If April showers do indeed bring May flowers, the coming month should be about as colorful as we ever wanted. The April news on PokerStars was just about as wild and crazy as it could get. The final weekend of majors was no exception.

People lined up for all the big events this weekend and left us with almost more news than we could report. Here’s a quick rundown of all the big stories that happened in the final weekend of April.

Sunday Warm-Up: Licensed to Win, Slaktaren007 takes down $97K in victory

Battle of the Planets: Soap opera plot twists end with nine-way chop

M.a-0000 defeats Xuan Liu to take Women’s Sunday title

CC2332 sees victory in April 29 Sunday Million

For full results from the weekend, see our 4-29-12 PokerStars weekend majors final table results list.

Now, forward to May flowers!

Tags: 2011 | Battle of the Planets | delicious | italian | micromillions | napt | sunday | Super Tuesday

No parties last night. No lechon. No mangoes prepared in a thousand different ways or juiced into tasty alcoholic beverages. Nobody vomiting out the windows of taxicabs or cracking their heads open on stone fountains. Today is final table day at the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event, and for the nine players still in the tournament, a relaxing night yesterday and a clear head today could be the difference between a modest 9th-place payout of PHP494,000 and the almost 6 million pesos that will go to the winner.

Our final table runs the gamut from players well acquainted with the pressure of a big buy-in final table to unknowns with scarcely more than a few modest tournament cashes under their belts. They come from Australia, India, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Korea and even England. The two Indians, Amit Varma and Sameer Rattonsey, hold a combined 44% of the chips in play and will start Day 4 with a big edge over the other seven players. They’ll hope to demonstrate the rise of India as a new force in the poker world ahead of the Casino Royale Cup at Goa, India seven weeks from now.

Alistair Duff (l) and Amit Varma (r)

Special attention should be paid to the three PokerStars qualifiers still in the tournament. Not only have PokerStars Qualifiers Antoine Amourette, Jacky Wang and Michael Kanaan been able to travel to Cebu, stay at the five-star Shangri-La Resort, and play big buy-in poker for a modest investment, but now they’re looking at turning that low-priced Philippines holiday into a high-priced six-figure score.

PokerStars Qualifier Michael Kanaan

We’re not soothsayers, and even if we were you could rightfully dismiss our prophesies as the deluded ramblings of drunks. We don’t know who’s going to win today. We only know that when the final table kicks off at 12:15pm (GMT+8), the final nine players will return to these seats and chip stacks:

Seat 1: Antoine Amourette (50,000)
Seat 2: Sameer Rattonsey (908,000)
Seat 3: Alistair Duff (486,000)
Seat 4: Nick Wong (142,000)
Seat 5: Jacky Wang (402,000)
Seat 6: Hoang Anh Do (810,000)
Seat 7: Michael Kanaan (399,000)
Seat 8: Jae Kyung Sim (205,000)
Seat 9: Amit Varma (1,241,000)

From there, they’ll play until one person has all the chips. It might take six levels; it might take sixteen. However long it takes, there’s sure to be some celebrations tonight for one of these nine players, tomorrow’s hangover be damned.

Tags: australia | Battle of the Planets | facebook | france | napt | pokerstars | tournaments | vietnam

After eating a sausage biscuit sandwich for breakfast, normally it would be time to catch up world news and Lindsay Lohan’s latest mishap. But, today for some reason opening the PokerStars client to see the start of today’s $500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up made sense as the tournament will be taking a nap for next couple of weeks as the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker takes center stage. Usually a Sunday morning means waking up late and settling down for the rush to the final table but seeing only 954 players entered at 10:00am CST had this writer a little worried the guarantee would not be met. But, suddenly that number grew exponentially and after the three hour late registration was done 3,371 players made sure we would be sending off the Sunday Warm-Up for a slumber in style. $674,200.00 prize pool and $105,850.21 for the winner are number that will rival those looking for a SCOOP championship watch next week.

Speaking of champions, a Team Online member with a WCOOP bracelet, and Team PokerStars Pro with multiple titles under her belt would make their way into the money this evening. Shane “shaniac” Schleger took down the Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw WCOOP event last year and managed to finish in the top 495 players tonight to bank $377.55 in 323rd place. Listing all of Vanessa Selbst’s titles may take awhile but the WSOP bracelet, back-to-back Mohegan Sun victories, and Partouche Main Event for $1.6 million would be a big part of the long champion’s resume. Tonight she would not add a Sunday Majors title but did take away $377.55 as well in 313th place.

Down to the final two tables, eddymaksoud, KKremate, and NhFy would all earn $2,022.60 in 16th thru 18th place quickly as the rush to stack-up before the final table took place. SDK13 would make some heads turn with a call out of the big blind for nearly all of his chips against a shove by eddymaksoud in the small blind. eddymaksoud flipped up [Kd][9c] while SDK13 clung to a medium connector [6s][7d] and connect it did with a six on the turn [5d] [3s] [Th] [6d] [As] to send eddymaksoud home in 15th place ($3,033.90) barely missing his second Sunday Warm-Up final table this year after finishing 6th in the same tournament that saw Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari pickup his first Sunday Major.

KevAndMoney, raare01, and Renster12 went out almost as fast as 16th through 18th places as the hand-for-hand play crept around the corner. SDK13 was at it again when joaodiogostr shoved for 1.6 million from the cutoff and now with a 5.6 million chip stack, SDK13 made the call from the button holding [9s][Ac]. Pocket sevens [7h][7c] would be joaodiogostr’s choice of weapon to stay in the tournament, however a nine would show its face on the door [9c] [6c] [Qs] [3d] [Tc] and joaodiogostr was out the door in 11th place ($4,045.20).

Only three hands later with the blinds upped to 65K/130K ante 13K arsenalfca would bully a short-stacked ael1979 in the big blind by shoving from the small blind. The short-stack did not mind the wedgie because ael1979 was holding big slick [Kh][As] and quickly made the call. arsenalfca turned over [Qh][Jd] and despite being the underdog the bully would walk away with the lunch money after a jack hit the flop [2s] [Js] [7c] [5h] [9s] setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: Berkyy (8706273 in chips)
Seat 2: Catafract80 (5030688 in chips)
Seat 3: arsenalfca (2238814 in chips)
Seat 4: SDK13 (4905736 in chips)
Seat 5: Slaktaren007 (2262223 in chips)
Seat 6: Radiihead (6208364 in chips)
Seat 7: instigator85 (1798301 in chips)
Seat 8: bubys (953235 in chips)
Seat 9: Halfrek (1606366 in chips)

Berkyy’s stack gets bloated

Only a few minutes after the final table started Berkyy and arsenalfca butted heads for a 4.4 million chip pot. With the blinds still at 65K/130K ante 13K Berkyy would lead out for a min-raise from the button as arsenalfca shoved from the big blind for 2.1 million. Holding pocket sixes [6d][6h] and plenty of chips Berkyy would make the call, and dominated the fours [4s][4c] held by arsenalfca. A quiet trip down the [3h] [2d] [9d] [3s] [Ks] board and arsenalfca was booted off the pitch in ninth place ($5,393.60).

More Berkyy, Less Players

Still in the 65K/130K ante 13K level SDK13 would lead out for 390,000 from UTG as a shortstacked Halfrek would push from the cutoff for 1.03 million as Berkyy stuck in a larger bet of over 10 million. That bet scared off SDK13 as Berkyy turned over big slick [Kc][Ah] dominating [Td][Ah] held by Halfrek. King on the flop killed any chance of an upset [8c] [Ks] [3c] [3h] [4d] and Halfrek took down eighth place ($8,427.50). Brian “Halfrek” Elgaard is no stranger to deep cashes like 35th place in the Super Tuesday this weekand will certainly be back another time.

Giving no Slak

Finally the players let the foot off the gas pedal as the blinds finally moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K. Watch below as Slaktaren007 and bubys battled with some top five hands:

Slaktaren007 took initiative and min-raised as it folded around to bubys in the small blind who had 2.06 million to wager and shoved all of it in the middle with pocket queens [Qc][Qs]. With no lack of power in his hand Slaktaren007 called quickly with big slick [Ad][Kd]. Both would end up with boats but Slaktaren007′s was the bigger holding jacks full of kings [Jd] [Jh] [Kh] [Jc] [Ts] and bubys time was up earning $15,169.50 in seventh place.

Two Minutes for Instigating

The penalty box on the rail awaited for instigator85 who clung to a short stack for over an entire blind level but tripped the wrong player trying to get those chips back. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K instigator85 would shove all-in for 865,328 as only Slaktaren007 in the big blind would look it up and make the call holding [7d][8h]. Pocket deuces [2c][2h] for instigator85 would watch four broadway cards come up on the board, but they were accompanied by an unwelcomed seven [7s] [Ks] [Jc] [Qd] [Ad] to end instigator85′s night in sixth place ($21,911.50). The previously mentioned Sunday Warm-Up final table eddymaksoud? Yeah, instigator85 was there too taking ninth place.

Short intermission

The remaining five tried to hash out a deal but like the nine-way deal from tonight’s Battle of the Planets final table one player had a sticking point (then another, and another…). But, here the inability to break that point left five players to get back to the battle.

Everything in its right place, that place is fourth for Radiihead

With the blinds going up to 125K/250K ante 25K both Radiihead and Berkyy watched their stacks get decimated down to 2.4 million and 3.6 million respectively. Radiihead tried gaining a few of those chips back by shoving [Ah][Qh] over the top of Slaktaren007′s min-raise. Declamation met desperation as Slaktaren007 snap-called with pocket queens [Qc][Qs]. Radiihead watched the wrong suit get spread all over the [Jc] [6c] [8s] [5c] [8c] board finishing in fifth place ($28,653.50).

$75K to $38K

Like watching an episode of “Deal or No Deal” sometimes the player takes a risk of choosing one too many briefcases only to get the big dollar amounts taken off the board and left with a small offer by the banker. Berkyy could have secured $75K in the five-way deal but chose to push on with the chip lead. Just a couple of laps around the four-handed table after Radiihead’s elimination left Berkyy with 2.53 million and the Australian would shove those chips from the cutoff with [Jh][Th]. Folded to Slaktaren007 who seems to do well calling shoves from the big blind, called this one as well holding [4c][Ad]. The high card was never threatened on the [Kc] [3s] [6d] [4d] [5h] board and Berkyy would settle for $38,766.50 in fourth place. This was Berkyy’s second shot at bringing home one of the two biggest Sunday Majors as in 2010 he made the Sunday Million final table finishing in seventh place.

Now we have a deal

No squabbles about a few dollars any longer as our remaining three quickly made the deal shown below leaving aside $10,000.00 for the champ:

Slaktaren007 $87,481.34
SDK13 $81,394.40
Catafract80 $61,477.37

My pair is bigger

Still in the 125K/250K ante 25K blind level and just after SDK13 would trim a 13.3 million chip pot off Slaktaren007, Catafract80 tried improving a woefully short-stack of 1.9 million by shoving over the top of a min-raise by Slaktaren007. Once again holding an ace [9s][Ah] Slaktaren007 would make the call looking for his third straight elimination against Catafract80′s [4s][5c]. Both players would hit the flop [5s] [As] [8s] [8h] [7h] but an ace trumps a five in most games including Texas Hold Em’ so Catafract80 was out in third place ($61,477.37).

Three minutes to champ

SDK13 would start off with a sizable 21.3 million to 12.3 million chip lead but watched it slide to 18.9 million to 14.7 million when the hand of the tournament came up. With the blinds holding tight at 125K/250K ante 25K this 29.5 million chip pot would point the way to the extra $10,000.00 for our winner:

An innocent min-raise and call preflop snowballed into a tournament changing hand. With the board showing [Jc] [Ts] [3d] [7s] and 9.55 million already in the pot Slaktaren007 would check-call for a little more than 10 million hitting two pair on the turn [7c][Jh]. SDK13 looked longly at the soon-to-be cracked aces [As][Ad] as the [Ks] hit the river shipping the big pot to Slaktaren007. Two hands later Slaktaren007 would ride big slick [Ad][Ks] to victory over SDK13′s [9c][Kc] on the [6c] [As] [Kh] [Tc] [8d] board earning a total of $97,481.34 for the Sunday Warm-Up victory!

$500,000 guaranteee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-29-12):
(* denotes part of three-way chop)
1. Slaktaren007 (Sweden) *$97,481.34
2. SDK13 (Israel) *$81,394.40
3. Catafract80 (Venezuela) *$61,477.37
4. Berkyy (Australia) $38,766.50
5. Radiihead (Canada) $28,653.50
6. instigator85 (Russia) $21,911.50
7. bubys (Spain) $15,169.50
8. Halfrek (Denmark) $8,427.50
9. arsenalfca (Denmark) $5,393.60

Tags: delicious | events | festival | harrah's | italian poker tour | pokerstars | sunday | tournaments

When Lex Veldhuis became one of the first players knocked out of today’s €25,000 High Roller event in Monaco, Alexandre Gomes was moved to his seat at table 48. When Jonathan Duhamel busted from the same table a couple of hours later, Patrik Antonius was rotated in.

Liv Boeree spent a good portion of the day sat next to Phil Ivey. When the table broke, she found herself beside Faraz Jaka. Daniel Negreanu bounced around the room, past Viktor Blom, Isaac Haxton, Max Lykov, ElkY et al.

This was one of those poker tournaments, where the only soft spot was on the shoulders of the participants, who have the kind of bankroll sufficient to have their bodies massaged into steak tartare.

There were stars of the game at every single table, making it one of the most fiercely contested tournaments of the week. And it wasn’t exactly a small field. This has become the biggest High Roller event we have ever seen on the EPT. There were 133 entries at €25,000 a pop. It means that the winner, crowned on Tuesday, will get €1,080,000. And they will have earned every penny.

The opening flight today lasted 10 one-hour levels, at the end of which 46 players remained. The man with the most was the American Andrew Badecker, who signed for 350,000.

Andrew Badecker, High Roller leader

His closest challenger is Vincent van den Fluit, with 341,800 and then a whole raft of talent not so far behind. Sami Kelopuro is there, with 310,000. Antonius is there, with 307,500 and Ivey has 271,500.

Vincent van den Fluit

Sami Kelopuro

This field also still contains Justin Bonomo (204,200) hot from a Super High Roller success, and a smattering of Team PokerStars Pro: Daniel Negreanu (102,700), David Williams (90,000), Viktor Blom (67,500) and Boeree (112,600).

Liv Boeree and Daniel Negreanu

We return to the Salle des Etoiles at noon tomorrow to play down to our final table. No matter how big the reputations there are only eight spots there.

Take a look back at all of today’s coverage:

Balancing act begins
Before you win two, win one
A round with the high rollers
Rolling ever higher
It’s not cricket

Thanks to the photos of Lina Olofsson today. More of the same Swedish stylings tomorrow. Goodnight.

Click here for live updates, chip counts and payout information from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

Tags: Baltic Poker Festival | estrellas poker tour | festival | harrah's | lex veldhuis | phil ivey | photos | russian poker series

Tags: delicious | gambling | latin-america | napt | news | sunday-warm-up | twitter | UKIPT

Seven years ago today, the PokerStars Blog published its first post. In honor of the seventh anniversary, we’ve chosen to republish a bit from a recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure magazine that outlines a bit about how we…ahem…work when we’re on the road.

The following is a day in the life of a PokerStars Blogger at the PCA, a writer who goes to countless poker tournaments but never touches a card or a chip. The bloggers never play one hand, but they know almost everything that happens from the first flop to the last river. This is how they work.

***

9:00am: On the floor sits a backpack stuffed with chicken-scratch notes, unopened from the late finish the night before. In the bed lies a member of Team PokerStars Blog. He has a decision: breakfast or another 30 minutes of sleep. The decision he makes will factor into whether he eats a proper meal on this day or subsists on potato chips, Jamba Juice, and Atomic Fireball candy.

9:05am: The decision made, the blogger dreams of playing heads-up with Liv Boeree. Breakfast is for school children. The dream will soon end with the blogger being beaten up by Joe Hachem. Always does. Off to work.

11:00am: The bloggers arrive before most people. There’s a lot to the job that most people don’t see. It goes beyond tracking chip counts and standing around poker tables. There’s the matter of photography, videos, writing, keeping track of winners, and getting it all done in a fast enough fashion it could be considered live. Moreover, they know that what they produce will be the definitive chronicle of that happens at the PCA. They may look like a bunch of ruffians, but they take the job seriously, so they arrive early, bleary-eyed, and hungry.

Bleary-eyed bloggers

12:00pm: Somebody shouts “Shuffle up and deal” and the bloggers descend into maze of tables to mark down where the notable players are sitting. During the first few minutes, they are likely to see aces versus kings, set over set, and someone going broke with ace-king all-in pre-flop. World-weary, the bloggers nod in sympathy as they mark down the first bust-outs of the day.

3:00pm: With the first three hours of the day gone, the bloggers have recorded and written more hands than they can remember. They are haunted by that guy who went busto with ace-king, but the rest of it is a blur of clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades. They’ve already met about 100 players they’ve never seen before and assigned them code names like “Flat-Brim Hat Blair” and “Suzy the Girl Who Looks Like My Fifth Grade Girlfriend.” This is the only way they will keep everybody straight until the end of the day.

3:00pm-9:00pm: The bloggers would look like ants if ants moved like mercury spilled on ice. It’s a chaotic scene, but professional at the same time. Despite how it may look, the bloggers are pros. One comes from a national newspaper background. Another spent ten years on-air as a radio and TV news reporter. The photographers are the undisputed best in the industry. The team as a whole has played and seen more poker hands than can possibly be calculated. The PCA is just one of the dozens of tournaments the bloggers will cover during the year and just a sunny addition to the daily updates on everything that happens online at PokerStars. And so they report with an eye toward accurate, comprehensive, and entertaining coverage.

9:01pm: As the surviving players and staff file from the room, the bloggers remain behind. They are sweating from the previous 15 minutes of running around the room and making sure they know without question who has the chip lead. They will use that information to compose the overnight wrap-up on the PokerStars Blog. No one will leave until it’s finished. At some point long after everyone is gone, the bloggers will shuffle out with cramped hands, aching feet, and the knowledge that they have about 12 hours until a dreamscape version of Joe Hachem beats them up again. This is what they do.

Tags: Baltic Poker Festival | ept | eureka poker tour | European Poker Tour | girl | pca | rio | SCOOP | tournaments | twitter

Well, let’s just call it what it is: a little weird and pretty cool. During the past couple of weeks, the big Sunday majors have had some familiar names in the winning column. Last week, the Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Million had winners that were also WCOOP and TCOOP champions. This week, the Sunday Million picked up a winner who is fresh off a victory in a Super Tuesday event.

The Russian poker community is abuzz today with news that Supernova Elite mypokerf won more than $200,000 in the Sunday Million. The man from Russia beat out more than 7,000 other players for the lion’s share of the $210,124 first prize. That would be remarkable on its own, but it’s even more so after noting this: less than two weeks ago, mypokerf beat out more than 400 players in the $1,050 Super Tuesday for $114,000.

Indeed, they are interesting times in the world of PokerStars. Kristin Bihr has the full story in Mypokerf pairs Super Tuesday title with Sunday Million win.

Elsewhere, Australia’s MISHELA was winning $108,896 in the Sunday Warm-Up after beating out nearly 3,500 players. David Aydt was on the case and has the story in Sunday Warm-Up: MISHELA cracks aces and table to $108K victory.

Those are just a couple of the interesting tales hitting the PokerStars Blog. You’ll very likely find even more if you can through the list of people who made final tables this weekend.

Good luck this week to all!

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | Baltic Poker Festival | delicious | festival | harrah's | italian | poker | pokerstars macau

Does luck really come in streaks? Ask ten players and you’ll get ten answers, but ask the final two in tonight’s Sunday Million and you might find a couple of true believers. Eleven days ago, Russia’s mypokerf defeated 462 of online poker’s elite MTT grinders in the Super Tuesday, earning more than $60,000 after a five-way chop. And a little over two months ago, jonyctt won the Sunday Warm-Up, the Spaniard banking over $114,000. Tonight, these two hot-running grinders faced off for their second major online title, each of them taking home career-high paydays, and all without a deal.

7,004 players hit the felt for the Sunday Million, the prize pool topping out at $1,400,800. 1,080 places were paid with this week’s champion set to earn $210.124.92. More than two dozen members of Team Pro and Team Online were in the mix, including Liv Boeree, Angel Guillen, George Danzer, Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen, and Andre Akkari. Seven made the money: Nuno Coelho (975th), Martin Hruby (890th), Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome (686th), Randy “nanonoko” Lew (506th), Kevin “WizardOfAhhs” Thurman (391st), Shane “shaniac” Schleger (317th), and Christophe De Muelder who made the deepest run of the Red Spades, busting in 182nd place.

A classic coinflip set the final table, Troubaduren opening for a min-raise to 500,000 with [Ah][Kc] and samirua shoving for 4.03 million with [Jc][Jh]. Troubaduren whiffed the [8c][6c][5h] flop, but spiked the [Ks] on the turn to make top pair. Samirua couldn’t catch a two-outer on the river and departed in tenth place.

Final table chip counts:

Seat 1: Danstah8 (11,088,979 in chips)
Seat 2: vanbizzo (4,010,943 in chips)
Seat 3: jonyctt (13,238,923 in chips)
Seat 4: micide (6,360,264 in chips)
Seat 5: Nile1 (2,690,278 in chips)
Seat 6: mmoreno9 (11,576,969 in chips)
Seat 7: mypokerf (5,305,186 in chips)
Seat 8: Troubaduren (10,228,238 in chips)
Seat 9: rubencito30 (5,540,220 in chips)

The final table found its first elimination on only the second hand of play. Danstah8 led off the action with a min-raise to 500,000, vanbizzo shoved for 3.96 million, micide re-shoved for 7.41 million and mypokerf cold-called all-in for 5 million in the big blind. The hands?

mypokerf [Kd][Kh]
micide [Qd][Qh]
vanbizzo [Qs][Qc]

Mypokerf scooped the 15.3 million pot, tripling up and moving into the chip lead when the board ran out ten-high. Micide was left with only 2.15 million while vanbizzo’s run came to an end in ninth place.

Now the table short stack, micide was looking for a quick double-up to survive. Less than an orbit later he looked down at [Ah][Ks] and three-bet shoved for his remaining 1.65 million behind Denstah8′s opening raise. Danstah8 called the additional 1.1 million with [6c][8c]. Although micide’s nut-no held up through the turn, Danstah8 spiked a pair of eights on the river to send micide home in eighth place.

Nile1 had been hanging on by a thread since the final table bubble and with less than four big blinds left, took his [Ac][Kd] up against jonyctt’s pocket tens. Nile1 couldn’t have asked for a better flop, hitting top two pair when it came down [Ad][7d][Kh]. Nile1was gutted on the turn, however, one of the two remaining tens in the deck falling to make jonyctt a set. For his seventh-place finish, Nile1 earned $30,117.20.

With the field down to six, play settled into a small-pot slog for the better part of a level, the blinds rising to 200,000/400,000. Down to 6.76 million, Danstah8 decided to make a move, three-bet shoving with [Qd][Td] after chip leader mypokerf opened for an UTG min-raise. Unfortunately for Danstah8, mypokerf had a real hand and made the call with pocket sevens. Danstah8 did not improve and was eliminated in sixth place, his earnings totaling $43,424.80

Moments later, rubencito30 moved all-in from the button for his last 1.01 million. Both blinds looked him up and checked down the [Qc][7c][3d][8c][Qh] board. Small blind jonyctt could only show [Js][9s], big blind mmoreno9 taking down the pot with [3h][6c] for queens and threes. Rubencito30 mucked and departed in fifth, earning $57,432.80.

With the action folded to him in the small blind, jonyctt open-shoved for 11.7 million on a steal, but mmoreno9 found pocket sixes and called all-in for his remaining 7.3 million. With [Ts][8h], jonyctt was lucky to be in a race situation and luckier still to pick up a flush draw to go with his overs on the [Ks][Qs][3s] flop. It was all over on the turn, the [2s] falling to fill it. Jonyctt raked in the 15.8 million pot while mmoreno9 was out in fourth place, earning $74,242.40.

Troubaduren was a mere seedling between two redwoods as play turned three-handed, but managed to double up through mypokerf when his [Ad][Qs] held up against [Qh][5h]. Troubaduren moved up to 16.2 million, mypokerf fell to 34.2 million and jonyctt held 19.6 million. The final three’s chip counts converged even closer together over the next few orbits, until jonyctt turned two pair against mypokerf in this 14.3 million pot:

Jonyctt moved up to 34.8 million while mypokerf and Troubaduren were on 18.9 million and 16.2 million respectively. It was then that mypokerf shifted into high gear and turned up the aggression, winning 14 of the next 22 hands to move up to 40 million in chips. Mypokerf’s run left Troubaduren with 12.6 million in chips with the blinds up to 300,000/600,000 while jonyctt fell to 18.2 million.

Holding [Kh][Qd], Troubaduren opened for a min-raise to 1.2 million on the button. Mypokerf called with [Jc][8c] in the big blind. Fireworks were inevitable on the [Qh][Jd][8s] flop, Troubaduren hitting top pair while mypokerf flopped bottom two. Sure enough, all the money went in, Troubaduren three-bet shoving for 11.3 million and mypokerf making the call. Troubaduren did not improve, the [3h] and [9d] falling on the turn and river to end his run in third place. He earned $112,064 for his efforts.

Mypokerf took a nearly 3 to 1 chip lead into heads-up play:

Seat 3: jonyctt (17,869,679 in chips)
Seat 7: mypokerf (52,170,321 in chips)

Mypokerf won 11 of the first 18 heads-up pots, not showing down a single hand in the process. Jonyctt finally pulled the trigger on hand #19, min-raising to 1.2 million with [5s][9s]. Mypokerf smooth-called with [As][Ad] and let the flop call [4c][5d][7s]. Mypokerf checked, jonyctt bet 1.33 million with middle pair, mypokerf raised to 3 million, and jonyctt shoved for 14.76 million total. Mypokerf quickly called. Jonyctt needed a five, a nine, or running spades to crack mypokerf’s overpair, but could not get there this time, the [Tc] and the [Th] falling to lock up victory for mypokerf.

Congratulations to mypokerf on pairing his Super Tuesday title with a Sunday Million win– and all within eleven days. He earned $210,124.92 while runner-up jonyctt banked a career-high score of $154,606.29.

PokerStars Sunday Million results for 4-22-2012

1. mypokerf (Russia) $210,124.92
2. jonyctt (Spain) $154,606.29
3. Troubaduren (Denmark) $112,064.00
4. mmoreno9 (Brazil) $74,242.40
5. rubencito30 (Argentina) $57,432.80
6. Dastah8 (Denmark) $43,424.80
7. Nile1 (Canada) $30,117.20
8. micide (Germany) $16,809.60
9. vanbizzo (Norway) $10,856.20

Don’t miss out on your chance to turn $215 into six figures! Head over to the Sunday Million page for more information on how you can satellite in for pennies on the dollar.

Tags: European Poker Tour | gambling | harrah's | micromillions | pokerstars | portugal poker series | videos | world cup of poker

Aces. They look so pretty sitting in your hand and ready to get some unfortunate soul with a lesser hand to make the call. But, as we found out tonight, aces do get beat sometimes. Even twice in the same tournament. Tonight’s $500,000 Sunday Warm-Up would attract 3,468 players as the ramp-up before SCOOP 2012 kicks off in two weeks will have bankroll seekers looking to take away a five or six figure win from the Sunday Majors such as this one.

Among those bankroll seekers (well, online bankroll) Team PokerStars pro and Team Online notched a few Red Spades in the top 495 money spots tonight. Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen took down EPT Copenhagen recently and Team Pro Martin Staszko earned $5.4 million as the World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up added a small amount to their SCOOP bankroll finishing in 487th place ($319.05) and 450th place ($325.99) respectively. No stranger to SCOOP as the reigning SCOOP Player of the Series Anders “Donald” Berg would also find some cash in 270th place ($450.84).

Another familiar name in the cash as well as Richard Toth scored $485.52 in 246th place but it was Greek Challenger Stavros “IDOLLS” Kalfas who elevated the Red Spade the furthest finishing in 98th place ($971.04).

Right at the eight hour 30 minute mark the tables broke from three to two and the blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K MISHELA was the kind recipient of pocket aces [Ah][Ac] while Granny063 found queens [Qd][Qc] and mashek was even more unlucky to grab kings [Ks][Kd]. All the money went in preflop with MISHELA already covering the unfortunate other two and the flop would seal it for Australian as MISHELA boated up [2s] [2c] [Ad] [3d] [2d] earning the 3.3 million chip pot, the chip lead, and knocking Granny063 and mashek in 17th and 18th place both earning $2,080.80. mashek will have another shot at making a SCOOP final like he did in 2009 during Event #5-medium in just two short weeks.

Followed quickly by LionLMe55i whose pocket tens [Th][Tc] couldn’t dribble past westy1983′s big slick [Kc][Ad] after a king flopped to finish in 16th place ($2,080.80). Perhaps another football fan, jordankickz, would be removed from the PokerStars pitch after [9h][Qs] could not overcome checktrap11′s [As][Qd] ending the night with a pay bump in 15th place ($3,121.20).

shumeilove flipped [Kd][9d] against bigdogpckt5′s pocket eights [8c][8s] and despite flopping a nine, watched all the 1.2 million chips go to bigdogpckt5 after an eight found a place on the river [9h] [2d] [4h] [Js] [8d] for 14th place ($3,121.20). shumeilove would fall short of making both a Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday Million final table like back in 2010 when shumeilove took home a cool $69K after finishing fifth.

The players seemed to be in a rush to get at that six-figure score waiting at the final table as the final hand before the ninth hourly break westy1983 would take out Hubertus91 and jamjams99 as pocket tens [Tc][Td] held up versus Hubertus91′s [Ad][Jh] and jamjams99′s [Ks][As] to take down a three million chip pot leaving 11 players to rest for five minutes.

winga699 wasted no time making a move, shoving big slick [As][Kd] in the third hand back from the break as the blinds moved up to 50K/100K ante 10K. roo_400 was there to make the call holding jacks [Jd][Jh]. Exactly zero threats made their way to the [9d] [3h] [Qs] [5s] [8c] board as winga699 flew away with $4,161.60 in 11th place. Like shumeilove, winga699 was also trying to add a Sunday Warm-Up to Sunday Million final table appearance. winga699 collected $76K back in October 2010 for a fourth place finish.

Hand-for-hand play would not last long as pornada needed a double-up posthaste holding just over five big blinds and found a big ace [Ad][Tc] to open with in the small blind. Holding 1.7 million, KojGysto would make the call out of the big blind holding pocket eights [8c][8h]. The broadway card to hit the board was a king [9s] [6h] [2h] [Kc] [3c] as pornada’s exit in 10th place ($4,161.60) opened the doors to the final table below:

Seat 1: KojGysto (2388960 in chips)
Seat 2: bigdogpckt5s (5032634 in chips)
Seat 3: westy1983 (4919450 in chips)
Seat 4: checktrap11 (4659824 in chips)
Seat 5: MrBarrett82 (4479802 in chips)
Seat 6: MISHELA (5872397 in chips)
Seat 7: roo_400 (3789567 in chips)
Seat 8: stotaka (1964912 in chips)
Seat 9: Olya2Ace (1572454 in chips)

Eight is not an Ace

Olya2Ace came in with the small stack to the final table and would leave with the smallest payout. With the blinds still at 50K/100K ante 10K the Russian would open shove the small stack of 1.3 million from the button holding [Kd][8c] as bigdogpckt5s held a bigger kicker with a king [Qd][Kc] making the call. If the eight was an ace Olya2Ace would have the 2.8 million chip pot and this report would not have Olya2Ace winning $5,548.80 in ninth place.

MISHELA sends big dog to the pound

8.3 million chips and the chip lead in the middle preflop. Aces, MISHELA, and bigdogpckt5s were involved. Check out the video below to see who got the big pot and who got a sizable bad beat story:

In the case of “oh I don’t think you have it… ewww I guess you do” MISHELA tried pushing bigdogpckt5s off pocket aces [Ac][As] when a series of raises and re-raises ended with 8.3 million chip in the middle. MISHELA’s [Js][Kh] would catch a jack on the flop and one on the turn [9d] [Jc] [8d] [Jd] [Ts] to send bigdogpckt5s out unceremoniously in eighth place ($8,670.00). This was bigdogpckt5s second shot at a Sunday Warm-Up final table and possible two-time champ as bigdogpckt5s took down this tournament back in October 2011 for $83K after a three-way chop.

Continuing with the rushed theme

Just six hands later as the blinds held at 65K/130K ante 13K KojGysto would min-raise from middle position as MrBarrett82 three-bet with another min-raise out of the big blind and KojGysto made the call. A fairly coordinated [7s] [Ts] [9h] flop had MrBarrett82 leading out for 300,000 as KojGysto had no intentions of slowing down after shoving for 1.88 million. Holding pocket aces [As][Ah] MrBarrett82 made the call, but cringed after KojGysto rolled over [8d][7d] for a pair plus and up and down straight draw. Flashes of bigdogpckt5s’ demise came about when the board put out a five [5s] and a jack [Js] giving KojGysto a straight. But the four spades plus that lovely ace of spades in MrBarrett82′s hand prevent another ace cracking and sent KojGysto home with seventh place cash ($15,606.00).

Game of chicken turns into a cooler

Two cars going full speed right as each other and both have clunky motors. After a little tune-up on the flop both looked like sports cars you might find parked outside the EPT Monte Carlo http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/ept/2012/ept-grand-final-making-history-in-monaco-093371.html €100,000 high roller tournament on Monday. checktrap11 would min-raise from small blind as MrBarrett82 re-min-raised to 480,000 as the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K. After an all-low [6c] [3h] [7c] flop, neither car was going to stop. Both players would raise and re-raise until all 12.9 million chips sat in the middle. checktrap11 flopped top two pair [6s][7s] but MrBarrett82 flopped the nut straight [5s][4d]. The board failed to pair the six or seven [8d] [9c] as MrBarrett82 raked in the tournament’s largest pot to this point and chip lead, as checktrap11′s cooler earned $22,542.00 in sixth place.

After the break, broken

Right after coming back after the tenth hourly break, shortstacked roo_400 tried to pounce by open shoving for 1.67 million from the small blind with a medium king [Kd][8s]. A good pressure play, but stotaka was waiting with a bigger king [Ks][Ad] in the big blind to make the call. A severe lack of eights on the [Qc] [4h] [Tc] [9h] [6c] board left roo_400 to settle for fifth place cash ($29,478.00). Another big tournament champ roo_400, like bigdogpckt5s, is a name that appears often in the Sunday tournament results. The biggest accomplishment would be taking down the 2010 SCOOP Event #35-Low tournament winning ELEVEN heads-up matches in a row for a $64K payday. With that kind of achievement the remaining players must feel safer not facing roo_400 for the title tonight.

MISHE MISHE MISHE!

Fans of Barcelona FC get used to cheering for Lionel Messi every game as he dazzles opponents with his skill MISHELA would get us to heads-up play very quickly by deftly taking out westy1983 and stotaka in short order. With the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K and MISHELA already holding 13 million chips and only MrBarrett82 with 11 million as the closest opponent, westy1983 trying taking down the blinds with a shove from the button for 4.5 million. MISHELA was not folding [Td][Ad] out of the big blind, as westy1983 also held a suited ten but with a queen kicker [Th][Qh]. Neither player was helped by the [4d] [Kc] [Ks] [6c] [3c] board and westy1983 took home $39,882.00 in fourth place.

Two hands later MISHELA would open for a min raise from the button as stotaka took a shot at the chip leader with a shove for 5.1 million holding [Td][9h]. Big slick [Ad][Kc] was more than enough for MISHELA to make the call but a nine along with a straight draw would make its way to the flop [Qd] [9d] [8d] for stotaka. But, after the fourth diamond hit the turn [3d] stotaka needed the jack of diamonds for the improbable straight flush. [Ks] on the river was not even red as MISHELA’s ace of diamond ended stotaka’s tournament in third place ($57,222.00).

Horror story ending

Despite starting with a 23.5 million to 11 million deficit, MrBarrett82 would quickly grab pots of 5.1 million and 9.1 million within four hands to overturn the disadvantage as MISHELA reached out to ask for a chop.

“no ty” “I like to play” responded MrBarrett82 politely as the final two were destined to name the six-figure top prize for just one player tonight.

In the next seven hands after MrBarrett82 took over the lead, MISHELA would take down six of them including the tournament decider below (warning video may contain big hands getting cracked in a brutal Stephen King-like fashion. Viewer’s discretion is advised):

A min-raise war preflop would end after sixth bet by MISHELA putting in 17.3 million and MrBarrett82 snap calling for just 176,362 less. Pocket aces [Ah][Ad] for MrBarrett82 as MISHELA has been in this spot before but this time $27K was on the line as MISHELA flipped up [Kc][Qh]. A low flop [9c] [7c] [4s] was great for MrBarrett82. The set of aces [Ac] was not wanted as a blank would have locked out MISHELA, and now the Brit had to sweat the river. [8c] gave MISHELA the second pocket aces cracked this evening with a flush as MrBarrett82 could only be consoled for playing a good game and earning $81,151.20 as the runner-up. MISHELA’s run to the Sunday Warm-Up title was a scary one but worth $108,896.19 which will become very useful in two weeks with SCOOP starting up.

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-22-12):
1. MISHELA (Australia) $108,896.19
2. MrBarrett82 (United Kingdom) $81,151.20
3. stotaka (Bulgaria) $57,222.00
4. westy1983 (Australia) $39,882.00
5. roo_400 (Canada) $29,478.00
6. checktrap11 (United Kingdom) $22,542.00
7. KojGysto (Denmark) $15,606.00
8. bigdogpckt5s (Canada) $8,670.00
9. Olya2Ace (Russia) $5,548.80

Tags: barcelona | eureka poker tour | france | france poker series | pokerstars | tcoop | TOC | wbcoop

Spring is in the air! How do we know? Besides the calendar dates, there is a big tournament series on the horizon called the Spring Championship of Online Poker, better known as SCOOP. The May series is one of the most exciting poker events of the year, as it will offer each event at three different buy-in levels and give players of all bankrolls an exceptional chance to participate. Satellites are already in progress!

Another sign of spring is that the European Poker Tour is headed to Monte Carlo for its Grand Finale, and that means poker at its finest will be played in one of the most beautiful destinations on earth. PS Women Live will be there for its Ladies Event before the month is over, and we can’t wait to find out who will win, especially after the excitement of the EPT Berlin Ladies Event where none other than Charlotte “Sjlot” Van Brabander claimed victory.

Today, we had our weekly Women’s Sunday event, which resulted in these numbers:

Total players: 213
Prize pool: $10,650.00
Paid finishers: 36

Several Team PokerStars Pros entered the tournament today as $50 bounties. One of the late registrants was Ana Marquez, and she was also the first of the bounties to be eliminated. Team Online’s Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome signed up in time to play but ended up out of the action in 128th place. Another late registrant was Vanessa Selbst, but she, too, exited in the first half, taking 112th place. And not far behind was one of the first to take her seat, Vivian Im, who left the party in 104th place.

The rest of the field headed into the money in the third hour of action, and payouts began with PULGUITO, who took home $79.87 for 36th place.

As the three-hour mark approached, so did the final table bubble, and the 11th place elimination of donleg launched hand-for-hand play. It took only moments for simplyred10 to make a move with [As][Tc] against the [3h][3d] of 1234mee. The board came [4s][4c][5c][4h][9s] to give 1234mee the full house, and simplyred10 left in tenth place with $170.40.

Chip lead as simple as 1234mee

In the beginning of Level 17, with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a 300 ante, the final table began with these nine players and their starting stacks:

Seat 1: Izzuska88 (39,444 in chips)
Seat 2: smurfetta44 (173,645 in chips)
Seat 3: StGilmore (29,210 in chips)
Seat 4: mtt_baller (34,949 in chips)
Seat 5: LaliTournier (69,452 in chips)
Seat 6: 1234mee (181,025 in chips)
Seat 7: Nastena2005 (30,232 in chips)
Seat 8: mirrcha (30,450 in chips)
Seat 9: HELENLINDES (50,593 in chips)

On the third hand of action, Nastena2005 doubled through HELENLINDES, and Izzuska88 did the same through 1234mee on the next hand.

The next hand saw mirrcha attempt the same by moving all-in UTG with [As][Qs]. LaliTournier reraised from the button with [Td][Th] to isolate, which worked. The flop of [Tc][8h][5h] gave LaliTournier the set of tens, and the [Js] and [3c] finished the hand with mirrcha out in ninth place with $202.35.

Izzuska88 and 1234mee battled again, this time with Issuska88 pushing all-in with [Qd][Qh] and 1234mee calling from the big blind with [As][Kd]. The flop hit 1234mee when it came [Jc][4s][Ks], and the [Ac] on the turn made that two pair. The [3c] on the river sealed the deal and sent Izzuska88 out in eighth place with $266.25.

Mtt_baller doubled through 1234mee, though the latter remained the undisputed chip leader. HELENLINDES then doubled through smurfetta44, but she tried again a few hands later with [AC][Qh]. That time, StGilmore woke up with [Ah][Kc], and nothing about the [Ts][9c][9d][7h][3d] board changed anything. HELENLINDES exited in seventh place with $372.75.

The rise of a baller

Mtt_baller continued her climb with this double through smurfetta44:

RSS readers click through to see replay

LaliTournier doubled through 1234mee, which put the latter in second place and mtt_baller at the top of the leaderboard. StGilmore then doubled through LaliTournier, and Nastena2005 did the same at the expense of mtt_baller.

Smurfetta44 couldn’t survive the previous hits and moved all-in UTG with [2c][2d]. LaliTournier reraised all-in with [Ad][Qc], and everyone else folded. The board came [9h][9c][Ah][6d][8c], and the better two pair gave the chips to LaliTournier, while smurfetta44 left in sixth place with $479.25.

Nastena2005 was the next player at risk, pushing all-in preflop with [Jd][Jc]. Original raiser mtt_baller called with [Ad][8c] and caught top pair on the [9s][7c][Ac] flop. The turn and river appeared [9h][As] for the full house, more than enough to eliminate Nastena2005 in fifth place, which was worth $617.70.

StGilmore doubled through mtt_baller, and LaliTournier doubled through StGilmore. The latter moved again on the very next hand with [Ks][Tc], and mtt_baller called with [AH][9s]. The dealer provided a [2s][3h][9c][6c][3c] board, and StGilmore had to leave in fourth place with $905.25.

LaliTournier picked up a big pot from mtt_baller to take over the chip lead for the first time, and mtt_baller was the shortest of the three remaining stacks. But 1234mee climbed with some significant pots and well-timed aggression and took over the top spot from LaliTournier.

Mtt_baller then got into a preflop battle with LaliTournier. Mtt_baller pushed all-in with [8c][5c], but LaliTournier had the better hand with [Ac][9s]. The board of [8s][9h][6c][2s][Qc] gave a pair to each player, but the nines eliminated mtt_baller in third place with $1,203.45.

Nearly even heads-up stacks to start

The two remaining players began their heads-up match as follows:

Seat 5: LaliTournier (335,677 in chips)
Seat 6: 1234mee (303,323 in chips)

Over time, 1234mee did take over the lead via a series of relatively small pots. The two then saw a raised flop of [Js][Td][Kd]. LaliTournier bet, and 1234mee check-raised. LaliTournier reraised, and 1234mee responded by pushing all-in. LaliTournier called for her last 180,177 chips with [Kc][8d] for top pair and the straight draw, but 1234mee showed [Qc][9d] for the straight. The [9c] turn and [5d] river cards ended the tournament with a second place finish for LaliTournier, which was worth $1,597.50.

Norway’s 1234mee won this week’s title and $2,178.03 in cash. Congratulations!

Women’s Sunday Results for 04/22/12:

1st place: 1234mee ($2,178.03)
2nd place: LaliTournier ($1,597.50)
3rd place: mtt_baller ($1,203.45)
4th place: StGilmore ($905.25)
5th place: Nastena2005 ($617.70)
6th place: smurfetta44 ($479.25)
7th place: HELENLINDES ($372.75)
8th place: Izzuska88 ($266.25)
9th place: mirrcha ($202.35)

There are many ways to get in on the Women’s Sunday action. Take a look at the home page for information on daily satellites. And join us on Facebook for news and monthly freerolls, and Twitter for the latest information. See you next week!

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