Team PokerStars pro Jake Cody got a rude welcome back to the tables after the sixth hour break. With the blinds at 3K/6K ante 600 szaki07 moved in with a shortstack of 37,701 as the UK pro followed on the immediate left with a shove to 145,499. The second push did not scare off Brocco1iMan in the cutoff with big slick [Kc][Ad] as the Icelander re-raised to scare off the button and blinds. Cody turned over a dominated [Qd][As] and szaki07's [Qc][Ks] went looking for a straight. No had hearts to sweat on the [4h] [Kh] [7h] [8c] [3s] board as Cody finished in 169th place ($652.80) as the last Red Spade standing.

Because of the lighter attendance this evening the final table threatens to start even before the ninth hourly break. With the blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K, bulletproof chip leader kelbuxx would help the push towards an early start of the feature table. The CooI would raise to 139,000 from the small blind as kelbuxx shove 7.7 million from the big blind as shortstacked The CooI quickly called for less with [Ah][Qd]. kelbuxx's [Ad][4h] wasted no time claiming the 1.7 million chip pot hitting a four on the flop [8c] [4d] [7s] [6c] [9h] sending The CooI home in 13th place ($2,937.60).

Five minutes later kelbuxx would claim another player's chips as huiiiiiiiiii tried push kelbuxx off a min-raise with a shove to 1.2 million. However, kelbuxx was now holding nine million chips was happy to take a gamble with [Qs][Kc]. huiiiiiiiiii's suited connector [9d][8d] never threatened on the [3s] [6c] [Tc] [2s] [Ah] board sending huiiiiiiiiii home at the same time of 1SEBOLA on the opposite table who ran into a set-over-set situation in 11th and 12th place ($3,916.80).

Another five minutes towards the ninth hourly break kelbuxx found another stroke of luck to end hand-for-hand play. With the blinds moving up to 40K/80K ante 8K kelbuxx would lead with a min-raise as NinjaWill three-bet to 320,000 as kelbuxx called to see a [6h][Jc][Ts] flop. kelbuxx checked as NinjaWill led for 286,555. Not messing around, kelbuxx shoved the chip leading stack of 10.1 million with top pair [Jd][Qh] as NinjaWill snap called with pocket kings [Kh][Ks]. 3.5 million chips in the middle and they would add to kelbuxx's stack after a jack [Jh] hit the turn and a blank river [8h] shipped the last pot before the final table to kelbuxx:

Seat 1: kelbuxx (12246256 in chips)
Seat 2: lasagnaaammm (2526069 in chips)
Seat 3: Radosny91 (4682432 in chips)
Seat 4: DaHussstla (2974174 in chips)
Seat 5: taxbank (953532 in chips)
Seat 6: worst_nuts (3526531 in chips)
Seat 7: xPureLuck (970760 in chips)
Seat 8: Brocco1iMan (2889764 in chips)
Seat 9: bigbear89 (1870482 in chips)

Break the tax man

All nine players would get to enjoy an extended amount of time at the final table tonight as they all survived the first 20 minutes. However, when the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K shortstacked taxbank shoved for 451,532 chips from early position as it folded to lasagnaaammm in the big blind who called the small amount holding [Ac][2c]. taxbank flipped up [9h][Kd] but watched helplessly as the board missed both cards [6c] [Jh] [7s] [5d] [Qh] sending our first busted player home in ninth place ($5,222.40).

Loud silence

The game would nearly pass through the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level without incident then three bustouts within four minutes starting with this one below:

Each player would notch a flopped pair of sixes, as Radonsy91 pushed [3h][6h] on the turn for three million as DaHussstla made the call with flopped two pair [6c][8h]. After the [6d] [Js] [8c] [Kd] [5d] five on the river, Radonsy91 collected $14,688.00 in seventh place.

Out of luck

Four hands later and still in the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level worst_nuts would lead out for 321,600 chips as xPureLuck shoved a shortstack of 1.52 million. The button and blinds would fold quickly but worst_nuts did not showing a suited ace [Ah][9h]. xPureLuck's ace was not suited but held a bigger kicker [Ac][Jd] and looking good for the 3.37 million chip pot. The three hearts on the [6h] [Td] [5h] [4h] [4d] told a different story however as xPureLuck's Sunday Warm-Up tournament chapter has ended with a bad beat tale in sixth place ($21,216.00).

Money on my mind

Another three hands later and another player would fall to DaHussstla as the chip leader kelbuxx would sit back on top of a huge 13 million chip stack as DaHussstla just cracked 10 million. lasagnaaammm would take a shot at the fast riser open shoving for 1.77 million from the cutoff as DaHussstla made the call from the button with [Ad][7d]. lasagnaaammm's [Qs][Jh] found a tasty queen on the flop, but DaHussstla notched an ace on the turn [3d] [Qh] [Ts] [As] [6c] to take down the 3.8 million chip pot as lasagnaaammm earned $27,744.00 in fifth place. Another deep run for the high stakes player as lasagnaaammm notched a seventh place in the weekly Super Tuesday for $16K back in November.

Accordion-like eliminations

First, pressed in like the three bustouts in four minutes, then a long drawn out note of four-handed play over the next 40 minutes. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K kelbuxx was knocked down from the chip lead to just 2.7 million. But, it was the other shortstack whose tournament was coming to an end. worst_nuts now holding 11.7 million chips would raise to 603,000 as Brocco1iMan made it 3.2 million after shoving all-in. [As][Jc] was enough for the call as Brocco1iMan showed the dominated [Jd][Qd]. Both players found a straight on the [Qs] [9h] [Kc] [Th] [Td] board but worst_nuts held broadway alone as Brocco1iMan used those chips acquired from Jake Cody to the max and scored $37,536.00 in fourth place.

Buxx out

kelbuxx would lead most of the final table until four-handed then went into defense mode trying to carve out a win. With the blinds up to 150K/300K ante 30K kelbuxx shoved from the button for 4.4 million as worst_nuts made the call holding [Tc][Ad]. The Norwegian would need some luck again with the dominated [Kh][Th], instead received a line of cards with pips on the them [4h] [7h] [7d] [9d] [8s] as the clover avatar was removed in third place ($53,856.00).

A two-way deal was quickly hashed out between worst_nuts and DaHussstla after kelbuxx's clover left the table. Deal left $10,000.00 for our last weekly champ until the tidal wave of SCOOP ends in two weeks:

worst_nuts: $84,254.00
DaHussstla: $86,614.28

Long night adverted

With blinds starting at 150K/300K ante 30K and both players holding over 15 million in chips it looked to be a long night at the start of heads-up play. But, after 15 minutes worst_nuts scored four pots in a row worth a total of 14.5 million chips taking a commanding 24 million to 8.5 million chip lead.

Then, eight hands later with the blinds moving up to 200K/400K ante 40K, we would arrive at the final hand of the tournament shown below:

worst_nuts raised to 804,000 as DaHussstla wasted no time in shoving for 8.9 million total. Holding pocket jacks [Js][Jd] worst_nuts quickly made the call in good position to win it all over DaHussstla's [9d][Ks]. A dance through the blank [7s] [3c] [Td] [3d] [4h] board for both of them and worst_nuts proved to be the best winning tonight's Sunday Warm-Up for $94,254.00!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (05-05-13):

(* denotes part of two-way deal)

Players entered: 3,264
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $652,800.00
First place: *$94,254.00

1. worst_nuts (Norway) *$94,254.00
2. DaHussstla (Germany) *$86,614.28
3. kelbuxx (Norway) $53,856.00
4. Brocco1iMan (Iceland) $37,536.00
5. lasagnaaammm (Malta) $27,744.00
6. xPureLuck (Canada) $21,216.00
7. Radosny91 (United Kingdom) $14,688.00
8. bigbear89 (United Kingdom) $8,160.00
9. taxbank (Ireland) $5,222.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor getting ready for SCOOP next week

Going into the ninth hour of play and blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K only 15 players remained alive for this week's title. The Netherlands utreg would be trying to avoid a similar exit in this tournament. Back in May 2012 utreg would be on the Sunday Warm-Up final table bubble with a shortstack and lost out to a flopped straight exiting the tournament without a shot at the six-figure prize just one seat away.

On consecutive hands petertai would go from short-stack to average stack after winning two pre-flop shoves. With the blinds at 50K/100K ante 10K DC613 tried to bully petertai by open shoving from the small blind. petertai however woke up with big slick [As][Kc] and rode it to victory over DC613's [6d][5d] on the [Qc] [Ac] [8h] [Ah] [7c] board. Then, Poeira4 took a 1.33 million chip shot from middle position as petertai again woke up in the blind with big slick [Ad][Kh] and reshoved for 1.8 million. Poeira4's [Jh][Ac] added some outs by the turn but the [Td] [9c] [4d] [Qd] [As] board declared petertai the winner once again, scooping up the 2.8 million chip pot and knocking out Poeira4 in 15th place.

Germany's goodvibe1 would get close to the final table once again but finished tonight in 13th place after making a good call on a three-bet shove by zebest_666 for a 5.7 million chip pot holding [9h][Ad]. But, the [7c] [4h] [9s] [Kc] [Js] board liked zebest_666's [Th][8d] more ending goodvibe1's night short of the final table once again.

utreg however would get redemption tonight after bustouts by bolovic (12th place - $4,174.80) and KnownStrangr (11th place - $4,174.80), utreg would carry a sizable amount of chips into the final table. With the blinds up to 65K/130K ante 13K zebest_666 would min-raise from the hijack seat as it folded to DC613 in the small blind holding jacks [Jh][Jc]. The Canadian would shove for 1.98 million as utreg may have had a brief flashback about missing out on the bubble last year before re-shoving with queens [Qs][Qh]. zebest_666 flashed the [As] and folded as the [2s] [7h] [6c] [Kc] [5h] board provided utreg 4.2 million more chips to bring the final table shown below:

Seat 1: steve3331 (3993497 in chips)
Seat 2: petertai (2860484 in chips)
Seat 3: The Lag rat (2190193 in chips)
Seat 4: hbx13902 (1673362 in chips)
Seat 5: utreg (5656539 in chips)
Seat 6: Theo7171 (3340055 in chips)
Seat 7: Legadzo (1816833 in chips)
Seat 8: Sttephen.L (3511142 in chips)
Seat 9: zebest_666 (9747895 in chips)

Another player seeking place improvement

It may have taken awhile but steve3331 made it back to the final table of the Sunday Warm-Up. After finishing seventh in the Sunday Warm-up in October of 2010 the Hungarian was back and looking to improve on that early bustout. With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K Theo7171 would raise to 334,400 from the hijack seat as Legadzo would three-bet all-in to 1.73 million from the cutoff. Folded to steve3331 in the big blind with big slick [Ac][Kh] the Hungarian re-shoved for 4.02 million. Theo7171 wanted nothing to do with the hand and folded as Legadzo was dominated [Ah][7h]. Despite two hearts on the flop [Qh] [Jh] [4c] [Tc] [8d] the board notched a four million chip win for steve3331 as Legadzo walked away with $5,566.40 in ninth place. Legadzo had a tall order to eclipse a runner-up finish here in March 2011, banking $138K in the process.

zebest has zebest hand

As the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K The Lag rat would shove in a smallish stack of 1.4 million from early position as it folded around to Sttephen.L in the small blind who made the call. Not so fast says zebest_666 as the big blind woke up with big slick [Ah][Kc] and reshoved for 7.7 million well covering Sttephen.L's stack. The small blind thought for a bit before folding as The Lag rat flipped up [As][Td]. A king on the flop [7d] [6h] [Kh] [3c] [6d] put this one away early as The Lag rat skittered away in eighth place ($8,697.50).

Not a nice neighbor

Shortly after the tenth hourly break with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K steve3331 min-raised from early position. Two places over hbx13902 would shove for 2.36 million holding pocket fives [5h][5d] and two more place over Theo7171 would also shove for 2.38 million holding nines [9c][9h]. steve3331 wanted nothing to do with the two shoves and folded. The [4h] [3d] [7h] [3h] board looked good for the near double-up but the [6d] turned Theo7171's tournament upside down. Left with 25,862 chips, Theo7171's scraps would also be shoveled off to hbx13902 as well as Theo7171 was one card from a big stack but ended the night in seventh place ($15,655.50) instead.

Once was not enough

As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K petertai would score a four million chip pot against chip leader steve3331 holding over 11 million chips. But, two hands later after steve3331 opened for a min-raise from the cutoff and petertai tried again by shoving 4.03 million into the pot. Holding pocket sevens [7c][7d] steve3331 was ready once again with a call, squaring off against petertai's [Ah][Qs]. This time steve3331's hand was favored on the [5d] [Ks] [3h] [5c] [2s] board as petertai could not claim the second battle against steve3331 finishing in sixth place ($22,613.50).

No longer zebest

steve3331's stack reached 16.8 million, dwarfing second place hbx13902's 7.2 million and the chip leader went looking for more. Watch below for the results of the hunt:

The once freerolling zebest_666 was left with 4.2 million and shoved pocket nines [9c][9s] from the hijack, getting called by steve3331 one seat over holding queens [Qh][Qs]. Nines never caused trouble on the [Th] [4c] [3h] [8h] [Ts] board and zebest_666 was gone in fifth place ($29,571.50).

utreg steps in to say hello

Five hands later with the blinds up to 200K/400K ante 40K utreg would shove from the small blind for 2.67 million as Sttephen.L with an even smaller stack of 1.83 million. utreg's small ace [5c][As] would outrank Sttephen.L's small queen [Qh][2h] preflop and after the [Js] [Kh] [8c] [8d] [5d] river to claim the 4.6 million chip pot as Sttephen.L went quietly in the night claiming fourth place ($40,008.50).

Shortly after Sttephen.L's departure our remaining three did not like the first set of number thrown out to them by Team Online's Shane "shaniac" Schleger so the poker pro and part-time blogger went back to the numbers machine and found some ICM numbers that they agreed fairly quickly to:

hbx13902 (Canada): $83,538.53
steve3331 (Hungary): $78,556.36
utreg (Netherlands): $75,958.89

The deal left $10,000.00 for the champ as the ending came rather fast.

steve3331 takes a leave

The first hand back from the chop discussion and hbx13902 wanted to show how expedient the Canadian could win this title. With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K hbx13902 min-raised from the button as steve3331 three-bet to 1.95 million. Holding pocket fives [5d][5h] hbx13902 shoved for 14.8 million as steve3331 made the call with [Qs][As]. The only face card to hit the [Kh] [9h] [2c] [2d] [4s] board was a king, meaning hbx13902 would claim the huge 21.7 million chip pot and steve3331 collected the chopped third place cash ($78,556.36).

Domination not a problem

Nine hands later shortly after the blinds moved up to 250K/500K ante 50K and hbx13902 extending the chip lead to 28.4 million chip to utreg's 6.33 million, utreg finally had enough of hbx13902's bullying and shoved from the button. hbx13902 won seven out of eight heads-up hands to this point and the chip leader would make it nine. Watch the Sunday Warm-Up title winning hand below:

Despite being dominated by utreg's [Ac][Tc], hbx13902's [Kh][Ts] would find a king on the turn [9s] [5s] [Qh] [Ks] [7d] taking down the Sunday Warm-Up for $93,538.53!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-28-13):

( *denotes part of three-way deal)

Players entered: 3,479
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $695,800.00
First place: *$93,538.53

1. hbx13902 (Canada) *$93,538.53
2. utreg (Netherlands) *$75,958.89
3. steve3331 (Hungary) *$78,556.36
4. Sttephen.L (Poland) $40,008.50
5. zebest_666 (Canada) $29,751.50
6. petertai (Taiwan) $22,613.50
7. Theo7171 (Canada) $15,655.50
8. The Lag rat (Costa Rica) $8,967.50
9. Legadzo (United Kingdom) $5,566.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Midway through the seventh hour of play stood one Red Spade left to take home the $103,903.68 sitting up top tonight. Team Online's Caio Pessagno has been killing tournaments lately as seen by his TLB weekly win last month and scored another glob of points for passing up over 3,000 players tonight. Unfortunately, Caio would become shortstacked after being seated next to scorpchess who chopped up the Sunday Warm-Up last year for $80K and despite outlasting the Russian, Caio would eventually finish in 51st place ($1,257.42).

A fairly early start for the final two tables halfway through the eighth hour despite the low blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K. Included in the bunch as Peter "Se7enTr3y" Akery who was last seen collecting $18,250 from the 2012 WCOOP Main Event and SCOOP champ deamon10 were both trying to add a Sunday Major title.

At the nine hour mark only 13 remained alive as Poland's Xart-Szopen would take a 7.6 million chip stack into the five minute break as the chip leader as GODofHU followed closely behind with 5.5 million and blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K.

2fingerz 2u would be crippled after flipping preflop with pocket eights versus lengera's big slick, losing the 2.2 million chip pot on a turned king. Six hands later after scrapping by with only 6K in chips, 2fingerz 2u would lose to big slick again taking home $2,978.10 in 13th place. Shortly after, GODofHU would lay a nasty bad beat on koivu18. With the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K GODof HU would min-raise from the hijack seat as koivu18 tossed in a shortstack of 333,562 chips. GODofHU covered easily and called with [4s][As]. koivu18 was sitting pretty while holding pocket aces [Ac][Ah] until the board rained spades [4h] [3h] [9s] [Qs] [Js] handing koivu $3,970.80 in 12th place.

Shane Gamble tried some luck against deamon10 by pushing from the button for 1.11 million and finding the Dane waiting to call from the big blind with pocket nines [9d][9s]. Shane Gamble's [Tc][As] was worth a flip but the board spat out deuces instead [6d] [Jc] [2h] [2d] [2s] setting up a rather abbreviated hand-for-hand session.

Just five hands later someone tried pushing into deamon10's big blind again. This time it was zanzas open shoving 869,716 chips from the hijack seat and deamon10 with 3.6 million in chips made the call with [Qh][Kh]. deamon10 would start out slightly behind zanzas' [Ad][Th] but every other card on the [5h] [Kc] [8h] [7c] [6h] board was a heart to end zanzas' run tonight on the final table bubble in 10th place ($3,970.80) starting up the final table below:

Seat 1: Carsandi (2399454 in chips)
Seat 2: Xart-Szopen (7587669 in chips)
Seat 3: GODofHU (6218099 in chips)
Seat 4: hank-mood965 (1118112 in chips)
Seat 5: deamon10 (4629429 in chips)
Seat 6: tashsaken (1385279 in chips)
Seat 7: Timorm1 (3163283 in chips)
Seat 8: lengera (2551432 in chips)
Seat 9: phaplap (4037243 in chips)

King for a day

Timorm1 with six neat VIP stars next to the blue avatar would min-raise from middle position shortly after the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K. Carsandi made it 485,888 from the button as the Supernova wasted no time in shoving for 3.3 million total. Back to Carsandi who let the clock run down a bit before calling with [Qd][Ac]. A good sight for Timorm1's kings [Ks][Kc] which turned even better after a king found its way to the [2s] [Kh] [9h] [Th] [3h] board knocking out Carsandi in ninth place ($5,294.40). A profitable couple of months for Carsandi after chopping up the Sunday Million in February for $195K.

deamon10 done

Four hands later after wrecking the last table, deamon10 tried a four-bet shove for 2.9 million from the cutoff seat over raises by lengera and phaplap. lengera let it go easily enough but phaplap was not about to fold kings [Kc][Ks] and snap called. deamon10's big slick [Ad][Kd] failed to find any helpful diamonds or aces on the [8s] [6d] [Jh] [8h] [Kh] board exiting in eighth place ($8,272.50).

Slapped by phaplap

There's "oh that might have hurt" like someone falling off a chair while enjoying a nice porterhouse. And then there's something a little more painful like watching this hand between phaplap and lengera that could have worth $81K:

If you are going to crack aces, might as well do it in style. lengera's [As][Ac] would not even last past the turn after phaplap's pocket nines [9d][9s] flopped quads [9h] [9c] [3s] [Td] [Jh] ending lengera's night painfully in seventh place ($14,890.50).

Nines again

phaplap may have a new favorite hand after tonight. Only a few hands removed from the tenth hourly break and the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K phaplap would min-raise from the hijack as tashsaken made the call in the big blind. [7c][3s]9s] on the flop got tashsaken waking up from the blinds and leading out for 400,000 as phaplap made the call. [5h] turn and tashsaken made it 800,000 this time as phaplap woke up and re-raised to 2.6 million. Holding pocket tens [Td][Th] tashsaken made the call for less and the overpair could not top the flopped set of nines [9d][9c]. Another 5.6 million chips for phaplap and the magical nines as tashsaken claimed sixth place ($21,508.50).

phaplap's victory lap?

Showing no signs of slowing down phaplap would claim another big win just seven hands later. With the blinds holding at 100K/200K ante 20K GODofHU would lead out for a min-raise as Timorm1 called from the button and phaplap likewise from the small blind. The [3s] [Ah] [5d] flop got everyone's attention as GODofHU bet 500,000 and Timorm1 made it one million. A check-raise from phaplap to 1.865 million ended GODofHU's betting but not Timorm1's as the shortstack shoved for 3.58 million and phaplap called quickly with [Ac][Qs]. Timorm1 holding some kicker problems [Ad][Tc] watch the remainder of the tournament fade with the [Jh] turn and [Qh] river earning $28,126.50 in fifth place.

Nines find phaplap again

The pocket pair of nines have paved phaplap's road to the chip lead tonight and here they would they would take phaplap a little further. With the blinds up to 125K/250K ante 25K GODofHU would min-raise from the cutoff as phaplap three-bet to 1.26 million. Holding the infamous pocket nines [9s][9d] GODofHU shoved for 3.08 million as the chip leader quickly called with jacks [Js][Jd]. Apparently only phaplap knows the hidden magic of the nines as the [7c] [2c] [Ks] [4d] [6h] board ran clean for the chip leader who gained another 6.5 million as GODofHU's night ended in fourth place ($38,053.50).

After a nearly 30 minute tangle of words and ICM talks, the chip chop would at last reach its destination shown below leaving an extra $10,000.00 for tonight's champ:

phaplap: $88,932.78
Xart-Szopen: $70,000.00
hank-mood965: $67,000.00

Battle of the hyphens

As the blinds held at 125K/250K ante 25K and phaplap pulling away even more with a 23.6 million chip stack compared to hank-mood965's 4.1 million and Xart-Szopen's 5.3 million one of two shortstacks needed make a move. They both decided shove preflop both holding an ace, but Xart-Szopen's [Td][Ad] was one pip higher than hank-mood965's [9s][Ac] and the advantage held on the [5h] [7d] [3d] [Kc] [3h] board to knockout hank-mood965 in third place ($67,000.00).

Rough road to the win

Despite starting with a 23.3 million to 9.7 million chip lead, phaplap's run to tonight's Sunday Warm-Up was anything but smooth. Five minutes into the heads-up battle Xart-Szopen would take the lead after showing down pocket pair of treys to phaplap's three-bullet bluff.

But, phaplap would not give up and with the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and nearly knotted in chips (16.9 million for Xart-Szopen to 16.0 million for phaplap) they would fight this hand below to the river for 32.1 million:

With the board showing [6s] [2s] [9h] [2d] [5h] phaplap would shove in the remaining 8.5 million as Xart-Szopen feeling good about top pair [9s][Th] made the call. phaplap's turned trips [Qs][2h] got max value after claiming the huge pot. Then, another shove by both players on the next hand with Xart-Szopen holding the preflop advantage of [8d][7c] to phaplap's [6h][7h] hearts nearly covered the [2d] [Kh] [2s] [4h] [Qh] board to ship the extra $10K and Sunday Warm-Up victory to phaplap!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-21-13):
(* denotes part of three-way deal)

Players entered: 3,309
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $661,800.00
First place: *$98,932.78

1. phaplap (Turkey) *$98,932.78
2. Xart-Szopen (Poland) *$70,000.00
3. hank-mood965 (Israel) *$67,000.00
4. GODofHU (United Kingdom) $38,053.50
5. Timorm1 (Israel) $28,126.50
6. tashsaken (Kazakhstan) $21,508.50
7. lengera (Georgia) $14,890.50
8. deamon10 (Denmark) $8,272.50
9. Carsandi (Portugal) $5,294.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Road back to the final table

After eight and half hours the surviving 18 players in the field of 3,432 sat at Table 254 and 53 as the only people left to become the Sunday Warm-Up champion this week. FOO-92 was looking to make back-to-back trips to the Warm-Up final table after finishing seventh last week ($15,723.00). With the blinds at 25K/50K ante 5K the German would catch the good side of a cooler picking up pocket aces versus jacks against jurakc for a 3.4 million chip preflop pot and knocking the field down to 17 players as a result. Five hands later stepped up the quest for a return trip by knocking out a shortstacked 'Dafoulmouth' after sneaking [6c][Ad] past Dafoulmouth's [Td][As] with a six on the river [Ah] [2d] [2h] [Qc] [6d].

More aces would show up as the blinds moved up to 40K/80K ante 8K as Poker Own U would min raise from middle position as heißtercamp applied the pressure with a shove for 875,818 chips from the button. The former Sunday Warm-Up champ heißtercamp needed something big to come out on the board as November 2012 champ's [9d][Ad] was looking down the barrel of Poker Own U's aces [Ah][Ac]. A severe lack of diamonds on the [Ks] [Qh] [Kh] [3s] [2h] board sent heißtercamp to the rail in 16th place ($2,059.20).

First hand back from the ninth hourly break Poker Own U took over the Table 53 chip lead by knocking out a sleeping ZzZzZick from Norway in 15th place ($3,088.80). Not a good stretch for the Norwegians as prebz would follow ZzZzZick immediately out the door in 14th place ($3,088.80). The fast eliminations continued with Brazil's thaleskoppe finding the wrong time to bluff. With the blinds holding at 40K/80K ante 8K and the board showing [2h] [8c] [4c] [5h] [Th] with two million chips in the middle, thaleskoppe would shove 2.1 million chip over a 600,000 chip bet from FOO-92. The chip leader quickly called with the nuts [9h][Ah] as thalskoppe's pocket sevens [7d][7h] exited in 13th place ($3,088.80).

After Jarcon86 claimed $4,118.40 in 12th place, with the blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K Y2JKID would shove 1.7 million from the button as dhilton12 made the call for less from the big button holding [Qs][As]. Y2JKID's pocket sevens safely weaved through the [2c] [Kc] [5h] [Kh] [9d] board for the 2.5 million chip pot as the 2012 Tournament Leaderboard champ David "dhilton12" Hilton would barely miss the Sunday Warm-Up final table in 11th place ($4,118.40).

Usually hand-for-hand play will result in nine players moving on to the final table to play for six figures. Tonight only eight would make the trek as a double KO on the bubble left the screenshot below one player short. Two races would form the final table as FOO-92's [Jh][Ad] took out kuzman89's pocket sixes when a jack landed on the door [Jd] [4h] [Th] [5s] [Tc]. Meanwhile on the opposite table CredeExperto was facing a four-bet shove from Ryba_5555 while holding pocket nines [9d][9s]. CredeExperto made the call for 843,420 more as Ryba_5555 flipped up big slick [As][Kc]. Nothing over a seven on the [6s] [7h] [2c] [3s] [6h] board was bad for Ryba_5555 because of chip position the Russian took home 10th place cash ($4,118.40) as opposed to kuzman89 who was the official ninth place finisher ($5,491.20).

Seat 1: Poker Own U (5079150 in chips)
Seat 2: CredeExperto (4673388 in chips)
Seat 4: FOO-92 (8259134 in chips)
Seat 5: TheCangorous (1449157 in chips)
Seat 6: motelli (5801477 in chips)
Seat 7: powerpokerBR (5037397 in chips)
Seat 8: Y2JKID (2961764 in chips)
Seat 9: Helst (1058533 in chips)

Seven OUT!

Just seven hands into the final table with the blinds at 50K/100K ante 10K Helst would push a shortstack of 838,533 chips from the cutoff as Poker Own U with over five million chips had no problem making the call with [As][Jh]. Helst despite being short held a decent hand in pocket tens [Ts][Td] but fell quickly when an ace hit the door [Ac] [3d] [9c] [5c] [5d] landing Helst in eighth place ($8,580.00).

No more kidding around

Seven players would get past the 65K/130K ante 13K level, but as the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K motelli would make a min-raise from the hijack seat as Y2JKID shoved for 1.7 million from the button. Folded back to motelli with a high suited connector and second in chips with over six million, the Finn made the call with [Qs][Js]. Y2JKID's pocket sevens spotted a jack in the middle of aces [As] [Jc] [Ah] [6s] [9c] to end the night in seventh place ($15,444.00).

Three-way action

CredeExperto, FOO-92, and TheCangorous all jumped into a pot. Those with a nine in their hand lost. Watch below as someone adds 6.6 million chips to their stack:

CredExperto's [Kh][9c] and FOO-92's [Ah][9h] were no match for the pocket aces [As][Ad] of TheCangourous despite both players hitting a nine on the [5d] [6c] [Qh] [9s] [6s] board. FOO-92 covered all bets, but CredeExperto did not finishing in sixth place ($22,308.00).

Power outage

Moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K blind level motelli would lead off with a min-raise from the button as powerpokerBR made it 2.8 million with a shove from the small blind. Holding pocket sixes [6s][6h] and 6.7 million chips motelli made the call facing off against powerpokerBR's [Ad][Jc]. This time the race went to the pocket pair [5s] [Qs] [Ks] [8c] [3d] despite the extra outs landing on the flop as powerpokerBR claimed fifth place ($29,172.00). A profitable second trip to the Sunday Warm-Up final table who made it here in October 2011 finishing in eighth place.

What was looking like a quick night at the final table turned into a drawn out fight as four players would head to the five minute break after the 11th hour of play. FOO-92 perhaps using some experience from last week's final table held a sizable 16.4 million chip stack as TheCangorous with 8.8 million chips held almost as much as motelli (5.5 million) and Poker Own U (3.5 million) combined.

motelli done

Shortly after the break motelli would give up a double up to Poker Own U getting knocked down to 1.9 million chips as the VIP Supernova claimed the 7.1 million chip pot. Five hands later with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K TheCangourous led off with a min-raise from the cutoff as motelli tossed in the 1.9 million chips and holding pocket eights [8s][8h] TheCangourous made the call. motelli's [Kc][Tc] went searching for face cards or clubs but only found a jack on the [3d] [6h] [2d] [Jh] [9h] board to finish in fourth place ($39,468.00).

Poker Wizard of Westeros

After an unscheduled 15 minute break as our final three could not hash out the details on a chop, TheCangorous showing Arya Stark as an avatar hopefully was paying more attention with six-figures on the line then the newest showing of the popular HBO series "Game of Thrones" tonight. With the blinds at 250K/500K ante 50K Foo-92 shoved from the small blind still covering the table easily with a 19.7 million chip stack. Holding [Th][Ad] TheCangorous figured to be ahead and made the call. Ahead of FOO-92's [9d][Kh] until the flop shot a nine in the middle of it [4d] [9s] [5d] [Qs] [2h] ending TheCangourous' night in third place ($56,628.00).

No fight left

Despite the lengthy final table battle the most important spots took the least amount of time to fill. Just two hands later with FOO-92 holding a 27.3 million to 7 million chip lead it would be over after the hand below played out:

After a shove from Poker Own U from the button FOO-92 was waiting to make the call with [6c][As]. [Qc][7c] sitting in Poker Own U's hand looked great after the queen in the hit flop and king on the [Kc] turn. But, tonight was redemption for FOO-92 hitting an ace [Ad] on the river to take down the Sunday Warm-Up title and $107,765.70!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (04-14-13):

Players entered: 3,432
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $686,400.00
First Place: $107,765.70

1. FOO-92 (Germany) $107,765.70
2. Poker Own U (Canada) $80,308.80
3. TheCangorous (Australia) $56,628.00
4. motelli (Finland) $39,468.00
5. powerpokerBR (Brazil) $29,172.00
6. CredeExperto (Russia) $22,308.00
7. Y2JKID (Canada) $15,444.00
8. Helst (Sweden) $8,580.00
9. kuzman89 (Canada) $5,491.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

'cmontopdeck' beat 3,943 players on their way to winning the $500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up putting to bed any anguish over December's runner-up finish to Damián "pampa27" Salas in the Super Tuesday title for $69,160.00.

Going deep
Going into the last break before the final table, 17 not 16 players would return with a shot at the $109,712.77 first place prize. With the blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K JWPRODIGY would min raise from UTG as FOO-92 made it 400,000 chips. Back to JWPRODIGY holding 2.1 million chips and [Qh][Ah] the big ace was good enough to shove as FOO-92 felt the same way making the call with a suited big slick [As][Ks]. JWPRODIGY would return after the break thanks to a lady on the turn [7s] [5d] [8h] [Qs] [Td] as 4.5 million chips slid over to the winner.

Noseblow took one to the chin after having aces cracked by Wallyayay's king-queen in 17th place ($2,096.40). Shortly afterwards JWPRODIGY looking to make good after squeaking past FOO-92, scored a double knockout with jacks over Hustlaaaaaa's (15th place - $3,144.60) big slick and Ultraballs18's (16th place - $2,096.40) pocket tens to trim the field to 14 players.

ultralord007 looked solid for a double up against dejanaceking's pocket sixes when a queen hit the Russian's [Qd][6s] on the [7c][7d][Qc] flop. However, clubs continued to rain down [5c] [Tc] giving the 1.8 million chip pot back to dejanaceking, ending ultralord007's night in 13th place ($3,144.60). On the next and cmontopdeck would ease ace cracker Wallyayaya to the rail with pocket tens defeating Wallyayay's pocket eights sending Wally on the way for 12th place ($4,192.80).

cmontopdeck would introduce yet another player to the rail winning a 4.75 million chip preflop race with [Kc][Qd] against debesciak69's pocket nines [9d][9h]. after debesciak69 walked off with $4,192.80 in 11th place, hand-for-hand play would start up with the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K.

Midway through the level, sazkarik would min-raise from the cutoff as luwis holding a medium ace [Ac][6s] decided to press the issue with a shove from the big blind for 2.2 million total. Holding a slightly larger ace [As][9c] sazkarik had a decision to make and made the right one after pushing in the call and being rewarded with top two on the flop [Ad] [9h] [7d] [Js] [Tc] giving luwis 10th place ($4,192.80) missing a shot at bettering a Sunday Warm-Up third place effort in September 2011 and opening up the final table below:

Seat 1: calmeluckbox (1367356 in chips)
Seat 2: Rake83 (3922472 in chips)
Seat 3: Sykoen (3241035 in chips)
Seat 4: cmontopdeck (6308604 in chips)
Seat 5: JWPRODIGY (6881002 in chips)
Seat 6: texbookstu (1030261 in chips)
Seat 7: sazkarik (5424437 in chips)
Seat 8: FOO-92 (2712802 in chips)
Seat 9: dejanaceking (4052031 in chips)

One pip more equals one player less

The fifth hand into the final table with the blinds moving up to 80K/160K ante 16K had Sykoen opening for a min raise from the cutoff. texbookstu looked up the chapter called "Applying Pressure from the Big Blind" and shoved for 959,261 chips. It was not enough to deter Skyoen from making the call with [Ac][7s]. texbookstu's [Ah][6d] started behind and ended behind as the board rolled out [3c] [2d] [8d] [5h] [9h] shipping $5,590.40 to texbookstu in ninth place. This seems to be texbookstu's time to shine as UK player chopped the MicroMillions 4 Main Event last month for $72K.

Luckbox out of order

Nine hands later as the start of the final table was delayed a little longer than usual, really sped up once they hit the spotlighted table. With the blinds holding at 80K/160K ante 16K dejanaceking would lead off for a min-raise from UTG as calmeluckbox shoved 2.6 million chips from the immediate left. No one else wanted to play except the original raiser as dejanaceking decided pocket tens [Ts][Th] was worth a call. Racing [Js][As] calmeluckbox watch the five cards in the middle [5c] [4d] [3d] [5s] [Ks] completely miss as the broken luckbox fell to the rail in eighth place ($8,735.00).

Break breaks the table

The second and third hands back from the tenth hourly break were the final ones for two players. First, as the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K cmontopdeck would min-raise from the hijack seat as FOO-92 decided to make a move from the small blind shoving for 2.04 million. Back to cmontopdeck holding pocket nines [9s]9h], the German would shove in half of the stack in making the call. FOO-92's [Ad][5s] would catch a pair but the fives [3d] [5d] [Jc] [Jh] [2s] were not enough to stay alive tonight, finishing in seventh place ($15,723.00) just ahead of the 12th place $7K score from the Super Tuesday three weeks ago.

On the very next hand Sykoen and dejanaceking would meet in the middle preflop for a 5.8 million chip pot. Watch below as one player vaults into the chip lead and the other is bounced out of the tournament:

Sykoen's [2c][Ac] lacked the necessary clubs to knock off dejanaceking's pocket sixes [6h][6s] on the [9h] [Qd] [Jh] [Ts] [Jc] board ending the Norwegian's night in sixth place ($22,711.00).

Still hot to finish early

After claiming the chip lead, dejanaceking would lay ruin to another player's final table. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K and just five hands after dispatching Sykoen, we would be down to four. This time it was sazkarik taking a swing at the chip leader opening for 2.72 million with pocket fours [4h][4s]. dejanaceking sitting to the immediate left on the button quickly called with pocket aces [Ac][Ah]. The fours never threatened on the [9c] [5c] [2s] [Ts] [6s] board as sazkarik hauled off $29,699.00 in fifth place.

No more rake

Four-handed play would last a good while as dejanaceking's 18.2 million chip stack stood over the other three players' stacks of 3.7 million, 8.2 million, and 4.67 million. Rake83 with the 2.7 million chip stack decided to call a min-raise from JWPRODIGY out of the big blind as dejanaceking followed suit with a call from the small blind. All three checked the [5d][2h][4d] flop. Rake83 bet 2.5 million at the [Jh] turn as dejanaceking min-raised to force Rake83 all-in. The UK player called off the remaining 737,045 chips with top pair [Jd][Jh] and was greeted by the slowplayed aces of dejanaceking [Ad][Ac]. A wheel on the river [3d] for the chip leader sent Rake83 to the rail in fourth place ($40,181.00).

Prodigy cannot solve this problem

Still in the 125K/250K ante 25K blind level, cmontopdeck and JWPRODIGY would try to combine their chips for a run at dejanaceking's towering 22.7 million chip stack. cmontopdeck shoved from the small blind for eight million as JWPRODIGY called off the remaining 3.87 million chips from the big blind holding [Ks][Qs]. cmontopdeck's little ace [5s][Ah] would weave through the [Tc] [9c] [3d] [2s] [7h] board unharmed collecting the 8.3 million chip pot as Jordan "JWPRODIGY" Westmorland collected $57,651.00 in third place to add to his success in Queenstown.

Coming out up top

Despite a 12.2 million to 22.7 million chip deficit, cmontopdeck would wear down the chip leading dejanaceking until all 34.9 million chips ended up in the German's stack. The 18 minute heads-up battle would end after cmontopdeck flipped the deficit to a 22.3 to 12.6 million chip advantage. Watch below as cmontopdeck would come out on top of the 3,494 player field with a little help from a turn card:

With two tens on the flop [Tc][Td][Qc] cmontopdeck tried to force dejanaceking to fold after shoving over a 1.07 million chip bet with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K. dejanaceking was going nowhere holding trips [Ad][Th] as cmontopdeck needed some help with an open-ended (but partly-closed) straight draw [Kh][Jc]. The right end hit the [9d] turn as a blank on the river [Js] shipped the 25.1 million chip pot, $109,712.77, and the Sunday Warm-Up title to cmontopdeck!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (04-07-13):

Players entered: 3,494
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $698,800.00
First place: $109,712.77

1. cmontopdeck (Germany) $109,712.77
2. dejanaceking (Bosnia and Herzegovina) $81,759.60
3. Jordan "JWPRODIGY" Westmorland (Thailand) $57,651.00
4. Rake83 (United Kingdom) $40,181.00
5. sazkarik (Czech Republic) $29,699.00
6. Sykoen (Norway) $22,711.00
7. FOO-92 (Germany) $15,723.00
8. calmeluckbox (Greece) $8,735.00
9. texbookstu (United Kingdom) $5,590.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Unlike last week's monster run by Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov taking home the title and $110,780.37 today would be a relatively quiet one for the Red Spades. Team Online's Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara would claim a fair return on investment in 180th place ($603.50) as Christophe "chrisdm" de Meulder claimed yet another Sunday Warm-Up deep cash with a 90th place effort ($1,065.00).

The tournament would shrink down to two tables after former Sunday Warm-Up final tablist dsnka took a spot on the rail in 27th place ($1,810.50) and high stakes SCOOP villepn followed in 19th place ($1,810.50).

At the ninth hourly break only 13 players remained alive for the $111,470.00 first place prize as the UK's VL-Hannibal and Costa Rica's Renster12 topped the leaderboard.

After Flush098765 convincing took down malinga for a 3.3 million chip pot and 11th place ($4,260.00) hand-for-hand play awaited our two tables of five players remaining. And Flush098765 was in a hurry to start up the final table and the German decided to make things happen quickly. With the blinds up to 50K/100K ante 10K Flush098765 opened for enough chips from the small blind to put René Nielsen all-in. Holding [Ts][Ad] René Nielsen made the call and was ahead of the [Jc][6d] of Flush098765. "Was" being the operative word as the [8s] [Ks] [9c] [Tc] [Qc] board connected with Flush098765's jack for a straight as the final table started up below:

Seat 1: moertelmu (3863362 in chips)
Seat 2: sneker (838007 in chips)
Seat 3: KippekontNL (2945441 in chips)
Seat 4: zinkAA (3894912 in chips)
Seat 5: vip_1985Z (1670230 in chips)
Seat 6: VL-Hannibal (6080679 in chips)
Seat 7: Flush098765 (7139700 in chips)
Seat 8: Renster12 (5736030 in chips)
Seat 9: danface (3331639 in chips)

No time to get settled in

On the final table's first hand zinkAA led off with a min-raise from UTG+1 as vip_1985Z made it 1.66 million by shoving to the immediate left. Folding around to moertelmu in the big blind with pocket jacks [Jd][Js] and a re-shove to 3.85 million. zinkAA wanted nothing to do with the two shoves and folded as vip_1985Z exposed queens [Qs][Qc]. No short-stack revival here as vip_1985Z would get a very un-VIP treatment as the jack on the door [Jh] [Kc] [7c] [8d] [8h] would knock out the Greek in ninth place ($5,680.00).

Adieu to moertelmu

As the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K moertelmu would open for 324,000 from early position as VL-Hannibal made it 680,000 with a three-bet. moertelmu holding [Qc][Ah] decided to test VL-Hannibal by shoving for 3.54 million. Test answered as VL-Hannibal called with big slick [Ad][Ks]. No card over a seven on the [2s] [7c] [6s] [6d] [4h] board increased VL-Hannibal's stack to over nine million and moertelmu's bankroll received $8,875.00 in eighth place.

I meant "ace-ace not eight-eight"

With the blinds up to 80K/160K ante 16K zinkAA would min-raise from middle position as Flush098765 made it 675,855 chips. Holding pocket eights [8h][8c] zinkAA would challenge the chip leader by shoving for 3.76 million. Flush098765 had no problem making the call with pocket aces [As][Ad]. A couple of ladies on the flop could not stop Flush098765 from increase the chip leading stack to 15.6 million as zinkAA left with $15,975.00 in seventh place.

The quickening

Just six hands later as the blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K KippekontNL would open shove from the cutoff for 2.63 million as the chip leader went looking for more by raising to five million from the small blind to shut out Renster12 in the big blind. Watch below as the chip leader gathered yet more ammo:

It worked as Flush098765 turned over kings [Kd][Kc] and KippekontNL needed some help with a small ace [5s][Ac]. The assistance never showed up on the [6s] [Jh] [9s] [4d] [7h] board and KippekontNL collected $23,075.00 in sixth place.

Hannibal the chip cannibal

The next series of the hands belonged all to VL-Hannibal. First, VL-Hannibal would go all-in preflop against Flush098765 as VL-Hannibal's big slick [Kc][Ah] knocked down Flush098765's [9c][Tc] for a game-changing 16.1 million chip pot as the favorite prevailed [8c] [6d] [6s] [2h] [Ad]. The next hand danface would shove in a shortstack of 1.54 million from the button as VL-Hannibal made the call out of the big blind holding pocket fours [4s][4d]. A flip against danface's [7s][Ad] would not last past the turn as the new chip leader nailed a boat [3h] [4c] [5c] [5s] [6d] earning danface $30,175.00 in fifth place.

Not even slowing down to take a breath, on the very next hand sneker would try to extract some chips from VL-Hannibal by shoving from the button for 1.89 million and getting the chip leader to re-shove from the small blind for 17.8 million with pocket sixes [6s][6h]. Another flip and another win for VL-Hannibal who put away sneker's [Ks][Qs] after the [Ts] [Tc] [3s] [4h] [7h] board offered a little excitement and nothing else as sneker took away $40,825.00 in fourth place.

Can't get enough

Just two hands later after the chip bulldozer of VL-Hannibal ran over half the table, the UK player went looking for a quick finish. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K Flush098765 would min-raise from the button as Renster12 shoved from the small blind for 3.07 million as VL-Hannibal's 20.3 million chip stack followed into pot. Flush098765 got out of the way as Renster12 rolled over [Ah][8d] and looked to the board for help against VL-Hannibal's [Qd][Ac]. Neither player touched the [7h] [9d] [Th] [4d] [Ks] board as VL-Hannibal claimed yet another pelt as Renster12 earned $58,575.00 in third place.

A token of good will

After hearing the chip chop numbers from Team Online's Shane "shaniac" Schleger "Can you give me 90K?" asked Flush098765 whose chip lead took a backseat to VL-Hannibal's carnage on the table for the past three minutes. VL-Hannibal complied and the deal below was brokered with $10,000.00 still on the line.

VL-Hannibal: $94,540.00
Flush098765: $90,000.00

Two minutes to ten grand

After the chop talks VL-Hannibal would take only two minutes to dispatch Flush098765 as the chip leader never loosened those reins on the table. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K and VL-Hannibal with a 24.4 million to 11 million chip leader, the chip leader min-raised from the button as Flush098765 called. Watch below as the final hand plays out:

After the [7h][5c][Td] flop the two would trade bets until two stacks reached the middle. Flush098765 [8h][6h] pushing with an open-ended straight draw against VL-Hannibal's top pair [Ad][Tc]. VL-Hannibal would fade again as the [Qd] turn and [Th] river locked up $104,540.00 first place prize and the Sunday Warm-Up title!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (03-31-13):

(* notes part of two-way chop)

Playered entered: 3,550
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $710,000.00
First place: $104,540.00

1. VL-Hannibal (United Kingdom) *$104,540.00
2. Flush098765 (Germany) *$90,000.00
3. Renster12 (Costa Rica) $58,575.00
4. sneker (Denmark) $40,825.00
5. danface (United Kingdom) $30,175.00
6. KippekontNL (Netherlands) $23,075.00
7. zinkAA (Russia) $15,975.00
8. moertelmu (Germany) $8,875.00
9. vip_1985Z (Greece) $5,680.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

At the seventh hourly break only one Red Spade remained with tournament chips next to his name. Martin "AABenjaminAA" Hruby would lose the last of virtual Sunday Warm-Up funds shortly before the break earning $987.84 in 99th place. However, Team PokerStars Pro Maxim Lykov still held an above average stack of over 600K with blinds at 10K/20K ante 2K with 77 players left in the field. As stated in a blog post by the Russian pro back in January, his goal for 2013 is to make a big score in a Sunday Major and outlasting 97.8% of the field thus far may help him achieve that score tonight.

Midway through the eighth hour with 52 players left Maxim would reach the top of the leaderboard as the first player with two million chips, followed closely by dede65 of Germany and ticaprincesa of Costa Rica. By the eighth hourly break Maxim went into full overdrive increasing his tournament leading stack to 3.6 million with just 34 players remaining and blinds at 20K/40K ante 4K. Only szwindel and ticaprincesa held more than two million chips as the Russian Pro's eye on the prize was getting closer.

Twenty minutes into the ninth hour Lykov would pick up two huge pots. The one came off some interesting preflop action with blinds at 25K/50K ante 5K Maxim would min-raise from early position as General Lef three-bet to 300K. Not backing down Lykov four-bet to 568,965 as General Lef made the call to see a monochrome flop [Qc][4c][9c]. Lykov led for 234,567 as General Lef shoved for 1.17 million getting an insta-call from Maxim holding two pair [4h][Qs]. General Lef's pocket tens [Tc][Td] did have a club draw but blanked on the turn [As] and river [9d] to ship the 3.6 million chip pot to the Russian Pro. Three hands later ticaprincesa would try separate some chips from the Team Pro after five-betting all-in for 2.1 million and getting another quick call by Lykov holding big slick [Ah][Ks]. ticaprincesa's [Ts][Ac] would quickly go down in flames [9d] [2h] [3h] [4c] [Qc] as Maxim pushed his stack to over seven million chips.

Maxim would hang on to the chip lead as two tables of nine were formed. "Hang on" meaning pushing his stack over the 10 million chip mark with 15 players left and still 15 minutes until the ninth hourly break. Another testament that he did not look to be slowing down was knocking out oncommand in 14th place ($3,175.20) after oncommand correctly called Lykov's bullying three-bet all-in with [Ad][Jc] as the Russian pro flipped up [Ac][9h]. But a nine on the turn [2s] [8d] [6c] [9c] [Qh] shipped another 2.4 million to the chip leader as second place szwindel only held four million chips.

Only ten players would survive the carnage and make the ninth hourly break as the players collected themselves before hand-for-hand play greeted their return. Maxim still held 10.3 million with blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K as that elusive Sunday Major title crept closer. The final table would be set just five minutes after the players returned to the table. Poeira4 would an opening with a small stack of 1.36 million by open shoving with pocket sixes [6s][6d] from the small blind. However, it was the infallible Team Pro in the big blind making the call with [3d][Ac] and finding an ace on the turn [Ts] [Kh] [2s] [Ah] [8s] to claim another 2.76 million chips and start up the final table below:

Seat 1: suarez_BG (5185278 in chips)
Seat 2: szwindel (3131019 in chips)
Seat 3: Team PokerStars Pro Maxim Lykov (11267779 in chips)
Seat 4: rnb333 (4262535 in chips)
Seat 5: makarios007 (1577744 in chips)
Seat 6: Xx-Luxury-xX (2364875 in chips)
Seat 7: pupon (1096860 in chips)
Seat 8: johnxfleming (2401136 in chips)
Seat 9: dede65 (3992774 in chips)

"Welcome to the final table ladies and gentlemen, I'll be your handsome host for this final table" never a dull introduction from Team Online's Kevin "WizardOfAhhs" Thurman as everyone's eyes were on Lykov's huge stack.

Life of Luxury extended

As the blinds moved up to 50K/100K ante 5K in what might be one of the quickest starts to a Sunday Warm-Up final table dede65 was left with 266,170 chips fresh off doubling up pupon as they flipped pupon's pocket queens against dede65's big slick with the ladies taking down the pot. dede65 would push in those scraps from UTG getting a re-raise from Xx-Luxury-xX on the button as the blinds folded. dede65's [Qc][5s] would only pair the five on the [9d] [8s] [Kh] [4h] [5d] board. Not enough to defeat Xx-Luxury-xX's pocket sixes [6c][6s], as dede65 claimed $5,644.80 in ninth place.

Swindles a win

Play would slow down a bit as the players enjoyed sizable stacks against the blinds as all eight players survived the 65K/130K ante 13K level. But, as the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K johnxfleming would open shove from the button for 1.97 million with [Td][As]. Folded to a covering szwindel in the big blind and pocket fives [5h][5d] it would be the UK versus Germany for a 4.1 million chip pot. The flip ended quickly and badly for johnxfleming as a five landed in the middle of the flop [2h] [8s] [5s] [6c] [Js] as the high-stakes German player (cashing in last year's SCOOP $10K tournament) claimed $8,820.00 in eighth place.

To catch the Red Spade

Someone needs to try as Max Lykov is forcing the action with constant raises and pushing people pre and post flop while extending his chip leading stack to over 16 million chips. With the blinds still at 80K/160K ante 16K pupon would toss in a shortstack of 1.43 million from the cutoff as szwindel decided to jump in again by making the call out of the small blind holding [Ac][Tc]. Kicker problems for pupon as the smaller ace [5s][As] failed to find the necessary spades or a five on the [Qs] [6d] [Ah] [8c] [Kc] board to stay alive as pupon ended the night in seventh place ($15,876.00).

Letting others do the dirty work

Up to this point, despite still being the big chip leader, Max Lykov has not eliminated a single player at the final table. With blinds still at 80K/160K ante 16K we would name our sixth place finisher but Lykov was not a part of it. Watch below:

rnb333 with 1.39 million chips open shoved from the button as makarios007 made the call for less (639,488) out of the small blind holding a mid-ace [Ah][7s]. More kicker problems as rnb333 turned up [Ac][Td]. Despite a possible chop with three jacks on the board by the turn [Jh] [Jc] [3d] [Js] [9d] makrios007 was reassigned to the rail in sixth place ($22,932.00).

Presence known

With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K Max Lykov would min-raise from the hijack seat as rnb333 next door shoved for 3.52 million holding a decent ace [Ts][Ac]. While Lykov may have raised light a few times recently, this was not one of them as another case of kicker problems presented itself when the Team Pro showed big slick [Ad][Ks]. A king on the turn [2d] [5h] [7d] [Kd] [4s] would nail down the 7.45 million chip pot for Lykov as rnb333 settled for $29,988.00 in fifth place.

To the max with Max

From here on out it seemed Max was predetermined to win this tournament. As the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K Lykov would min-raise from the button as suarez_BG shoved from the big blind for 5.06 million chips. Holding big slick [Kc][Ad] quickly called as suarez_BG went looking for a ten with the dominated [Kh][Td]. Instead an ace appeared on the turn [8c] [5d] [3c] [Ah] [7h] locking out suarez_BG in fourth place ($40,572.00).

"Slight chip lead for Max"

Understatement of the year so far for tournament announcing as Thurman was clearly in awe as others must have been watching Max Lykov try to close out this tournament. With the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K szwindel holding 3.35 million chips would shove from the button as Lykov re-raised to 6.45 million as Xx-Luxury-xX holding 4.75 million folded. [7d][9d] for szwindel looking for a little luck against Max's big slick [Kh][Ah]. In what seemed to be the theme tonight, szwindel made his hand hitting a flush on the river but it also completed a full house for Lykov [7h] [5d] [As] [Ad] [Kd] earning szwindel $58,212.00 in third place.

Quick finale: Team PokerStars Pro Maxim Lykov claims Sunday Warm-Up Title

Heads-up play would only last a little more than minute as Max carried a 30.7 million to 4.48 million chip lead into the final two. Seven hands later with the blinds still at 125K/250K ante 25K Team PokerStars Pro Maxim Lykov would claim his first Sunday Major and $110,780.37. Watch below for the final hand:

Down to 3.68 million Xx-Luxury-xX would shove over Max's button raise to 24.75 million holding [Ad][Th]. A little better than Lykov's [6d][5d] but the board spit out a runner-runner straight on the turn and river [2h] [2d] [7s] [3s] [4s] giving Lykov the Sunday Warm-Up title!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (03-24-13)

Players entered: 3,528
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $705,600.00
First place: $110,780.37

1. Team PokerStars Pro Maxim Lykov (Russia) $110,780.37
2. Xx-Luxury-xX (Canada) $85,555.20
3. szwindel (United Kingdom) $58,212.00
4. suarez_BG (Bulgaria) $40,572.00
5. rnb333 (Portugal) $29,988.00
6. makarios007 (Germany) $22,932.00
7. pupon (Israel) $15,876.00
8. johnxfleming (Germany) $8,820.00
9. dede65 (Germany) $5,644.80

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

hitthehole once again made a deep run in the Sunday Warm-Up finishing in 17th place in December once again was down to the last two tables and got it in good with [Ad][Jc] against roosi88's [8s][Ah] all-in preflop for a 1.9 million chip pot with blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K. But, an eight on the flop and one on the turn [Kd] [Ac] [8h] [8c] [4s] put away the UK player in 16th place ($2,105.40) as fellow United Kingdom rounder, Toby "810ofclubs" Lewis, followed closely behind in 14th place ($3,158.10).

Lewis would bust out shortly before the ninth hourly break leaving 13 players to vie for the $110K first place prize including the chip leader Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy who has a couple of 2012 WCOOP final tables to his credit including the one that earned fellow Australian Dan "djk123" Kelly his fourth WCOOP title. matt86ck would be looking to make the most of a return trip to the final table after chopping this tournament last month for $93K.

Triple_Ace69 needed triple treys after getting all-in preflop with [3c][3h] versus stpauli111's pocket kings [Kh][Kc]. Despite adding a few outs on the turn [4h] [Th] [Ad] [5h] [9c], Triple_Ace69 would claim 12th place ($4.210.80). stpauli111 found another premium hand four minutes later and used it to knockout a shortstacked FortinSimard. With the blinds at 50K/100K ante 50K should ship from the small blind for 584,694 holding [9c][Qc] as stpauli111 woke up with aces [As][Ad] in the big blind. Two clubs on the board would give FortinSimard a sweat but the rivered boat [Kd] [Tc] [Ah] [4c] [Td] sealed the Canadian's tournament in 11th place ($4,210.80).

A short hand-for-hand segment would play out as the blinds held at 50K/100K ante 10K as rebelwinner1 shoved from the button for 1.41 million chips. aJarov answered the small blind with a re-shove for more holding [Jh][Ad] and was looking up at rebelwinner1's pocket kings [Kc][Kd]. The board spread out a straight [7h] [6s] [9d] [Th] [8c] that connected by aJarov's jack to claim the 2.97 million chip pot and start up the final table below:

Seat 1: Mr_BigQueso (7031675 in chips)
Seat 2: instigator85 (3433404 in chips)
Seat 3: FishingCh621 (867423 in chips)
Seat 4: roosi88 (5114826 in chips)
Seat 5: matt86ck (4484932 in chips)
Seat 6: 1471983 (1451377 in chips)
Seat 7: Bussic (3150349 in chips)
Seat 8: aJarov (4077498 in chips)
Seat 9: stpauli111 (5478516 in chips)

Big stack play

The rest of the 50K/100K ante 10K level and the entire 65K/130K ante 13K level both went by without casualty to our final nine. But, as the new 80K/160K ante 16K level started chip leader Mr_BigQueso would open for a min-raise from the button as shortstacked FishingCh621 shove from the big blind for 819,846 chips total. Holding a meager [4d][Td] but nearly eight million in chips, Collopy made the call facing off against [Ac][Js]. The board laid down a ten [6h] [Th] [Kh] [7h] [7d] on the flop to take down the 1.86 million chip pot as FishingCh621 moved to fresher waters in ninth place ($5,614.40).

Two minutes for instigating

On the first of the new 100K/200K ante 20K level instigator85 would open shove for 2.1 million chips as Bussic in the small blind called for 150K less. instigator85 turned up pocket sevens [7h][7c] as Bussic showed [Qs][As] for the coin flip. Only one spade and one face card showed up for the party as the [4c] [Jc] [8h] [3h] [5s] board sent the 4.27 million chip pot to instigator85 and Bussic claimed $8,772.50 in eighth place and 14711983's plea for a seven-way chop was met by crickets and a five minute break to think about a second attempt during the tenth hourly break.

Five minute major penalty

Almost five minutes back from the break, instigator85 tried starting another fight to eliminate another player. Watch below as stpauli111 and instigator85 shove preflop for a 3.91 million chip pot:

stpauli111's [Qs][Ad] would need some sizable help against instigator85's aces [Ac][Ah] and caught four outs on the flop [Kd] [9c] [Jc] but the remainder of the board [9d] [Ks] ran dry earning instigator85 the 3.91 million chip pot and stpauli111 seventh place cash ($15,790.50).

instigator gets sent to the locker room

Before finishing up the 125K/250K ante 25K level matt86ck had taken over the chip leader duties as instigator85 could not build much after eliminating two players. Holding pocket twos [2h][2d] instigator85 would shove 3.29 million from the button. Sitting on 14.6 million chips and big slick [Kc][As] matt86ck called the bet as both players watched nines and jacks hit the [7h] [Js] [Jc] [9d] [9c] board to watch out the deuces and instigator85 in sixth place ($22,808.50).

Roosi is removed

With the blinds moving up to 150K/300K ante 30K roosi88 was ground down to just 2.01 million in the small blind holding a small ace [Ah][3c] and decided to test the big blind with a shove. The chip leader matt86ck was happy to answer the test with a "yes" and a superior hand after calling with [Ad][Jh]. Both players paired their ace but nothing more [6s] [Ac] [5d] [8d] [4h] as matt86ck jack kicker reigned and roosi88 owned fifth place ($29,826.50).

No more cheese

Collopy's chip lead would slide over to matt86ck over the course of the final table to this point as the Australian just could not find a foothold to gain back those chips. With the blinds holding at 150K/300K ante 30K Mr_BigQueso would shove a short stack of 2.09 million from the button as matt86ck called from the small blind. 1471983 had no intentions of allowing matt86ck into the hand and shoved as well for 5.6 million. Despite well-covering both bets, matt86ck folded as Collopy's pocket kings [Kd][Ks] found a cooler in 1471983's aces [As][Ac]. Neither player improved on the [2s] [Js] [5d] [8c] [Qs] board as Jim's night at the Sunday Warm-up came to a close in fourth place ($40,353.50).

Deal time!

Time... time... time...

Well some chop talks take a few minutes to get the PokerStars computers firing correctly, this one would extend for about 30 minutes as these players had plenty to discuss before settling down to the numbers shown below and leaving $10,000.00 for the champ.

matt86ck: $90,001.48
aJarov: $76,478.88
1471983: $73,712.51

One double up, but not two

As the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K 1471983 shrunk down to 3.01 million chips and found a double up with [Jc][Qc] against aJarov's [8c][As] by finding a queen on the flop and a jack on the turn [Kh] [Qd] [4s] [Jh] [3d]. Then on the next hand 1471983 would open shove from the button for that newly doubled stack holding [Ac][Qc]. But, this time matt86ck was waiting with a dominating hand [Kh][Ad]. The [7d] [9c] [Jc] [4c] [9s] board kept the percentages in mattck86's favor as 1471983 took home a sizable third place cut ($73,712.51).

Better result for matt86ck?

Last month matt86ck made the most of the run to the Sunday Warm-Up final table chopping the tournament two-ways. This time the Polish player would chop three-ways and was heads-up for the title once again this time with the chip lead (23.1 million to 11.9 million).

The lead teeter back and forth but the tournament would come down to one big flip. Watch below as matt86ck and aJarov get it in preflop for a 33.7 million chip pot leaving 1.3 million in aJarov's stack:

Pocket fives [5h][5c] for aJarov faced off against matt86ck's big slick [As][Kd]. The river [3h] [2s] [4d] [7d] [Kc] surfaced the tournament saving king for matt86ck. On the very next hand, aJarov threw the scraps into the middle as matt86ck made the call with just [8s][3h]. [Ad][6h] looking for redemption after the heartbreak would not find it as two trey's hit the [3d] [Ts] [9c] [4c] [3s] board to ship the extra $10,000.00 and tonight's Sunday Warm-Up title to matt86ck!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (03-17-13):

(* denotes part of three-way deal)

Players entered: 3,509
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $701,800.00
First place: *$100,001.48

1. matt86ck (Poland) *$100,001.48
2. aJarov (Russia) *$76,478.88
3. 1471983 (Bahrain) *$73,712.51
4. Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy (Australia) $40,353.50
5. roosi88 (Germany) $29,826.50
6. instigator85 (Russia) $22,808.50
7. stpauli111 (Mexico) $15,790.50
8. Bussic (Germany) $8,772.50
9. FishingCh621 (United Kingdom) $5,614.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Some tournament big hitters remained in the field with three tables left. Denmark's vmnielsen has been at the final table of Sunday Warm-Up before and came close a second time last April still holding an average stack. Supernova Elite Ankush "pistons87" Mandavia already has a WCOOP and SCOOP victory and scored a side event victory at the EPT Prague in December for €19,600 would take a bit of a beat with kings versus Al Magellan's jacks when a jack flopped and all the money went in on the turn knocking Mandavia down to under 200,000 chips with blinds at 20K/40K ante 4K.

Ten minutes later with the blinds up to 25K/50K ante 5K clerckyTD would start the bidding with a raise to 100,800 as Ankush would shove a stack of 379,944 from the cutoff holding pocket sixes [6d][6c]. clerckyTD called with [Qc][Ac] and was greeted with two clubs on the flop and an ace on the turn [7c] [Jh] [2c] [Ah] [Ks] to take down the 879,888 chip pot ending Mandavia's run in 25th place ($1,723.80). Following Mandavia closely out the door was 2011 EPT Berlin champ Ben "NeverScaredB" Wilinofsky in 24th place ($1,723.80) whose story about the successful online and live tournament player's struggles by Brad Willis last month is something everyone should read.

Despite 17 players receiving a quick five minute nap after the ninth hour of play, the first two hands back featured Vampboy and redislav making quick exits in 16th and 17th place both earning $2,028.00 for their efforts.

vmnielsen would fall short of another Sunday Warm-Up final table after doubling up two players and losing a 1.6 million chip pot holding [As][Jh] against NigDawG's [Ks][Tc]. All in preflop, vmnielsen was safe on the flop [Qs][4h][7d] but not on the turn [Kc] and claimed $3,042.00 in 13th place after the [3c] stopped the return trip for the Dane.

Three-way action would burst the final table bubble tonight. 25 minutes into the ninth place with the first hand at the new 65K/130K ante 13K blind level, LilFishAtL would shove for 1.21 million, akb1 fresh off doubling up Quentin73 joined the party for 351,245 chips, and |__Pr@nK__| covering both players called with big slick [Ks][Ah]. akb1's [Jh][Th] would find a ten and two hearts on the flop [2h][9h][Ts] but blanked the rest of the rest as LilFishAtL's set of nines [9s][9d] collected the full 2.9 million chip pot and started up the final table below:

Seat 1: |__Pr@nK__| (6308197 in chips)
Seat 2: Quentin73 (3175304 in chips)
Seat 3: mouksli (8320373 in chips)
Seat 4: NigDawG (2576999 in chips)
Seat 5: clerckyTD (2189704 in chips)
Seat 6: mcc3991 (3703038 in chips)
Seat 7: LilFishAtL (2912927 in chips)
Seat 8: Al Magellan (1963174 in chips)
Seat 9: pirlo3625 (2650284 in chips)

Needed some shelter

After doubling up clerckyTD, pirlo3625 became the hunted player at the final table slipping to under 500,000 chips and blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K. Five hands after the double up and down to 317,580 chips in the big blind, pirlo3625 would call all-in after Al Magellan raised from the small blind. pirlo3625's [Qc][Td] looked good after hitting top pair on the flop [3d][7h][Th] against Al Magellan's [Ad][6c]. However the turned ace [Ah] and blank river [Jd] shipped the million chip pot to Al Magellan leaving pirlo3625 to explore other tournaments in ninth place ($5,408.00). After snagging third place in MicroMillions III Event # 29 for $6,642.13, we will likely see the Columbian here next week for the start of MicroMillions IV.

Flushed out

Watch below as NigDawG and LilFishAtl both hit the club flush but only one player is happy about it:

With the blinds moving up to 80K/160K ante 16K NigDawG's [Tc][9c] needed some help against LilFishAtL's [Jc][Ac]. Help came on the [Kh] [Ad] [4c] [8c] [5c] board, but since LilFishAtL's flush was slightly higher, NigDawG headed home earning $8,450.00 in eighth place. Chris "NigDawG" Brammer will add this Sunday Major final table to his $64K Sunday Tuesday victory in 2011.

Quick exit for Quentin73

Just the second hand back from the tenth hourly break with the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K, Quentin73 open shoved for 1.6 million chips as two chairs over clerckyTD followed suit and also shoved for 2.57 million holding [Jh][Ad]. Quentin73's [Tc][Qs] would find nothing to help on the nine-high [3s] [4c] [5s] [9h] [2s] board taking home $15,210.00 in seventh place.

Only slightly less expedient departure for Al Magellan

The very next hand, despite pleas for a deal from Al Magellan that started on the previous hand, Al Magellan would shove for 2.16 million and was immediately called by |__Pr@nK__| holding [Qh][Ad]. Al Magellan would try to navigate the five card board with pocket tens [Td][Ts] and take home the 4.75 million tournament chips. During the last the stop of the journey an ace appeared [2h] [3s] [9s] [4c] [Ac] sending Al Magellan to a watery (and costly) tournament grave in sixth place ($21,970.00).

Negotiations: completed

Al Magellan's exit ramped up the chop talks for our five remaining players. After some squabbles about the small amounts the final five would lock up the majority of funds according to the breakdown below leaving $10,000.00 for our champ tonight.

mcc3991: $70,203.81
|__Pr@nK__|: $65,775.53
LilFishAtL: $57,282.87
mouksli: $54,180.26
clerckyTD: $51,151.53

No prank here

Down to 848,325 chips in the hijack seat and blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K, mouksli would open shove finding callers in clerckyTD and |__Pr@nK__| in the big blind. After a 925,887 bet from |__Pr@nK__| and a call after an ace-high flop [Qc][As][6s], the players dialed down the aggression and checked down the [Kh] turn and [2s] river. |__Pr@nK__| showed the flopped pair of aces [7h][Ad] and everyone else mucked including mouksli who claimed $54,180.26 from the five-way chop in fifth place.

Tournament death with extreme prejudice

Winning a coin flip late in a tournament happens every week. Ace-something hits an ace against the small pocket pair or the pair weaves through the board unscathed. Tonight's big flip for a 10.1 million chip pot preflop would pit |__Pr@nK__|'s [Th][Ah] against LilFishAtL's pocket sixes [6h][6d]. LilFishAtL would notch a full house on the final board thanks to the three of a kind showing. Unfortunately, four those cards on the [3c] [Ts] [Tc] [Td] [As] board matched the ones in |__Pr@nK__|'s hand as the quad tens kicked LilFishAtL to the curb in fourth place ($57,282.87).

Misclicked the exit button

clerckyTD said "wow misclicked again" after handing over an 18 million chip pot to mcc3991 after pushing on the turn with an inside straight draw.

|__Pr@nK__| was at least two tabling after replying "im playing sm". "sm" stood for the Sunday Million and |__Pr@nK__| was very much still in with 172 players left out of 8,755 runner and a sizable $257,572.10 up top and a possible double Sunday Major final table still in play.

Two hands later with the blinds up to 125K/250K ante 25K clerckyTD would three-bet a small blind raise by mcc3991 as mcc3991 came back with a four-bet all-in. Holding 6.6 million chip left and covered by mcc3991, clerckyTD made call with [As][8s]. mcc3991 held one pip higher and also suited [Ah][9h] as both players hit two pair on the [9d] [Th] [8c] [7d] [Ad] board. $51,151.53 for clerckyTD in third place left |__Pr@nK__| in a unique position to grab both the Sunday Warm-Up and Million titles in the same night!

Craig "mcc3991" McCorkell says no double tonight

10 hours and 45 minutes of play in this tournament and |__Pr@nK__| was still going strong in the Sunday Million with an above average stack and under 150 players remaining. $10,000.00 was on the line in this heads-up match against mcc3991 who held 27.3 million chips after clerckyTD seemed to donate them. |__Pr@nK__| would need to use any and all skills after surviving over seven hours in the Sunday Million and being only one player away from victory here but under a big chip deficit holding 6.49 million chips.

Four minutes into heads-up play with the blinds moving up to 150K/300K ante 30K and |__Pr@nK__| now down to 3.2 million chips and facing a bullying all-in raise by mcc3991, |__Pr@nK__| found an ace [6h][As] in the big blind and made the call facing off against mcc3991's [Kh][9h]. Watch below for the results:

A nine on the flop and a king on the river [Jh] [Ts] [9c] [2c] [Kc] to seal the $80,203.81 Sunday Warm-Up victory!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (03-10-13)
(* notes part of five-way chop)

Players entered: 3,380
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $676,000.00
First place: *$80,203.81

1. mcc3991 (United Kingdom) *$80,203.81
2. |__Pr@nK__| (Russia) *$65,775.53
3. clerckyTD (Belgium) *$51,151.53
4. LilFishAtL (Mexico) *$57,282.87
5. mouksli (F.Y.R.O.M) *$54,180.26
6. Al Magellan (Ukraine) $21,970.00
7. Quentin73 (Germany) $15,210.00
8. NigDawG (United Kingdom) $8,450.00
9. pirlo3625 (Colombia) $5,408.00

David Aydt is freelance contributor

Red Spades hit the money tonight in more ways than one. Friend of PokerStars Charlotte "Sjlot" Van Brabander claimed $321.65 in 586th place, close to her was Jose "nachobarbero" Barbero in 548th place ($330.84). We would climb the ladder a ways to find Team Pro Angel Guillen in 364th place ($395.17) and the lovely Vicky Coren working overtime to claim $459.50 in 300th place after barely missing the cash in the EPT Deauville High Roller. Team Online's George "Jorj95" Lind's run at the final table would end in 210th place ($551.40) but one Red Spade still remained in the hunt.

The last of the Red Spades, Stavros "IDOLLS" Kalfas, would perish from the tournament in a way that people would turn away in horror. With the blinds at 15K/30K ante 3K Mountino would min-raise from early position as Kalfas put in a good chunk of his short stack with a three-bet to 150,000. Mountino four-bet to 240,000 as Kalfas called his remaining 6,040 chips with [Qc][Ac]. Dominating the [Ad][8h] of Mountino, the advantage actually went down a bit despite flopping a straight [Kh][Th][Jh]. The heart missed on the turn [Ts] but not the river [Ah] as Kalfas took 61st place ($1,580.68) after the rivered flush.

Also bowing out in the eighth hour of play was a familiar face to live and online players. After winning Event #25 at the 2012 WCOOP for $22K, osten was back again making a run at a larger than normal field for the Sunday Warm-Up. However, Thor "osten" Hansen would not add another Sunday Major final table so far this year after taking sixth in the Sunday Million in January instead claiming a slightly lower prize for finishing 36th place ($2,021.80).

Starting off the ninth hour of play, and testament to the large than usual crowd tonight, 19 players still remained in the hunt for the $144,172.72 prize. There was enough in the prize pool for two six-figure prizes. To put that in a small perspective, three weeks ago SLips713's two-way chopped victory was worth $108,877.08 after beating out 3,693 players. Tonight the runner-up was slated to walk away with only a thousand less than that ($107,063.50) mainly due to the 902 extra runners.

Those players could afford to be somewhat cautious as the average stack held over 30 big blinds but five players would still meet their end within the first 20 minutes of the ninth hour. They would be followed by la maquette in 13th place ($4,135.50) and theoryofart in 14th place ($4,135.50).

vadka would take care of claduioney18 in 12th place ($5,514.00) and after Roberta114 suffered some bad timing with pocket queens [Qh][Qd] getting cracked by MAMOHT_T's nines [9d][9c] when a nine popped off on the [8d] [9h] [5s] [5d] [Jh] board to end Roberta114's night in 11th place ($5,514.50).

With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K nine hands of hand-for-hand play would count down until Mountino shoved 2.5 million chips over the top of a 320,000 chip raise by Tudlenudle. Holding [Ad][Qs] Tudlenudle made the call and dominated the [Jh][Ah] held by Mountino. Despite rivering a jack, the four spades matched the queen held by Tudlenudle [8d] [9h] [5s] [5d] [Jh] launching Tudlenudle to the final table and Mountino to the sidelines in 10th place ($5,514.00).

Seat 1: LeBronn2333 (5983489 in chips)
Seat 2: vadka (9164118 in chips)
Seat 3: zuckmeout (3256168 in chips)
Seat 4: MAMOHT_T (5321810 in chips)
Seat 5: caicu (3399831 in chips)
Seat 6: Tudlenudle (7010133 in chips)
Seat 7: kay3000 (2493954 in chips)
Seat 8: AZAZELLL0 (3083168 in chips)
Seat 9: wlalex (6237329 in chips)

A scare and some relief

After our final table received a little five minute rest after the ten hour mark all nine returned to blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K. AZAZELLL0 would trade raises with LeBronn2333 until all 1.91 million chips were in the middle holding [As][6s]. LeBronn2333 had no problem calling with pocket kings [Kc][Kd] but may have had an issue with the two spades on the flop [4s][3s][8h]. Luckily for those kings no other spades decided to join the party and the board [3c][Qc] blanked for AZAZELLL0 ended the night in ninth place ($7,352.00).

LeBronn. More like "LeBrawn"

Out-muscles yet another. With the blinds up to 125K/250K ante 25K LeBronn2333 would min-raise from UTG as it folded to kay3000 in the small blind holding [Ah][7s] and 1.21 million chips. kay3000 decided to shove and was met with a rather quick call by LeBonn2333's sixes [6h][6c]. It was almost as if LeBonn2333 knew a third six on the flop would protect against the seven laying besides it [6d] [7d] [4d] [Kc] [8d] as LeBonn2333 took down the 2.8 million chip pot and kay3000 collected $11,487.50 in eighth place. This was not kay3000's first ride to a big table, especially not with a SCOOP watch on after taking down Event #16-M in 2011 for $29K.

Royal Flush? Not quite.

Watch below as one player flops a Royal Flush draw, the other nails two pair. One stays with 7.1 million more chips, the other receives seventh place cash:

MAMOHT_T's [Ac][Qc] found a promising flop [Kc][Jc][8h] against vadka's two pair [Kd][Jd] but the Royal Flush draw would miss the rest of the way [Ks] and [7s] ending MAMOHT_T's night in seventh place ($20,677.50).

Dance with me

wlalex and Tudlenudle decided to tango a bit before creating a 8.9 million preflop pot. With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K there would be a five-bet by Tudlenudle's pocket fours [4d][4s] and a call by wlalex's big slick [Kc][Ac]. The [7s] [7h] [Td] [9h] [5d] board played to Tudlenudle's tune as wlalex was bounced in sixth place ($29,867.50) as Tudlenudle scooped up a sizable 8.9 million chip pot.

vadka explodes again

The volcano avatar of vadka lit up the final table for another big pot. With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K zuckmeout shoved from the hijack seat for 4.57 million as vadka sat patiently in the big blind holding [Ts][Ac] to make the call. zuckmeout's pocket eights [8s][8d] got no chance to race as the first card out was an ace [Ad] [5h] [3c] [5c] [Td] shipping the 9.5 million chip pot to vadka as zuckmeout claimed $39,057.50 in fifth place.

Toodles to Tudlenudle

One hand before the blinds moved up to 300K/600K ante 60K Tudlenudle down to 1.35 million chips thanks to a tangle with LeBronn2333 as Tudlenudle tried to represent the trip fives that LeBronn2333 held and 13.9 million chips would slide into LeBronn2333's hand. On the fateful hand caicu would back Tudlenudle into a corner with a min-raise from the small blind as Tudlenudle made the call and called all-in on the small flop bet. Tudlenudle's [4h][2h] never threatened the [3c][Kc] held by caicu on the [8h] [Qc] [6c] [Js] [Th] board to end Tudlenudle's tournament in fourth place ($51,923.50).

Not a good spot for big slick

With the blinds up to 300K/600K ante 60K caicu would lead out with a min-raise from the button as LeBronn2333 three-bet to 2.32 million. caicu wasted no time in shoving for 10.8 million chips. Perhaps caicu would have pondered a bit more if the Portuguese knew LeBronn2333 was holding aces [Ad][Ac]. LeBronn2333 of course made the quick call and covered caicu's big slick [As][Kc]. After the lady filled [5c] [9s] [Qs] [Qc] [Qd] board was finished so was caicu in third place ($75,817.50).

Lots of play, except when there isn't

LeBronn2333 at 26.4 million and vadka at 19.5 million chips to start heads-up play both held enough chips to make this final battle last for a good while. They had plenty of cash to play for as vadka shot down a last attempt at a chop. Six hands later they settled the $37K difference between first and second preflop for with 33.8 million chips in the middle. Watch below for the results:

Pocket eights [8s][8c] for vadka against LeBronn2333's big slick [Ks][Ac] as once again trips would fill the board. But, this time an ace came along for the ride [Js] [Ah] [6h] [Jh] [Jc] and LeBronn2333 would capture the biggest prize from this loaded prize pool by winning $144,172.72 as tonight's Sunday Warm-Up champion!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (03-03-13):

Players entered: 4,595
Places paid: 675
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $919,000.00
First place: $144,172.72

1. LeBronn2333 (Russia) $144,172.72
2. vadka (Ukraine) $107,063.50
3. caicu (Portugal) $75,817.50
4. Tudlenudle (Czech Republic) $51,923.50
5. zuckmeout (Norway) $39,057.50
6. wlalex (China) $29,867.50
7. MAMOHT_T (Russia) $20,677.50
8. kay3000 (Russia) $11,487.50
9. AZAZELLL0 (Turkey) $7,352.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari would make the most waves this evening for the Red Spades. As the only Team Pro to make it into the money this evening, Andre made the most of it claiming $1,254.26 in 66th place.

Closer to the final table the ninth hour would leave 15 players still chasing the $115,835.77 up top including Benjamin "delaney_kid" Delaney who has several big final tables here at PokerStars most recently a runner-up finish during the Super Tuesday in October while collecting $66,405.00 for the effort. It would only take 10 minutes to reach hand-for-hand play when the gears of the tournament seemed to grind to a halt as we passed the 50K/100K ante 10K level and 65K/130K ante 13K level without issue as two tables with five aside continued their march towards that big payday.

Delaney would suffer a minor setback after doubling up RuniNF when his queens were cracked by RuniNF's [Kc][Qc] when the board turned a flush for a 3.99 million chip pot. But, he managed to steal enough blinds and double up himself to make it to the final table. With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K and right after Delaney won a 3.18 million chip pot, DJONI&DJONI would shove from the cutoff for 2.7 million as RuniNF made the call with big slick [Ks][Ah] from the big blind. Pocket sixes [6h][6d] for DJONI&DJONI were shot down early as two aces hit the flop [Ac] [Ad] [3d] [2c] [7d] and DJONI&DJONI's departure opened up the final table below:

Seat 1: SamyDx (5384469 in chips)
Seat 2: stato_1 (4723647 in chips)
Seat 3: delaney_kid (3164552 in chips)
Seat 4: gosuoposum1 (3690965 in chips)
Seat 5: raulbcn (4606252 in chips)
Seat 6: MetalHelmet (3365218 in chips)
Seat 7: RuiNF (6313677 in chips)
Seat 8: isla_86 (3441676 in chips)
Seat 9: tunnny (2199544 in chips)

Benjamin "delaney_kid" Delaney finishes in ninth place

Despite the comeback before reaching the final table Delaney's fortunes never carried forward. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K and down to 1.36 million Delaney would shove holding [4c][Ac]. Unfortunately for him raulbcn sat two seats down with pocket aces [Ah][As] making the call. Only one club would appear on the [7s] [Kh] [Qh] [7c] [Jd] board as Delaney made a quick exit from the Sunday Warm-up in ninth place ($5,902.40).

Not the time for nines

As the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K SamyDx would open from UTG for 2.6 million not really wanting any callers with pocket pairs higher than nines [9s][9d]. stato_1 had such a hand sitting right next to SamyDx and quickly called with pocket kings [Kc][Ks]. This non-race was over quickly as a king landed on the door [Kd] [4h] [7c] [2c] [6d] guiding 5.9 million chips into stato_1's stack as SamyDx exited the tournament in eighth place ($9,222.50).

Not playing possum

gosuposum1 would try to hang around only holding just a million in chips while making a sly min-raise from middle position for nearly half those chips. tunnny in the big blind would push the envelope by three-betting to 1.35 million. Almost obligated to call, gosuposum1 did so while showing [4d][Qs] as tunnny turned up a slightly better hand [Ac][Ah]. The aces would receive a little help (not needed) by hitting a set on the [3c] [Qh] [As] [6c] [Tc] and holding to knockout gosuposum1 in seventh place ($16,600.50).

Ruining the day

As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K RuiNF and raulbcn knotted up for a 6.6 million chip pot. Watch below as the population of the final table would be trimmed to five.

Pocket twos [2s][2d] for RuiNF looked pretty solid against raulbcn's big slick [Ad][Ks] as the board spit out four cards under ten [9c] [3h] [8s] [5s]. But, the fifth card contained an ace [As] sending RuiNF off in sixth place ($23,978.50). Not the Portuguese's first time around a major final table, even the smaller ones like the MicroMillions III Event #41 final table in November that earned $4.3K.

Bursting the bubble

The players would try a five-way chop but after several minutes and slinging money around nothing came through.

tunnny nearly made the final table of this tournament in August last year but fell short in tenth place. Tonight the Canadian's run would go very deep until three-betting MetalHelmet all-in with [Ah][9s] would backfire as MetalHelmet called with a better hand [Jd][As] and still held it after the [Qh] [Jh] [Tc] [9d] [2d] board took down the massive 11.8 million chip pot. Two hands later tunnny tried to defeat the nemesis with [9h][Qd] but was denied against after MetalHelmet showed [Ah][Th] and despite tunnny hitting a pair of queens, MetalHelmet roared on the rivered broadway straight [Qh] [Jd] [4c] [6c] [Kd] send tunnny off in fifth place ($31,356.50).

Deal time!

Team Online's Richard "Tzen1" Veenman would entertain the final four as they hashed out a two pronged deal that gave MetalHelmet the biggest slice of the pie since the 16.2 million chip stack was over double of second place stato_1's 7.8 million.

MetalHelmet: $89,000.00
stato_1: $71,813.34
raulbcn: $71,621.65
isla_86: $63,015.38

A minute makes the difference

Just one minute ago raulbcn was second in chips and received and substantial gain from fourth place cash, $29K to be exact and a minute later those chips that could have been used to gain another $10K vanished. With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K stato_1 would min-raise from the cutoff as raulbcn shoved for 7.73 million. Folded back to stato_1 who made a gut-check call with pocket eights [8h][8s] and turned out well as raulbcn showed sevens [7s][7d]. Neither pair improved netting stato_1 the 14.8 million chip pot. MetalHelmet was there on the very next hand to collect raulbcn's scraps as $71,621.65 headed to raulbcn's bankroll in fourth place.

stato_1 tears it up

stato_1 would take down six hands in a row after assuming the chip lead and as the blinds held at 200K/400K ante 40K. The last hand of the streak saw isla_86 trying to cut off stato_1 steam with a small blind shove for 3.84 million holding [Th][Jc]. stato_1 had no intentions of folding [Ac][Js] and did not for good reasons as the flop showed an ace [9d] [Ad] [Ks] [5h] [5s] and showed isla_86 to the door in third place ($63,015.38).

Too much Metal

stato_1 has been here before. Not the final two, but reached the Sunday Warm-Up final table around this time last year finishing in ninth place. This time a potential title on the line and an extra $10,000.00 for the winner, stato_1 would run up a sizable lead on MetalHelmet holding a 30.3 million to 6.5 million lead after 20 minutes of heads-up play. Then things went very wrong very quickly for stato_1. First, a double up to 13 million after MetalHelmet got it in good with [Ah][7d] and held over stato_1's [7h][Kd]. Four hands later, MetalHelmet struck again, this time for 22.3 million with a little bit luck holding [Jd][9h] to stato_1's [Qh][Ah] and hitting a nine on the [8h] [9c] [4c] [7h] [7d] board.

Then, another four hands later with the blinds at 300K/600K ante 60K the final hand of the tournament below:

After trading raises, 31.6 million chips sat in the middle with stato_1's tournament life on the line holding [Kc][Qd]. MetalHelmet turned up pocket sevens [7c][7s] which won the race [2h] [9c] [5s] [Tc] [5d] taking down $99,000.00 total as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

$500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (02-24-13)

(* marks part of four-way deal)

Players entered: 3,689
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $737,800.00
First place: *$99,000.00

1. MetalHelmet (Mexico) *$99,000.00
2. stato_1 (United Kingdom) *$71,813.34
3. isla_86 (Norway) *$63,015.38
4. raulbcn (United Kingdom) *$71,621.65
5. tunnny (Canada) $31,356.50
6. RuiNF (Portugal) $23,978.50
7. gosuoposum1 (Ukraine) $16,600.50
8. SamyDx (Switzerland) $9,222.50
9. delaney_kid (Australia) $5,902.40

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Unlike last week when the ninth hourly break was nearly taken during the final table, 17 players would enjoy one last five minute snooze before hustling back to their keyboards for the final push towards a Sunday Warm-Up win. Second in chips going into the break was a familiar name from last month's TCOOP. Assad91 would take down TCOOP Event #43 and nearly swiped the Player of the Series award from Tjepan on the final weekend (finishing in fourth place). Tonight the Norwegian would be looking for a six-figure win to go with that TCOOP title but the cards had different ideas. As the blinds moved up to 50K/100K ante 10K Assad91 would double up psyhoagromor for a 3.2 million chip pot getting pocket tens in preflop against psyhoagromor's queens. Then two hands later, Assad91 picked the wrong time to open shove from the small blind as AAmisterKK just happened to find [Ac][Ah] in the big blind. Despite flopping a pair with [Tc][Qh] the board closed this one out on the turn [Qc] [8c] [2h] [Ad] [9s] ending Assad91's night in 17th place ($2,241.00).

Definitely a slower brand of poker today than what Assad91 was used to during the TCOOP as the 65K/130K ante 13K blind level started up with 14 players still remaining. Make that 13 players after chip leader yarik 1903 decided to snap call a shove by GHDEVILS88 with pocket aces that held up for a 5.32 million chip pot. In 2011 yarik 1903 nearly claimed a WCOOP bracelet after finishing third in Event #60 for $144,960.00

The first hand of the 80K/160K ante 16K blind level had yarik 1903 collecting yet another big pot as 4.3 million chips slid over to the chip leader after Anjeyyy open shoved from the small blind with [Kd][Jc] and lost the race against yarik 1903's pocket nines [9c][9s] to set up hand-for-hand play which lasted a whole two hands. Snusarn would shove for 1.91 million from the button as JayP-AA made the call from the big blind holding [Ah][2s]. Pocket fours [4s][4h] looked good after the [2d][8c][Js] flop, but not after the [Ad] turn and the [6s] river closed out the tournament for Snusarn and started up the final table below:

Seat 1: the_coahman (2536132 in chips)
Seat 2: JayP-AA (6405805 in chips)
Seat 3: PlayaPlz (3895799 in chips)
Seat 4: fish&chlps (1573848 in chips)
Seat 5: psyhoagromor (5116783 in chips)
Seat 6: nervakSVK (485156 in chips)
Seat 7: gigaplayer (1843872 in chips)
Seat 8: hestskit (1812336 in chips)
Seat 9: yarik1903 (13680269 in chips)

nervak wrecked

Despite using the smiling face of Rafa Nadal as an avatar, nervakSVK would not walk away a champion today like Nadal did today at the Brazil Open, capping huge turnaround after being injured for the past seven month and finishing second last week in Chile. With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K on the second hand of the final table, nervakSVK would three-bet shove for 453,156 chips after PlayaPlz's min-raise from middle position. PlayaPlz made the easy call holding [7s][As], flipping against nervakSVK's pocket fours [4c][4d]. A seven on the flop [9d] [7d] [Qs] [Qc] [Td] ended any thoughts of a short-stack run for nervakSVK finishing in ninth place ($5,976.00).

One short stack doubles, the other does not

With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K a three-way all-in would break out between yarik1903, gigaplayer, and fish&chlps. Two would survive, and one picked up eighth place cash. Check out the video below for the results:

yarik1903 had a shot to eliminate both players with [5h][As] and fish&chlps' [Kd][Jd] managed to hit two pair. But, it was gigaplayer's set of tens [Ts][Td] on the [Th] [Ks] [9c] [5d] [Jh] board taking down the 1.9 million chip pot and taking out fish&chlps in eighth place ($9,337.50).

yarik strikes back

After losing a few big pots, yarik1903's huge chip lead was being distributed around the table. With the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K gigaplayer still sitting on a short stack despite the previous double up, shoved for 1.26 million as yarik1903 made the call holding pocket fours [4c][4s] which seems to be a very popular hand tonight. No flip this time for the sailboats as gigaplayer showed treys [3h][3s] which failed to find a third one on the [6s] [7d] [As] [8c] [9s] board ending the night in seventh place ($16,807.50).

yarik strikes out

That didn't last long. Just five hands after bouncing gigaplayer out of the tournament, yarik1903 would be facing elimination as well. With the blinds holding at 125K/250K ante 25K and fresh off doubling up PlayaPlz, yarik1903 would min-raise as JayP-AA three-bet to 1.09 million from the big blind. Back to yarik1903 who four-bet to 4.25 million and JayP-AA ended the raises with a five-bet to 7.4 million. yarik1903 holding [3h][As] was nearly forced to call off the remaining 125,958 chips as JayP-AA showed the dominating [Ah][Js]. Neither player was helped by the [9c] [9d] [Kc] [5h] [Tc] board as yarik1903 slumped off in sixth place ($24,277.50).

Playa hater

As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K the_coahman would lead out from the cutoff for 2.1 million. PlayaPlz made it 8.88 million to go from the small blind as the psyhoagromor in the big blind wanted nothing to do with that bet. the_coahman however only held 471,528 chips left and made the call with a small suited connector [4h][3h]. PlayaPlz was pleased holding [As][9h] and more pleased once the [Td] [Jd] [9c] [7h] [9d] board came down in the Canadian's favor knocking out the_coahman in fifth place ($31,747.50).

Left out of the chop talks

JayP-AA said "look numbers?" about five seconds too late for psyhoagromor. With the blinds hanging at 150K/300K ante 30K PlayaPlz would min-raise from the button as psyhoagromor shoved for 3.7 million and hestskit called all-in from the small blind for 3.4 million with [Ah][Td]. psyhoagromor turned up [Qh][Kc] and failed to find anything matching up on the [2c] [6d] [9d] [5h] [5d] board sending psyhoagromor home to think about the $42,952.50 payday in fourth place.

"Alrighty players... what can I do for you three?" asked tonight's MC Team Online's Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome. Apparently the answer is a long chat about who is wants to make a deal for the $265K remaining in the prize and who does not want to give up a penny. But, peer pressure and 27 minutes softened up the abstainer to hash out the deal shown below with $10,000.00 set aside for the champ tonight:

PlayaPlz: $88,556.39
hestskit: $83,748.18
JayP-AA: $84,000.93

AA not needed

On the third hand back from the break JayP-AA and hestskit would knot up for a 22.9 million chip preflop pot. JayP-AA's pocket sevens [7d][7c] would run through hestskit's [Ad][Js] on the [9c] [Ts] [Kc] [2h] [5s] board knocking hestskit's stack down to 1.31 million and blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K. hestskit would double up on the very next hand, but three hands later hestskit would be all-in again against JayP-AA this time with [Ks][7s] against JayP-AA's [Ad][Qh]. Despite turning a flush draw [Th] [9s] [Jc] [4s] [6h] JayP-AA's ace played as hestskit took away $83,748.18 from the deal in third place.

Second time a charm?

PlayaPlz has been here at the final table of the Sunday Warm-Up before. Back in March 2011, PlayaPlz made a seventh place appearance earning $23,458.50 in the process during one of the largest Sunday Warm-Up. Tonight PlayaPlz would be going after the title starting with a 25 million to 12.2 million chip deficit.

PlayaPlz wins one for Jordan

It is possible that Michael Jordan's 50th birthday and PlayaPlz's avatar of His Airness brought a little luck to the tables tonight. After a 41 minute battle with JayP-AA it all came down to the 34 million chip preflop hand below:

JayP-AA's [Qs][Kc] would flop a pair, but the turned ace matched up with PlayaPlz's [9c][Ah] on the [Tc] [Kh] [2c] [As] [6s] board to win the extra $10,000.00 and this week's Sunday Warm-Up!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results: (02-17-13)

Players entered: 3,735
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $747,000.00
First place: *$98,556.39

(* denotes part of three-way deal)

1. PlayaPlz (Canada) *$98,556.39
2. JayP-AA (United Kingdom) *$84,000.93
3. hestskit (Norway) *$83,748.18
4. psyhoagromor (Ukraine) $42,952.50
5. the_coahman (Sweden) $31,747.50
6. yarik1903 (Ukraine) $24,277.50
7. gigaplayer (Czech Republic) $16,807.50
8. fish&chlps (United Kingdom) $9,337.50
9. nervakSVK (Slovakia) $5,976.00

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

Team PokerStars Pro Richard Toth was seen sporting a short stack going into hour eight of this tournament 26th place out of 32 players left. The deep finish tonight exceeding his last run at the Sunday Warm-Up title which ended in November at a 47th place finish. The Hungarian Pro would find a small double-up mid-way through the eighth hour as the number of tables shrank from four to two as he clung to a chip stack of around 500K with blinds increasing to 30K/60K ante 6K.

After Toth was able to grind up to 671,328 chips he would three-bet shove over the top of a cutoff raise to 180,000 from AGALFARO. Holding just under three million in chips, AGALFARO made the call with pocket nines [9h][9c] which would race off against Toth's [Js][Ac]. While a couple of face cards hit the [2d] [7c] [Kc] [Qh] [3s] board but nothing matched up enough to keep the last Red Spade in the tourney finishing in 17th place ($2,215.80).

Usually we wait until after the ninth hour of play to announce the final nine but with the quick eliminations of almazyan2030 (Kazakhstan), Paranoiide (Netherlands), and matkillers23 (Canada) in 11th through 13th place, hand-for-hand play would start up before the hourly break. But, the five players each at the final two tables would get a five minute break to mull over their strategy to win that six-figure sum sitting at the final table.

Hand-for-hand play in the Sunday Warm-up is usually a fairly quick affair. But not tonight as all ten players would get through the 50K/100K ante 10K level. Then, with the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K our break-through would come in the form a suck out. Holding 1.13 million chips proctus would open shove with [Ad][Jh] from the button getting matt86ck to match the bet out of the big blind. Dominated matt86ck's [Jd][Kd] would go searching for a king and found one sitting on the edge of the [3s] [7c] [2h] [5h] [Kc] board as our final table was set below:

Seat 1: DwnByDaBrdge (1002316 in chips)
Seat 2: SLips713 (6881772 in chips)
Seat 3: DYBYDX (3848522 in chips)
Seat 4: yali1961 (5481995 in chips)
Seat 5: diasbet (3879565 in chips)
Seat 6: jnel9 (4707793 in chips)
Seat 7: matt86ck (8224683 in chips)
Seat 8: AGALFARO (1642966 in chips)
Seat 9: N1lmar (1260388 in chips)

First elimination hands knocks field down to seven

Continuing with the theme of longer play tonight, the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K before a three-way all-in woke up the table. DwnByDaBridge would shove for 832,244 one hand after doubling up N1Imar, SLips713 immediately made the call from the cutoff seat. Not done there, DYBYDX joined the party holding pocket tens [Td][Ts] on the button and shoving for a tad over three million chips. Again Slips713 was quick with the call button, and the pocket kings [Ks][Kh] showed why. DwnByDaBrdge's [Jc][9c] would not find any clubs on the [As] [6s] [2h] [6h] [7d] board as SLips713 scooped up the 7.2 million chip pot as DwnByDaBrdge collected $5,908.80 in ninth place and DYBYDX exited quietly in eighth ($9,232.50). DYBYDX is certainly not stranger to big final tables having won a WCOOP 2011 bracelet and final tabling this event during the recent TCOOP's Event # 46 Sunday Warm-Up special earning $12,892.50 while taking a mirror-like eighth place.

Play speeds up

Just two hands later with the blinds still at 80K/160K ante 16K diasbet would open for 341,255 from the button as jnel9 three-bet to 640,000 from the small blind. diasbet called to see trip kings hit the board [Kh][Kc][Kd]. jnel9 tried a 480,000 chip bet which diasbet answered with a shove for 1.85 million. Holding a full house [Jd][Js] jnel9 made the call as diasbet flipped up a smaller boat [5h][5d]. No two-outers on the turn [4h] or river [8h] and diasbet earned $16,618.50 in seventh place.

jnel9 strikes again

With the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K jnel9 went looking for more blood found it in the video shown below:

Fresh off doubling up N1Imar, yali1961 tried to open shove from the small blind for 1.21 million to blow off a little steam. Unfortunatley, jnel9 wanted to play and made the call holding [Kd][7s]. Only one live card for yali1961 [9h][7d] failed to hit that nine on the [6s] [Ah] [7c] [7h] [Jc] board ended the Israeli's night in sixth place ($24,004.50).

jnel9 rolls a turkey

For those unfamiliar with the lingo surrounding bowling, when a person manages to knock down all ten pins three times in a row, they are credited with scoring a turkey. Usually it is a cause for some excitement for those not used to rolling higher scores, but tonight jnel9's turkey would end up with another elimination. With the blinds still at 100K/200K ante 20K jnel9 would min-raise as matt86ck called and N1Imar went looking for another double up, shoved for 3.2 million. Back to jnel9 who min-raised again causing matt86ck to back away slowly as jnel9 turned over big slick [Kh][Ac]. N1Imar needed some love again holding the dominated [Qs][As] but this time did not receive it [Jc] [Td] [2h] [5d] [Jh] finishing the tournament in fifth place ($31,390.50).

Far to go

Down to four players and blinds resting at 125K/250K ante 25K matt86ck would lead off with a min-raise from the cutoff seat as AGALFARO bumped it up with a shove for 1.42 million. Folded through the blinds as matt86ck made the call holding [7c][Kc] slightly behind the [Ac][Jh] of AGALFARO. A jack would hit the flop along with a king for matt86ck as the board [Js] [2d] [Kd] [6d] [5d] favored the Polish player and AGALFARO took away $42,469.50 in fourth place.

Kneeling down

A short time later still in the 125K/250K ante 25K blind level jnel9 would suffer a setback after trying to push mattck86 around with a preflop four-bet shove. matt86ck made the call holding big slick [Ac][Kc] which defeated jnel9's [Kd][Td] for a 16.6 million chip pot. Eight hands later jnel9 would shove for 3.7 million from the small blind as matt86ck made the call holding [5s][Kc]. It was the right call as jnel9 showed [7s][9s] and as both players made a pair on the flop, matt86ck's was the mightier [2d] [Kh] [7c] [Ad] [Ts] ending jnel9's run in third place ($60,934.50).

Love and war

While matt86ck was ready to declare war against SLips713 during their unscheduled break to discuss monetary matters, things calmed down enough when matt86ck's demands were met for the deal shown below:

SLips713: $98,877.08
matt86ck: $93,500.49

$10K still at large for the winner as the two saddled up for a 35 minute poker battle.

Slips in for the win

Near the end of this battle, a smaller ace would work once for matt86ck as Polish rounder would be all-in preflop with [8c][As] against big slick [Ah][Ks] of SLips713. An eight on the flop [5s] [8h] [Qd] [Js] [9d] helped matt86ck retrieve 12.7 million chips but still trailed SLips713's 24.2 million chip stack.

Two hands later they would get it in again preflop as SLips713 tried again with big slick [Kd][As]. Watch below if it succeeded against matt86ck's [Js][Ac]:

While matt86ck managed to hit the kicker again, so did SLips713 [8c] [Ah] [Kh] [Jd] [2d] as the higher two pair carried SLips713 to victory and a $108,877.08 paycheck for winning this week's Sunday Warm-Up!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (02-10-13):
(* part of two-way deal)

Players entered: 3,693
Places paid: 540
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $738,600.00
First place: *$108,877.08

1. SLips713 (Canada) *$108,877.08
2. matt86ck (Poland) *$93,500.49
3. jnel9 (Canada) $60,934.50
4. AGALFARO (Chile) $42,469.50
5. N1lmar (Poland) $31,390.50
6. yali1961 (Israel) $24,004.50
7. diasbet (Greece) $16,618.50
8. DYBYDX (United Kingdom) $9,232.50
9. DwnByDaBrdge (Mexico) $5,908.80

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

At the final break before the final table just 14 players remained including seppmann7 who has waited a long time to return to the Sunday Warm-Up final table with a fourth place finish here in 2009. Supernova tilt21sted was also looking to add another Sunday Major final table to go along side of a six-figure score ($115,678.97) in the Sunday Million last April.

Dimka441's [Ks][9c] failed to find an answer to skuja's big slick [Kd][Ad] after shoving a small stack of 441,239 all-in preflop. After the [Jd] [Qh] [5s] [8c] [7s] board ran clean Dimka411 collected $3,098.70 in 13th place as mattrecords (United Kingdom) followed quickly in 12th ($4,131.60).

CaptainGant's ship sank quickly in 11th place ($4,131.60) after surrendering a double-up to plspaythxbye in a 5.6 million chip pot with the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K then shipping the remaining 1.3 million holding [Qs][Th] on the next hand. CaptainGant's shove was called by 5typesofmeat's pocket jacks [Jd][Jh] and the jacks held [3s] [Ac] [7c] [9d] [4h] as the tournament moved into hand-for-hand play after over nine hours.

Near the nine and a half hour mark seppmann7's return to the Sunday Warm-Up final table was secure and Belabacsi's was not. With the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K the recent TCOOP Event #42 champ would open for 390,000 in the small blind as bah23 had the golden card protector winner put in the rest with a three-bet. Belabacsi called with [7h][Tc] needing a lot of help against bah23's dominate [Th][Ah]. No help was found on the [Td] [Qh] [Ks] [8h] [Ac] board as Belabacsi would stone bubble the final table a second time after doing the same thing in December.

Seat 1: bah23 (1721715 in chips)
Seat 2: hulinada (4688409 in chips)
Seat 3: tilt21sted (4293430 in chips)
Seat 4: 5typesofmeat (5936391 in chips)
Seat 5: plspaythxbye (5367438 in chips)
Seat 6: OffpoZition (3940769 in chips)
Seat 7: seppmann7 (2560128 in chips)
Seat 8: nurabsal (3956277 in chips)
Seat 9: skuja (1965443 in chips)

plspaymethxbye

After seven minutes of final table play the blinds moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K as tilt21sted would min-raise from middle position and plspaythxbye three-bet all-in to 1.56 million holding [Kd][Qd]. Back to the original raiser, tilt21sted decided big slick [Ad][Ks] was enough for a call and watched the [6h] [2d] [Ts] [2c] [Kc] board ship the 3.5 million chip pot to tilt21sted. PokerStars is happy to pay plspaythxbye ninth place cash ($5,508.80) tonight.

hulinada turns connection problems into a disconnect for two players

hulinada would experience some connection issues that had the 240 second clock briefly trigger just before the 10th hourly break. When the lights came back on in New Orleans for the SuperBowl, hulinada seemed to do the same. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K skuja open-shoved 1.34 million from the cutoff as hulianda disconnected, then came back to also shove for a little more holding pocket sevens [7d][7c]. skuja's [Tc][Ac] failed to hit the [6d] [6c] [4s] [Qs] [5d] board hard enough to continue finishing eighth place ($8,607.50).

No connection issues for hulinada on the next hand after raising to 410,000 the Russian would call the three-bet shove of 5typesofmeat holding another middle pocket pair [8s][8c]. Again in a race, this time against [Jc][Qc], hulinada would avoid any conflict with the [9d] [4c] [8d] [2s] [2c] hitting eights full for good measure and sending 5typesofmeat home in seventh place ($15,493.50).

Definitely not the TCOOP

30 minutes later tilt21sted and bah23 would hook up preflop for a 6.97 million chip pot. Most TCOOP final tables took under 30 minutes to finish entirely! Watch the replay below at any speed suitable to your taste:

bah23's ladies [Qc][Qs] were happy to see tilt21sted's sixes [6d][6h] until another one hit the door [6c] [9c] [Kh] [3c] [9d] ending bah23's night in sixth place ($22,379.50).

No tilt, just beat

As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K hulinada now holding nearly half the chips in play with 15 million, would open for 615,000 as tilt21sted shoved 4.35 million chips from the cutoff. Holding [Jh][Ad] hulinada wasted no time this time making the call. Unlike the previous all-ins hulinada would not be racing as tilt21sted turned over [Jd][Kd]. No faces on the [4h] [9d] [3d] [2c] [6h] board would give tilt21sted $29,265.50 in fifth place.

Table tilts towards hulinada

Seven hands later as the blinds held at 150K/300K ante 30K hulinada went looking for more as the chip leader opened for 20.7 million chips from the small blind. OffpoZition caught a middle pair [8c][8s] in the blind and made the call for 3.24 million. hulinada would be flipping with [9h][Ks] and the flop was kind enough to hulinada to put out a king and three clubs [3c][Kc][Qc]. Despite taking the lead hulinada had to fade the flush draw, and continued this torrid stretch after the board blanked [6h] [Qd] earning OffpoZition $39,594.50 in fourth place.

Deal finally done

hulinada now the runaway chip leader holding 22.2 million chip to seppmann7's 4.4 million and nurabsal's 7.7 million had a lot of say on how any deal for the final three places would go. And the Russian used that sway to knock down a bunch of potential deals but finally agreed on the below deal leaving $10,000.00 for the winner:

hulinada: $94,201.74
nurabsal: $74,611.17
seppmann7: $66,673.98

Better result this time for seppmann7

After taking over three years to return to the Sunday Warm-Up final table, seppmann7 made the most of it. With the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K seppmann7 would raise to 750,000 from the small blind as nurabsal made the call out of the big blind. Flop of [9d][4s][6h] got seppmann7 to lead for 795,000 as nurabsal called again. [Th] on the turn and seppmann7 shoved all-in for 2.33 million as nurabsal catching top pair on the turn [8s][Ts] made the call one more time. seppmann7's [9c][Jc] lost the lead on the turn, and was out of the tournament after the [Qh] river earning $66,673.98 for third place.

Role reversal

After taking a 22.6 million to 11.7 million chip lead into heads-up play, hulinada would watch that lead evaporate quickly as nurabsal won ten hands in a row and 13 of 14 to take a 22.5 million to 11.9 million chip lead.

nurabsal would continue this assault increasing the lead to 27.5 million to 7.1 million as the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K setting up the final hand of the tournament below:

hulinada tried to knock nurabsal off the leading min-raise with a shove holding [9d][Qc] instead the comeback would be completed after making the call with [Qh][Th] and hitting a ten on the flop [Tc] [5d] [6d] [Ah] [3d] to claim the extra $10,000.00 and this week's Sunday Warm-up title!

$500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (02-03-13)

Players entered: 3,443
Places paid: 495
Buy-in: $215.00
Prize pool: $688,600.00
First place: *$84,611.17

(* denotes part of three-way deal)

1. nurabsal (United Kingdom) *$84,611.17
2. hulinada (Russia) *$94,201.74
3. seppmann7 (Germany) *$66,673.98
4. OffpoZition (Israel) $39,594.50
5. tilt21sted (Romania) $29,265.50
6. bah23 (Bulgaria) $22,379.50
7. 5typesofmeat (United Kingdom) $15,493.50
8. skuja (Sweden) $8,607.50
9. plspaythxbye (Ukraine) $5,508.80

David Aydt is a freelance contributor

3,559 players joined this week's Warm-Up, creating a $711,800 prize pool. 540 places were paid with first place set to earn $111,753.77. Among the 17 Red Spades in the field were Andre Akkari, Jake Cody, Liv Boeree, Shane "shaniac" Schleger, and Lex Veldhuis, but only one finished in the money, Team Pro Martin Hruby who cashed in 475th place.

Radiihead and Akserr were similarly short-stacked on the final table bubble, playing a game of chicken with each other during hand-for-hand play. Radiihead was the first to blink, and open-shoved for 1.36 million when the action was folded to him in the small blind. Unfortunately for him, Gladi3 woke up with [Ah][4d] in the big. Radiihead's [Kh][6d] did not improve and he went out in tenth place.

Final table chip counts

Seat 1: A.Tricarico (4,772,524 in chips)
Seat 2: Hope_Flooky (2,652,768 in chips)
Seat 3: Pocket2Chris (7,659,598 in chips)
Seat 4: Gerge Jung (3,976,442 in chips)
Seat 5: Akserr (1,470,631 in chips)
Seat 6: oncommand (4,271,930 in chips)
Seat 7: aces1096 (1,740,990 in chips)
Seat 8: Gladi3 (5,251,834 in chips)
Seat 9: dejanaceking (3,793,283 in chips)

Akserr axed

Akserr made the final table with less than ten big blinds and didn't have to fold for too long before finding a hand he could go with. He three-bet shoved for 1.17 million with pocket tens and A. Tricarico called with [Ad][Qh]. The [Qc][Jh][9s] flop made A. Tricarico top pair, but Akserr held hope with an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river blanked out, however, the [4s] and the [2c] falling to send Akserr to the rail in ninth place.

Gerge surges, dejanaceking douses A. Tricarico

In this cooler of a hand, the money was going in no matter what between A. Tricarico and Gerge Jung, the former picking up [Ad][Ac] under-the-gun and the latter three-betting with [Qs][Qh]. A. Tricarico shoved for 6.2 million and Gerge Jung called off his remaining 2.9, only to hit a set on the [Kc][Qc][3s] flop. A. Tricarico's aces snapped off, he dropped to 2.6 million in chips while Gerge Jung moved up to second position with 7.6 million. A. Tricarico, however, reclaimed most of those lost chips a short time later with his own stroke of luck, his [As][4h] turning a four against Pocket2Chris's [Ah][Jd] in a 4.9 million pot.

Gerge Jung moved to the front of the pack and furthered his chip lead when he won a coinflip to eliminate aces1096 in eighth place, his [Ad][9h] flopping an ace against pocket sevens. But just as Gerge Jung moved up to 10.9m, dejanaceking shifted gears and relentlessly attacked the blinds, winning 9 out of the next 10 pots to move up to 7.5 million. Dejanaceking took over the top spot after firing three streets on a [Qc][8h][2d][8c][5s] board. A. Tricarico folded the river and fell to 3.4 million while dejanaceking closed in on 9.7 million. A. Tricarico only lasted one more orbit, putting the rest of his chips in with [Ah][Qd] against dejanaceking's pocket threes. The threes held and A. Tricarico took seventh place, earning $16,015.50.

Gerge Jung KOs two, Gladi3 busts Pocket2Chris

Two hands later, the action folded to Gerge Jung in the small blind. Holding [Ah][4d], he opened for 2.89 million, more than enough to set big blind oncommand all-in. Oncommand called off his remaining 1.1 million with [Kh][6d], but did not improve, the board running out [Qc][8h][4s][3h][7c] to end his run in sixth place. This was oncommand's second deep run of the day; earlier this evening, he finished 18th in TCOOP Event #16 ($320 NLHE KO).

Hope_Flooky was next to fall, three-bet shoving for 4.27 million with [Jd][Jh] only to be met with a four-bet reshove to 8.37 million from Gerge Jung. Initial raiser dejanaceking got out of the way, and Gerge Jung revealed [Ac][Kh]. Two kings on the flop all but ended it for Hope_Flooky, who departed in fifth place with a $30,251.50 score.

The blinds up to 125,000/250,000 and his stack below 2 million, Pocket2Chris needed to make a move. Thankfully, he picked up a hand worthy of a three-bet shove and moved in over the top of dejanaceking's 500,000 min-raise with [As][Js]. Dejanaceking looked him up with [Ks][6s], but did not improve. The other remaining short stack, Gladi3, got his shot at a double-up, calling all-in with [Ah][Qh] following a raising war with dejanaceking. Dejanaceking turned over [As][Js] and did not improve, doubling Gladi3 to 10.2 million.

Pocket2Chris lasted only a few more orbits, ultimately shoving for 3.74 million on the button with [Ad][9h]. Gladi3 called with [As][Td] and flopped a ten to take out Pocket2Chris in fourth place.

Can't deal

Their stacks nearly even, our final three agreed to pause the action and discuss a potential deal. A chip count chop awarded Gladi3, dejanaceking and Gerge Jung $83.4k, $81.7k, and $78.5k respectively, but dejanaceking wouldn't make a deal for less than a $90,000 guaranteed payday. Gladi3 and Gerge Jung weren't willing to give up anything from their shares and with negotiations at a standstill, cards went back in the air.

Gerge decimates dejan

Gladi3 got the best of Gerge Jung, doubling to 18.3 million when he make a jack-high straight vs. sevens and eights, but Gerge Jung snagged those chips back a few minutes later, his [Ad][Ks] holding up against Gladi3's [Ac][Qc]. Back up to 17.4 million Gerge Jung left dejanaceking on only four big blinds when he turned quads with [8s][Tc]:

Down but certainly not out, dejanaceking doubled to 4.4 million on the next deal when his [4h][6h] flopped a flush draw and turned a pair against Gladi3's [Ad][9s]. Now Gladi3 was the one on the ropes and three hands later, he moved all-in from the small blind for 3.1 million. Dejanaceking called, his [Qc][Jh] leading Gladi3's [6d][9c]. It was all over on the [Kd][Tc][9d] flop, as dejanaceking flopped the nut straight. Gladi3 was out in third place, leaving dejanaceking heads-up with Gerge Jung.

Heads-up chip counts

Seat 4: Gerge Jung (28,511,900 in chips)
Seat 9: dejanaceking (7,078,100 in chips)

Although he was outchipped more than four to one, dejanaceking was not about to go gently. He doubled to 9.85 million when his [As][8c] held against Gerge Jung's [Qh][Jh] and doubled again, this time to 18.1 million when his pocket deuces hung on against [Ad][5s].

Gerge Jung slipped to 15.8 million before getting three streets of value from his pocket nines in this 14.8 million pot:

Dejanaceking rebounded again, doubling to 19.6 million when his [Kc][9s] held against [Kh][8d]. The slugfest resumed, Gerge Jung whittling dejanaceking's stack down to 12.6 million before a final coinflip decided this heads-up match. All the money went in preflop, Gerge Jung's [Ad][Js] needing to improve against dejanaceking's [6s][6c]. An ace on the flop did it, the board running out [As][3s][2c][4h][7c] to lock up Gerge Jung's Sunday Warm-Up win.

Congratulations to Gerge Jung on a hard-fought win. He earned $111,753.77 while runner-up dejanaceking banked $83,280.60.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results for 1-20-2013

Players: 3,559
Prizepool: $711,800
Places paid: 540

1. Gerge Jung (Russia) $111,753.77
2. Dejan "dejanaceking" Divkovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) $83,280.60
3. Gladi3 (Austria) $58,723.50
4. Pocket2Chris (Germany) $40,928.50
5. Hope_Flooky (Germany) $30,251.50
6. oncommand (Mexico) $23,133.50
7. A. Tricarico (Belgium) $16,015.50
8. aces1096 (Canada) $8,897.50
9. Askerr (Poland) $5,694.40

Kristin Bihr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.