From the moment registration closed, we had a feeling this would be an odd one. Thirty seconds with a calculator revealed that this particular two-day event had a strong chance of hitting the final table before the end of Day 1 and finis...
From the moment registration closed, we had a feeling this would be an odd one. Thirty seconds with a calculator revealed that this particular two-day event had a strong chance of hitting the final table before the end of Day 1 and finishing up the following afternoon. As it turned out, that's exactly what happened. The first forty levels of play took this field all the way down to five players, and after a lengthy deal negotiation at the top of Day 2, they needed only 31 hands to find a champion. Romania's bogdaniel111 pulled out the win after mounting a remarkable late charge, but ended up banking $5,500 less than third-place finisher matt86ck thanks to the five-handed chip chop.
3,719 players came out to scoop, split, and quarter, creating a $91,305.45 prize pool. 495 of them earned a share of it with first place set to earn $14,336.58. Of the 15 Red Spades in the field, four cashed: Fredy "sirfreddy83" Torres (490th), Marcin Horecki (397th), Henrique Pinho (378th), and George "Jorj95" Lind III (376th).
With less than an hour of play remaining on Day 1, the field reached its final ten players. Stevie "stevie444" Chidwick had already dodged a few bullets during hand-for-hand play, and pulled the trigger again when fellow short stack loreh87 opened for a min-raise to 240,000. Stevie444 moved in for 717,848 with [4d][5s][6s][Qd] and loreh87 called with [Ah][2h][7d][Js], having him slightly covered. Stevie444 caught absolutely nothing on the [Jh][9d][8s][Tc][Th] board while loreh87 turned a jack-high straight to send him to the rail on the final table bubble.
Final table chip counts
Seat 1: farrider63 (721,058 in chips)
Seat 2: loreh87 (1,649,796 in chips)
Seat 3: toomaskoomas (1,209,224 in chips)
Seat 4: Teminem (1,979,110 in chips)
Seat 5: royeapoker (951,319 in chips)
Seat 6: bogdaniel111 (2,496,159 in chips)
Seat 7: matt86ck (5,914,231 in chips)
Seat 8: HnumTheGreat (2,188,191 in chips)
Seat 9: ibluffgold (1,485,912 in chips)
Two down
13 minutes remained in Level 38 when the final table began and play was scheduled to continue through the end of Level 40 before breaking for the night. Another 25 minutes passed before the first elimination. After failing to get any traction at the final table, loreh87 finally found a hand to go with in [Ac][As][2s][5h] and open-shoved for his last 305,000. HnumTheGreat called from the small blind with [Ah][3c][9d][Jc]. Loreh87's aces kept the lead on the [Kh][Qh][2h] flop, but the [4d] turn gave HnumTheGreat the nut low draw to go with his gutshot. HnumTheGreat filled it on the river with the [Ts] and loreh87 hit the rail in ninth place, earning $730.41 for the day's work.
Three hands later, roveapoker picked up [Ac][3c][4c][7h] and moved in for 385,000 from UTG. Teminem called from the big blind with [Jd][Js][Ts][6c] and hit top set on the [Jh][9s][8c] flop. Aces on the turn and river improved Teminem to a full house and roveapoker went out in eighth place, banking $1,141.26.
matt86ck takes a commanding chip lead
Three hands later, farrider63 opened for 356,000 and with over 5 million behind, matt86ck three-bet to 1,228,000. Farrider63 moved all-in for 1.58 million and matt86ck called, his [Kh][Kd][6s][6c] up against [Ad][Ac][Ks][Qc]. Farrider63's aces up were good through the turn, the board reading [9s][8h][2s][2d], but the poker gods delivered matt86ck the case king on the river to end farrider63's run in seventh.
The next deal saw matt86ck send a few of those newfound chips toomaskoomas's way. On a [Jc][8d][8s] flop, toomaskoomas moved al-in for 1.8 million and matt86ck called.
toomaskoomas [Ah][5h][6d][Js]
matt86ck [Kd][Qc][3d][2h]
Toomaskoomas led with two pair, but the [8h] turn left them both playing the trip eights on board, toomaskoomas winning the kicker war. The river was the [Kc] and toomaskoomas moved into safer territory with 1.72 million.
Matt86ck rebounded a short time later, cutting HnumTheGreat's stack in half.
Matt86ck moved up to