Besides the people in the Lexus commercials with the brand new luxury car wrapped up in a bright red bow out front of their house, there are not many who get a brand new car as a gift for the holidays. There are ways however to make this happen and does not require knocking over a bank, enter the final $1 million Turbo Takedown for 2010 where it cost no monetary funds, just 3,000 Frequent Players Points to set yourself up against 17,012 other players looking to celebrate Boxing Day with a flourish and an Audi TT (ribbon not included). One million dollars would be divided up between 5,000 players and $60,000.00 to tonight's champ.
Despite the $100.00 bulls-eyes on the backs of our Team PokerStars players, a few of them managed to make a little cash themselves this evening after the ironically named luckky6 busted in 5,001st place. Among the team members winning cash, Matthias De Meulder (1951st place, $110.00), JP Kelly (1656th place, $115.00), Veronica "Princesa" Dabul (646th place, $200.00), Joao Nunes (600th place, $200.00). Team Online pro Anders Hoyer "Donald" Berg got the closest to placing that Audi TT in his garage but finished a ways off the final table in 408th place ($260.00).
Anders "Donald" Berg - 408th placeFast forwarding to the final ten players, the final table bubble would last nearly an entire blind level as short stacks doubled up and no one wanted to give away the shot at that car and it would take a double elimination to get there. Another blind level nearly went by as the shortstacks stayed alive until two of them went all-in on the same hand. First, chahlala sing his last notes after shoving from UTG with just 702,976 and blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K but holding a decent pocket pair of eights 8?8?. luckycrazy29 on the immediate left made the call holding 9?A?. The coin flip would be decided on the flop as an ace would peel off and hold thru the J? T? A? T? Q? board sending chahlala out in tenth place ($8,000.00). But on the adjacent table, leandroltb would shove 1.23 million chip from the button holding A?6? as chilenocl in the small blind covered easily and made the call holding K?J?. chilenocl caught fire on the flop by nailing a flush 2? T? 6? as leandroltb was drawing dead by the Q? turn. Offically leandroltb made the final table, just won't show up on the pretty screen shot below, finishing in ninth place ($10,000.00).
Click image for larger pictureSeat 2: NasseNøffff (11390175 in chips)
Seat 3: chilenocl (7379830 in chips)
Seat 4: gmd68 (5042620 in chips)
Seat 5: rowang (3032164 in chips)
Seat 6: luckycrazy29 (10393057 in chips)
Seat 7: xoriguer458 (2639313 in chips)
Seat 8: NvrMnd (3923721 in chips)
Seat 9: sporic13 (7235120 in chips)
Nevermind I've gotten better things to do
In the final table's fifth hand with the blinds still at 125K/250K ante 25K NvrMnd tried to take down the blinds quickly by shoving from the small blind for 3.5 million. However, sporic13 covered and snap called after finding big slick A?K?. A dominated A?J? for NvrMnd was rooting for a queen after the 2? T? K? flop. But, the T? turn and 4? river left NvrMnd looking for other activities on a Sunday night after taking eighth ($12,500.00).
X needs an A to pass
It's not your day when you find big slick and it's behind before the flop even comes out. Check out xoriguer458 journey with big slick below:
RSS readers please click thru to view video
Moving up to 175K/350K ante 35K blinds xoriguer458 would raise to 1.05 million from UTG +1 folding to chilenocl on button who side stepped any fancy three-betting numbers and shoved for 6.8 million covering xoriguer458's stack. The blinds folded quickly as xoriguer458 made the call holding a suited big slick K?A?. Usually a powerful hand when it's not facing off against aces or kings. In this case chilenocl held the kings K?K? and with a distinct lack of aces on the Q? Q? 4? T? 9? board xoriguer458 was crossed off the final table in seventh place ($15,000.00).
rowang rowang rowang Rawhide!
As the blinds moved again to 200K/400K ante 40K the players started noticing the jump and decided to become less selective with cut out a certain amount chips and just shoved preflop. gmd however bucked the trends and made a 1.2 million chip raise from the hijack and rowang called all-in from the cutoff for 1.11 million as the blinds folded. Both held an ace but gmd68's 8?A? had the better kicker than rowang's 3?A?. A pair of nines on the flop offered a ray of hope for a chop, but the 9? 2? 9? 5? 7? board did not comply and rowang was put out to pasture in sixth place ($17,500.00).
The "turbo" part of the Turbo Takedown kicks in
The very next hand NasseNøffff was looking to take down the blind and antes by open shoving from the small blind for 1.6 million. chilenocl had plenty to spare with over 11 million chips and made the call holding 6?Q?. NasseNøffff turned over two live cards 7?8? with hoping of attaching them to the board. Nasse which is slang for a gas mask could not cover the odor of his cards after the A? 4? T? 2? 6? board spilled out and NasseNøffff took leave in fifth place ($20,000.00).
Break out the Excel spreadsheet and formulas for this deal
Chip chopping did not end well so our final four went back to using ICM figures and a little on the side to play for making the deal below:
gmd68 $37,868.42
luckycrazy29 $36,845.31
chilenocl $36,619.31
sporic $33,667.05
These figures left $5,000.00 for first (plus the Audi TT of course), $3,000.00 for second, $2,000.00 for third, and some late night programming with no added money for fourth.
Crazy part down pat, lucky part, not so much
With the blinds continuing to climb up to blind ceiling of 250K/500K ante 50K, luckycrazy29 fell to just 3.6 million in chips and tried to shove those in from the cutoff to grab the blinds and antes. But, sporic13 made the call with pocket fives 5?5? as luckycrazy29 was pleased to see it was a coin flip holding 9?6?. A spade-less 2? J? T? 2? 8? board rolled out ending luckycrazy29's night with the figures from the chop in the fourth place ($36,845.22).
sporic sporked
Immediately after doubling up gmd68, sporic13 still had a little more than seven million in chips and raised from the small blind to 1.5 million. Over to the chip leader chilenocl he would shove all-in forcing sporic13 to call for his tournament life. The decision was easier than it sounded as sporic13 rolled over... watch the video below to find out:
RSS readers please click thru to view videoBig slick A?K? for sporic13 who needed chips after doubling up gmd68, and a dominated 8?A? for chilenocl. Both would catch an useless ace on the flop, but found the eight on the turn much more interesting A? 6? 9? 8?. Finishing with the T? on the river sporic13 received the extra $2,000.00 from the four-way chop for the third place finish ($35,667.05).
Proud Audi TT owner soon-to-be named
We thought it would be chilenocl after the cards were flipped up after the flop:
RSS readers please click thru to view videoBut the poker gods say nay. With a flop of Q? 6? 8? chilenocl pushed out a 3.5 million chip bet and got gmd68 to shove all-in for 18.9 million. Snap call with aces A?A? for chilenocl and gmd68 was needing help with Q?J?. 7? on the turn and gmd68 lost another out but the Q? on the river extended the match as gmd68 took in the 42.9 million chip pot leaving chilenocl with just 8.1 million chips.
No escape this time
21 minutes after beginning heads-up play and a little more than ten hours after being given their 3,000 starting chips we would have a champion. gmd68 would slyly min raise from the button as chilenocl tried to pounce on the weakness by shoving all-in for 14.5 million chips holding Q?A?. It was a set-up for a big cooler however as gmd68 snap called with aces A?A?. Unlike when chilenocl was one card away from the Audi TT with aces, this time there was no such sweat down the 5? 2? 9? 8? 3? board as gmd68 drove away in the Audi TT with the last 2010 Turbo Takedown victory and $42,868.42!
December 2010 $1 Million Turbo Takedown results (12-26-10)
(* denotes four way chop leaving money for top three places)
1. gmd68 (Lübeck) *$42,868.42 + Audi TT
2. chilenocl (Las Vegas) *$39,619.31
3. sporic13 (ATHENS) *$35,667.05
4. luckycrazy29 (Yenakievo ) *$36,845.22
5. NasseNøffff (Skien) $20,000.00
6. rowang (Oslo) $17,500.00
7. xoriguer458 (palma) $15,000.00
8. NvrMnd (Sofia) $12,500.00
9. leandroltb (Goiânia) $10,000.00
A festive weekend with Christmas Day followed by Boxing Day being celebrated today meant for a smaller crowd in today's $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up. Not really. 4,366 players follow their way thru Nutter Butter snowman cookies and return lines at the retail stores for returning those Rudolph light-up socks from Aunt Marge to play in today Sunday Major. A prize pool of $873,200.00 was up for grabs with $136,989.36 going to the lucky player who can outlast them all. 