With the continuously growing popularity of Omaha as a player's game of choice, variations on the game are becoming more standard as well. Combine those PLO desires with a general interest in short-handed play, and we present Event 35. And putting PLO action together with the faster pace of four-max tables and the turbo structure of five-minute levels was sure to pique interest.

It all came together nicely. The $50 + $5 buy-in with a $75K guarantee resulted in these numbers:

Players: 2,414
Prize pool: $120,700.00
Paid players: 320

Players busted rapidly through the first 1.5 hours of the tournament, and the money bubble approached about 10 minutes later. Hand-for-hand play resulted in a few minutes of tension before the elimination of as1025 in 321st place. SoteriaDos was the first player to cash for $90.52, and the field thinned drastically from there.

The group of Team PokerStars Pros in this event didn't fare so well. In fact, only one of them made it into the top 1,000 and cruised through the money to the top 100. In fact, Team Pro Alex Kravchenko moved into the top 50, then the top 30.

Finally, in the process of trying to climb further, Kravchenko was eliminated in 26th place, which was worth $633.67.

Just past the three-hour mark, five tables turned to three in the blink of an eye (or about 15 minutes, truth be told). As the 3.5-hour hit, there were six players, but that was quick to change. On Table 232, ALEX VDV pushed all-in with [Ac][8s][7d][2h] against the [Ad][Qh][Qs][6h] of TeHKai. The board came [5h][Jd][Qc][Th][6s] and left ALEXVDV out in sixth place with $3,621.00.

At the same time on Table 424, halifax and meamemet got into a preflop raising war that ended with halifax calling all-in with [AD][Qh][Qd][2s]. Meamemet showed [Qc][6s][7c][8c] and accumulated two pair on the [Ah][Th][6d][5c][7d] board. Halifax departed in fifth place for a $3,621.00 payout.

Meamemet meets final table in chip lead

The final table was set in Level 39, with blinds of 80,000/16,000. Players starting stacks were listed as follows:

Seat 1: meamemet (4,937,301 in chips)
Seat 2: TeHKai (1,909,246 in chips)
Seat 3: moonwatch79 (1,995,654 in chips)
Seat 4: Sisnleicht? (3,227,799 in chips)

Only a few hands into the action, moonwatch79 moved all-in after an initial raise from TeHKai. Moonwatch79 showed [As][Qd][5d][2h], but TeKHai had [Ac][Ad][9h][4h]. The board of [6h][Kc][7c][Jc][Qc] only gave moonwatch79 a pair of queens, which wasn't good enough for the double-up. Fourth place and $4,984.91 went to moonwatch79.

Sisnleicht? surges

Sisnleicht? then made a move against meamemet and scored a big double to take the lead:

Several hands later, a number of preflop raises and reraises prompted TeHKai to move all-in with [Ah][Ad][3c][2h]. Sisnleicht? called with [Qh][Tc][8c][8d]. The flop of [4s][9s][As] gave TeHKai the three aces, but the [Td][Jd] to round out the board made a straight for Sisnleicht?. TeHKai was out in third place with $6,940.25.

A pair of heads-up hands

The final two players started with these counts:

Seat 1: meamemet (3,129,502 in chips)
Seat 4: Sisnleicht? (8,940,498 in chips)

On the first hand, Sisnleicht? raised to 400K, and meamemet folded.

The second hand started with a raise from meamemet and call from Sisnleicht? to see a [2s][4c][7c] flop. Sisnleicht? checked, but meamemet bet and Sisnleicht? raised. Meamemet responded by moving all-in with [Jh][Ts][9s][4h], and Sisnleicht? called with [8d][6d][5c][2c]. That flush draw hit on the [Tc] turn, and the [Qc] on the river only made it a higher flush. Meamemet had to depart in second place with $10,561.25.

Sisnleicht? of Austria claimed the TCOOP title and $17,803.87 in cash. Congrats!

TCOOP Event 35 ($55 PLO 4-Max) Results:

1st place: Sisnleicht? ($17,803.87)
2nd place: meamemet ($10,561.25)
3rd place: TeHKai ($6,940.25)
4th place: moonwatch79 ($4,984.91)

There a few days left to get in on the TCOOP action. Check out the main page for updates, leaderboard information, and a full schedule of events.

2,459 players came out for Event #34, 986 of them taking advantage of the second-chance single rebuy. 324 players earned a share of the $689,000 prize pool with first place set to earn $110,240.00. Fifteen Red Spades were in the field, with Team Online's Bjorn "Bjoerni89" Schneider (266th) and Team Pro's Alex Kravchenko (235th) notching cash finishes.

With ten players remaining, chip leader WorDn shoved all-in from under-the gun with [Ad][Jh] and Sirocko called off his remaining 1.98 million with [9h][9c]. Although the nines held up through the turn, the [Ah] spiked on the river to make WorDn top pair, Sirocko's elimination sending us to the nine-handed final table.

Final table chip counts:

Seat 1: mcfaroe (3,227,566 in chips)
Seat 2: Starsky25 (1,097,126 in chips)
Seat 3: badboypony (472,771 in chips)
Seat 4: GALATON (951,344 in chips)
Seat 5: yor77 (433,088 in chips)
Seat 6: OBVAMENTS (1,874,694 in chips)
Seat 7: Tae Joon Noh (559,652 in chips)
Seat 8: WorDn (6,111,979 in chips)
Seat 9: mcnallyville (2,496,780 in chips)

Rivered!

The final table's first hand resulted in its first elimination. With the blinds up to 70,000/140,000, mcfaroe opened for 420,000 in the cutoff and GALATON three-bet shoved for his remaining 933,844. Although mcfaroe's [Qs][4s] was well behind GALATON's pocket tens, a queen on the river sent him to the rail in ninth place.

Starsky25 was the next to go, after open-shoving for 974,626 with pocket fives. OBVAMENTS called with [Kd][Js] in the big blind and for the third consecutive elimination, the river card did the deed, the [Jc] falling to send the pot to OBVAMENTS. For eighth place, Starsky25 took home $9,990.50.

The next deal of the cards had Tae Joon Noh all-in for his last 97,000 in the big blind. Although he showed down the best hand ([Ah][7s] against mcfaroe's [Qs][Ts]) and had his opponent down to seven outs on the river, (the [Kc][8h][9h][2h] board gave him the nut flush draw along with his ace-high), "RiverStars" struck again, the [Qc] falling to eliminate Noh in seventh place ($16,880.50).

Extreme short stackaments

With the final table down to six, OBVAMENTS broached the subject of a deal. However, some of the larger stacks weren't quite ready to run numbers, seeing as two players were hanging on with the smallest of stacks; badboypony held only 350,000 and yor77 had 411,000 with the blinds up to 125,000/250,000.

Although badboypony and yor77 scored a double-up apiece to hang on just a bit longer, the latter ended up falling to OBVAMENTS in a blind-vs-blind hand. Yor77 found [Ad][Th] and moved in for 1.1 million from the small blind only to have OBVAMENTS wake up with [Qc][Qh] in the big. No lucky rivers here, the jack-high board sealing yor77's elimination in sixth place. A few hands later, more than half of badboypony's chips were committed in the big blind. Mcfaroe min-raised from the small blind with [5s][5h], badboypony tossing his case 169k with [Ks][Ts]. The pocket pair held and badboypony rode off into the sunset in fifth place, collecting $31,005.00.

Mcnallyville was the only short stack remaining at this point and although he doubled through OBVAMENTS with pocket eights against [Ac][6s], those chips ended up in WorDn's stack a few hands later. WorDn open-shoved from the small blind with [Ks][4d] and mcnallyville called with [Ac][Js]. WorDn hit a four on the flop and mcnallyville couldn't catch up, the board running out [4h][2h][2s][Qc][Td] to send him home in fourth place.

The blinds rose to 150,000/300,000, leaving OBVAMENTS with less than nine big blinds. OBVAMENTS doubled through mcfaroe when his [8h][8s] held against [2c][2h], taking his stack up to 5.6 million while mcfaroe was left with only 2 million. The last of mcfaroe's stack went in the middle six hands later, his [Js][Td] trailing OBVAMENTS' [Kd][Qs]. A king hit the flop and another came on the turn, ending mcfaroe's run in third place. He earned $58,565.00 for his finish.

Heads-up chip counts:

Seat 6: OBVAMENTS (8,080,856 in chips)
Seat 8: WorDn (9,144,144 in chips)

OBVAMENTS finally got his wish when WorDn agreed to pause the action in order to discuss a deal. They quickly agreed to an even split of the remaining prize pool, leaving $8,000 in play for the winner.

With each player sporting a 21 big blind stack, it was a quick match. Although OBVAMENTS chipped up to 10.2 million after the first few hands, WorDn scored a double-up when his [Qc][Kc] flopped top pair against OBVAMENTS' [Ah][Th]. OBVAMENTS' last ten big blinds went in a few hands later with [Jd][8c] and WorDn called with [Ah][5c], an ace hitting the turn to seal the deal:

Congrats to WorDn on winning a TCOOP title and $100,373.88! For his runner-up finish, OBVAMENTS banked $92,373.87.

2012 TCOOP Event #34 ($215 NLHE 2x-Chance) results:

1. WorDn (Germany) $100,373.88*
2. OBVAMENTS (Mexico) $92,373.87*
3. mcfaroe (Faroe Islands) $58,565.00
4. mcnallyville (Mexico) $41,340.00
5. badboypony (Sweden) $31,005.00
6. yor77 (Netherlands) $23,770.50
7. Tae Joon Noh (South Korea) $16,880.50
8. Starsky25 (Canada) $9,990.50
9. GALATON (Russia) $6,201.00

*= reflects the result of a two-way deal that left $8,000 in play for the winner

Only three days remain before TCOOP comes to a close. Do you have your Main Event ticket yet? Head over to the TCOOP page for a full schedule and satellite information.

Accelerate the pace of the game by spreading it as a turbo-style tourney, however, and the duration of such suffering becomes reduced considerably. And so, in let's-get-this-over-with fashion, TCOOP Event #33 ($33 razz) came and went in a flash. Before the crying could go on too long.

A total of 2,178 players put up the $33 entry fee for Event #33, making for a total prize pool of $65,340 and once again topping another TCOOP guarantee (this one $50K). The top 288 finishers divided the dough, with $11,222.69 due the winner.

It would take just under two hours for the cash bubble to burst, with none of the half-dozen or so representatives of Team PokerStars who participated having made the money. The closest misses were Anders "Donald" Berg (Team Online) who finished 388th and Team Pro Martin Staszko who was eliminated in 354th.

At the two-hour break there were 280 players left, with giRL90ihqdaa, JD9712, and as1025 atop the leaderboard.

As the stakes continued to rise swiftly every five minutes, the field shrunk dramatically over the next hour, whittling down to just 20 players. By that point wintyara had collected enough bets to take the lead with over 2.33 million, followed by mire (1.84 million) and Nakkehai (1.13 million).

It would then require less than 10 minutes for them to reach the final table. As it happened, eliminations happening almost simultaneously at the last two tables meant that only seven players would be left when the first final table hand was dealt.

Over at the five-handed table, a short-stacked sateboy was all in by third street against Madhouse77 and soon was eliminated in ninth ($490.05) Meanwhile at the four-handed table, it was Nakkehai claiming the last of ahustler147's chips to send the latter out in eighth ($653.40).

With just seven left, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: Nakkehai -- 1,306,463
Seat 2: wintyara -- 3,230,172
Seat 3: heniek31 -- 1,364,184
Seat 4: empty
Seat 5: JD9712 -- 710,180
Seat 6: gandolo -- 815,248
Seat 7: imre -- 2,488,256
Seat 8: Madhouse77 -- 975,497

The stakes were already 120,000/240,000 (Level 35) by the time the final table began, meaning even the leaders didn't have too many big bets with which to battle.

It took just five hands for the next elimination. On third, gandolo raised with a [7] showing and Madhouse77 made it two bets with an [A]. It folded back and gandolo called. Both checked fourth, then gandolo led fifth with [7][T][5] showing and Madhouse77 called with [A][J][3] up. Madhouse77 drew an [8] on sixth while gandolo picked up a pairing [T], and when Madhouse77 bet gandolo raised for the last of his stack, getting a call.

Madhouse showed [7][4] / [A][J][3][8] to gandolo's [2][6] / [7][T][5][T]. Madhouse77 drew a [4] on seventh while gandolo got a [7] -- pairing cards for both -- meaning Madhouse77's 8-7-4-3-A was best and gandolo was out in seventh.

The next knockout happened moments later. wintyara had pushed over 4 million, and started pushing the action, too, after calling heniek31's raise on third, betting out on the next three streets and getting called by heniek31 until the latter was all in. wintyara showed [7][2] / [8][A][2][4] and heniek31 [2][A] / [6][J][3][9], and after both were dealt jacks on seventh it was wintyara's 8-7-4-2-A beating heniek31's 9-6-3-2-A to reduce the field to five.

Just two hands later the stakes were 200,000/400,000 when a series of third-street raises saw Nakkehai all in versus JD9712 and imre. JD9712 then bet fourth and was called, then raised all in after imre bet fifth.

JD9712: [8][2] / [A][4][7]
imre: [5][2][ / [4][2][3]
Nakkehai: [5][A] / [3][Q][2]

Decent draws all around. Didn't work out so well for Nakkehai, though, who ended up getting another [Q] and a [T] to be knocked out in fifth place. imre picked up a [9] and [4] to wind up with a 9-low, while JD9712 drew a [6] and [8] for a 7-6-4-2-A and survival.

Just two hands after that, imre and Madhouse77 bet back and forth until imre was all in on third street, and when all of the cards were dealt imre had [7][J] / [6][8][2][2] / [K] for a jack-low, not enough against the 8-low of Madhouse77's [8][9] / [4][7][3][T] / [5], meaning imre was out in fourth.

The remaining trio played a few hands before having the tourney paused to talk about making a deal. By then wintyara led with 4,378,356, JD9712 was next with 3,803,183, and Madhouse77 third with 2,708,461.

The three agreed to terms in short order, leaving $1,000 on the table for which to play. "Well done gentlemen," typed JD9712 to his opponents. "You were by far my toughest opponents." Good luck wishes were exchanged, and soon cards were being dealt once more.

After about 10 minutes wintyara had increased his lead, pushing out over 6.54 million to Madhouse77's 2.59 million and JD9712's 1.75 million.

Then, with the stakes 300,000/600,000 (Level 39), wintyara and Madhouse77 would each put the maximum four bets in on both third and fourth streets, plus enough to get the last of Madhouse77's chips in on fifth.

A snapshot at that moment:

wintyara: [4][5] / [6][3][6]
Madhouse77: [5][4] / [7][9][2]

And then another seconds later:

wintyara: [4][5] / [6][3][6][J] / [A] -- 6-5-4-3-A
Madhouse77: [5][4] / [7][9][2][2] / [J] -- 9-7-5-4-2

Madhouse77 was out in third.

Heads-up play began with wintyara the massive leader with 9,284,317 to JD9712's 1,605,683. JD9712 would chip back some over the next 15 hands, but was still way behind with just 2.57 million to wintyara's 8.31 million when the final hand took place.

The stakes now 400,000/800,000 (Level 40), the pair put three bets each in on third, then three plus a little more in on fourth to get JD9712 all in. wintyara had [9][2] / [5][7] and JD9712 [6][8] / [4][T].

wintyara would pick up a [4] and then two queens to make 9-7-5-4-2, and that would prove enough as JD9712 drew [8][A][Q] to end with a T-8-6-4-A. Take a look:

Congratulations to wintyara for winning Event #33 and the TCOOP title, besting a field of 2,178 in a quick -- and hopefully mostly pain-free -- three hours and 43 minutes!

TCOOP Event #33 Results ($33 Razz) (*reflects three-way deal):
1st: wintyara ($9,517.86)*
2nd: JD9712 ($8,214.33)*
3rd: Madhouse77 ($7,636.61)*
4th: imre ($4,573.80)
5th: Nakkehai ($3,267)
6th: heniek31 ($1,960.20)
7th: gandolo ($1,360.80)
8th: ahustler147 ($653.40)

A few more days of TCOOPin' remain. Check that Turbo Championship of Online Poker site for information about remaining events and satellites.

No surprise, then, that things got off to such a roaring start in Event 32. More than 8,500 players were registered as the tournament began - and within the confines of the first blind level, there had already been more than 4,300 rebuys. By the time Level 4 rolled around the guarantee had already been broken - and with another 70 minutes of rebuys and late registration still available, no less. If this tournament were the new kid in an 80s teen movie, it would have been hanging out with the jocks and cheerleaders. By the end of late registration the total numbers had swelled to 16,951 entries with 60,638 rebuys and 8,494 add-ons, building a stunning total prize pool of $429,065. That would be split up among the top 2,250 finishers, with $50,195 set aside for the winner.

Team Online only had one player cash in Event 32, but it was a good run for Kristian "CharismA3" Martin (155th place, $210.24). Team PokerStars Pro fared a bit better, collecting decent cashes from Martin Staszko (175th, $201.66) and Henrique Pinho (592nd, $120.13) - and a far better result from Alex Kravchenko. He had the good fortune on Level 43 (100K/200K/25K) to pick up pocket queens with a player all-in in front of him; he called and was up against [As] [2d], which he easily dispatched to move up to 7.34 million chips. From there he used his stack as leverage to pick up pots uncontested and move up to more than 12.4 million chips, good enough to rank him 2nd in the field with 125 players remaining.

Run, Alex, run

The former WSOP Main Event final tablist then focused on maintaining his stack before being moved as the field shrank to its final 7 tables. On Level 49 (400K/800K/100K) Kravchenko held 10.5 million chips. And unlike on his previous table, he wasn't the big stack: there were three players with enough leverage to potentially eliminate him, including one on either side of him. The chip stacks around the table tended to flatten as the blinds continued to rise over the next two levels; with the occasional short stack falling aside, most of the players held steady in the 5-to-10-million range. Kravchenko was slipping, holding just 6 big blinds on Level 52 (700K/1.4M/175K), when he picked off BentBetjent's [Ah] [8h] with [Ac] [Js], for a 13.4-million-chip pot that took the field down to just 32 players.

Now, as the tournament's fifth break ended, most of the table had Kravchenko and his 19th-ranked stack of 12.07 million chips covered. The good news was that the chip lead - currently held by India's Donkab0mber with 34.4 million - was less than two double-ups away. Soon, though, that lead would recede a bit further when Kravchenko's neighbor, Romania's i.love.ri, scored on this hand:

i.love.ri picked up [Kc] [Kd] two hands later and knocked out the United Kingdom's SpoS Im GoOd, who over-shoved with [Ad] [Td], to move all the way up to 66.5 million chips. Kravchenko, meanwhile, seemingly couldn't pick up a hand. With blinds all the way up to 1M/2M with 250K antes, he finally saw the action fold to him on the button and shoved for 4.32 million with [As] [7d]. Lex West called from the big blind with [Kh] [Qd], hit one king on the flop, and hit another on the river to end Alex Kravchenko's run in 19th place ($793.77).

The show must go on

Lex West would vault into the lead not long afterward at the expense of i.love.ri in an 81-million-chip pot, shoving over the top of i.love.ri's raise to 5 million with [Ah] [Ks] and getting called by [Ac] [Ts]. i.love.ri managed to keep pace, though, picking up a few smaller pots before knocking sia76 out in 16th place ($879.58) with pocket eights against [Ad] [Jh] to retake the lead with 76.18 million chips. The final table bubble eventually popped on this hand:

With that there was just one table remaining, playing on Level 58 (2.5M/5M/625K). The final nine players were:

Seat 1: coach0783 (37,477,920 in chips)
Seat 2: DarrenStyles (70,715,664 in chips)
Seat 3: Lex West (59,312,316 in chips)
Seat 4: PiRaToS14 (33,721,674 in chips)
Seat 5: Pipo0705 (10,938,018 in chips)
Seat 6: olehan (81,055,294 in chips)
Seat 7: Jinky6677 (22,067,228 in chips)
Seat 8: LEAO66 (45,984,776 in chips)
Seat 9: i.love.ri (125,504,110 in chips)

Both Germany's Pipo0705 and Finland's PiRaToS14 managed to double up in the first orbit. Pipo0705 suggested a deal but there were no takers, and just one orbit later the German player would be the first eliminated from the table after shoving from the cutoff with [Ac] [8s]. Canada's Jinky6677 called with [Ad] [Js], which paired on the flop and held through the river to send Pipo0705 out in 9th place ($2,574.39).

The i.love.ri wrecking ball claimed another victim on the very next hand. The Romanian player called with [Ad] [3h] after the short-stacked coach0783 had moved in for 17.3 million chips with [Kd] [Js]. The board was no help to either player and coach0783 left in 8th place ($3,861.58). With the addition of two of the next three pots - each worth at least 63 million chips and taken down uncontested on the flop - i.love.ri had moved up to 210 million chips.

That, along with the 4M/8M blinds and 1M antes, meant the rest of the table had to do everything they could to keep pace. Germany's olehan was the first to step up, calling in the big blind with [Kh] [Tc] after Lex West shoved for 28.81 million holding [Jd] [8s]. The board was all blanks and Lex West left in 7th place ($7,294.10). The chip leader then went back to work on this hand:

That sent DarrenStyles out in 6th place ($10,726.62). He was followed five hands later by PiRaToS14, who was crippled with [Ah] [Js] against olehan's [9d] [9h] before being knocked out by Portugal's LEAO66. PiRaToS14 finished 5th for $15,017.27.

Four players enter, one player leaves

That left just four competitors, stacked like so:

Seat 6: olehan (135,163,732 in chips)
Seat 7: Jinky6677 (33,385,492 in chips)
Seat 8: LEAO66 (100,626,756 in chips)
Seat 9: i.love.ri (217,601,020 in chips)

Jinky6677 managed to double through olehan with pocket kings against [As] [6s], stacking up to 77 million chips with blinds at 6M/12M. Then the i.love.ri express continued to roll after LEAO66 shoved from the small blind with [As] [7s]; i.love.ri called with [2c] [2h], which held up through a board of [Qh] [8h] [Qd] [Th] [4h] to bust LEAO66 in 4th place. Only six hands later came this hand, which set i.love.ri up with a big lead for heads-up play:

Despite one double-up on the first hand of heads-up play, the uphill climb would prove to be too much for olehan. On the third hand, i.love.ri opened for 36 million on the button with [Kh] [Qh] and called when olehan moved in for 83 million with [Qc] [4c]. olehan never got close as the board ran out [Ac] [5d] [8d] [Qs] [Kd], shipping the final pot - and this TCOOP championship - to i.love.ri.

TCOOP Event 32 $5.50+R No-Limit Hold'em (3x-Turbo)
16,951 entrants, 60,638 rebuys, 8,494 add-ons
$429,065 prize pool

1st place - i.love.ri (Romania) - $50,195.55
2nd place - olehan (Germany) - $36,470.52
3rd place - Jinky6677 (Canada) - $27,889.22
4th place - LEAO66 (Portugal) - $19,307.92
5th place - PiRaToS14 (Finland) - $15,017.27
6th place - DarrenStyles (Sweden) - $10,726.62
7th place - Lex West (Netherlands) - $7,294.10
8th place - coach0783 (Belgium) - $3,861.58
9th place - Pipo0705 (Germany) - $2,574.39

At 7 hours and 47 minutes this event lasted a bit longer than the average TCOOP event so far - and for the winner it was less than a regular day's work for 50 grand. There's plenty more turbo goodness where this event came from, though your time for participating is beginning to run low. Check out the full TCOOP schedule for the scoop on how you can grab your piece of the pie.

PokerStars kicked off the tournament series in style with the $100,000 Super High Roller. The action was intense and there were even two re-buys; one by businessman and Big Game regular Bill Perkins, the other by Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel. It worked out for Duhamel because he ended up in the top five that cashed. He also ended up having an incredible PCA in general, but, more on that in a bit.

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu and last year's Main Event champion Galen Hall also cashed this huge event. Heads-up play ended up being Dan Shak against Team PokerStars Pro Viktor 'Isuldir1' Blom. Blom shipped the first-place prize of $1,254,000. Prior to this win, Blom had never appeared in a video interview before. However, in light of this huge live victory, he finally spoke.

Blom really proved that he has a presence in the live tournament circuit. And I finally got a better glance at what it is like to grind online. PokerStars Team Online's Randy Lew set up a grind station right by the media row and proceeded to set a Guinness World Record. He played almost 24,000 hands in eight hours and made a profit. It was insane to watch. He NEVER stood up in the entire eight hours.

Of Course the Main Event attracted a huge field of 1,072 players. Like bees to honey, poker players love the PCA. The final table ended up with quite a few online players. But, the winner was day trader John Dibella.

Meanwhile Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel was leading the way in the $25,000 dollar High Roller. He played five events and final tabled four of them! And he shipped one of the $5,000 side events. He ended up besting the incredible High Roller field to get heads-up with Russian player Leonid Bilokur. Bilokur took down the event. But it was definitely a profitable trip for the 2010 WSOP Main Event winner.

Needless to say, even though I didn't get too much time in the sun, I had a ball. I treasure the opportunity to spend some quality time with the best players in the world. Hopefully next year, I get to go to the party!

We asked Lewis to answer a few questions for us about his recent success. Here's what he had to say.

***

PokerStars Blog: For those people who don't know you yet, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Toby Lewis: I'm 22 years old, and was brought up in Southampton, England. I've been living in London for about three years now and love it. There's so much to do each day. I'm quite simple. I love playing sport and competitive games and have realized now that time away from poker is very much needed to sustain playing well and a good lifestyle.

PokerStars Blog: We've met a lot of poker players over the years. More often than not, there is something about them that is a lot more interesting than their poker game. What is that thing about you?

Toby Lewis: I haven't come from a money background, so I think I really appreciate the opportunities I've been giving by poker. I think I have a lot of knowledge and experience gained by visiting so many different places and cultures whilst only being 22.

PokerStars Blog: After such big wins in your past, what does your TCOOP championship mean to you?

Toby Lewis: My TCOOP win is great. I've been grinding MTTs for a couple of years now with good success, but never won a SCOOP, WCOOP or TCOOP. It's great to knock this one off the list. I never considered winning a 12k runner turbo. But whilst playing a bunch of other tourneys at the same time, I didn't notice it until I won a massive pot at the time and got to 1.7 million. So, I made it bigger on my screen and focused more thoroughly on that.

PokerStars Blog: We know you're a fulltime pro. How did that come to be?

Toby Lewis: Poker is my full time job and has been for nearly four years now. Hopefully I don't have to consider anything else anytime soon. I've been playing for about six years and signed up for PokerStars in early 2008. I've been fortunate to have a EPT title from Vilamoura in 2010 for €480,000. My biggest online score is $170,000 from the 2011 $10,000 SCOOP Main Event (6th place).

PokerStars Blog: How did you come to start playing in the first place?

Toby Lewis: I learned poker through playing, watching on TV, chatting with friends about strategy, etc. Some of them were more influential than others, but there's still far to many to name. I would say the best learning tool is just playing and learning how to deal with different situations that arise.

PokerStars Blog: TCOOP's format is, by definition really fast. In your normal life, do you like things fast or more slow-paced?

Toby Lewis: Slow paced. Definitely. I'm a pretty chilled-out person, although I do like to keep busy doing different things each day.

PokerStars Blog: Why did TCOOP appeal to you?

Toby Lewis: TCOOP appealed to me for various reasons. I'm not the biggest fan of turbo tourneys as a rule, but I think this series brings a lot of runners and a lot of value. It also brings more players to the other MTT's which is helpful.

PokerStars Blog: Talk a little bit about your goals for the future.

Toby Lewis: I'm constantly setting new goals for my game. Lately I've been focusing on thinking better through hands and not just auto-pilioting as I've found myself doing this at the end of last year. Another key is preparation for a session. If it's live, preparation is having breakfast, reading the news, or going for a workout (the latter is hopeful usually). Online, it's the same really, just later in the day. So, I make sure I've done everything during the day and there's nothing to distract me whilst grinding in the evening.

PokerStars Blog: Have you had any change in philosophy that's helped your game?

Toby Lewis: A good friend of mine told me to keep it simple and think methodically, which is very true from my experience. Keep a clear head, and you can't blame yourself when the cards don't fall your way.

PokerStars Blog: Finally, the screen name. Where did that come from?

Toby Lewis: The name "810ofclubs" was just my favorite hand at the time. I've had some awful screen names on other sites which I won't disclose. Aces is now my favorite hand, funny enough

PokerStars announced this morning that, just a couple of months after awarding big money for the 72 billionth hand, it will once again hand out milestone prizes during the celebration of its 75 billionth hand.

Sometime within the next couple of weeks, the 75 billionth poker hand will come out of PokerStars virtual dealer. PokerStars has set aside a million bucks as part of the promotion. Every millionth hand between 74,700,000,000 and 75,000,000,000, someone will walk away with some extra cash. Whoever wins the 75 billionth hand will pick up at least $20,000.

This is, of course, not the first time something like this has happened. After realizing how much fun it players were having in the big promotions, PokerStars started throwing regular parties for the big hands. The winner of the 70 billionth hand took home more than $70,000. Just a couple of months ago during the 10th Anniversary celebration, the winner picked up $24,300 just for being in the right place with the right hand at the right time.

The 75 billion celebration milestone hands should start hitting within just a few days. Keep a close eye on the PokerStars lobby to see how close the next big hand is.

In the meantime, check out the Road to 100 Billion page for full details on how the promotion works and how you can win big money.

See you at the next rest stop on the Road to 100 Billion!

Such is the popularity of the ESPT that 220 players turned up to play yesterday's Day 1A, a bumper field that was whittled down to 110 by play's end, when the Russian Denis Vasiliev was on top with 90,000, a stack that could have been as high as 120,000 were it not for a last-minute hiccup. Ruben Velasco is right behind him with 87,500 chips.

Also through safely to Day 2 of this €1,000 + €100 tournament are Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor and Friend of PokerStars Poli Rincon, the former football star, both with around 40,000.

I'm not sure how good your Spanish reading skills are, but if they are better than mine, then you can dive in to full live coverage of this event, which restarts at 2pm local time today, over on our sister Spanish PokerStars Blog, where Ivan Marti is writing so much he is in danger of setting his laptop on fire.

And for more info on the tour, see the Estrellas Poker Tour website.

Here is the full end-of-Day 1A chip count:

Denis Vasiliev Russian Federation 90000
Ruben Velasco Merino Spain 87400
Enrique Valle Lledosa Spain 85000
Mikel Allende Diaz PokerStars Player Spain 79800
Tamas Konya Hungary 65900
Luis Rodriguez Cruz PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 63800
Alexander Billy Stevic Sweden 58900
Dara O´Kearney Ireland 52700
Joaquin Serrano Cano Spain 52500
Pierre Mothes PokerStars Qualifiers Letonia 51700
Mario Muro Lacasa PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 51400
Andrey Gatilov PokerStars Qualifiers Russian Federation 51300
Miguel Arraco Serna PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 51200
Mantas Visockis PokerStars Qualifiers Lithunia 50100
Angel Calderon Romero Spain 50100
Javier Torrado Lindo PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 49000
Oscar Blanco Carrasco Spain 48500
Jonathan Sanchez Spain 46000
Elias Gutierrez Hernandez Spain 45300
Oscar Antonio Romero Martinez Spain 44000
Raul Molano Gil Spain 43000
Jose Obadia Chocron Spain 42500
Emilio Puigdellivol Abad PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 42000
Josuha Charles Hart United Kingdom 41600
Roy Vink PokerStars Qualifiers Netherlands 41200
Alexey Mironenkov PokerStars Qualifiers Russian Federation 40500
Juan Manuel Pastor Spain 39500
Samuel Bernabeu Guilabert PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 39200
Poli Rincon Spain 38300
Francisco Alvarez San Jose Spain 38100
Mihails Morozovs Lithunia 37800
Carlos Payo Diez PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 37800
Ruben Sanchez Cebollada Spain 37200
Alfonso Saiz Lopez Spain 37100
Gerardo Segui De La Paz Spain 36900
Roman Dolgorukov Russian Federation 36400
Eustaquio Imbernon Orenes PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 34500
Luis Hornero Sanchez Spain 34400
Carlos Gabriel Palaincini Lopez Mexico 34300
Andoni Larrabe Sanchez Spain 33700
Jose Luis Puente Oña PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 33700
Steve Enriquez Gallo Spain 33000
Ivan Martin Carballo PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 32800
Iulian Enache Romania 32400
Marco Antonio Rivas Nuðez Spain 31800
Manuel Martinez Solsona Spain 31800
Fernando Seror Garcia Spain 30900
Jose Manuel Perez Roman Spain 29500
Roberto Garcia Santiago Spain 28700
Ricardo Vilariño Gestal Spain 27900
Jose Luis Garcia Devesa PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 27500
Pablo Fernandez-Baldor Spain 26800
Francisco Jose Lopez Romero PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 26800
Jaime Closas Martinez PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 25800
Pawel Brzeski Poland 25700
Georgios Papadopoulos Sweden 25600
Ronan Arthur PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 25500
Ricardo Berzal Fernandez Spain 24800
Isidoro Barreña Diaz Spain 24700
Dimache Diulica Romania 23800
Manuel Cuberos Lopez-Cozar Spain 23700
Daniel Tejedor Moya PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 23600
Cesar Garcia Dominguez Spain 23500
Priit Brikker PokerStars Qualifiers Estonia 23400
Rodrigo Espinosa Gonzalez Spain 23300
Martin Damian Wainstein Berestovoy Argentina 23200
Manon Veldhuizen PokerStars Qualifiers Netherlands 23000
Mª Jesus Martinez Tejero Spain 22600
Alvaro Ballesteros Spain 22600
Theodor Lothman Sweden 22500
Ashley John Squirrell PokerStars Qualifiers United Kingdom 22100
Arturo Sabugal Alvarez Cascos Spain 22000
Antonio Calderon Catedra PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 21900
Jose Luis Rujas Gil Spain 21700
Justas Semaska Lithunia 21300
Mateusz Matla PokerStars Qualifiers United Kingdom 21000
He Jiang PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 20800
Francisco Salvador PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 20500
Jose Carlos Perez Torres Spain 20400
Josu Muro Motrico Spain 20100
Rafael Canoira Amador Spain 20000
Matthias Frost PokerStars Qualifiers Germany 18700
Angel Peñalver Hernandez Spain 18700
Ivan Santos Benavides PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 18300
Arpad Kovecses Hungary 18000
Luis Martinez Sidrach De Cardona PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 17600
Miguel Enseñat Matamalas PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 17400
Pentek Zsolt Hungary 15900
Vincas Tamasauskas PokerStars Qualifiers Lithunia 15700
Tim Bettingen PokerStars Qualifiers Germany 14600
Tim Davie PokerStars Qualifiers United Kingdom 14000
Martin Clemmensen PokerStars Qualifiers Denmark 13300
Vytautas Semaska PokerStars Qualifiers Lithunia 13200
Fabian Deimann PokerStars Qualifiers Germany 13100
Oleg Poluzhnikov PokerStars Qualifiers Russian Federation 12800
Hannes Krebs PokerStars Qualifiers Germany 11700
Chris Jensen Denmark 10900
Ramon Ortigosa Ruiz PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 9500
Vicente Delgado Zamorano PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 9400
David Rodriguez Lamas Spain 7600
Juan Jose Altuzarra Amutio PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 6600
Cesar Garcia Reillo PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 6200
Francisco Marin Pedreño PokerStars Qualifiers Spain 6000
Juan Manuel Campos Hernandez Spain 2200

The salient difference: split, split, and scoop were the mechanics of a Stud Hi/Lo poker tournament where 1st prize was more than $10,000 and where one player's wife demanded that he win the tournament. Which, being a good husband, is exactly what he did.

2012 TCOOP Event 31, $22 Stud Hi-Lo was on the PokerStars menu on Wednesday. It fared slightly better than its $22 Stud counterpart did yesterday in attracting players. 3,119 signed up for Event 31, exactly 82 more than did for Event 26. That turnout meant that once again, the top prize in a TCOOP stud event would reach five figures. Finishing in 1stt place in Event 31 was worth $10,606.46. I'm not mathemagician, but that seems like an exceedingly healthy ROI for a $22 investment.

Exactly 400 of the 3,119 players in Event 31 would receive prize money. Among the vying 3,119 were precisely 10 members of Team PokerStars, Pro and Online. Team Pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki split and scooped his way to 309th place ($38.67); fellow Team Pro Nuno Coelho did slightly better by eking out a 277th-place finish for $39.92.

And then there was Team Pro Andre Akkari. With 40 players left in the tournament, Akkari was leading the charge. Unfortunately he wasn't able to bring it all the way home to the final table. A few quick beats ushered Akkari out the door in 17th place. He earned $233.92 in prize money.

Fifteen minutes after Akkari's elimination, the final table was set:

Seat 1: rl1965 (1581431 in chips)
Seat 2: BeltBuster (758144 in chips)
Seat 3: went24 (714208 in chips)
Seat 4: I travel OZ (2608180 in chips)
Seat 5: kr.GeNa (3526566 in chips)
Seat 6: rxacht (1901476 in chips)
Seat 7: barrakko (3815363 in chips)
Seat 8: Partorg (689632 in chips)

Not "It"

The 300k/600k level was just about over as the final table began. Average chip stacks of 1.9 million ensured that the eliminations would be quick and frequent. The first occurred on the first hand.

went24 started the hand with a pair of split 9s, [qh][9d] / [9s]. I travel OZ had been dealt buried kings. The full house, kings full of fives, that I travel OZ made by the river was overkill; went24 never improved from a pair of 9s for high and didn't make a qualifying low. went24 hit the rail in 8th place.

As Stud Hi-Lo is a split-pot game, an all-in confrontation does not necessarily result in an elimination most of the time. In fact, over the next eight hands, a few different players were all in but got a portion of the pot back by the river. That changed when rl1965 was dealt three babies, [8s][7h] / [ac]. With about one-half of a big bet in rl1965's stack, this was an obvious "go" hand. BeltBuster also had three babies, [2c][7s] / [3s]. The race was on and was won by BeltBuster, whose hand improved to a pair of 3s for high and 8-7-6-3-2 for low. rl1965 showed high-card ace and a worse low, 8-7-6-5-A. rl1965 exited in 7th place with $1,185.22.

Within another eight hands, rxacht became the unenviable player in the position of "incredibly short stack who has to move with anything". For rxacht, "anything" was three clubs, [6c][jc] / [7c]. A new competitor stepped to the fore to try to notch the knockout, as barrakko got in there with three small cards, [as][5c] / [6s]. Two pair, aces and fives, won the hand for barrakko as rxacht could only improve to a pair of jacks and no low. rxacht's 6th-place reward was $1,871.40.

A blur of bust-outs

The next three bust-outs staccato. Partorg (5thh place), BeltBuster (4thh place) and I travel OZ (3rdd place) were all eliminated during the 600k / 1.2MM level - in the space of five hands. Partorg was first on the chopping block, as buried kings never improved and failed to hold against barrakko, who drew into a board of [4c][as] / [6d][4h][4d][2h] / [3s], trip 4s for high and a 6-4 for low.

BeltBuster's 4thh-place elimination by kr.GeNa was what most players would describe as "standard". Take a look:

I travel OZ tried to propose a deal with three players left, but before anyone else could agree I travel OZ was eliminated. I travel OZ moved all in on 4thh street holding [9c][3s] / [2h][3h], a pair of 3s. kr.GeNa called with [6d][3c] / [qc][6c], a pair of 6s. Nothing changed for either player by the river. I travel OZ busted in 3rd place.

Split, split, scoop

At the start of heads-up play, limits were up to 600k and 1.2 million. barrakko had seven big bets (8.3 million); Kr.GeNa had six (7.2 million). The last two players paused to the tournament to work out a deal. Chip-chop numbers were very close: $8,895.31 for barrakko, $8,686.75 for Kr.GeNa, and $500 for the champion.

At first it seemed as if barrakko had a change of heart on the deal. "Sorry," he said. "My wife says I have to win this tournament."

But after another minute or two, barrakko agreed to the modified payouts. kr.GeNa also agreed. The deal was in place.

From there it was seven hands to the winner. Twice kr.GeNa was all in; twice each player got half of the pot.

Split, split.

The third time, kr.GeNa was knocked out:

Split, split, scoop.

Congratulations to barrakko on his TCOOP victory. I hope your wife is proud!

2012 TCOOP Event 31 $22 Stud Hi-Lo results (reflects two-way deal):

* 1st: barrakko ($9,395.31)
* 2nd: kr.GeNa ($8,686.75)
3rd: I travel OZ ($5,614.20)
4th: BeltBuster ($4,366.60)
5th: Partorg ($3,119.00)
6th: rxacht ($1,871.40)
7th: rl1965 ($1,185.22)
8th: went24 ($591.36)

If you've got a spouse to impress - or you just like cold, hard cash - there's still plenty of time to get involved in the 2012 TCOOP. Find all the TCOOP information you could possibly want at the TCOOP home page.

Tonight in Paris, the European Poker Awards held its 11th annual awards ceremony and honored two Team PokerStars Pros for their contributions to poker in 2011.

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier took home the Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of 2011. Named after the longtime producer of Late Night Poker, ElkY's honor tonight marked his efforts throughout the year to make the European poker scene a more enjoyable place. Though the award didn't require any big winnings, ElkY's $2,296,620 and Triple Crown win probably didn't hurt him during the judging.

ElkY was not the only member of Team Pro to walk away with an honor tonight. Newcomer Pius Heinz accepted another big award. Awarded to the player "whose win (or even paid place) is considered to be the most prestigious," the Best Tournament Performance was likely an easy vote for the jury this year. Team PokerStars Pro Pius Heinz won $8,715,638 in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2011 and became the first German to ever win the title.

Other 2011 European Poker Award winners included Ilari Sahamies (Online Player of the Year), Andrey Pateychuk (Rookie if the Year), Natalia Nikitina (Europe's Leading Lady), Sam Trickett (Player of the Year), Jesse May (Lifetime Achievement Award), Warren Lush (Staff Person of the Year), and WSOP Cannes (Event of the Year).

Congratulations to ElkY, Pius Heinz, and all the other winners of this year's European Poker Awards.

4,453 players wanted a taste of it and ended up making a staggering 24,589 rebuys at $10 a pop, while 1,921 of them threw in another ten-spot for a super-sized 30,000-chip add-on. $100,000 guarantee? Try a $309,630 prize pool that was set to pay out $47,221.15 to first place. More than a dozen Team PokerStars Pros decided to try their luck in Event #30, but Team Online's Shane "shaniac" Schleger was the only Red Spade to cash, finishing in 286th place.

The money bubble burst after two and a half hours of play and 75 minutes after that, seven players remained. With the blinds up to 1,000,000/2,000,000, the 12.44 million average stack represented only six and a half big blinds. A shove from jonyctt sent us to the final table, his [7s][7c][8h][9s] falling to foyz555's [Kh][Jd][Jh][Th] when a third jack hit the turn.

Final table chip counts:

Seat 1: driedubbel (27,559,220 in chips)
Seat 2: foyz555 (52,909,006 in chips)
Seat 3: Rounder63 (25,918,942 in chips)
Seat 4: sushini2 (18,236,248 in chips)
Seat 5: Tulkaz (11,092,726 in chips)
Seat 6: ok72 (9,039,858 in chips)

Six hands in, the final table's first elimination came in a three-way all-in. Ok72 open-shoved for his last 5.54 million, chip leader foyz555 three-bet to 8.07 million, and Tulkaz shoved for 10.1 million from the big blind. Foyz555 called the additional 2 million and the cards went on their backs.

ok72: [Ah][Th][9d][7c]
foyz555: [Qs][Jc][Jh][5d]
Tulkaz: [Ac][As][4h][2h]

Tulkaz kept his lead when he hit top set on the [Ad][Ts][9h] flop, while ok72 flopped top two pair and foyz555 picked up an open-ended straight draw. The set held up through the turn and river, the [5s] and the [6s] falling to give all 27.2 million in the pot to Tulkaz. Foyz555 took a small hit, but retained the chip lead and ok72 hit the rail in sixth place, earning $5,263.71.

Moments later, the final five agreed to discuss a deal. When the action was paused foyz555 was still in the lead with 35.3 million Rounder63 was right behind him with 33.4 million and driedubbel, Tulkaz, and sushini2 all sported stacks between 24 and 26 million. Within seconds of final table host Tyler "frosty012" Frost posting the chip count chop numbers, everyone agreed to the deal, leaving $2,000 in play for the eventual winner.

From there on out, it was nonstop all-ins. Driedubbel cracked foyz555's [Kc][Ks][8h][4s] with [Kd][Qc][Qd][4c] when the board ran out [Jc][9h][3d][9d][2d]-- driedubbel catching a runner-runner flush. Driedubbel went on to pull the same move when Tulkaz got the rest of his chips in preflop. Despite holding similar hands-- Tulkaz turned over [Ks][Qs][Jh][2h] while driedubbel showed [Kh][Qd][Jd][9s], driedubbel caught running diamonds on the [Qc][5c][2d][7d][4d] board to send Tulkaz home in fifth place. His share of the five-way deal totaled $24,046.24.

That hand made driedubble the dominant chip leader with 69.8 million-- if you could call anything dominant with the blinds up this high. Over then next ten minutes the chip lead changed with nearly every hand and once the blinds rolled up to 2.5M/5M, no player held more than ten big blinds. Table short stack sushini2 decided to go for it after foyz555 opened for 17.5 million from under-the-gun. He called all-in for 6.16 million only to have driedubbel reraise to 50 million, setting foyz555 all-in. Foyz555 called off his remaining 18.3 million, and with more than half the chips in play in this pot, the cards were revealed.

driedubbel: [Ad][As][Qs][2h]
foyz555: [Ah][Kh][Qh][Jh]
sushini2: [9c][5s][4h][2h]

Sushini2 hit bottom two pair on the [7d][5d][4c] flop, snapping off driedubbel's aces for the 25.9M main pot. The [5c] on the turn improved him further to a full house while driedubbel made aces up to lock up the 54.2M side pot. The river was the [Ts] and foyz555 was eliminated in fourth place, while sushini2 tripled up.

Four hands later, sushini2 picked up [Ac][As][9s][4h] and opened for 17.5 million, driedubbel responding with a reraise to 57.5 million. Sushini2 called off his remaining 8.48 million, no doubt delighted to see driedubble's [Kc][Ks][8h][4s]. Although sushini2 kept the lead on the [Tc][8s][7d] flop, the [Kd] spiked on the turn to make driedubbel top set. The river blanked out with the [Jh] and sushini2's run came to an end in third place for a $23,192.04 payday.

Heads-up chip counts:

Seat 1: driedubbel (104,308,084 in chips)
Seat 3: Rounder63 (40,447,916 in chips)

Although driedubbel brought a 2.5 to 1 chip advantage into heads-up play, Rounder63 scored a double-up on the first hand. Driedubbel opened for 15 million holding [Jc][Js][7s][2h], Rounder63 found [Ad][Qs][4h][3h] and shoved for 40.44 million, and driedubbel made the call. Rounder63 flopped a queen, turned an ace, and rivered another queen to make a full house against driedubbel's queens and jacks to move into the chip lead with 80.9 million.

It was all over on the next hand, all the marbles going in preflop before Rounder63 turned the winning two pair:

Congratulations to Rounder63 for snagging the TCOOP title and the largest share of the prizepool at $30,459.69. For his runner-up finish, driedubbel earned $24,237.78.

TCOOP 2012 Event #30 ($11+R PLO 6-Max, 3x-Turbo) results:

1. Rounder63 (Mexico) $30,459.69*
2. driedubbel (Netherlands) $24,237.78*
3. sushini2 (Greece) $23,192.04*
4. foyz555 (United Kingdom) $29,548.10*
5. Tulkaz (Denmark) $24,046.24*
6. ok72 (Turkey) $5,263.71

*= reflects the results of a five-way deal that left an additional $2,000 for the winner

Only 20 TCOOP events remain. Don't miss out! The TCOOP page has all the information you need.

All told the prize pool added up to an even $100,000 for this one (beating the $75K guarantee). Winning the first-round match would get you into the money, assuring at least a $385 payday. Winning two rounds and a seat at the final table meant a minimum cash of $1,400 (10th-place money). But winning one more match would get you the first-prize money as well as one of those coveted TCOOP gold-plated card cappers.

Round 1 (1,000 to 100)

Among the 1,000 competitors were 11 representatives of Team PokerStars, including Johnny Lodden who just a few hours before had turned in an oh-so-close runner-up finish in last night's Super Tuesday to earn a $63,412.50 score. Here's a quick rundown of how the first round went for the PS players:

Ana Marquez -- won, defeating Jamaikaner04 heads-up

Marquez' match was one of the last of the first round to complete, taking about an hour and 20 minutes. Not long after icf043 finally took the last of Twinface82's chips on their table to advance, and the second round was immediately underway.

Round 2 (100 to 10)

The first of the ten second-round matches finished over on Table 5 where AleksZy needed just over an hour to win the table, using [Ad][Kh] to wipe out louve205's [Ks][7h] on the final hand. Moments later it was joszunabot18 taking down Table 4, beating Marcius155 heads-up to win his seat at the final table.

Soon the other tables wrapped up as well. On Table 8, Aaron "JeanGrae" McCready and mumu12345 were close in chips when they got it all in with McCready holding [8d][8s] and mumu12345 pocket aces. An eight flopped, and JeanGrae's hand held to win him the table.

On Table 2 it was P121YAN advancing after outlasting J_Kenish heads-up. Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko managed a sixth-place finish there. twirlpro then took the last of 19Boris73's chips to win Table 7, Mr Negreanu (not that one) knocked out Boartskjepke to take Table 9, and -shameLi- won Table 10 by eliminating Skowronekpro who had early on sent Ana Marquez to the rail in eighth.

Next it was czlol winning Table 1 where Hasn82 finished second and Marcin "Goral" Horecki fifth. wasjaxjey took Table 3, beating out thawright at the end. And finally, about one hour and 20 minutes after the match had begun, in was KOSEC510 advancing at Table 6 after whittling away at ricky17's short stack, then winning the last of the chips with [Ad][Td] over ricky17's pocket deuces when a ten hit the board.

The last of the ten-handed sit-n-gos was ready to go!

Round 3 (10 to 1)

All reverted back to 5,000 chips as the last of the three shootout matches began, the blinds once again starting at 25/50.

They made it all of the way to Level 9 (35/150/300) before the first elimination at the final table, nearly 50 minutes into the match. By then twirlpro had pushed in front with more than 10,000 chips while -shameLi- and P121YAN were sitting on the short stacks with a little over 2,000 each.

It was Mr Negreanu, however, pushing all in from the cutoff for 4,400 and getting a reraise from czlol in the small blind to isolate. Mr Negreanu held [Ac][8h], but czlol had woken up with [As][Kc], and after the [Jd][Qd][Jh][7h][Tc] board they were down to nine.

A couple of hands after that P121YAN would lose most of his chips to fellow short-stack -shameLi- after running [Ac][Jc] into -shameLi-'s [Ad][Kc]. Down to just 611 chips, P121YAN would get them all in with [Kc][9c] versus AleksZy's [Tc][Td], and when the community cards came [8h][4c][3c][9h][Ts], P121YAN became the next to go in ninth.

The match hit the one-hour mark, then came a tourney-changing hand involving three players, -shameLi-, joszunabot18, and twirlpro.

With blinds up to 250/500, -shameLi- raised all in from under the gun for 4,675, joszunabot18 called with the 3,445 he had left, then twirlpro reraised over the top from the small blind to force a fold from JeanGrae. The trio's hands were revealed:

twirlpro: [Th][Ts]
-shameLi-: [Ah][Jh]
joszunabot18: [9d][9h]

The flop came [Ad][5h][4s] to put -shameLi- in front, but the [Tc] turn gave twirlpro a set, and after the [Kc] river the field had been swiftly trimmed by two, with joszunabot18 taking eighth and -shameLi- finishing seventh.

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Three more eliminations rapidly followed, coming on three consecutive hands.

Just three hands after twirlpro's double-knockout the blinds were 300/600 when KOSEC519 raised all in for 2,414 from UTG and saw Aaron "JeanGrae" McCready reraise all in from a couple of seats over. It folded back around and KOSEC510 showed [Ah][Tc] to JeanGrae's [9d][9h]. Five cards later -- [7h][Qd][Jd][Qc][3h] -- they were down to five.

On the very next hand it folded around to AleksZy in the small blind who pushed his short stack of 1,962 in the middle, getting a call from chip leader twirlpro who by then had pushed over 21,000. AleksZy had [Qh][7h] and twirlpro [Ks][5s]. The board brought no pairs for either player, coming [2d][6s][Ac][3s][9d] to send AleksZy out in fifth.

And right after that it was wasjaxjev opening with a 4x raise to 2,400 from UTG, leaving himself just three chips behind. It folded to czlol in the big blind who reraised and wasjaxjev put in those last chips, showing [Ks][Js] to czlol's [As][3h]. The board came [8s][Kd][3d][Ad][8c], giving czlol the better two pair and knocking wasjaxjev out in fourth.

The dust from that rush of activity settled to show twirlpro in front wiht 23,511, JeanGrae next with 14,004, and czlol third with 12,485. Those three would battle for about 15 more hands, then it would take just two hands more to settle TCOOP #29.

First czlol minimum-raised to 1,600 from the button, then twirlpro raised to 4,260 from the small blind. Aaron "JeanGrae" McCready had fallen to just 2,219 to start the hand, and he pushed his stack in from the big blind then saw czlol fold. McCready had [As][Qh], but twirlpro had him pipped with [Ac][Ks], and after the cards came [Td][6s][Jd][9s][7h] JeanGrae was out in third.

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The stacks were 29,730 for twirlpro and 20,270 for czlol for their single heads-up hand.

twirlpro opened for 1,600 from the button, czlol made it 4,000, twirlpro shoved, and czlol called. twirlpro held [Ac][5c] and czlol [9h][9s], and when the flop came [As][3c][6s] czlol was in need of help to survive. But the turn was the [3h] and river the [Qc], giving the chips, the third-round match, the gold-plated TCOOP card capper, and the first-place prize money to twirlpro.

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Congratulations to twirlpro for winning three ten-handed tables to turn $109 into a cool $18,250!

TCOOP Event #29 Results ($109 NLHE Shootout):
1st: twirlpro ($18,250)
2nd: czlol ($12,700)
3rd: JeanGrae ($9,450)
4th: wasjaxjev ($7,050)
5th: AleksZy ($4,950)
6th: KOSEC510 ($4,000)
7th: -shameLi- ($3,150)
8th: joszunabot18 ($2,500)
9th: P121YAN ($1,900)
10th: Mr Negreanu ($1,400)

Still plenty more TCOOPing going on. Check the Turbo Championship of Online Poker site for details.

]]> http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2012/tcoop-twirlpro-runs-circles-around-field-090361.html http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2012/tcoop-twirlpro-runs-circles-around-field-090361.html World Series of Poker TCOOP TCOOP Event 29 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:12:08 -0800 Another day, another slate of TCOOP tournaments bursting with PokerStars players looking to make a big score in a short timeframe. If you're a fan of the "Cadillac of poker," today's first event was a good one: an $82 NLHE affair, full-ring style, with a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000 and a single-rebuy option for those who found themselves on the wrong side of the river in the early going.

Late registration and rebuys ended after 90 minutes, with the tournament structure already ramped up to Level 18 (600/1200 blinds, 150 ante). Exactly 3,002 players bought in, with 1,284 exercising their option to take one more chance for another $75. That built a prize pool of $321,450, more than doubling the guarantee and setting aside $50,790.69 for the eventual winner.

Race for the prize

The money bubble popped at 10:32 a.m. ET when four players were knocked out during hand-for-hand play. Russia's petrovich175, Hungary's GINATTI, and Argentina's JuanchoR all cashed for $192.87, but the Czech Republic's Jytrocel busted in 379th place without a payday on account of having the shortest stack among the four. When Level 28 (3.5K/7K blinds, 875 ante) ended five minutes later, the field had been reduced to just 267 players.

From there the race to the final table was on. The casualties included one member of Team Online, Canada's Tyler "frosty012" Frost, who finished in 171st place ($353.59). Not a bad result at all for someone who also served as the tournament's host! Joining him in the money were Team PokerStars Pros Marcin "Goral" Horecki (232nd, $289.30) and Pat Pezzin (129th, $417.88).

Tourney host Tyler "frosty012" Frost cashed in his own event

Down to three tables, play had advanced to Level 40 (30K/60K blinds, 10K ante) and bits10 from the UK was the chipleader with 1,891,385 chips. Not far behind was Canada's kings266 (1,840,750 chips) and a trio of Germans - freaknacht (1,702,039 chips), Päffchen of (1,602,491 chips) and Jindujun0805 (1,343,456 chips). Most of the action now involved all-in moves that would either take down the blinds and antes or be called down for a race to see who would chip up and who would exit before the final table. All five of these players would survive the cut to the final two tables on Level 42, led by kings266, who was one of the rare players at this point in a TCOOP event to manage taking down a pot with an uncalled preflop three-bet.

With the tournament's fourth break out of the way it was time to play down to a winner. On Table 152, freaknacht kept kings266 from running away with the lead with this hand:

Moments later kings266's stack would dip further after calling sirglad's all-in bet with [Ks] [Qh] only to be up against [As] [Kc] for a 2-million-chip pot. The 3-to-1 shot didn't come home and kings266 was down 1.6 million. But a rebound wasn't far behind - the next hand saw the Canadian get in with pocket tens against the pocket eights of mysterio6044, hit a set on the [Th] [3h] [9c] flop, and hold up through the [Jh] turn and [As] river for a 3.38-million-chip pot to give him the lead once again. But moments later it was jack17_at of Austria who sent the tournament to the final table, busting Germany's kadsenvieh in 10th place ($2,009.06) on this cruel hand:

And then there were nine...

The final table began on Level 44 (70K/140K blinds, 17.5K ante) with this lineup:

Seat 1: PROTENTIALmn (424,026 in chips)
Seat 2: jack17_at (3,923,070 in chips)
Seat 3: kings266 (3,117,663 in chips)
Seat 4: bits10 (1,793,885 in chips)
Seat 5: Päffchen (4,675,921 in chips)
Seat 6: KTURK (2,855,963 in chips)
Seat 7: sirglad (1,800,620 in chips)
Seat 8: freaknacht (1,695,635 in chips)
Seat 9: andthe (1,143,217 in chips)

There was plenty of action in the first few orbits but no knockouts as the short stacks in each confrontation all doubled up. Then the action folded to PROTENTIALmn in the small blind; with 896K left after paying the 100K blind and another 425K in the pot, the Canadian player opted to move all-in with [Qd] [6s]. Chip leader jack17_at called quickly with [Js] [8d], flopped a jack, and never looked back. PROTENTIALmn left in 9th place ($2,732.32).

The next big shift came seven hands later and saw Canada's andthe move into second place with 5.22 million chips after calling all-in before the flop with [Ad] [Ks] against Päffchen's [As] [Jd] and having Big Slick hold up. Just three hands later, Päffchen would regain most of those chips in a coin flip holding pocket sevens against the [Ad] [Jc] of kings266, who departed in 8th place ($4,661.02) after a seven came on the flop. Only two hands later the short-stacked sirglad busted in 7th place ($7,554.07) after calling all-in from the big blind with [Kh] [8d] and failing to run down KTURK's [Ad] [7s].

As the field continued to shorten andthe would have the best of it against three more players who were all-in, taking the field down to just three players and moving into a significant chip lead as a result. First was freaknacht, who shoved all-in for 3.77 million on the button with [Ad] [5d]; andthe called with [Ah] [Js], won the pot, sent freaknacht out in 6th place ($10,768.57) and moved up to 8.84 million chips. Five hands later came bits10, who moved in short-stacked for 1.06 million with [Jc] [9c]; andthe called from the small blind [Kc] [8h], fell behind on the [Js] [9h] [7d] flop, stayed there on the [6d] turn and caught a straight on the [Tc] river to bust bits10 in 5th place ($13,983.07) and move to 11.09 million chips. Three hands later the run was complete when action folded to KTURK in the small blind and the player from the United Arab Emirates shoved all-in for 3.94 million with [Ah] [6c]; andthe called with [Ac] [8c], which was good on the [Kc] [Qc] [9s] [8s] [7h] board to bust KTURK in 4th place ($18,801.61).

Let's make a deal

Now the blinds were up to 150K/300K with 37.5K antes. The leader was andthe with 14.09 million chips to the jack17_at's 3.98 million and Päffchen's 3.35 million. The players opted to discuss a deal at this point. After some fiddling over the numbers for the shorter stacks, the three finally came to an agreement that left $3,001.59 on the table for the winner and gave andthe $42,673, jack17_at $35,587, and Päffchen $34,462. With all the formalities out of the way, action recommenced.

Two hands in Päffchen shoved from the button holding [Qd] [Tc] and jack17_at called from the big blind with [Ac] [Qc]. The board was all blanks, coming [Jd] [3c] [Jh] [6h] [3s] to send Päffchen out in 3rd place. The heads-up battle lasted for 16 hands, most of the raise-and-take-it variety. On the final hand jack17_at shoved for 2.82 million on the button with [6c] [6h] and andthe called holding [Kd] [Ts]. After the [Jd] [2c] [5d] flop and [7d] turn it appeared the match might go on a bit longer, but the river was the tournament-ending [Kh]; jack17_at was out in 2nd place and andthe had claimed the latest TCOOP title.

Congratulations to andthe for turning a nice final-table run into more than $45,000, as well as to the other eight players who earned themselves healthy cash prizes and some of the nicest card cappers around.

TCOOP Event 28 $82 No-Limit Hold'em (2x Chance)
3,002 entrants, 1,284 rebuys, $321,450 prize pool

1st place - andthe (Canada) - $45,674.59
2nd place - jack17_at (Austria) - $35,587
3rd place - Päffchen (Germany) - $34,462
4th place - KTURK (United Arab Emirates) - $18,801.61
5th place - bits10 (United Kingdom) - $13,983.07
6th place - freaknacht (Germany) - $10,768.57
7th place - sirglad (Denmark) - $7,554.07
8th place - kings266 (Canada) - $4,661.02
9th place - PROTENTIALmn (Canada) - $2,732.32

* - denotes results of three-way deal

Why not get in on the action yourself? There are still plenty of chances for you to score some cash and a TCOOP card-capper of your own.

]]> http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2012/tcoop-andthe-kicks-the-competition-in-ev-090360.html http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2012/tcoop-andthe-kicks-the-competition-in-ev-090360.html World Series of Poker TCOOP TCOOP Event 28 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:31:52 -0800 There is a village in southern India with no electricity, medical care, or proper infrastructure. You'd be lucky to find one person there who has even heard of poker, let alone poker played on something called the internet. This is where Andy Ganapathy grew up.

There is a kind of family dynamic in which playing cards is considered an irresponsible pastime. This is the kind of family in which fathers do not teach their children the rules to five-card draw, Texas Hold'em, or anything else that has to do with the game. This is the kind of family in which Andy Ganapathy grew up.

So, you might wonder how Ganapathy (known as Andy123460) ended up this week as the champion of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker's Event #23 defeating nearly 3,000 opponents for a $58,753 payday.

Frankly, Ganapathy sort of wonders than himself. He's a 31-year-old corporate sales manager for Electrolux Canada who came from the middle of nowhere to win an online poker championship event.

"If you look at my background I have nothing to do with poker," he said, "but yet somehow ended up with the wonderful world of poker."

A couple of years ago, Ganapathy was at his buddy's cottage for a night of card-playing. He'd never played before, so his friend gave him a card that showed the ranking of hands. He ended up wining that night.

"They call it beginners luck," Ganapathy said.

To understand how he became a champion, it's instructive to look at how Ganapathy has lived the rest of his life. He started school in a building that had no roof. He ended up graduating from a top engineering college and moving to Canada to pursue his MBA.

"It was a roller coaster ride with ups, downs, twists, and turns," he said.

It spoke to hard work, determination, and will. Most people who grow up in such villages never leave. Ganapathy is not one of those people, and he ended up treating his poker game like his professional life.

"I'm mastering it every day," he said.

The new TCOOP champion plays cards on the weekend, follows heroes like Daniel Negreanu, and dreams of one day hitting the big time.

Someday, Ganapathy would like to be a member of Team PokerStars Pro. For now, however, he's happy to continue his success in the business world. Meanwhile, he'll work on his game and pay off his debts with some of his winnings.

And the rest of the cash?

He's going to give it all to his family.

]]> http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2012/tcoop-the-unlikely-champion-090358.html http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2012/tcoop-the-unlikely-champion-090358.html World Series of Poker TCOOP Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:28:33 -0800 Editor's note: This Q&A with Liv Boeree took place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on January 13.

Walking into the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure poker room, an intimidating figure of Liv Boeree, wearing six-inch heels and wielding a whip, greeted thousands of poker players. Between waterslides and poker at the PCA, I talked to the San Remo EPT and Sunday Warm-up champion on being re-imagined as a poker dominatrix, fish massages, and her tips for women in live super-satellites.

Poker Stars Women (PSW): Tell us about the video campaign, "We are Poker". It looks incredible--you must be getting a lot of questions about it!

Liv Boeree (LB): It was such an epic shoot. They had to sew me into the dress; it was completely made to measure. I had to wear things in strategic places to cover up. The make-up and hair took hours. The actual whip was huge, like 20 feet long. And they asked me to get it going and the actual swinging around the headshot was easy. It was absolutely fantastic.

PSW: How quick were you to catch on to the whip?

LB: Surprisingly quick, or perhaps unsurprisingly, depending on what your opinion of me may be.

From the PokerSars We Are Poker campaign

PSW: Ha! So, did you get a chance to punish your opponents at the PCA?

LB: I had a deep run in the Main Event and ended up cashing. Overall, this is the best PCA I've ever been to. The weather is insanely good, it's so warm. We've been hanging out on the waterslides all day. We also went to the beach today and some people were dropping bread . . . there was a whole shoal of fish around you, kind of like of fish massage. I've been playing fewer tourneys as a results but I feel balanced and relaxed when I do play.

PSW: It seems that PokerStars is adding a lot of interesting but less typical formats to their live tour spots, like the "Ante Up" tournament, the "Win the Button" and the $1000 + $1000 bounty. What do you think about these types of ideas?

LB: I think it's great that they're being creative about the different types of poker. It keeps people's interest in the game. For instance, Rivers is a very interesting concept. I played that at the EPT in London and ended up coming in third. It's kind of a cross between Omaha, Hold'Em and Stud. Everyone gets his or her own river card facedown. A surprising number of people misread their hands. I'm really impressed with all the innovation.

PSW: One format that often interests our readers at PokerStars Women is satellites, since those are gateways to events like the PCA. Now that you are a pro playing high-rollers, do you still play satellites?

LB: I actually still try to. I haven't played any here but it's important. I was thinking of playing a satellite into the high roller.

PSW: When you won San Remo, didn't you satellite in?

LB: That's right--I did, I didn't have the bankroll to buy-in otherwise. I was in the South of France for something else and I couldn't get home due to the volcano, so I was like all right, "I'll just jump on the train to San Remo" to try satellites. I won the first one I played and then won the tournament.

PSW: Wow, that worked out well! Do you have any tips for live satellites?

LB: Well it mostly comes down to short stack play so you need to know your shoving ranges well. The average stack will usually be only about 18-20 blinds at the end, maybe even less. As for women, particularly in live satellite, if you make friends with people at your table, sometimes people can be extremely chivalrous. The number of walks I've gotten during the bubble of a satellite, just by talking to people and making friends with people at the table . . . it can be amazingly beneficial. I actually like that about satellites. You can make a lot of good friends at them.

PSW: I agree. Personality is key in live satellites. What are you planning to play in next?

LB: EPT Deauville. There will probably be a big turnout and I'm very excited about it. Then I'll play the UKIPT Galway. That's the start of season three of UKIPT, which will be really fun. And then more EPTs.

PSW: How do you find time between all your tournaments and engagements to work on your game?

LB: Mostly by discussing hand examples with people. Just going over scenarios again and again. Try to get as many in your head as possible, talking to friends about correct lines of play.

PSW: Do you have any interesting hands from this Main Event?

LB: Yeah, I had one on day two against David Bach, a very well-known mixed game cash player. He plays very high-stakes and has also won a WSOP bracelet. He is an incredibly accomplished player, but I don't know if No Limit Hold'Em is his best game.

I opened the button with queens with about 33 big blinds (effective stack). He defends. The flop comes T93 rainbow. He check raises me. Obviously ten-nine can be in his range here a lot, but also straight draws. I don't think he's likely to have tens or nines so the only set I'm really worried about is threes. One important thing about this hand is that I had overheard him talking about a hand previously, saying "I should have raised that turn." He had Ace-ten and the turn was a ten, but there were a lot of straights and so on out there and I thought it was weird he wanted to raise for value.

So after he check raises me in our hand I think that there are a lot of Ace-tens, King-tens and maybe Queen-tens in his range. His raise was pretty small so I called. The turn is a seven . . . not too bad, the only straight that got there is Jack-eight, and I don't think he's defending that. He bets again quite big and I call. The river is a three. And he bets 5K and I've got 11K total. So I go for quite a thin value-shove . . . and he calls me off with queen-ten.

PSW: Nice, you doubled up. So did you think about calling instead of shoving the river?

LB: Well, when the board paired on the river, I beat ten-nine... if not, I probably would have just called.

PSW: You don't think he played it well? You didn't like his check/raise?

LB: No, I don't like his check-raise, barrel/barrel, call line at all.

PSW: Do you have any tips for members of PokerStars Women for improving online?

LB: Practice, practice, practice. Get in the maximum number of hands. I would recommend using tracking software if you're interested in playing a lot of volume. If you can train your mind to think of things like VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money in Pot), steal percentage, 3-bet percentage, etc., then similarly when you're playing live, you're going to be thinking along the same lines. So instead of thinking vaguely, I think this person is active, you're more likely to think, "Wow- they've actually played 30 of the last 70 hands."

PSW: Yet some very strong online players don't use this software for tournaments . . .

LB: Yeah, a few of my friends don't use it . . . Then they're just amazing. But I believe anything that can help your edge, why not?

PSW: Well, you've certainly had a lot of recent success online, like your 2011 Sunday Warm-Up win. How did that feel?

LB: It set me up for an amazing year online and was a real confidence booster. I just wish my live year had been as good as my online year. The plan for 2012 is to combine it and crush online and live. Cashing the Main Event of the PCA was a great start.

]]> http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/players/liv_boeree/2012/liv-boeree-on-being-reimagined-as-a-domi-090355.html http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/players/liv_boeree/2012/liv-boeree-on-being-reimagined-as-a-domi-090355.html World Series of Poker Liv Boeree PokerStars Women Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:50:24 -0800