernandez (17th), Matt "NotAJGreen" Holtzclaw (15th), Ryan "Drawgansta" Fisler (14th), Paul "Pirate-Pab" Foltyn (13th), Scott "Nestofsalt" Wyler (12th), Shawn "phat_cat" Luman (11th), and final-table bubble boy Matt "NoBadBeatsPlz" Kay (11th).
The final table featured the usual suspects of Mike "Spin31" Spinasanta (ninth), Scott "yaboystu" Stewart (seventh), Stian "JohnnyBelow" Stabell (sixth), and Aditya "Intervention" Agarwal (third). XRIVERISTAX (fifth), took sixth in Full Tilt’s $1K tourney, but improved on that finish by one at Absolute Poker.
After picking up 320 points with his third-place finish, Agarwal now moves back into the OPOY top 10 and sits in eighth place. He is just 100 points away from the top five.
The tournament came down to EL_PIBE10 and RockRaines for the title. On the final hand, EL_PIBE10 made two pair, queens and tens, to bust RockRaines and take down the $43,460 first-place prize.
Here are the final table results:
- EL_PIBE10 — $43,460
- ROCKRAINES — $26,240
- Aditya "Intervention" Agarwal — $19,270
- LESSONLURND — $15,580
- XRIVERISTAX aka eisenhower1 — $11,890
- Stian "JohnnyBelow" Stabell — $9,840
- Scott "yaboystu" Stewart — $7,790
- A2STEAKSAUCE — $5,740
- Mike "SPIN31" Spinasanta — $4,100
