Online Poker Weekend – 9.16.07
Aaron Bartley (Credit: Full Tilt Poker)
Sure, the big story online this weekend was the World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP), which is still going strong at PokerStars. However, that didn't stop the action at Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, Party Poker and Bodog. Each site held their big weekend events. Results were mixed as you'll see shortly.
At Full Tilt , there was a $1 million guarantee. This drew over 2,200 entrants, bringing up the total prize pool to $1,114,000. 351 folks cashed in the event including Full Tilt pros Huck Seed, JJ Liu and Aaron Bartley.
The final table had barely gotten underway when the first elimination occurred. Two hands into the match, Lucky1223 called richisnic's all-in push from the big blind with pocket rockets. Richisnic watched in horror as the flop brought his opponent two more aces and him the ninth place finish.
jalla79, who was fresh off a win at the short-handed PLO event at PokerStars and a $67,740 payday, proved he was equal-opportunity when choosing online poker rooms and poker variants. He took sixth place in this NLHE event, adding another $35,648 to his growing bankroll.
JCarver and Lucky1223, who dominated much of the action throughout the final table match, made it all the way to heads-up play. Carver had a massive lead – almost 7-to-1 over his opponent. Lucky wasn't lucky enough to overcome that deficit and settled for second.
Here are the results:
1) JCarver - $204,363.30 2) Lucky1223 – $125,436.40 3) BIGFLOPPER01 - $82,101.80 4) Fishbones11 – $65,503.20 5) TenthPlanet – $49,573 6) jalla79 - $35,648 7) cashious - $26,179 8) menah_menah_ - $20,497.60 9) richisnic – $15,596
Ultimate Bet continued to struggle with attendance on Sunday. Only 871 people paid the buy-in to play in their $200,000 Guarantee. This meant that the site paid out over $25,000 to meet the guaranteed amount. Randal Flowers, one of the 'net's most fearsome players, headed the charge into the final table. He eventually finished in eighth place, earning $3,500.
These are the final table facts, folks:
1) sixhigh1 — $45,000
2) Gangsta46 — $27,000
3) Cunningham — $18,500
4) Commodore23 — $13,000
5) MrQuietStrm — $9,000
6) vandiesel — $7,000
7) m0ledaddy — $5,000
8) RandalFlowers — $3,500
9) Ottawa Mike — $2,000
Party Poker saw 1,529 entrants show up on Sunday. This pushed the prize pool a wee bit over the $300,000 guarantee to $305,800. ghettoLISA made her second final table in as many weeks in this event. (You go, girl!)
The final table action was lightning quick. Folks dropped like flies, seemingly unafraid to sacrifice their stacks in the hopes of moving up the leaderboard and winning more cash. As seven-handed play began, a deal was discussed, but only five out of the seven remaining folks could agree to the terms so the idea was abandoned and play continued.
gizzer became the next to join the railbirds. He pushed all-in with his pocket sevens and was called by ghettoLISA with her big slick in the hole. The ace on the river gave LISA the checkmark and gizzer $8,103.70 for his seventh-place departure.
NicoGrozen went out on the very next hand. 20 minutes later, four-handed play began. At this time, a by-the-chips chop was agreed upon, giving Vollfisch the win.
Here are the results:
1) Vollfisch - $38,238 2) ghettoLISA - $36,001.29 3) Tintin1975 - $32,823.77 4) ottogumhold – $22,748.37 5) cashiy - $14,066.80 6) NicoGrozden - $10,550.10 7) gizzer11 - $8,103.70 8) corto12 – $5,351.50 9) Oreglegios - $4,128.30 10) imagine0709 - $2,905.10
Bodog's been struggling even more since the switch to newbodog.com. This weekend, only 729 folks paid to play in the $100,000 guarantee. The site put up $27,100. DAKKE13 was the first elimination in a battle of the big pocket pairs. His pocket queens were third best behind johnny_vegas' K,K and Rossy's rockets in the hole.
Vegas made it all the way to heads-up play with a commanding chip lead over cmizzles3867. However, cmizzles played the short stack masterfully, and caught some lucky breaks when he needed them the most, winning the event within a miraculously-short period of time.
These are the final table facts, folks:
1) cmizzles3867 – $25,000 2) johnny_vegas - $14,300 3) Rossy - $9,200 4) pokerarg -$6,900 5) Wild Duck – $5,500 6) StoffeT - $4,500 7) jkron1 - $3,500 8) rbrown14 - $2,500 9) DAKKE13 - $1,600