Perhaps someone should stop Dan “djk123″ Kelly before his collection of PokerStars bling has him impersonating Mr. T. The young pro would claim another piece of PokerStars jewelry today after taking down SCOOP 2012 Event #29-M ($109+Rebuys NLHE Big Antes) tournament. 1,659 players tried to stand in his way, pleading with Kelly that three titles is enough, not to mention the swollen prize pool thanks to 1,879 re-buys and 1,375 add-ons to destroy the $300,000 guarantee.

216 players would take a chunk of that prize pool including Team PokerStars pro Chad Brown who eeked into the cash 209th place ($540.54). The Medium Player of the Series race was open for all to gain as leader SebbyGl took the day off as did second place cyberkanguru.

Only 19 players would make it through 31 levels of play on day one as Dan “djk123″ Kelly nearly became the last out on the first day.

After falling to nearly the bottom of the chip count, a double up off kripap, and then in the very last hand before the overnight break, Kelly would take a rejuvenated stack and big slick all-in against Killer_ooooo’s queens. An ace on the flop and the three-time WCOOP winner would go into day two with 19 remaining and the third largest stack behind kripap and djalminha.

Day two would start off with 8K/16K binds 3,200 antes and quickly stacking the tables from three to two as ButchTimothy would take just three hands to find a spot to shove a shortstack of 162,792. Right behind ButchTimothy was jtizzo222 with [As][Jh] and plenty of chips to make the call as ButchTimothy watched [Ks][Jd] slowly die across the [4s] [3h] [Td] [Ac] [3d] board for the first casualty of the second day. No stranger to deep runs at SCOOP, ButchTimothy scored $27,840.00 placing seventh in last year’s Event #31-H

The overnight rest did not quell the player’s aggressiveness on the restart. Maybe they ran out of Lucky Charms, donuts with sprinkles, hugs, or milk, because the angry style of play would lead to four more eliminations in the first 15 minutes. That group included pmahoney22 who was denied a second SCOOP final table in back-to-back days after finishing runner-up to bleu329 in yesterday’s Event #30-H banking $85,817.71 in the process. Also in that group was another player with several titles to his name. EPT, WCOOP, and now a 2012 SCOOP title in Event #24-M, Nicolas “niccc” Chouity was deep here as well looking for a second title and maybe push wunderkind Shaun Deeb a bit for the Player of the Series title. Low on chips Chouity would flip pocket nines [9h][9d] against Killer_ooooo’s [Qh][Ad] just five minutes into the restart and a lady on the door [Qc] [6h] [7d] [3h] [7s] would show Nicolas out in 18th place ($2,211.30).

At the first five minute break only 12 remained as jtizzo222 (14th place, $3,046.68) and despite knocking out Nicolas Chouity, Killer_ooooo would join jtizzo222 on the rail in 13th place ($3,046.68) as djalminha retained the chip lead for the first hour with kripap continuing to trail closely behind.

15 minutes after the break Costa Rica’s My Brim Low would take a seat with Chouity in 12th place after a pay bump ($3,882.06) and montjeu8 (11th place, $3882.06) ran a pair of ducks [2c][2d] into Blackbeaty’s pocket eights [8h][8s] as hand-for-hand play lined to be a long wait for the final table as the players enjoyed an average of nearly two million chips and blinds at 15K/30K ante 6K.

They enjoyed it for a whole four minutes as Dan Kelly would lead off the betting with min-raise from the cutoff as matt20 three-bet to 155,678. bluesky30 in the small blind ended the re-raising with a shove for 803,092 as Kelly quickly folded but matt20 did not, making the call with big slick [Ac][Kd]. bluesky30 was in deep trouble holding only one live card [As][7s] needing spades or a seven to prevent becoming the bubble boy. A king and one spade on the [2d] [Kc] [9s] [9d] [9c] nine-heavy board gave the 1.7 million chip pot to matt20 as bluesky30 was dropped from the active roster in 10th place ($3,882.06) starting up the final table below:

Seat 1: kripap (2185977 in chips)
Seat 2: djalminha (1584365 in chips)
Seat 3: djk123 (1541978 in chips)
Seat 4: raare01 (980747 in chips)
Seat 5: YugiohPro (1415532 in chips)
Seat 6: matt20 (2229507 in chips)
Seat 7: pistons87 (3246032 in chips)
Seat 8: ro_Man777 (1825161 in chips)
Seat 9: Blackbeaty (2482701 in chips)

Supernova Elite pistons87 would take the chip lead from djalminha just before the final table as the 2011 WCOOP Event #41 High-Roller Heads-up champ and 2012 SCOOP champ in Event #23-H was stacked for run at SCOOP title number two this year.

Also looking for SCOOP 2012 title number two is Blackbeaty would started off the series with a bang taking down Event #1-L for $74,008.00. YugiohPro took down the Sunday Warm-up in August 2010 for $104,060.64 and raare01 with WCOOP and a Sunday Warm-up final table credited, were both viewing that SCOOP championship watch to add to impressive tournament resumes here at PokerStars.

Everyone wanting to stay

One hour and 15 minutes it would take to finally boot someone off this final table. Like your best friend who had to retell the story about the time you went into the wrong bathroom at Wal-Mart for the 15th time, it was getting a little too friendly at this final table. With the blinds up to 25K/50K ante 10K pistons87 would lead off with a min-raise as YugiohPro called from the small blind to see a [As][7d][4h] ace-high flop. YugiohPro checked as pistons87 pushed out 110,000 and YugiohPro check-raised to 299,999 as pistons87 called. [9h] on the turn and the same action happened as YugiohPro check-raised all-in for 1.36 million total as pistons87 made the call holding the turned top two [Ac][9d]. Bad luck for YugiohPro who dominated with [Jc][Ah] and now was left to watch the three-outer miss on the river [3d] claiming $4,914.00 in ninth place.

69 used in the right position

The video below is rated G for general audiences and safe for work, however the words coming out of raare01′s mouth after the hand probably were not:

You do not win tournaments sitting around for aces to appear, Dan “djk123″ Kelly refuse to let raare01 walk in the blinds and shoved from the small blind holding [6s][9s]. However, raare01 sitting on only 495,247 chips, found a medium ace [As][8c] more than enough to make the call. The aggression was rewarded with two pair on the flop [7h][6h][9h] but also gave raare01 a straight draw. The [Ac] on the turn also opened up more outs, but a dainty [6c] on the river finished off raare01 in eighth place ($8,599.50).

ACTION!!

One hand after Blackbeaty lured Kelly into shoving with a flush draw and gutshot, while having top set hold for a 4.1 million chip pot, pistons87 and day one chip leader djalminha would tangle for a 2.6 million chip pot preflop. With the blinds moving up to 30K/60K ante 12K pistons87 min-raised from UTG as djalminha was tired from a dying stack and decided to shove for 1.22 million. Back to the current chip leader, pistons87 holding [Ah][Qs] the Supernova Elite decided to make the call. All the action was front-loaded as an ace came out on the flop [2c] [Ad] [6d] [Ks] [Th] to bolster pistons87′s chip lead and end djalminha’s tournament in seventh place ($13,513.50).

Jacks win for once?

pistons87 and Blackbeaty held over 11 million chips while the remainder of the table scrapped for five million. This led to matt20 and ro_Man777 deciding to combine their stacks preflop. With the blinds still at 30K/60K ante 12K and just a few minutes before a blind jump, ro_Man777 would raise from the first position to 240,000 as matt20 wasted no time in shoving 1.37 million with usually fatal jacks [Jc][Jh] as ro_Man777 called with [As][Qc]. This time the jacks did not attract an ace nor queen to the [9d] [3h] [Kd] [2c] [3c] board and since matt20 covered ro_Man777 by a little more than 100K in chips, the German took home sixth place cash ($18,427.50).

Right before the third hourly break of day two, the two chip hogs Blackbeaty and pistons87 tangled in a power struggle for the chip lead. After a series of raises the largest pot of the tournament sat in the middle as Blackbeaty’s [Ac][Qs] faced off against pistons87′s jacks [Jd][Js]. Maybe some left over polarity from matt20′s jacks not attracting any aces, the other three aces in the deck would appear on the [As] [4d] [Ad] [Qh] [Ah] board for quads shipping the 7.4 million chip pot to Blackbeaty as pistons87 slipped to 3.1 million chips.

Jacks? Jacks. Jacks!!!

Pocket jacks seem to be the make-it or break-it hand on this final table as you can watch below to see who wins the nearly five million chip flip between Dan “djk123″ Kelly and kripap:

Kelly’s jacks [Jd][Jh] were up against the [Qh][Ac] of kripap as the two overcards would not pair up on the [7s] [2c] [Tc] [Kh] [3h] board and kripap took leave in fifth place ($23,341.50). The very next hand Kelly would call matt20′s push holding [Ah][9c] and flop an ace [7d][As][5c] against matt20′s pocket tens [Th][Tc]. A [5h] on the turn helped no one but the WOW! moment came on the [Td] river handing 3.2 million freshly minted tournament chips to matt20 as Kelly still held 3.8 million as the blinds moved up to 40K/80K ante 16K.

Well. Yeah. Um. There are no words.

After that two-outer on the river by matt20, Dan “djk123″ Kelly went Defcon 1 on the table trying to nuke his three remaining opponents off the table as quickly as possible. After ratcheting up his stack to over 10 million chips while pistons87 and Blackbeaty held around three million and matt20 just over one million, the below three-way all-in would chop the table population in half. Watch below:

djk123: [4s] [As]
matt20: [Qd] [Jd]
Blackbeaty: [Jh] [Js]

Jacks once again made it into a tournament changing pot. However pocket jacks’ record would slip to 2-2 as Kelly flopped two pair [Ad] [4h] [3s] [Ts] [9c] and collect both matt20′s chips (fourth place, $32,923.80) and Blackbeaty’s chips (third place $44,226.00) for a 6.87 million chip pot and take a huge chip advantage into heads-up play against pistons87.

Deal as pistons87 snags a huge pot

Just as the blinds moved up to 50K/100K ante 20K, pistons87 would win a battle of kickers as djk123 pushed top pair [Ts][3s] into pistons87′s top pair – king kicker [Ks][Th] on the [8s] [2c] [5h] [Tc] [6c] board to nearly even up the chips as Kelly only led nine million to 8.4 million (a stark contrast from the 14.5 million to 2.9 million chip lead at the beginning of heads-up play) at the point which they agreed to chop the money quickly leaving $6,000 to our champ:

Dan “djk123″ Kelly: $67,040.06
pistons87: $66,542.11

Both players have WCOOP titles, pistons87 has a SCOOP title, and while Kelly is looking for his first, Dan chatted that he needed to play it out due to a bet. This author is figuring the wagered amount is worth a little more than $6,000 and the SCOOP watch.

Three-time WCOOP champ is now a SCOOP champ

Our final two would battle until the blinds moved up to 60K/120K ante 24K as fives (not jacks) would determine our champion. Kelly would call a min-raise from pistons87 in the big blind to see a [8h][5h][5s] flop. djk123 checked as pistons87 bet 240,000 as Kelly check-raised to 566,666. Three-bet to 1.08 million from pistons87 and Kelly came right back with another six-heavy bet to 1,666,666. pistons87 sticking with even numbers five-bet to 2.4 million as Kelly shoved 11.1 million and covered pistons87.

Holding 3.4 million behind and trip fives [3d][5d] pistons87 made the call and immediately saw the bad news as Kelly flipped up the case five with an ace kicker [5c][Ah]. The treys would miss on the [Ts] turn and [Ks] river as Dan “djk123″ Kelly claimed the 2012 SCOOP Event #29-M title and $73,040.06!

Number of entries: 1,660
Number of rebuys: 1,879
Number of add-ons: 1,375
Prize Pool: $491,400.00
Places paid: 216

$300,000 guarantee SCOOP 2012 Event #29-M $109+Rebuys NLHE (Big Antes) results (05-17-12):
( * denotes part of two-way deal )
1. Dan “djk123″ Kelly (Australia) *$73,040.06
2. pistons87 (Canada) *$66,542.11
3. Blackbeaty (Germany) $44,226.00
4. matt20 (United Kingdom) $32,923.80
5. kripap (Hungary) $23,341.50
6. ro_Man777 (Germany) $18,427.50
7. djalminha (Portugal) $13,513.50
8. raare01 (Netherlands) $8,599.50
9. YugiohPro (South Korea) $4,914.00

Looking for more SCOOP reporting? Visit our special SCOOP 2012 coverage section.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | delicious | italian poker tour | lapt | portugal | team pokerstars pro | tournaments | twitter | World Series of Poker

By Pauly
San Francisco, CA

Editor’s Note: On the 5th anniversary of Bush 2.0 sealing online poker’s fate with the signing of the UIGEA, I want to share something I wrote five years ago. This appeared on Tao of Poker on 10/9/06.

* * *

“Just for grins I shoved a hot pepper up my ass while I was jerking off. Pretty hot, but not hot enough to not try it yourself.” – Daddy

I was 22 when Jerry Garcia died on August 9, 1995. I had the day off from work and went to see a rare weekday Yankees game with my buddy Jerry who was in town on summer vacation from law school. We got drunk, smoked a joint in stairwell in left field, and watched Cal Ripken smash two home runs as the Yankees lost.

After the game I stopped by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to meet up with my girlfriend at the time. That’s when I found out about the news of Jerry Garcia’s passing. Less then two months earlier, I met Jerry Garcia and shook his hand (which eleven years later still marks one of my Top 10 Moments of All Time along with getting a blowjob on the subway and finishing my first novel).

Some older hippies and Deadheads that I know said, “The 1960s officially ended when Jerry Garcia died.” For many fans the news was devastating. The music of the Grateful Dead was not just for teenagers. As they band evolved and got older, so too did the audience. The death of their icon and hero affected not just kids but former hippies who integrated into society. They had jobs, families, and mortgages and the day Jerry Garcia died marked a void for many of them.

The Grateful Dead were followed all around the world by it’s fervent fans. Some never left tour while others jumped on and off as the drove around the country checking out shows in different cities. When Jerry Garcia died, not only did the music stop but so did the essential purpose for many individuals. Their entire lives revolved around the Grateful Dead touring. That included not just fans, but also people who worked and earned a living in the Dead’s bubble such as roadies, management, and merchandise vendors. Most of the hippies following the Dead from city to city paid their way by vending in the parking lot. Most of them lived in their cars, vans, and VW buses and sold enough stuff to buy gas, food, and a ticket to the next show. When Jerry Garcia died, an entire subculture plunged into confusion. They never had conventional jobs and found themselves at a crossroads of uncertainty, confusion, and grief.

The immediate result for the passing of Jerry Garcia and the eventual break up of the Grateful Dead also meant that there was a void to be filled. Even Rolling Stone magazine printed up a list of bands that would take the torch from the Dead. In fact several of those bands benefited financially and commercially from Jerry Garcia’s death. Without the Dead to follow around, bands like Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, and Phish eventually inherited the fans, the suits, and the hippie vendors hawking their wares in the parking lot of their concerts. Their careers were advanced by the death of Jerry Garica.

Even I took advantage of the nomadic lifestyle in the late 1990s. I spent most of 1999 following Phish all over North America seeing concerts in 19 different states and 26 different cities including two in Canada. I got by selling whatever I could in the parking lots to get by whether it was tickets, pharmies, or t-shirts. Even my girlfriend at the time sold hemp jewelry or veggie burritos in order to earn enough money to buy a ticket for that night’s show and have enough money left over to buy beer and gas so we can drive to the next city and repeat the process all over again.

In 2004 when Phish broke up, there was another void to be filled and several other bands benefited from the rabid subculture. Some hippies grew old and others cut their hair and got real jobs while a new crop of prep school kids or frat and sorority girls joined the mix to keep the monster going. They voraciously drink, ingest drugs, and will party to dawn. They love music and will travel thousands of miles to see a concert. Plus they’ll spend money… and money is what keeps the monster going.

Twenty years from now they’ll be some new band that kids will follow around religiously like I did with the Dead in college and Phish in my mid/late 20s. Why? Because that’s what some people are into. They want to escape from the bitter realities of the actual world and feel connected to something/someone even if it’s for a few hours.

I saw what happened to the hippie subculture in a post-death Jerry Garcia world and that’s the closest comparison that I can come up with the recent legislation that tweaks the legality of online poker. Within a few days of Party Poker announcing their pull out of the American market, other sites such as Full Tilt and Poker Stars said they’d stay. They’re filling the void and billions of dollars in rake and tournament fees will go into their bank accounts instead of Party Gaming.

Online poker is not dead. Yet. Even though the party got busted up, people still want a fix. Ever go to one of those huge suburban parties in high school and the entire place is jumping and you’re about to declare the festivities were epic enough to be awarded Party of the Year… and then the cops come and bust it up? Mostly everyone leaves and goes home, but a few diehards stay around and drink the rest of the keg. I’m gonna be one of those guys.

For the past week, I’ve read the collective narcissistic psychodramas on everyone’s blogs regarding the death of online poker and Black Monday or Black Friday. And depending on who your read, the future is dim and dark or bright and rosey. I think that the future falls somewhere in between. The news is not that bad, but it’s not good either.

The post-apocalyptic poker world will not have mutant kids with three eyes running around and Jesus Freaks jumping out of the bushes spraying Holy Water onto the faces of hedonists. I don’t think black helicopters will land in your cul de sac and the federales will whisk you away if they find you playing an SNG on Poker Stars and ship you in a secret CIA prison in Djibouti where they’ll fry your testicles with car batteries and rip out your fingernails with rusty pliers before they toss you into a 10 by 10 cell with a fingernailess zealot named Ahmed who has a tattoo of “Death to America” written in Farsi on his forehead.

Or maybe they will?

Poker players are gamblers at heart and some will take risks to maintain their fix. The world is filled with greedy people and they’ll be several ruthless companies who’ll flip the bird to the American courts and lawmakers that will take risks to gain access to the subculture of online poker players.

Then I look at a place like my hometown of New York City and try to figue out the future. Without online poker, the demand for new poker rooms and underground clubs will increase dramatically. Some daring entrepreneurs will open up new clubs and the players will come in droves. Whichever ethnic mafia running rooms is about to make a shitload of money in the Big Apple. Of course the police will have to get involved and spend time shutting down the rooms, just like cops in the 1920s busted up bathtub gins and speakeasies.

The right-wingers who were in favor of the anti-online poker legislation pulled out the terrorist card and said that online gambling sites can be a haven for terrorists to launder money. But by banning online poker, the NYPD will have to exhaust their already limited resources on busting up poker games rather than focusing on protecting our city from terrorists… which we’re severely under-prepared. Instead of cops breaking up terror cells, they’ll be wasting their time keeping my brother, F Train, and The Rooster out of poker clubs in Chinatown. By trying to make our nation safer… the suits in Washington made my city more vulnerable.

Politicians don’t care about the people. They only care about themselves. Same goes for corporations. If it comes down to a choice between you or them… they’ll cut the rope every time and let you fall to your death. That’s the way it is and that’s why I’ve lost my passion for politics. It’s not apathy but ultimately realizing that we don’t live in a true democracy and we don’t have freedom of choice but the illusion of freedom and choice. We can vote out the politicians currently in office, but they’ll be replaced with a new group of lying scumbags that will sell your kids to the highest bidder if it meant they’ll get another term in office.

That’s why I don’t see a revolutionary change happening in America. Not just with poker but with everything else surrounding the eroding civil liberties of Americans. Here’s my reasoning… my peers in Generation X and the kids born after me are spoiled, lazy, dumbass little shitheads. We’re overly selfish, hypersensitive, and too self-centered. We don’t have the vision or the passion to evoke a world wide change like the baby boomers did in the 1960s. The hippies were better educated and organized. They believed in a better way and a brighter future. They put themselves on the line and for a while, the people in power got spooked the fuck out.

Most of the Americans that I know are more concerned with watching TV and buying stuff rather than hitting the streets to protest en masse. Some might write up whiny diatribes on their blogs or write nasty letters to their congressman, but after their little rants they’ll never leave the couch or their cubicle to actually do something. We’re a nation of apathetic scared fatasses and we’re going to continue to let scrupulous politicians and multinational corporations dictate policy. Me included.

And the other reason I don’t think my generation can undertake a social change is because the hippies failed. Even John Lennon admitted, “Flower power did not work. We need to try something different.”

The 1960s saw the great minds, leaders, and visionaries trying to lead a charge against the political machines with millions of disgruntled citizens ready to make some changes. And in the end, it didn’t work. The Man won. Black and white images from the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago or Kent State in 1970 should be all the proof that you need to see that in the end The Man will do anything possible to stay in power, which includes beating and killing their own citizens.

After the hippies got their heads full of Owsley’s liquid sunshine bashed in a few times by the cops, they eventually stopped protesting. That’s when militant groups sprung up like the Blank Panthers. I’m waiting for a militant group of poker bloggers to form a united front and start fire bombing the campaign headquarters of major political figures but that will never happen. We can’t even get ten bloggers to agree on the same weekend to have a convention, let alone formulate any sort of social change and revolution.

I’ve traveled around the world enough and extensively throughout America to honestly say that this is an amazing country but our leaders are war mongering pimps selling our souls to suits in a boardroom somewhere. Sure there are places like Barcelona or Samui where I’d like to live for a while, but at some point I’d get homesick and want to return to America particularly New York City. Then again, I technically didn’t grow up in America as Spalding Gray explained, “New York City is a small island off the coast of America.”

As is, I’m an expatriate living in America. I finally understand the reference by The Rolling Stones… “exile on Main Street.”

Tags: 2011 | atom | day 5 | entertainment | food | online-poker | Pai Gow | politics | sports betting | tao of five | videos | wcoop

As we head into the home stretch for the 2011 SCOOP Player of the Series Award and in honor of tonight’s tournament here is how the current “Stud 8″ of the leaderboard faired tonight (in order of current relation on the leaderboard):

Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn – 55th place
-DrawingDad- Did not play (probably weighed down by his second SCOOP watch of the tournament last night)
DazzleO – 171st place
Team Online Anders “Donald” Berg – 281st place
mement_mori – Did not play (busy dominating other tournaments)
HN Kakaroto – 105th place
EDWARDHOPPER – 140th place
UhhMee – 204th place

No cashes tonight for our SCOOP “Stud 8″ meaning no points for them towards that Player of the Series trophy, 2011 WCOOP Main Event ticket, 2012 PCA prize package, EPT Grand Final prize package, and a Special Edition PokerStars chip set all bundled for our Player of the Series.

That left plenty of space for someone in tonight’s Event #25-M $215 buy-in Stud Hi/Lo tournament to take those 100 points going to the champion and gain ground on them. Team PokerStars pro Marcel Luske had a very short tournament as he hit the road before the 120 minute late registration was up along with Miwo1976, megastacks, and Globe from Sweden as 340 players plied into the $40,000 guarantee tournament.

This was not the tourney for Team PokerStars nor Team Online as Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (214th place), Pat Pezzin (178th place), Kristian “CharismA3″ Martin (174th place), George Danzer (167th place), “Nacho” Barbero (165th place), Javier “El_Cañonero” Dominguez (123rd place), Marcin “Goral” Horecki (106th place), Bryan Huang (102nd place) all failed to cash today while trying to crack the top 48 player mark.

Team PokerStars pro Liv Boeree, despite claiming on Twitter that she does not play Stud H/L very well, but used enough skill to outlast all of the Team PokerStars pros and Team Online players. Sadly her efforts did not come with a championship watch or even cash as she was short-stacked with the stakes at 1K/2K ante 200 in a three-way pot with Sivokhan and Carlos34x. After seventh street Sivokhan flipped up [2h] [3s] / [6h] [5s] [9s] [Ad] / [2c] good for a 6-5 low and half the pot while Liv showed [8d][8s][Ks][Ts] with three cards that would remain unseen as Carlos34x showed an ace-high flush [Qs] [Th] / [9c] [Kc] [Ac] [Tc] / [6c] to split the 28,506 chip pot and send Boeree out in 80th place.

Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe was at it again after collecting a SCOOP champion’s watch to go with his WCOOP bracelet in last night’s Event #23-M. Jaffe would have to settle for a deep cash instead of more bling however taking $663.00 from his 18th place finish.

cal42688 was one elimination from a final table in Event #18-H (won by Team PokerStars pro Sebastian Ruthenberg) was looking to match Jaffe’s feat with a victory tonight to go with his 2010 WCOOP Event #17 Deuce-to-Seven win and was welcomed onto the final table tonight as the chip leader after ukom777′s ultra short stack finally missed. With the stakes at 8K/16K ukon777 set in his final 6,649 after receiving a [3d] on the door as auuuuutsch!! called, brat1_77 raised to the full 8K bet and auuuuutsch!! called again. Both players checked until sixth street as auuuuutsch!! bet 16K and brat_77 called. River bet by auuuuutsch!! got brat_77 to lay it down and rolled over [7c] [5c] / [8c] [4h] [Ah] [Ad] / [Jc] good for a pair of aces and 8-7-5 low as ukom777 somehow caught a worse low [7d ] [8h] / [3d] [9s] [2c] [8d] / [6h] and failed to beat the aces shipping the 62,649 chip pot to auuuuutsch!! and setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: cal42688 (438389 in chips)
Seat 2: auuuuutsch!! (229314 in chips)
Seat 3: RAGs King (68985 in chips)
Seat 4: brat1_77 (120005 in chips)
Seat 5: luk45zp (83028 in chips)
Seat 6: SebbyGl (331029 in chips)
Seat 7: Bimbostix (96616 in chips)
Seat 8: WTFseeB8 (332634 in chips)

Brat goes splat

Short stacked after being scooped by Bimbostix, brat1_77 would find all his 30,405 chips in the middle on fourth street two hands later. With the stakes at 10K/20K ante 2K, RAGs King had the bring in as brat1_77 completed with a [Jh] and cal42688 made it two bets holding a [Qs] while Bimbostix [6s] and brat1_77 called. Fourth street saw a bet by cal42688 [6c] and call all-in for 8,405 by brat1_77 [5h] while Bimbostix came along with the [4s]. cal42688 bet [8d][8c] and Bimbostix called [5c][Ts] on fifth and sixth. River card and both players get three bets in to show a full house for cal42688 [As] / [Ac] [Qs] [6c] [8d] / [8c] [8h] and a 7-6 low for Bimbostix [7h] / [4c] [6s] [4s] [5c] / [Ts] [Ad] caused brat1_77 to muck and claim eight place cash ($1,530.00).

No diamond, no low, no luk

With the stakes still at 10K/20K ante 2K cal42688 continued his quest for the SCOOP watch to go with his WCOOP bracelet as luk45zp tried to get in the way. RAGs King brought it in as luk45zp completed on the immediate left with a [5d] and only 41,242 chips to start the hand as cal42688 raised. Both capped the door card until luk45zp was all-in . luk45zp [7c][Ad] / [5d] up against cal42688′s [8c][6c] / [4h] . cal42688 would catch a pair of sixes on sixth along with a 8-6 low [Kd] [2s] [6h] / [5s] as luk45zp found nothing but air [9d] [Kc] [3d] / [Tc] taking home $1,870.00 in seventh place.

Unlucky 13

Just 13 hands later after suffering from all the bring ins, RAGs King sitting with just 25,785 chips and all-in after third street after raises by WTFseeB8 and cal42688. Bet by WTFseeB8 and a call on fourth by cal42688. cal42688 would give up on a fifth with WTFseeB8showing [8d][Th] / [Td][Tc][Kh] as RAGs King went looking for a low card [Ad][7s] / [3d][Jd][2h]. However neither player would improve as RAGs King caught two high cards [Kc][9d] and failed to catch a low to WTFseeB8′s trip tens [7c][3h] shipping the 103,355 chip pot to WTFseeB8 and RAGs King earning $2,550.00 in sixth place.

ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!!

Just five hands later with the stakes and antes still the same auuuuutsch!! wasted no time and completed instead of bringing in with the [4h] and found a customer in cal42688 who raised and auuuuutsch!! called all-in for the remaining 9,300 chips showing [8c][2s] / [4h] to cal42688′s [5d][Ah] / [9s]. cal42688 continued a string of eliminating players by running off trip jacks by the river [Js][8s][Jh] / [Jd] while auuuuutsch!! watched the bricks stack up on his hand [6s][9d][Qh] / [9h] for just a pair of nines. $3,570.00 will help ease the pain for auuuuutsch!! in fifth place.

Not much of a rack

As the stakes moved up to 12K/24K ante 2,400 Bimbostix fell to the short stack and brought it in for 3,600 holding a [7c]. cal42688 completed with an ace [As] as Bimbostix made the call. Both players caught an eight on fourth as cal42688 bet and Bimbostix called. Fifth street both players traded big bets until Bimbostix was all-in showing sevens with a straight draw [9c][7h] / [7c][8c][Jd] to cal42688′s pair of eights [8h][3d] / [As][8d][Qd]. Bimbostix could not find a seven, eight, nine, ten, or jack on the final two cards [Qh][5h] as cal42688′s eights took down the 168,436 chip pot and eliminated Bimbostix in fourth place ($5,270.00).

Yeah, those might be good

cal42688 would slip from the chip lead but gained a bunch back on the hand below:

Quad ducks for the largest scooped pot to this point (329,600) at the final table and cal42688 was back with a slight chip lead that would exchange hands between all of them as our final three dug in for the night.

WTFseeB8: I need a break, so hungry

Quote from the WTFseeB8 nearing the 11 hour mark as our final three played with stakes at 20K/40K ante 4K and cal42688 coming back to take the chip lead after being all-in twice in the previous stakes level keeping the WCOOP/SCOOP double alive.

WTF just happened

Three full levels would pass as our final three battled intensely but no one wanted to give up the rest of their chips. With stakes at 30K/60K ante 6K SebbyGl and cal42688 started dividing up WTFseeB8′s chips. Down to just 103,604 WTFB8 would trade raises with cal42688 off the door card to get those chips in the middle.

cal42688: [Ad] [9d] / [Kh] [5h] [5d] [8d] / [3c]
WTFseeB8: [Ks] [2s] / [7h] [Jc] [9h] [6d] / [Ac]

WTFseeB8 found exactly zero pairs while cal42688 little pair of fives were enough to finally bring this match to heads-up after 11 and a half hours. $7,310.00 and third place were WTFseeB8′s to take home as cal42688 had one very tough opponent with multiple WCOOP and SCOOP final tables while vying for the $13,090.00 first prize.

Double trouble

While it took almost an hour to go from three to two competitors, it would only require 15 minutes to ship the SCOOP champion’s watch. Entering heads-up play SebbyGl enjoyed a 984,060 to 715,940 chip lead that expanded on the very first hand to 1.29 million to 409,940 after showing down a high two pair on the river and scooping a 612,000 chip pot. But, the tides turned as cal42688 hit a hot streak collecting pots of 372K, 312K, and finally 552K to turn the lead in his favor 1.07 million to 624,600.

By the time the hand below played out SebbyGl’s hole was 362,060 to cal42688′s 1.33 million as cal42688 applied the pressure on every street:

cal42688: [6h] [6c] / [7c] [2s] [4s] [5h] / [6s]
SebbyGl: [9d] [Qd] / [9s] [8s] [7s] [2d] / [8d]

Trips on the river for cal42688 meant the massive 724,120 chip pot, $13,090.00 first place prize, and jewelry for both wrist as tonight’s SCOOP Event $25-M champion!

Be sure to check out all of today’s tournament stories on The Daily Scoop recap and the video replay with Nick and Joe on the Inside SCOOP show

SCOOP Event #25-M $40,000 Guarantee Stud Hi/Lo results (05-17-11)
1. cal42688 (Mexico) $13,090.00
2. SebbyGl (Germany) $9,690.00
3. WTFseeB8 (Sweden) $7,310.00
4. Bimbostix (United Kingdom) $5,270.00
5. auuuuutsch!! (Germany) $3,570.00
6. RAGs King (United Kingdom) $2,550.00
7. luk45zp (Poland) $1,870.00
8. brat1_77 (Canada) $1,530.00

Tags: bimbostix | bryan-huang | event | liv boeree | online | player | series | stakes | sweden | united-kingdom | wcoop

Tuesday, March 8 marks the 100 year anniversary of International Women’s Day and PokerStars is contributing to the effort to promote women around the world.

Established in 1911, the event celebrates the global achievements of women and through contributions to various charities, supports their efforts to achieve economic and political equality. International Women’s Day is a national holiday in 25 countries, and in the United States, President Obama has designated the entire month of March as Women’s History Month.

Woman Poker Player, in cooperation with PokerStars, is offering a freeroll on March 8 to commemorate the event, but it’s also an effort to raise money for the cause. The tournament will start at 20:30 ET, and will be open to both men and women, so mark your calendars now to participate in this worthy event to support women who really need our help.

The tournament will be free to enter, but $5 optional unlimited rebuys will be available, with an add-on at the first break. Half the proceeds from the tournament will be donated to Women for Women International. This charity provides financial assistance to female survivors of war and supports them with job training and education.

The cash prize pool starts at $200, and there are a number of additional prizes being offered as well. Vanessa Rousso has contributed a ticket to one of her Big Slick Boot Camps to the winner (valued at $400). Other prizes include clothing, jewelry, accessories, a gift basket, poker books, and even gifts that will please your pets!

For all the tournament details go to the PokerStars tournament lobby and search for tournament ID number 364987791 under “Requests.” (You will then need to go to “Find a Tournament” and type in the number.) One note however, in order to limit the number of no shows and sits out, registration for the tournament will not start until two hours prior.

Further information and details about prizes is available at Woman Poker Player magazine.

Tags: charity | gifts | history | number | poker | poker books | pokerstars | president-obama | rio | tournament | tournaments | united | vanessa-rousso | women

Peter Eastgate's 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion's Bracelet

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Tags: bracelet | eastgate | event | event-champion | flipchipro | las vegas | las vegas gaming | Las Vegas Poker News | peter | poker | poker / wsop / wpt | Vegas | wsop