$$ Cash 4 Seat $$

The gift that keeps on giving, the $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown is back again this month ready to send a lucky er… skillful player off with $60,000 and a brand new Audi TT. Nary a real dollar, euro, or yen will get you into this tournament, only 3,000 FPPs via grinding cash games or thru the satellite system will seat you besides the 18,074 players that showed up tonight. Along with the five figure paydays to all of our final nine tonight, this tournament pays out to 5,000 places giving players a near 1 in 3 chance of cashing for at least $78.00, not bad for free money. Also, if you cash enough times or being kind enough to show one of the Team PokerStars Pros to the exit, you will pick up bonus cash along the way (check the Turbo Takedown link above for details).

We’re here to report on the final table however and to get there you must say good-bye to the bubble boy. That distinction belonged to funfunfun101 who was donedonedone in tenth place. With blinds at 60K/120K ante 12K and severely shortstacked funfunfun101 would call the raise of marroca5 holding big slick [Kc][Ad] and less then 2BBs as the rest of the table folded. Firmly ahead of marroca5’s [As][Jd], funfunfun101 watched the board in pain as the turn card [2d] [Kh] [Qh] [Tc] [7s] gave marroca5 a broadway straight sending him home in tenth place ($8,000.00) as we started up the final table to give away the Audi TT below:

Seat 1: evandijk70 (4757042 in chips)
Seat 2: AmarulaBr (14883738 in chips)
Seat 3: joachimpowa (8533421 in chips)
Seat 4: PURPLE”K”99 (4008652 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (1363731 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (4196441 in chips)
Seat 7: ChiprakerAA (6275635 in chips)
Seat 8: marroca5 (6885932 in chips)
Seat 9: reversejam (3317408 in chips)

With blinds starting at 60K/120K ante 12K they would quickly move up to 70K/140K ante 14K where we would see our first elimination. marroca5 who opened up the final table by eliminating tenth place started a blind versus raising war with ChiprakerAA. ChiprakerAA raised to 340,000 as marroca5 popped it to 885,250, then ChiprakerAA to 1.83 million, and finally marroca5 shoved for 5.2 million as ChiprakerAA covered and called with pocket queens [Qs][Qh]. marroca5 would need to come from behind again holding pocket tens [Ts][Td], but neither player would improve with a board full of sailboats [2c] [4c] [Jh] [4h] [4d]. It would be marroca5 to take the head wind and sail off first taking $10,000.00 in ninth place. This is not marroca5’s first success with the Sunday Tournaments as back in November marroca5 picked up $51K in a fourth place effort at the Sunday Warm-up.

Ouch. It’s one thing when an opponent hits those two-outers, it’s quite another when the below hand happens. Watch the 3-way all-in between reversejam, ChiprakerAA, and BobMad121:

RSS readers click through to see replay

reversejam: [Jd][Jc]
ChiprakerAA: [Ah][Kd]
BobMad121: [8c][8s]

ChiprakerAA covered both reversejam and BobMad121, and reversejam covered BobMad121 for this 7.8 million chip pot. To say the [8h] [5c] [8d] flop was kind to BobMad121 would be like saying kids just kinda enjoy candy. Flopped quads for BobMad121 meant we were watching the rest of the board for the 4.2 million side pot between ChiprakerAA and reversejam, [9h] was safe but the [Kc] on the river sent reversejam and those pocket jacks packing in eighth place ($12,500.00) as BobMad121 took 3.5 million from the main pot.

With seats eight and nine gone perhaps seat seven was next? Fast forward to the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and ChiprakerAA sitting in the seven seat taking a big hit against KuzMich_pro in a bad beat when KuzMich_pro’s pocket queens complete a four-flush against the pocket kings of ChiprakerAA for a 11.4 million chip pot. But, it would be PURPLE”K”99 instead that would take leave next. In the small blind facing an all-in bet from joachimpowa, PURPLE”K”99 would call all-in with those dreamy pocket aces [As][Ac]. joachimpowa turned over the steal attempt and [Kd][8s] but promptly hit a king on the [Ks] [3d] [7s] flop. [2s] on the turn missed the seven outs, but the [Kh] on the river gave joachimpowa 6.9 million chips from the pot for the trip kings and PURPLE”K”99 probably his most expensive bad beat story in seventh place ($15,000.00).

Largest pot of the tournament you might expect to see some big hands if both players pushed preflop right? Check out this expensive raising war in the video below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

evandijk70 did not feel like relinquishing the preflop raise after being three-bet holding just [9h][8d] and decided to press it by shoving for nine million total as AmarulaBr covered made the call with [As][Qs]. An 18.7 million chip pot and chip lead for the winner as neither player connected on the [4c] [3c] [6h] [Tc] [5c] board and AmarulaBr took a huge chip lead with four remaining and evandijk70 got an expensive lesson leaving in sixth place ($17,500.00).

Three hands later AmarulaBr would add even more to that total. Blinds holding at 175K/350K ante 35K, ChiprakerAA was facing a call for his tournament life after being three-bet by AmarulaBr holding [9d][Ac]. “Call” was the answer and AmarulaBr turned over [Ah][Jh] for the dominating hand. Both players would pair their aces on the [6h] [3s] [Tc] [Ad] [Qc] but AmarulaBr’s jack kicker played and the once mighty chip leader was out in fifth place ($20,000.00).

This was an action packed stretch as another two hands later and there was yet another elimination. This time it was joachimpowa raising it up to 999,999 from the cutoff as KuzMich_pro in the small blind three-bet to 2.1 million. And as the players were discussing the possibility of a deal while these two were throwing chips in, joachimpowa shoved for 8.2 million getting a snap call from KuzMich_pro who covered and held pocket kings [Kc][Kd]. joachimpowa could only turn up [As][2c] and watched the [8c] [8d] [Tc] [5s] [7h] board rain down without an aces as the 16.8 million chip pot slid to KuzMich_pro. For the fourth finish there was no automobile, but $25,000.00 in prize money can certainly buy one (just not the brand new Audi TT still on the board for the winner).

As we moved on to three handed play and blinds of 200K/400K ante 40K the players slowed up for a bit to discuss a possible deal. After sitting out and grumbling about the pay outs like a bunch of sports fans watching their favorite player getting traded to a rival, they returned to the table and started play once again.

With blinds moving up to 225K/450K ante 45K AmarulaBr may have regretted not giving BobMad121 the extra 2K he requested from the deal.

Chip counts at the time of the potential deal:

Seat 2: AmarulaBr (28051196 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (7146795 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (19024009 in chips)

Chip count at the hourly break and two blind levels later:

Seat 2: AmarulaBr (21509176 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (23118815 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (9594009 in chips)

AmarulaBr picked up the Team PokerStars Brazilian cheering section with Maridu Mayrinck, Andre Akkari, and Alexandre Gomes giving AmarulaBr a cheer during a timely double-up with pocket twos against big slick for BobMad121 for a 16 million chip pot. Despite the giving up those chips BobMad121 retained the chip lead as the blinds were capped at 250K/500K ante 50K.

The chips were not held for long by the Brazilian as AmarulaBr raised from the small blind for 1.25 million and was three-bet by BobMad121 to three million. AmarulaBr decided to shove [Ac][6d] for 15.1 million total and BobMad121 snap called with pocket tens [Th][Ts]. A six would pop up on the flop [5h] [9d] [6c] but the chances of a suckout vanished with the [Tc] on the turn rendering the [3d] on the river moot. With a set of tens BobMad121 would take down Team Brazil and AmarulaBr in third place ($30,000.00). Taking a look into AmarulaBr’s past success would tell perhaps why the deal wasn’t made. A fourth place finish in the Super Tuesday just last month for $34K and a chopped third place in the Sunday Warm-up in January for $100K makes for a decent run.

On to heads-up play the where BobMad121 held a 4:1 chip advantage to start.

Seat 5: BobMad121 (42665182 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (11556818 in chips)

It had the potential to be a knuckle-dragging fight, instead ten hand later the tournament was finished with a preflop all-in. Watch the final hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Domination held up and BobMad121 drove away in the new Audi TT after his [Ac][8c] held over the [8h][Qd]. No surprises on the [3c] [7s] [Tc] [3h] [2d] board and the comeback story was complete for BobMad121 who earned $60,000.00 in addition to the car and KuzMich_pro took away $40,000.00 as the runner-up.

April $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown Results (04-25-10)
1. BobMad121 (Langley) $60,000.00 plus Audi TT
2. KuzMich_pro (Saratov) $40,000.00
3. AmarulaBr (Brasil) $30,000.00
4. joachimpowa (elmshorn) $25,000.00
5. ChiprakerAA (Baltimore) $20,000.00
6. evandijk70 (Hoofddorp) $17,500.00
7. PURPLE”K”99 (Vancouver) $15,000.00
8. reversejam (ste foy les lyon) $12,500.00
9. marroca5 (Bogota) $10,000.00

The gift that keeps on giving, the $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown is back again this month ready to send a lucky er… skillful player off with $60,000 and a brand new Audi TT. Nary a real dollar, euro, or yen will get you into this tournament, only 3,000 FPPs via grinding cash games or thru the satellite system will seat you besides the 18,074 players that showed up tonight. Along with the five figure paydays to all of our final nine tonight, this tournament pays out to 5,000 places giving players a near 1 in 3 chance of cashing for at least $78.00, not bad for free money. Also, if you cash enough times or being kind enough to show one of the Team PokerStars Pros to the exit, you will pick up bonus cash along the way (check the Turbo Takedown link above for details).

We’re here to report on the final table however and to get there you must say good-bye to the bubble boy. That distinction belonged to funfunfun101 who was donedonedone in tenth place. With blinds at 60K/120K ante 12K and severely shortstacked funfunfun101 would call the raise of marroca5 holding big slick [Kc][Ad] and less then 2BBs as the rest of the table folded. Firmly ahead of marroca5’s [As][Jd], funfunfun101 watched the board in pain as the turn card [2d] [Kh] [Qh] [Tc] [7s] gave marroca5 a broadway straight sending him home in tenth place ($8,000.00) as we started up the final table to give away the Audi TT below:

Seat 1: evandijk70 (4757042 in chips)
Seat 2: AmarulaBr (14883738 in chips)
Seat 3: joachimpowa (8533421 in chips)
Seat 4: PURPLE”K”99 (4008652 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (1363731 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (4196441 in chips)
Seat 7: ChiprakerAA (6275635 in chips)
Seat 8: marroca5 (6885932 in chips)
Seat 9: reversejam (3317408 in chips)

With blinds starting at 60K/120K ante 12K they would quickly move up to 70K/140K ante 14K where we would see our first elimination. marroca5 who opened up the final table by eliminating tenth place started a blind versus raising war with ChiprakerAA. ChiprakerAA raised to 340,000 as marroca5 popped it to 885,250, then ChiprakerAA to 1.83 million, and finally marroca5 shoved for 5.2 million as ChiprakerAA covered and called with pocket queens [Qs][Qh]. marroca5 would need to come from behind again holding pocket tens [Ts][Td], but neither player would improve with a board full of sailboats [2c] [4c] [Jh] [4h] [4d]. It would be marroca5 to take the head wind and sail off first taking $10,000.00 in ninth place. This is not marroca5’s first success with the Sunday Tournaments as back in November marroca5 picked up $51K in a fourth place effort at the Sunday Warm-up.

Ouch. It’s one thing when an opponent hits those two-outers, it’s quite another when the below hand happens. Watch the 3-way all-in between reversejam, ChiprakerAA, and BobMad121:

RSS readers click through to see replay

reversejam: [Jd][Jc]
ChiprakerAA: [Ah][Kd]
BobMad121: [8c][8s]

ChiprakerAA covered both reversejam and BobMad121, and reversejam covered BobMad121 for this 7.8 million chip pot. To say the [8h] [5c] [8d] flop was kind to BobMad121 would be like saying kids just kinda enjoy candy. Flopped quads for BobMad121 meant we were watching the rest of the board for the 4.2 million side pot between ChiprakerAA and reversejam, [9h] was safe but the [Kc] on the river sent reversejam and those pocket jacks packing in eighth place ($12,500.00) as BobMad121 took 3.5 million from the main pot.

With seats eight and nine gone perhaps seat seven was next? Fast forward to the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K and ChiprakerAA sitting in the seven seat taking a big hit against KuzMich_pro in a bad beat when KuzMich_pro’s pocket queens complete a four-flush against the pocket kings of ChiprakerAA for a 11.4 million chip pot. But, it would be PURPLE”K”99 instead that would take leave next. In the small blind facing an all-in bet from joachimpowa, PURPLE”K”99 would call all-in with those dreamy pocket aces [As][Ac]. joachimpowa turned over the steal attempt and [Kd][8s] but promptly hit a king on the [Ks] [3d] [7s] flop. [2s] on the turn missed the seven outs, but the [Kh] on the river gave joachimpowa 6.9 million chips from the pot for the trip kings and PURPLE”K”99 probably his most expensive bad beat story in seventh place ($15,000.00).

Largest pot of the tournament you might expect to see some big hands if both players pushed preflop right? Check out this expensive raising war in the video below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

evandijk70 did not feel like relinquishing the preflop raise after being three-bet holding just [9h][8d] and decided to press it by shoving for nine million total as AmarulaBr covered made the call with [As][Qs]. An 18.7 million chip pot and chip lead for the winner as neither player connected on the [4c] [3c] [6h] [Tc] [5c] board and AmarulaBr took a huge chip lead with four remaining and evandijk70 got an expensive lesson leaving in sixth place ($17,500.00).

Three hands later AmarulaBr would add even more to that total. Blinds holding at 175K/350K ante 35K, ChiprakerAA was facing a call for his tournament life after being three-bet by AmarulaBr holding [9d][Ac]. “Call” was the answer and AmarulaBr turned over [Ah][Jh] for the dominating hand. Both players would pair their aces on the [6h] [3s] [Tc] [Ad] [Qc] but AmarulaBr’s jack kicker played and the once mighty chip leader was out in fifth place ($20,000.00).

This was an action packed stretch as another two hands later and there was yet another elimination. This time it was joachimpowa raising it up to 999,999 from the cutoff as KuzMich_pro in the small blind three-bet to 2.1 million. And as the players were discussing the possibility of a deal while these two were throwing chips in, joachimpowa shoved for 8.2 million getting a snap call from KuzMich_pro who covered and held pocket kings [Kc][Kd]. joachimpowa could only turn up [As][2c] and watched the [8c] [8d] [Tc] [5s] [7h] board rain down without an aces as the 16.8 million chip pot slid to KuzMich_pro. For the fourth finish there was no automobile, but $25,000.00 in prize money can certainly buy one (just not the brand new Audi TT still on the board for the winner).

As we moved on to three handed play and blinds of 200K/400K ante 40K the players slowed up for a bit to discuss a possible deal. After sitting out and grumbling about the pay outs like a bunch of sports fans watching their favorite player getting traded to a rival, they returned to the table and started play once again.

With blinds moving up to 225K/450K ante 45K AmarulaBr may have regretted not giving BobMad121 the extra 2K he requested from the deal.

Chip counts at the time of the potential deal:

Seat 2: AmarulaBr (28051196 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (7146795 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (19024009 in chips)

Chip count at the hourly break and two blind levels later:

Seat 2: AmarulaBr (21509176 in chips)
Seat 5: BobMad121 (23118815 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (9594009 in chips)

AmarulaBr picked up the Team PokerStars Brazilian cheering section with Maridu Mayrinck, Andre Akkari, and Alexandre Gomes giving AmarulaBr a cheer during a timely double-up with pocket twos against big slick for BobMad121 for a 16 million chip pot. Despite the giving up those chips BobMad121 retained the chip lead as the blinds were capped at 250K/500K ante 50K.

The chips were not held for long by the Brazilian as AmarulaBr raised from the small blind for 1.25 million and was three-bet by BobMad121 to three million. AmarulaBr decided to shove [Ac][6d] for 15.1 million total and BobMad121 snap called with pocket tens [Th][Ts]. A six would pop up on the flop [5h] [9d] [6c] but the chances of a suckout vanished with the [Tc] on the turn rendering the [3d] on the river moot. With a set of tens BobMad121 would take down Team Brazil and AmarulaBr in third place ($30,000.00). Taking a look into AmarulaBr’s past success would tell perhaps why the deal wasn’t made. A fourth place finish in the Super Tuesday just last month for $34K and a chopped third place in the Sunday Warm-up in January for $100K makes for a decent run.

On to heads-up play the where BobMad121 held a 4:1 chip advantage to start.

Seat 5: BobMad121 (42665182 in chips)
Seat 6: KuzMich_pro (11556818 in chips)

It had the potential to be a knuckle-dragging fight, instead ten hand later the tournament was finished with a preflop all-in. Watch the final hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Domination held up and BobMad121 drove away in the new Audi TT after his [Ac][8c] held over the [8h][Qd]. No surprises on the [3c] [7s] [Tc] [3h] [2d] board and the comeback story was complete for BobMad121 who earned $60,000.00 in addition to the car and KuzMich_pro took away $40,000.00 as the runner-up.

April $1,000,000 Turbo Takedown Results (04-25-10)
1. BobMad121 (Langley) $60,000.00 plus Audi TT
2. KuzMich_pro (Saratov) $40,000.00
3. AmarulaBr (Brasil) $30,000.00
4. joachimpowa (elmshorn) $25,000.00
5. ChiprakerAA (Baltimore) $20,000.00
6. evandijk70 (Hoofddorp) $17,500.00
7. PURPLE”K”99 (Vancouver) $15,000.00
8. reversejam (ste foy les lyon) $12,500.00
9. marroca5 (Bogota) $10,000.00

Each month our SnG grinders get a little added bonus to their play, and it comes in the form of the $50,000 Battle of the Planets triple shootout freeroll. For those who qualify, they have already picked up one or more of the weekly prizes from $1,500.00 for the Mercury division up to $5,000 for the high rolling Jupiter divison.

Tonight 422 of those players cashed their tickets for a shot at the $12,000.00 first place prize, but first each player would need to win two SnGs to get there. At the money bubble it came down to a heads-up match between Guerill@ and kylez04. Guerill@ held the chip lead 5,342 to 2,158 as the two got all of their chips in the middle after a [2c] [6h] [Kh] flop. kylez04 survived the flop with pocket fives [5d][5s] and was looking good for a double up. But, Guerill@’s [Ah][7s] would find the [As] on the turn and avoided a five on the [3s] to take down the 4,316 chip pot and join the other 80 players in the money (minimum of $195.00 each).

alex245 and kafelnikovz quickly took the first two seats at the final table, as they had time for a nice lunch or dinner while waiting for the remaining seven seats to fill up. And wait they did, as three tables of heads-up play made all the way to the 200/400 ante 50 blind levels. Jackycool finally took down Bonsy, ansuz found pocket aces, and two hands later a set of ducks to take down Teddy1211 to direct all eyes to table 9 for a match between skaand and JOEYL_123 for the final seat. Just after the five minute hourly break the two would throw it in preflop as skaand shoved from the button with [Ad][3d] and JOEYL_123 covered and snap called with [Ac][Td]. A diamond and three-less [4h] [Qh] [Qc] [6s] [Js] board came down and skaand was eliminated as the final table bubble boy in 10th place ($195.00).

Seat 1: marioboggi (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: kafelnikovz (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: ansuz (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: angelababy99 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: scott96dl (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Jackycool (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: alex245 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: cradshark_ (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: JOEYL_123 (1500 in chips)

There is no chip leader at the start of this final table, only one at the end, as the players each start off with 10/20 blinds and 1,500 chips. No all-in action for the first blind level but Jackycool took down a 1,020 chip pot off ansuz when a three-bet from Jackycool on a flop of [2d] [5c] [Tc] got ansuz to concede the pot.

Same for the 15/30 blind level as all nine survived and Jackycool continued to hold the chip lead, as ansuz continued to take the worst of it slipping to just 500 chips.

ansuz would get some temporary help while doubling up at the expense of VIP Supernova kafelnikovz in a blind versus blind battle during the 25/50 blind level. A little further into the level VIP Silverstar alex245 would also find a double-up as his pocket sevens [7d][7s] bested the [Ad][Qs] of scott96dl for a 1,720 chip pot. Three hands later alex245 would find even more good fortune in flopping a straight with [8d][9d] against the pocket jacks [Jh][Js] of JOEYL_123 after the two saw a flop of [Td] [6c] [7h]. Maybe flopped straights do get there once in a while and alex245 benefitted with the 3,515 chip pot. Down to just 135 chips JOEYL_123 would double up once but a few hands would run [Th][Ad] into the pocket kings [Ks][Kc] of Jackycool. After the board spilled out quads for Jackycool [3h] [Kd] [4d] [Kh] [7d] as JOEYL_123 became our first to leave the table in ninth place ($775.00) after being the last to arrive here.

Two hands later as the blinds moved up to 50/100 shortstacked scott96dl got the chance to open from middle position and shoved in 540 chips holding [Qh][3d]. Unfortunately, the steal was looked up by cradshark_ on the button with [Ah][Js]. The nearly all-heart board [7h] [Kh] [4d] [4h] [3h] gave both players a flush, but the nuts beat out the second nuts as scott96dl left with $1,200.00 in eighth place money.

After losing a big hand of TT vs. KK, angelababy99 was knocked down to just 10 chips. Chip and chair time? The first all-in angelababy99 would haul in 30 chips winning with just [9c][4c] when a nine spiked on the river. But the second all-in was not as successful. This time holding a respectful [Ah][3d] angelababy99 was up against [Js][Kh] held by kafelnikovz. A jack would hit the flop [6s] [Jh] [9h] and the rest of the board remained heart-less and free of aces [3c] [9d]. Seventh place and $1,700.00 was shipped to angelababy99 as the blinds moved up to 75/150.

Race for the win. Necessary in any poker tournament, watch alex245 and ansuz both put nearly all of their chips in preflop for a 2,025 chip pot:

RSS readers click through to see replay

alex245’s big slick took the victory on a rivered ace, as ansuz’s pocket nines were one card away from continuing but will have to settle for $2,200.00 in sixth place. Don’t feel bad for ansuz though as he was one player away from claiming a WCOOP bracelet back in 2007 in Event #10 and got $65K for the runner-up finish (check here for the recap)

kafelnikovz was running low on chips as the blinds moved up to 100/200 but had the button and shoved a stack of 1,510 chips with [7h][Tc]. But, Jackycool with plenty of chips and in the small blind made the call with [Qc][Ah]. Two live cards for kafelnikovz and one of them hit the [4h] [8d] [Td] flop. But before the VIP Supernova could do a victory dance, the [Ac] hit the turn and [8c] shipped the 3,220 chip pot to Jackycool eliminating kafelnikovz in fifth place ($2,735.00).

We’re sure cradshark_ could only muster a sigh after this below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Pocket queens [Qc][Qd] looking good against the [Js][Kc] of alex245 as they combined chips preflop for a 3,240 chip pot. The ladies held by cradshark_ however got ran over by the couple of kings that decided to make an appearance on the [2d] [6s] [Ks] [4c] [Kd] board. cradshark_ was left to search other waters for chum after taking $3,350.00 off this pond in fourth place.

Yeah, that’s not very nice. First, to take most of someone’s chips like Jackycool did against marioboggi when [Ah][3h] held for Jackycool over the [9s][Kh] of marioboggi for a 3,815 chip pot. Then, two hands later, Jackycool would scoop up the rest of marioboggi’s chips when pocket aces [Ah][Ad] held up over [As][6c] sending marioboggi to the rail with $4,500.00 and third place.

Despite having the chip lead for most of the tournament Jackycool would need to come from behind to win this one as the players started off with the below chip counts:

Seat 6: Jackycool (4400 in chips)
Seat 7: alex245 (9100 in chips)

Also, with blinds already at 125/250 ante 25, Jackycool would need to keep up the aggression seen earlier to stay ahead of the blinds. Jackycool would start out nicely taking down a 1,550 chip pot, but alex245 turned up the heat by taking down the next five pots. alex245 would keep the foot on the gas, knocking Jackycool down to just 2,325 chips before the final hand.

With blinds still at 125/250 ante 25, Jackycool decided to run with an ace [5d][Ah] on the button and shoved all-in. Having a huge chip lead made the decision to call easier for alex245 holding [Td][Qc]. The chip leader would promptly hit a ten on the flop and a ten on the river for good measure [8c] [Tc] [6h] [3s] [Th] taking down the April edition of the $50,000 Battle of the Planets triple shootout with trip tens!

Congrats to all 422 players who cashed in those weekly freeroll tickets and join us again next month as $50,000 will be laid across three tables again for the taking.

Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout Results (04-25-10)
1. alex245 (MIAMI BEACH) $12,000.00
2. Jackycool (Siegen) $7,500.00
3. marioboggi (borås) $4,500.00
4. cradshark_ (las vegas) $3,350.00
5. kafelnikovz (Belo Horizonte) $2,735.00
6. ansuz (Karrby) $2,200.00
7. angelababy99 (ningbo) $1,700.00
8. scott96dl (Co. Donegal) $1,200.00
9. JOEYL_123 (Woodstock) $775.00

If you have PokerStars on your Twitter feed, then you know that PokerStars sends out tweet contests regularly and by answering correctly can earn you some free FPPs. If you are not following PokerStars and PokerStarsBlog, we suggest getting with the program and take advantage of information and contests flowing thru there. Today’s trivia question for FPPs on Twitter was: “How many players will start tonight’s $1Million Turbo Takedown?”.

Answer: 18,485

And tonight 5,000 of those players who paid the 3,000 FPPs to enter will grab a piece of the mentioned $1 million prize pool. The majority of the prizes will be waiting for our final nine at the final table as $60,000.00 plus the Audi TT is set aside for the person who stands tall after defeating this massive field.

Down to the final two tables, HarryO44 was left with just 463,979 chips with blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K and after a five minute break shoved those chips in the middle getting Munken_28, equinespy, and tmb_bluevar to call. [4c] [Qs] [4d] [Ah] [6d] was laid out and checked all the way down as tmb_bulevar showed pocket sevens [7s][7h], equinespy and HarryO44 were forced to muck before the winning hand [7c][As] of Munken_28 was turned over. HarryO44 earned the bubble boy title but took away $8,000.00 for tenth place setting up the final table below:

Seat 1: DareYou2Call (6623656 in chips)
Seat 2: Econ Adager (8819199 in chips)
Seat 3: equinespy (8183380 in chips)
Seat 4: Jroszkow (11603192 in chips)
Seat 5: Munken_28 (7468391 in chips)
Seat 6: Poker Drum (1499760 in chips)
Seat 7: analena85 (5215463 in chips)
Seat 8: tmb_bulevar (1484273 in chips)
Seat 9: pokerfun4321 (4557686 in chips)

Two hands into the final table, short-stacked Poker Drum wasted no time trying to find a double up. After open shoving from the cutoff for 1.3 million, Poker Drum watched pokerfun4321 in the big blind make the call creating a 2.9 million chip pot. [Ts][Ks] for pokerfun4321 and pocket fives [5s][5c] for Poker Drum. Two spades on the [6s] [Js] [7d] opened up a plethora of outs for pokerfun4321 and one of those hit the turn [7s] and the river [8c] stayed five free. Poker Drum was beaten but will play on to the tune of $10,000.00 earned in ninth place.

As the blinds rose to 125K/250K ante 25K, pokerfun4321 was on the flip side of the coin finding himself all-in against big stacked Econ Adager for a 6.9 million chip pot. After pokerfun4321 pushed [6h][Ah] all-in from the button, Econ Adager made the call in the big blind holding [Qd][As]. The other two aces would hit the [Ad] [5c] [Ts] [3d] [Ac] board but Econ Adager’s queen kicker still played and pokerfun4321’s chips were 4-3-2-1-gone in eighth place ($12,500.00). pokerfun4321 just last week took third in the Sunday Mixed Hold Em’ tourney for $1,000.

Three hands later another short-stack made an attempt to rise from the basement. tmb_bulevar shoved all-in preflop for 1.4 from UTG+1 as it folded around to Jroszkow who would min raise to dissuade Munken_28 from calling. It did as Jroszkow turned over pocket kings [Kc][Kh] to tmb_bulevar’s [8h][Jh]. The cold, heartless [Ac] [2c] [6s] [As] [5c] board rolled out to Jroszkow’s favor as tmb_bulevar would not be driving away in that Audi TT tonight, finishing in seventh place ($15,000.00).

Much like the rather nasty beat that set up the just finished Sunday Warm-up, watch Munken_28 and equinespy tangle for a tournament changing 17.9 million chip pot below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After the [9c] [4c] [5d] flop both players would get their considerable sized stacks into the middle. Munken_28 holding [Kc][Tc] for two overcards and the flush draw while equinespy had the pocket rockets [As][Ac]. The [Th] on the turn opened up even more outs for Munken_28 and the [8c] got the underdog there as Munken_28 raked in the big pot and equinespy got a nasty bad beat story in sixth place ($17,500.00). Add this to the $141K equinespy won at the 2009 WCOOP Event # 26 and equinespy could buy his own Audi TT.

The very next hand we had ANOTHER all-in pre-flop. This time analena85 and DareYou2Call knotted up to create a 8.8 million chip pot. With the blinds still at 125K/250K ante 25K, analena85 made a raise to 750K and DareYou2Call shoved all in for 5.8 million. Just like the name says “dare you to call” as analena85 took that literally and made the call holding big slick [Kh][Ad], which was a big favorite against the suited [9h][Ah] of DareYou2Call. analena85 would hit an unnecessary full boat on the [Kc] [Qs] [As] [Ks] [Jc] board leaving DareYou2Call to consider a name change after busting out in fifth place ($20,000.00). DareYou2Call has been hot lately, taking down the $215 NLHE Heads-up tourney for in February for a $14K score.

With the loss of DareYou2Call, faint pings of chop talks filtered through the chat box, and finally got loud enough to summon the moderator to the table. After Econ objected to the straight chip chop, Jroszkow and Munken_28 trimmed a little off their figures to reach the deal below:

$46,000.00 Jroszkow
$41,028.15 Munken_28
$35,169.11 Analena85
$32,802.74 Econ Adagar

All of the money was now locked up; the keys to the Audi TT were still up for grabs for tonight’s champion. Econ Adager would be the first to take leave after the chop. With blinds at 175K/350K ante 35K and a shove over the top of Jroszkow’s cutoff raise. Econ Adager watched Jroszkow call the shove, creating a 13.5 million chip pot, and turn over pocket queens [Qs][Qd] which looked much prettier than the [As][7s] in his hand. [8s] [Th] [Tc] [Kd] [9d] was laid out as Econ Adager’s supply side was down to zero earning $32,802.74 from the chop in fourth place.

Several hands later after the blinds bumped up to 200K/400K ante 40K the two big stacks would clash for a huge 42.9 million chip pot. Watch the carnage below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Again Munken_28 shoved after flopping a flush draw while up against a huge pocket pair. This time it was pocket kings [Kd][Kc] for Jroszkow and the nut flush draw holding [7h][Ah] for Munken_28 on the [2h] [Tc] [8h] flop. The [5s] was safe on the turn, as Munken_28’s tournament life was on the line. Rivered [3d] sealed up the largest pot of the tournament for Jroszkow as Munken_28 took away the chopped $41,028.15 in third place.

Because of that pot, Jroszkow held a huge 48.3 million to 7 million chip lead on analena85 going into heads-up play. But, analena85 wasn’t conceding the car just yet and managed to stay even keel through several hands and finally caught a double-up with [As][Qh] when Jroszkow called the all-in holding [As][Ts]. A queen on the flop sealed it up thru the [Qc] [5c] [3d] [5s] [Th] board and 9.9 million chips made their way to analena85.

analena85 had new life with the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K and near 10 million in chips. However, that life would take a turn for the worse just three hands later. After Jroszkow min raised from the button, analena85 seized the opportunity to shove in with a decent [Ah][9c] hand. Jroszkow holding [Td][Ad] snap called and nailed the nut flush on the [9d] [3d] [6d] flop sealing up the win…

… not so fast said the turn. The [Ac] on the turn gave analena85 three outs to a boat, but the excitement was short lived as the [Qs] fell and analena85’s well fought battle was at an end in second place ($35,169.11).

The keys to the Audi TT belonged to Jroszkow who also got $46,000.00 in gas money from the chop as this month’s Turbo Takedown champion!

March $1 Million Turbo Takedown results (03-28-10)
(*denotes part of four-way chop)
1. Jroszkow (Valrico) *$46,000.00
2. analena85 (Karlsruhe) *$35,169.11
3. Munken_28 (höör) *$41,028.15
4. Econ Adager (Carmel ) *$32,802.74
5. DareYou2Call (brooklyn) $20,000.00
6. equinespy (Hirzel-Switzerland) $17,500.00
7. tmb_bulevar (Тамбов) $15,000.00
8. pokerfun4321 (Pittsburgh) $12,500.00
9. Poker Drum (Bad Grund) $10,000.00

With springtime here, SnG players in the north are happily knocking off the ice and snow from their laptops to earn their ways into today’s Battle of the Planet $50,000 Triple Shootout Freeroll. 493 cashed in their tickets earned weekly for a shot at winning three consecutive SnGs and the hefty sum of $12,000.00 supplied by PokerStars.

Team PokerStars Pro Joep van den “Pappe_Ruk” Bijgaart would crack the money line today by winning his first table. But, in the early goings of the second table with blinds at 50/100 and only holding 868 chips, Bijgaart would open push [Kh][Qh] and get called by UPGRAYEDD420’s pocket jacks [Jh][Jc] in the cutoff. No hearts and nary royalty for Joep on the [6s][8c][3c][8d][Ac] board and the Team Holland respresentative was out in 54th place ($195.00).

Bumbleman from the UK rattled the hive by taking the first final table seat and sat back for some poker theater as the other seats were filled. Down to the last heads-up match between Ota_SolGryn and eatyourstac on Table 6 both were evenly matched until the 125/250 ante 25 blind level when both would get their stacks in the middle preflop with Ota_SolGryn covering. Pocket ladies [Qc][Qh] for Ota_SolGryn and [Kc][Jh] for eatyourstac with five cards to come for the final seat. [Ac] [5s] [Ts] [4d] [4s] was laid out and eatyourstac was left hungry as the bubble boy earning $195.00 in tenth place.

The triumphant queens set up the final table below:

Seat 1: slick_20_vic (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: RiverBard$ (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: Kedrila (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: 123ME321 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: JMX29 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Ota_SolGryn (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Carloss86 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: Bumbleman (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: xxxxBomba (1500 in chips)

“Chop?” asked Kedrila

Barely after the new stacks of 1,500 tournament chips were laid out and blinds rolled back to 10/20, discussions of a 9-way chop were being thrown around the table with hopes of everyone taking home a few thousand a piece. A few of the players would chime in with interest, but without a consensus we were playing out a poker tournament the old-fashioned way, until one has all the chips.

No blood drawn during the first blind level, as the largest pot of 270 chips was won by xxxxBomba. VIP SilverStar Carloss86 would be the first to break the 2,000 chip mark as the players still had plenty of game ahead of them moving into the 15/30 blind level.

Similar conservative play was found during the 15/30 level as all nine would move on to the 25/50 level with the following tight chip counts and no commanding leader:

Seat 1: slick_20_vic (1100 in chips)
Seat 2: RiverBard$ (1395 in chips)
Seat 3: Kedrila (1615 in chips)
Seat 4: 123ME321 (1755 in chips)
Seat 5: JMX29 (1350 in chips)
Seat 6: Ota_SolGryn (1125 in chips)
Seat 7: Carloss86 (1900 in chips)
Seat 8: Bumbleman (1820 in chips)
Seat 9: xxxxBomba (1440 in chips)

Near the end of the 25/50 blinds level we had our first all-in and a call preflop also resulting in the first elimation. Ota_SolGryn would start the betting with a raise to 150 from middle position as it folded around to xxxxBomba in the big blind. Holding pocket tens [Td][Th] xxxxBomba would push the short-stacked Ota_SolGryn all-in. With only 712 chips left, Ota_SolGryn made the call with [As][Jd] for the coin flip. [3h] [Qd] [9d] [7d] after the turn gave Ota_SolGryn some additional flush outs, but the board would pair with the [3s] and Ota_SolGryn’s tournament sunset was complete in ninth place ($775.00).

Carloss86 would get knocked down to just 135 chips after a rough bad beat at the hands of 123ME321 in the same blind level. On an all-diamond flop, the chips went into the middle with 123ME321 holding [Ad][Kh] for the nut flush draw and a slow-played pair of aces [As][Ah] for Carloss86. The flush would hit on the [3d] turn and Carloss86 was left with scraps. Those scraps would make their way back into the game with a few double ups, reaching 1,040 chips in the 50/100 blind level.

Just as the comeback for Carloss86 happened quickly so was the demise. Down to 890 chips, Carloss86 would shove from early position with [Th][As] as Kedrila was more than happy to call and covered from the big blind holding [Qs][Ad]. No short-stack love this time for Carloss86 as the [Js] [Qc] [Qd] flop gave Kedrila trips leaving Carloss86 four outs for a straight. Nary a king was found on the turn [2h] or river [8d] and potential comeback story Carloss86 was gone in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Six hands later with the blinds up to 75/150 slick_20_vic held just 690 in the small blind holding pocket threes [3s][3h] and facing a raise to put him all-in from very aggressive Bumbleman. The call was made and off to the race the two competitors went as Bumbleman showed [8s][Ad]. The board would wait till the turn to give 1,530 chip pot to Bumbleman as an eight hit on the [Td] [Jc] [Kc] [8c] [Jd] board was enough to ship slick_20_vic home in seventh place ($1,700.00).

Bumbleman went on the prowl for even more chips as shown below after facing an all-in raise from RiverBard$. Check out the action below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

No flip this time as pocket queens [Qc][Qh] dominated RiverBard$ [As][6d] and would hold on the [Th] [4c] [3d] [Jc] [9c] board. Alas, poor RiverBard$ perished in sixth position ($2,200.00).

As the smoke rose from my fingers with the quick timings of the recent bust-outs, another final table player was let go. Early chip leader xxxxBomba was whittled down to 1,415 chips and blinds still at 75/150, tried to nab the blinds with a shove from UTG holding [Qs][Jd]. But, Kedrila on the immediate left snap called with big slick [Kc][As]. Neither player would connect with the [2c] [Ts] [8c] [5d] [6s] board and we were down to four after xxxxBomba imploded in fifth place ($2,735.00).

JMX29 would start to make some moves to get to the top of the chip pile just eight hands after xxxxBomba’s smoke cleared as JMX29 would take on a similarly short-stacked 123ME321 all-in preflop. Watch JMX29’s rise and 123ME321’s demise below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

[Qd][Js] was gold for JMX29 against the pocket fives [5c][5h] of 123ME321 for the 2,435 chip pot as the jack on the flop [6s] [Jd] [3d] [7d] [2c] was enough to send 123ME321 out in fourth place ($3,350.00).

As stated, JMX29 went on a tear, winning the very next 1,430 chip pot and a huge 7,270 chip pot off the chip leader Bumbleman when both of them got it in preflop and JMX’s [Ac][Th] would hold against the [Qs][Kh] of Bumbleman on the [3d] [7h] [5d] [Ts] [4s] board as blinds moved up to 75/150.

Bumbleman would go all-in several times without getting looked up, until the blinds rose to 100/200 and another push came from the aggressive button. This time JMX29 holding [Ac][Qh] in the big blind would make the call creating a 3,420 chip pot. Bumbleman turned over two live cards [Jc][6h] and found some more outs after the [8h] [4c] [5d] flop. [Qs] on the turn and those straight out were the only ones left. The [5c] on the river stung Bumbleman for the rest of his chips, sending the poker bee flying off in third place ($4,500.00).

JMX29 would take a decent chip into heads-up play (as shown below) but Kedrila was still looking to make a deal. Those requests was denied for the final time as the two would play for the entire $12,000.00 first place prize.

Seat 3: Kedrila (3270 in chips)
Seat 5: JMX29 (10230 in chips)

On the third hand of heads-up play Kedrila would strike for a double up after flopping a set of a jacks and slowly luring JMX29 into paying off with a pair of fives and a flush draw. No flush came on the river and the 6,540 chip pot evened up the chips and still did not sway JMX29 into making a deal.

The two would spar for a bit with no major pots but JMX29 opened up a 7,825 to 5,675 chip lead. Watch the final hand below as both players get their stacks in the middle preflop:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Kedrila would shout for a nine many many times but the nine would not hit the [Ac] [4d] [Kh] [Qs] [3h] board as JMX29’s [Ah][Qc] would hold against the [Ad][9d] of Kedrila. The final 11,350 chips slid to JMX29 along with the first place prize of $12,000 for this month’s Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout freeroll champion!

The runner-up actually made quite a bit more by not dealing at the beginning, walking away today with $7,500.00 in second place.

Congrats to all our cashers today, the clock starts now to win tickets for April’s shootout!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout results (03-28-09)
1. JMX29 (West Lafayette) $12,000.00
2. Kedrila (St.-Petersburg) $7,500.00
3. Bumbleman (London) $4,500.00
4. 123ME321 (Blairgowrie) $3,350.00
5. xxxxBomba (Würzburg) $2,735.00
6. RiverBard$ (birmingham) $2,200.00
7. slick_20_vic (Amsterdam) $1,700.00
8. Carloss86 (Asuncion) $1,200.00
9. Ota_SolGryn (Stepville) $775.00

It’s not often (or ever) that the $1 Million Turbo Takedown’s field fails to eclipse that of the previous Sunday Million field. One part is the Turbo Takedown low cost of admission being just 3,000 Frequent Players Points to grab a seat with 3,000 chips in front of your name as opposed to the $215 buy-in to the Million. Another part may be all the great extras you receive at the Turbo Takedown, like the $100 bounties on the heads of all Team PokerStars Pros and the escalating bonuses for each month a player cashes in this event.

Oh, and the sleek looking Audi TT with $60,000.00 going to the champion gave 19,379 players a third reason to flock to today’s promotion. Sure, it wasn’t the 36,139 that showed up for the $4 Million special edition of the Sunday Million last week, but that was about 17 thousand less players to defeat for a seat behind the wheel of the winner’s car.

After a long eight hour tournament, it was a big difference between bubble boy and the sought after final nine spot with a shot at the car and $60,000 in cash. In the decisive hand rfptie1 led out for 900K with blinds at 90K/180K ante 18K from UTG and was re-raised by Emaa in the big blind enough to put rfptie1 all-in. rfptie1 would make the call holding pocket sevens [7c][7s] against the pocket queens [Qh][Qc] of Emaa for the 2.3 million chip pot. Top set on the set for Emaa left rfptie1 looking a 989:1 shot to win. It didn’t come in on the [Jc] [6h] [Qs] [Ah] [6c] board and rfptie1 would have to “settle” for the $8,000.00 earned in tenth place.

rfptie1’s elimination meant the race for the Audi was down to one table shown below:

Seat 1: whity77 (658104 in chips)
Seat 2: Cyberisda (2500960 in chips)
Seat 3: mikeirvin47 (725494 in chips)
Seat 4: siola (17190105 in chips)
Seat 5: Super1337 (9091987 in chips)
Seat 6: it`s owned (11192931 in chips)
Seat 7: Emaa (8072897 in chips)
Seat 8: 3K 4ePTeu! (3817127 in chips)
Seat 9: Bonsy (4887395 in chips)

Just four hands into the final table the big stacks went at each other. First, siola put in a raise to 445K, the it’s owned bumped it to 1.26 million. Four bet? Four bet. siola put in 2.22 milion and it’s owned was not close to done with a five bet to 4.32 million and that was enough to get siola to concede the pot to it’s owned as the expensive game of chicken was done for now.

Two hands after mikeirvin74 doubled up he was all-in again in this three-way shove fest below that included massively stacked siola and whity77:

RSS readers click through to see replay

mikeirvin47’s pocket kings [Kc][Ks] found a way to win while dodging the [Kd][4h] of whity77 and [Th][Qd] of siola on the [Ah] [2s] [Js] [5s] [8h] board to claim the whole 1.9 million pot and knock out whity77 in ninth place ($10,000.00).

Three hands later with blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K Cyberisda tried to improve a smallish stack with a shove from middle position for 2.03 million chips. Folded around to big stacked it’s owned who would make the call in the small blind holding pocket jacks [Js][Jc]. The pocket kings of Cyberisda were looking great for the 4.4 million chip pot until a third jack hit the [8s] [Jh] [3c] flop. No re-suck happened thru the [6s] turn and rivered full house [3s] as Cyberisda was sent back into cyberspace $12,500.00 richer in eighth place.

mikeirvin47 would manage several double-ups only to return to a shortstack. With the shortstack comes decreased fold equity as seen with mikeirvin47’s elimination. After open shoving 1.1 million chips from the button with [Ah][7d], mikeirvin47 would get called by Super1337 holding just [3s][Js] in the big blind. mikeirvin47 was looking good once again after the ace of clubs hit the [Ac] [4s] [9s] flop, the however [8s] turn ruined the former Dallas Cowboys wide-out fan with the spade flush for Super1337. The [5c] river was there for show as mikeirvin47 took down seventh place ($15,000.00).

After starting with a McMansion worth of chips, siola would end up on the outside looking in at chop talks. After several tangles with nemesis it’s owned, siola was knocked down to 5.3 million chips and blinds of 175K/350K ante 35K trying desperately to return to the chip lead. A push came from siola sitting on the button with [9h][Kh] and it’s owned calming hit the call button from the big blind with a better nine [9d][As]. The ace-high would hold up on the [5h] [Jc] [2d] [7h] [4d] board and it’s owned no doubt owned siola this evening sending the final table chip leader out in sixth place ($17,500.00).

Two hands later while whispers of chop talks took place, Bonsy with five million chips was looking to improve the stack against 3K 4ePTeu! with some post-flop action that is rare this deep into the tournament. Check out the hand results below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Trip queens of Bonsy were looking good against the pair and a flush draw of 3K 4ePTeu! and when the flush draw got there on the [Qs] [Tc] [Ah] [Qh] [4h] board, Bonsy couldn’t find a fold to 3K 4ePTeu!’s shove. 10.4 million chips shipped to 3K 4ePTeu!’s heart flush, and $25,000.00 going out to Bonsy for the nasty river in fifth place.

Players then gathered up their chips to present to the PokerStars Host for the chip chop count. After a slight language barrier and some questions about where the winner would park the Audi TT, we had the deal set below:

$51,278.26 it’s owned
$37,432.01 3K 4ePTeu!
$33,415,71 Emaa
$32,874.02 Super1337

Guaranteed money got the final table natives restless as they start pushing left and right. Starting with Emaa with the blinds still at 175K/350K ante 35K staring down at a flop reading [Js] [As] [Jh] and facing a bet from Super1337 that would put his tournament life at risk. Emaa would make the call holding [7c][Ac] as Super1337 turned over [6c][Ad] for what was likely a split pot. The [4s] helped Emaa to possibly capture the whole pot, but the [6h] on the river gave it all the Super1337 who reaped in the 17 million chip pot. Emaa locked up $33,415.71 in the chop for the fourth place.

Seven hands later Super1337 would raise from the button to 1.05 million with blinds still at 175K/350K ante 35K and get called by 3K 4ePTeu! in the big blind to see the [Jd] [9d] [4c] flop. 3K 4ePTeu! would check as Super1337 followed-through with a 17 million chip bet. Call all-in or fold were the options as 3K 4ePTeu! made the right decision calling with [9s][8c] good for second pair. The pair of nines were ahead of Super1337’s flush draw with an overcard…

… until the [As] hit the turn and for good measure because misery loves company the [3d] hit, completing the flush on the river to eliminate 3K 4ePTeu! in third place ($37,432.01).

With blinds at 175K/350K ante 35K the big heads-up showdown for the Audi TT was set to be a long one especially with the even stacks and picture of the car they are playing for shown below:

Seat 5: Super1337 (28154926 in chips)
Seat 6: it`s owned (29982074 in chips)

Sure enough the two players would play through the rest of the 175K/350K ante 35K level and the 225K/450K ante 45K level without determining a winner.

It wasn’t until the 250K/500K ante 50K blind level that Super1337 started to pull away after winning 9 of the last thirteen hands forcing it’s owned into making this final play at a pot:

RSS readers click through to see replay

[9s][7d] for it’s owned and [Ks][Ts] for Super1337 getting it in the middle preflop for a 10.8 million chip pot. it’s owned could catch many breaks while heads-up and couldn’t find one on the final [Jc] [Js] [Qd] [Qh] [6c] board either. Super1337 cashed in 58,137,000 tournament chips to become the new proud owner of an Audi TT as this month’s $1 Million Turbo Takedown champion! it’s owned got the most cash however, as the runner-up took the biggest share of the chop talks with $51,278.26 but will have to buy his own car with that money.

February 2010 $1 Million Turbo Takedown
(* denotes part of four way deal)
1. Super1337 (Lipetsk) *$32,874.02 + Audi TT
2. it`s owned (Novosibirsk City) *$51,278.26
3. 3K 4ePTeu! (St - Peterburg) *$37,432.01
4. Emaa (Renningen) *$33,425.71
5. Bonsy (Marquette) $20,000.00
6. siola (Redlands) $17,500.00
7. mikeirvin47 (modesto) $15,000.00
8. Cyberisda (||||||||||) $12,500.00
9. whity77 (hamburg) $10,000.00

Three SnG victories mean $12,000 for one lucky player this afternoon as the Battle of the Planets $50,000 Triple Shootout continues today with this long running daily promotion for Sit and Go players (read how to get your ticket into today’s event here). If you’re from the United State or Canada most likely your eyes were glued to the final event of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as Team USA and Team Canada battled for the Men’s Hockey gold. However, if any of the 641 players in today’s Triple Shootout freeroll were dancing their eyes back and forth from the Canada Hockey Place they were treated exciting puck slinging and poker at the same time.

At the bubble of the first leg of the triple shootout, teacuppoker came back from just 470 chips with blinds at 150/300 ante 25 to knot up the match with Pocket2Chris several hands later. But, the final hand found both players looking at a [9h] [5c] [3s] board, Pocket2Chris elected to check as teacuppoker led out for the minimum. With 7,090 chips behind Pocket2Chris check-raised and set teacuppoker all-in holding top pair [7s][9s] as teacuppoker called off the remainder of his stack with middle pair of fives [5d][8d]. The board ran out dry for both players [4h] and [Qh] as Pocket2Chris took down the final pot thus assuring 81 players a $195.00 pay day.

Right around the time Zack Parise scored the game tying goal in the hockey game, zhenya__S secured the first seat to the final table while most still held four players at them. And shortly after Sidney Crosby shoved home the game winning goal in overtime for Team Canada, Harthor and RealRastar were heads-up for the last final table seat. Playing all the way into the 200/400 ante 50 blind level nearly even in chips it would take a fortunate river card to end it. Harthor completed from the button as RealRastar checked the option to see a [9c] [Ad] [Ks] flop, RealRastar checked as Harthor led out for the minimum and was called. The [8d] on the turn and RealRastar decided to be the aggressor and lead out for 800 and Harthor decided to call. [8h] paired the board on the river and again RealRastar led out, this time for 1,600. But, Harthor found the eight to his liking and shoved all-in covering RealRastar’s stack. [Ac][5s] was good enough to RealRastar to call with top pair, but not good enough to beat Harthor’s rivered trips [7s][8c] to set up the final table below:

Seat 1: Hexo4yxa (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: mister aleks (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: bolecc (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: slideby (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Harthor (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: rudzkinator (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: zhenya__S (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: BEFO (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: jeanette_33 (1500 in chips)

jeanette_33 is looking to improve on a fifth place finish here at the Battle of the Planet’s triple shootout after finishing fifth in March 2009 (final table write-up here). The Supernova would have to get thru this talented final table first as everyone started off with 1,500 chips and blinds of 10/20. bolecc started off in the wrong direction, finishing off the level with just 504 chips after being unable to counter the re-raises and shoves post flop by mister aleks and slideby. The big pots off bolecc helped mister aleks to the early chip lead.

No change in the 15/30 blind level as all nine players survived as bolecc continued to nurse a shortstack while mister aleks increased the chip lead to a double stack of near 3,300 chips. bolecc would double up midway thru the 25/50 blind level off Harthor, inching [Ah][Jd] past Harthor’s [Qs][Ad] after spiking a gutshot broadway straight on the turn of the [8s] [Kc] [Qh] [Th] [9c] board to send Harthor down to the bottom of the leaderboard.

At the top of the hour break here’s how the chips stacked up with mister aleks still leading the way:

Seat 1: Hexo4yxa (1705 in chips)
Seat 2: mister aleks (3276 in chips)
Seat 3: bolecc (1,053 in chips)
Seat 4: slideby (1423 in chips)
Seat 5: Harthor (611 in chips)
Seat 6: rudzkinator (1355 in chips)
Seat 7: zhenya__S (1415 in chips)
Seat 8: BEFO (875 in chips)
Seat 9: jeanette_33 (1805 in chips)

Four hands back from the break and increased 50/100 blinds saw off our first contender. Folded around to BEFO in the small blind who would shove with just 825 chips after paying the small blind holding [Qd][Jc]. But, jeanette_33 similarly shorted stacked was not giving up the big blind and called holding the dominating [Jh][Kc]. The trip kings on the flop did in BEFO as the turn and river did nothing to help [Kd] [Kh] [5s] [9s] [4c] and BEFO became our ninth place finisher ($775.00).

jeanette_33 would use this win to springboard over mister aleks into the chip lead and be the first one to 4,000 chips as mostly tentative play continued with preflop raises taking down most of the pots.

As the blinds moved up to 75/150, shortstacked bolecc finally succumbed to the rising blinds and lost back-to-back hands. First, after a short stacked slideby shoved from UTG for only 580 chips, bolecc covered in the big blind and called with [Ah][4h]. Neither player improved on the [8d] [2c] [5c] [Th] [Js] board and slideby slid by the weak ace with pocket treys [3d][3c]. The next hand, chip leader jeanette_33 would gobble up bolecc scraps with a rivered flush endning bolecc’s tournament in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Nine hands later a three-way all-in broke out between Hexo4yxa, slideby, and rudzkinator watch the carnage of the pocket kings of Hexo4yxa did below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Winning the 1,889 chip pot got Hexo4yxa back a solvent stack and eliminated both rudzkinator (7th place for $1,700.00) and slideby (6th place, $2,200.00) as Hexo4yxa tried to broach the idea of a deal but not no takers with five players remaining.

Slow play, no pay. Harthor looked down at pocket aces [Ad][Ac] after mister aleks min-raised to 300 chips and decided to go for a smooth call as the rest of the table folded. [8s] [Qh] [Th] on the flop as mister aleks followed through with a 300 chip bet and Harthor min-raised to 600 as mister aleks made the call. [2s] on the turn mister aleks checked this time as Harthor pushed out 555 chips. A call, and both players saw the [6s] river as mister aleks this time led out for 900 chips and Harthor was forced to call with just 181 chips left and saw the spade on the river completed the nut flush for mister aleks’ [Js][As]. 3,497 chips for mister aleks and $2,735.00 in real cash for Harthor’s fifth place finish.

zhenya__S kept mostly silent by the aggressive play of mister aleks and jeanette_33 found a good spot as the blinds moved up to 100/200 opening all-in with pocket sevens [7s][7h] and jeanette_33 to the immediate left covered and made the call. Watch the hand play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

jeanette_33’s [Ad][Qd] found an ace on the [8d] [As] [4c] [Js] [Td] board to win the coin flip and sent zhenya__S to the rail in fourth place ($3,350.00).

Again, a quick note about a deal was rebuffed or ignored and three handed play continued as jeanette_33 and mister aleks scraped for the blinds with Hexo4yxa was left to be the quiet kid in the corner who could only manage a shortstacked double-up until elimination. After another small blind raise by jeanette_33 to set the big blind all-in, Hexo4yxa with just 968 chips left after paying the big blind made the call holding [5d][9d]. Two live cards one would hope, but not to be as jeanette_33 flipped up [Qc][5s]. A Queen on the flop and a diamond-less [Qs] [7c] [2d] [Th] [Js] board meant Hexo4yxa secured third place ($4,500.00) as we moved on to heads-up play.

Seat 2: mister aleks (6366 in chips)
Seat 9: jeanette_33 (7134 in chips)

Fitting that the most aggressive players would battle it out for the $12,000.00 first prize and also fitting as how quickly it was over. Just fourteen hands into heads-up play we would have February’s Battle of the Planets champion. Blinds raised to 125/250 ante 25, and mister aleks was blinded down to just 1,991 chips after jeanette_33 went on a tear winning 11 of 12 pots and was facing yet another push by the chip leader. This time a call was made as mister aleks’ pocket deuces [2h][2s] were up against the [Js][Ah] of jeanette_33. Just like the many pots before, this one went jeanette_33’s direction also after flopping the ace and dodging the two deuces on the [As] [3h] [7s] [Tc] [9c] board to win the final 3,982 chip pot and $12,000.00 first prize!

Congratulations to all 81 players who cashed and Supernova jeanette_33 who improved on the March 2009 5th place finish in this freeroll by winning the whole $12,000.00 today.

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Freeroll
1. jeanette_33 (Stavanger) $12,000.00
2. mister aleks (Дедовск) $7,500.00
3. Hexo4yxa (Wolfratshausen) $4,500.00
4. zhenya__S (Loveland) $3,350.00
5. Harthor (Mendoza) $2,735.00
6. slideby (bradford) $2,200.00
7. rudzkinator (Neuss) $1,700.00
8. bolecc (Wrocław) $1,200.00
9. BEFO (sofia) $775.00

Just a few weeks ago we were lauding the largest Sunday Million field here at the PokerStarsBlog. There were good reasons for the hype as the bump from the usual $1.5 million guarantee to $2 million guarantee attracted the largest field (19,377 players) and biggest prize pool ($3,875,400) this special tournament had ever seen…

… until February 21st, 2010 that is. It wasn’t the Men’s Downhill or live Curling matches in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics that brought the new record-breaking field to the tables tonight. Instead it was a grand finale of epic poker proportions to the recent 40th Billionth hand celebration here at PokerStars. Throughout the week grinders of cash games and MTT and SnG players alike benefitted from the added cash to the tables and nightly $40,000 tournaments for a few frequent player points. Since the 40 Billionth hand was dealt on Friday all eyes were focused tonight’s Sunday Million bump to a $4,000,000 guarantee. The previous largest field in the history of the tourney couldn’t reach tonight’s guarantee prize pool so players were perhaps assuming there would be an overlay tonight.

Those players who signed up early knowing there was a guarantee of $1 million going to the champion tonight were in for some playing field shock as the guarantee was met well before late registration and ended with a prize pool that exceeded that of the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) kickoff event at the Venetian. Then again going up to Sheldon Adelson and asked him to clear out all the slots on the casino floor in exchange to seat the 36,169 players that paid $215 for tonight’s Sunday Million might be a bit of a stretch. We’re sure the casino was much happier with the 872 players who are currently battling it out in their poker room without the loss of Mr. Cashman machines. Players playing for the largest prize pool this weekend got to do so from the comforts of their own home, but with the lack of beautiful waitresses bringing Red Bulls to your laptop. The record $7,233,800.00 purse to be distributed to 5,400 lucky players that cashed this evening meant we would be crowning a new millionaire here at PokerStars. To put into another perspective how big this is, last week’s Sunday Million champ, Blompf, took down $227,757.02, tonight our 4th place finisher will get $282,118.20 while the winner is looking at $1.1 million to be transferred to a soon-to-be bloated seven figure bankroll.

The bubble broke around 8:00pm CST as Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson and JC Alvarado came ever so close to cashing but fell short respectively in 5,403th and 5,416th place as ALEXMARKO was the official bubble boy this evening. 5,400 players were assured $289.35 tonight amongst those cashing were the Team PokerStars Pros listed below:

Thieery van den “BOKPOWER” Berg 44th place ($6,501.42)
Keiran “K_Man2307″ Harris 90th place ($4,195.60)
Gavin Griffin 95th place ($4,052.92)
Joep van den “Pappe_Ruk” Bijgaart 425th place ($2,025.46)
Sebastian Ruthenberg 765th place ($1,446.76)
Jan Heitmann 1910th place ($434.02)
Alexey “LuckyGump” Makarov 2110th place ($434.02)
Diego “vgreen22″ Brunelli 2260th place ($434.02)
Chad Brown 3,454th place ($361.69)
Jude “j. thaddeus” Ainworth 3,653rd place ($289.35)
Juan Macerias 4,555th place ($289.35)
Emad Tahtouh 5,107th place ($289.35)
George Danzer 5,142th place ($289.35)

Poker’s triple crown winner (WSOP, EPT, and WPT) Gavin Griffin made it to the final 100 players until the steep blinds caught up to him and he decided to go with [Qh][8h] in the below hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Gavin failed to overcome the [Jd][As] of lankeshwar and finished in 95th place ($4,052.92).

Down to the final table bubble the blinds were a hefty 700K/1.4M ante 140K and shortstacked lfunk11 took a look at pocket aces [Ad][As] and insta-shoved over the top of DerHenker666’s raise to 5.6 million from the button for 5.8 million chips total. Call it a math call or just common sense as DerHenker666 called the extra 200K with [Ks][Qc]. A king on the [Jc] [3s] [Kh] flop got even me to cringe, [6h] on the turn was safe for the 14.2 million chip pot, but the [Qs] on the river closed out the table and lfunk11’s tournament in 10th place ($21,701.40) setting up the nine person race to the million below:

Seat 1: Jaggy42 (22896415 in chips)
Seat 2: WNYCEC (10021139 in chips)
Seat 3: Amoneymagnet (10584212 in chips)
Seat 4: petinvest7 (81920648 in chips)
Seat 5: DerHenker666 (48546362 in chips)
Seat 6: RichieRichZH (34873357 in chips)
Seat 7: highplaya (19849828 in chips)
Seat 8: lankeshwar (59776803 in chips)
Seat 9: Erik “lirarerik” Friberg (73221236 in chips)

Blinds starting off at 700K/1.4M ante 140K after nearly a half of a day in play to determine who would claw their way to that $1.1 million first prize. With the sizable blinds WNYCEC was the first to make a move, doubling up on the final table’s second hand after pocket sixes [6c][6d] were good against the [Ad][Qs] of DerHenker666 on a [Kc] [9c] [Ts] [5d] [8h] board for a 21.8 million chip pot. Amoneymagnet would follow suit two hands later taking pocket jacks [Jd][Jh] to the bank against the [8c][Ac] of lankeshwar for a 20.3 million chip double up.

The newly acquired chips were quickly vanquished for Amoneymagnet however. Five hands after doubling up, the shortstack would run into a bit of a cooler with a blind vs. blind battle. After open shoving from the small blind with [Tc][Ac], petinvest7 woke up in the big blind also suited and outkicked Amoneymagnet with [Qh][Ah]. No broadway cards hit the [9d] [6d] [3h] [9c] [4s] board and Amoneymagnet attracted $28,935.20 for the ninth place finish.

Eleven hands later, highplaya was facing a min-raise on the button from RichieRichZH sitting in the cutoff. Holding an ace and hoping to steal the dead money, highplaya would shove 11.3 million into the middle with [4h][Ac]. However the richest boy in the world had chips to spare and a dominating [As][Qs] to make the call with. Both players would pair their ace on the all-heart flop, but RichieRichZH’s queen kicker would play on the [6h] [8h] [Ah] [Td] [Jd] board and higplaya was off to possibly find some herbal medication for the eighth place finish ($43,402.80) after 12 hours of play.

DerHenker666 returned to a feasible chip stack after taking some of RichieRichZH’s recently acquired chips six hands later. Pocket queens [Qd][Qc] of DerHenker666 were too much for the ducks [2s][2d] of RichieRichZH and 55.8 million chips went to the right as blinds moved up to 850K/1.7M ante 170K.

While still in the 850K/1.7M ante 170K blind level 43, RichieRichZH was found in the middle of yet another all-in preflop and call hand. Watch it play out below against Jaggy42 for a 25.9 million chip pot:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Big slick is outkicked by no one (except those pesky pocket aces or kings), as RichieRichZH took [Kc][As] to victory over the dominated [Jc][Ks] of Jaggy42 on the [Qh] [4h] [9d] [Kh] [5c] board and Jaggy42’s tournament ended in seventh place ($57,870.40).

As stated big slick is a monster hand with these astronomical blinds as we moved into 1M/2M ante 200K blinds with six players remaining and DerHenker666 made a move post flop [4s] [4c] [Th] with big slick [Kc][As] after limping to blinds of lankeshwar and lirarerik. The blinds checked the flop, as DerHenker666 would bet 8 million chip and got check-raised all-in by lankeshwar. After some blinks DerHenker666 made the call with ace-high and saw the bad news written on lankeshwar’s [Ks][Tc]. Outflopped, DerHecker666 failed to produce the re-suck on neither the [Jc] turn nor [5s] river and lankeshwar was shipped the massive 81.3 million chip pot, leaving DerHecker666 with “just” 15.5 million.

At this stage 15.5 million doesn’t buy what it used to as seven hands later megastacked petinvest7 would claim those chips along with the stack of WYNCEC in this hand below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

[Kh][Td] found a straight on the [Kc] [9c] [8h] [Qs] [Js] board for petinvest7 outflipping the [As][5s] of DerHecker666 and squeaking past the [Jd][Ad] of WYNCEC. A fitting sixth place for the sign of the devil as DerHecker666 was abolished from the final table earning $86,805.60 tonight. And WYNCEC would return to the Big Apple with a six figure score ($151,909.80) in fifth place due to chip counts at the beginning of the hand.

Here’s how the final four stacked up after the double elimination:

Seat 4: petinvest7 (169,869,205 in chips)
Seat 6: RichieRichZH (55,214,377 in chips)
Seat 8: lankeshwar (74,985,182 in chips)
Seat 9: lirarerik (61,621,236 in chips)

Four hands after the chop down to four competitors RichieRichZH tore thru the table with four consecutive wins (winning with pocket fours here would make a great story ending to this run). Instead RichieRichZH would double up with pocket jacks [Jh][Jc], earning a 104 million chip pot off lirarerik when the two got their chips into the middle preflop and lirarerik’s pocket nines failed to find a set on the [3d] [5d] [8c] [8s] [5h] board as the players got a well deserved five minute break right after tower of chips were pushed to RichieRichZH.

First hand back from the break with new blinds of 1.25M/2.5M ante 250K RichieRichZH would win the third consecutive hand and claimed lirarerik’s remaining 11.4 million chips as lirarerik’s [Ks][5s] failed to improve on the [2c] [Jh] [3h] [Ts] [Qs] board to overtake RichieRichZH’s [Td][Ah]. lirarerik’s fourth place finish of $282,118.20 would nearly eclipse the 1st and 2nd place prizes of the recently finished Sunday Warm-up (which sported a million dollar plus prize pool)! Not shockingly this was not Erik “lirarerik” Friberg’s biggest cash. That happened a few years ago in a little tournament called the World Series of Poker main event as he took down $9.6 million in his fourth place (déjà vu?) finish in 2006.

Heading into three handed play, petinvest7 was firmly in the lead as shown below, but the chat box stayed silent in regards to any deals being made:

Seat 4: petinvest7 (173,469,205 in chips)
Seat 6: RichieRichZH (117,635,613 in chips)
Seat 8: lankeshwar (70,585,182 in chips)

Oooof! Watch this 236 million chip pot between petinvest7 and RichieRichZH with a settled stomach:

RSS readers click through to see replay

There’s a saying or a myth that flopped straight never “get there”, the above hand is a potentially $600,000 example of that. With blinds at 1.5M/3M ante 300K, after flopping the straight with [Tc][9c], petinvest7 would shove the paired turn [7c] [Js] [8s] [8c]. Unfortunately, that seven made RichieRichZH’s [8h][7h] improve from two pair to an unbeatable full house rendering the [Qd] river as moot to ship the 236 million chip pot to RichieRichZH. Two hands later, petinvest7’s remaining 6.4 million would hit the middle with [Qh][4h] and fail to catch up to lankeshwar’s [Jc][As] on the [3d] [6h] [9s] [Js] [3s] board. A half million ($506,366.00) went to the player who will be snake-bitten by every flopped straight from now on, as petinvest7 exited in third place.

RichieRichZH looked to become the newest millionaire at PokerStars after just eleven hands of heads up play when both players shoved preflop. Holding pocket kings [Kd][Kc] RichieRichZH seemed to have an ending to this marathon tourney that was past its 13th hour of play. But, the [Ad][Js] of lankeshwar found a way to get there. After flopping a jack [5d] [Qc] [Jc], the dagger came on the turn as the [As] hit giving lankeshwar two pair. The two pair would hold off the straight and set draws as the [8d] filled neither. 192 million chips that created a tower that leapt off my screen were directed to lankeshwar’s stack.

RichieRichZH would battle back however, reclaiming the lead as the blinds moved up to 2M/4M ante 400K as shown by the chip counts below:

Seat 6: RichieRichZH (205352452 in chips)
Seat 8: lankeshwar (156337548 in chips)

Maybe “battling back” is a bit light for the excellent display of aggression by RichieRichZH who would batter lankeshwar’s stack by winning 29 of the final 33 hands. Including the million dollar final hand shown below:

The $1.1 million coin-flip RSS readers click through to see replay

And it was all over. With blinds still at 2M/4M ante 400K RichieRichZH led out for a 12 million chip raise, lankeshwar’s stack of 56 million immediately went into middle holding [As][4c]. With pocket threes [3h][3d] and well covering the bet of lankeshwar, RichieRichZH made the call. lankeshwar would flop some additional outs to a wheel [5s] [2s] [Tc] (but just two, as RichieRichZH held the other two treys). The [9d] on the turn was no help, and a [5c] on the river made RichieRichZH a millionaire. $1,145,510.31 won to be exact, as RichieRichZH took down 36,168 players to win the biggest Sunday Million ever hosted at PokerStars! No stranger to the spotlight, RichieRichZH represented Switzerland at the World Cup of Poker back in 2008.

For the runner-up lankeshwar will welcome the three-quarters of a million dollars ($754,774.69) into the bankroll and the relief of the 13 hour 20 minute tournament coming to a close. Thank you players for making this exciting tournament an even bigger one this evening, lets shoot for 50,000 players next week? Ok, maybe wait until the 50th billionth hand promotion…

For now, check back to PokerStars.TV for hole cards exposed with commentary on tonight’s record breaking Sunday Million.

40 Billionth Hand Special $4 Million Guarantee Sunday Million Results (02-21-10)

1. RichieRichZH (Zuerich) $1,141,510.31
2. lankeshwar (Northborough) $754,774.69
3. petinvest7 (sag) $506,366.00
4. lirarerik (swe) $282,118.20
5. WNYCEC (New York) $151,909.80
6. DerHenker666 (Münster) $86,805.60
7. Jaggy42 (Adelaide) $57,870.40
8. highplaya (Prairie du Sac) $43,402.80
9. Amoneymagnet (Bronx) $28,935.20

For the fans of the National Football League, it’s Pro Bowl night where the best players in football (American not “proper” football of course) come out to show their talents. Basically they show up to put up huge numbers on the scoreboard and give fans one more taste of the sport before the Super Bowl. While the $1 Million Turbo Takedown may not be the Pro Bowl of poker, there are huge numbers on the scoreboard being put up by PokerStars such as $60,000.00 and an Audi TT to drive away in for tonight’s winner. On top of the $100 for knocking out any Team PokerStars Pro such as Joep van den “Pappe_Ruk” Bijgaart who finished in 198th place ($400.00) or the Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske (231st place for $350.00), there’s no better value for the 3,000 FPPs buy-in to this tournament, sitting in your PokerStars account.

21,652 players did take the advice and paid with the FPPs up front or won their way in via satellite and 5,000 of those players were rewarded with at least $78.00 for the effort.

But, as mentioned only one person while be driving away in that Audi TT after tonight and that started with our final table bubble boy. Lokfable ran big slick into the pocket aces of KieFer 427 just seven hands prior and was now facing a button raise that would the rest of the chips into the middle holding the mighty [6h][8s]. With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K and only 381,200 chips there wasn’t much choice. But, KieFeR 427 wasn’t just playing chip bully, rolling over pocket kings [Ks][Kc] which hit a boat on by the river [4d] [4h] [9s] [9d] [Kh] to put an exclamation point on the win. Lokfable missed out on the five figures at the final table but still earned $8,000.00 for the tenth place finish.

Seat 1: Laurens123 (9361085 in chips)
Seat 2: Platon79 (2178581 in chips)
Seat 3: nambsher (2579231 in chips)
Seat 4: ALBANIANCHIP (7901139 in chips)
Seat 5: crownrsv (9043336 in chips)
Seat 6: KieFeR 427 (7841274 in chips)
Seat 7: dimast1 (15128492 in chips)
Seat 8: NTHEBASEMENT (4450510 in chips)
Seat 9: SixthSenSe19 (6472352 in chips)

This final table started out with action very quickly as Platon79 would grab a double up from crownrsv after getting [Ah][Td] to hold over the [Ad][8c] of crownrsv for 4.3 million chips as kicked off the final table with 100K/200K ante 20K blinds. Two hands later Team PokerStars Pro Steve Paul-Ambrose exclaimed “Crazy Hand!” and we agree. It started with NTHBASEMENT raising in middle position to 485,000 as nambsher shoved from the small blind for 2.2 million. The big blind ALBANIANCHIP would make the call but NTHBASEMENT decide to throw even more chips on the fire and shoved for 6.4 million as ALBANIANCHIP covered and again made the call.

ALBANIACHIP: [Kh][Ks]
NTHBASEMENT: [Qh][Qc]
nambsher: [9c][9h]

Pairs for everyone! The [9s] [Kd] [Ts] flop would hit both nambsher and ALBANIACHIP but hitting the set for nambsher actually decreased the chances from two outs to just one as ALBANIACHIP’s outs went from two to four. And of course one of those four would hit the [Js] turn filling NTHBASEMENT’s inside straight draw. To top off the roller-coaster hand the [5s] hit the river with a thud for NTHBASEMENT’s chance to suckout for the 15.2 million chip pot as it gave ALBANIACHIP the king high four flush and knocked out nambsher in 9th place ($10,000.00) and NTHBASEMENT in 8th place ($12,500.00).

As the blinds rolled to 150K/300K ante 30K play settled down for the most part after that massive three-way all-in with no eliminations for most of the blind level as the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker’s main event final table was going on at the same time and down to five players vying for a $3,100 SCOOP ticket. But just as the blinds were about to be raised to 175K/350K ante 35K Platon79 and SixthSenSe19 decided to rumble preflop. SixthSenSe19 started the betting from UTG+1 with a raise to 688,888 and folded to Platon79 two chairs over who would shove for 6.1 million chips. SixthSenSe19 took some time before deciding on a call with pocket tens [Ts][Td]. The call set up the coin flip with Platon79’s [Ah][Qc] for the 12.9 million chip pot. The flop [8s] [8h] [7d] didn’t change anything but the [Th] did as it rendered the river meaningless giving SixthSenSe19 the full house and sent Platon79 home in seventh place ($15,000.00).

The 175K/350K ante 35K blind level went without kicking anyone off the final table island but KieFeR 427 had just eight big blinds to start the 200K/400K ante 40K level as shown below:

Seat 1: Laurens123 (8039422 in chips)
Seat 4: ALBANIANCHIP (12055880 in chips)
Seat 5: crownrsv (9644753 in chips)
Seat 6: KieFeR 427 (3246274 in chips)
Seat 7: dimast1 (18541389 in chips)
Seat 9: SixthSenSe19 (13428282 in chips)

KieFeR 427 managed to stay ahead of the blinds with timely preflop steals but someone eventually was going to call and that person was big stack dimast1. dimast1 would raise from UTG to 800,000 as KieFeR 427 moved all-in from the big blind by shoving for 3.2 million with [Kh][Qc]. dimast1 would make the call with [Ah][6s] and the ace would pair on the turn and managed to fade an inside straight draw on the river [Tc] [8s] [4d] [Ac] [2s] to win the 6.8 million chip pot and knock out KieFeR 427 in sixth place ($17,500.00).

Four hands later dimast1 got involved in another huge pot, this time it was against Laurens123 who shoved over the top of dimast1’s preflop raise for 8.1 million. With big slick [Kd][Ah] dimast1 would eventually make the call and the coin flip against Laurens123’s pocket sixes [6c][6s] was on. The flop came down a monotone [Qd] [6d] [Ad] at first glance I thought this was the perfect flop for dimast1 hitting a pair of aces and the nut flush draw but then I realized that Laurens123 also hit with a set of sixes. The [As] on the turn paired the board giving Laurens123 a boat and now had to fade high full house outs versus flush outs. But the king or queen did not hit the river and 17 million chips headed Laurens123’s way.

Five hands later Laurens123 would use the newly acquired big stack to maximize getting a little lucky. With the blinds still at 200K/400K ante 40K SixthSenSe19 led the betting off with a raise to 888,888 total as Laurens123 called from the button. But ALBANIACHIP wasn’t folding [Ad][Qs] from the small blind and shoved for 9.8 million. SixthSenSe19 use the oft neglected common sense to fold but Laurens123 made the call with [Jc][As] for the dominated hand. Despite SixthSenSe19 claiming to fold AJo as well, a jack still appeared on the flop and would hold thru the [Jh] [4c] [Kh] [9c] [3d] board for the 21.1 million chip pot sending ALBANIACHIP home in fifth place ($20,000.00).

No further carnage occurred in the blind level except for SixthSenSe19 picking up a huge 19 million chip double up at the expense of dimast1 who couldn’t find a fold with [Ah][4d] after being 4-bet all-in by SixthSenSe19’s pocket tens [Tc][Td]. The tens would hold as the blinds moved up to the final level 250K/500K ante 50K.

A brief check about a deal being cut but no reply from dimast1 meant play rolled on. crownrsv would manage a double up at the expense of SixthSenSe19 but 11 hands later was all-in again, this time against the massive stack of Laurens123. After Laurens123 raised to 1.2 million from the button, crownrsv shoved over the top for 7.5 million holding [Jd][Ac]. With plenty of chips to spare and a more than decent holding [Ad][Qd] Laurens123 would make the call. The flop [Ah] [Qc] [2c] was a pretty one for Laurens123 but the [4c] gave crownrsv a chance to stay alive with a club on the river. Instead the [4s] dropped and crownrsv was given a $25,000 real money chip in third place.

SixthSenSe19 was able to smooth out Laurens123’s huge stack a bit by doubling up off the chip leader five hands later when pocket jacks [Jh][Jc] held up over the suited [Ad][7d] of the chip leader. Laurens123 retained the chip lead until the largest hand of the tourney up to this point went down as dimast1 led out on the button with a min-raise to one million. SixthSenSe19 folded as Lauren123 three bet to three million, then dimast1 answered back with another raise to eight million. And we couldn’t just stop at that as Laurens123 five bet to 13 million and dimast1 finally put in the last raise with a push to 16.9 million total. Laurens123 of course made the call with big slick [Ad][Ks] as dimast1 rolled over [8h][8c]. The flop [4s] [9c] [6d] was safe for dimast1 but the [Kd] turn card was not. Needing an eight on the river, dimast1 got a [3c] instead as the 34.2 million chip pot went to Laurens123.

And now the battle for the car and the $60,000.00 first prize had Laurens123 holding a sizable lead over SixthSenSe19 but with the blinds capped, there would be no rush to resort to pushing preflop.

Seat 1: Laurens123 (47648228 in chips)
Seat 9: SixthSenSe19 (17307772 in chips)

After a dozen hands SixthSenSe19 got the break to take over the lead. With the board showing [Qs] [Kd] [3c] [Jd] [5d] and active betting on each street, Laurens123 shoved on the river holding a turned two pair [Qh][Jc] but was snapped called by SixthSenSe19 who was holding the nut flush [Qd][Ad] and was awarded the massive 38.5 million chip pot.

Heads-up play was a long one as the tournament stretched to the ten hour mark and seemed that without a cooler and both players retaining over 60 big blind stacks it could go all night, especially with that Audi TT sitting in the PokerStars garage waiting to be claimed by the winner. After ten and a half hours here’s how they stacked up after a five minute break:

Seat 1: Laurens123 (31983354 in chips)
Seat 9: SixthSenSe19 (32972646 in chips)

Yes, a near dead heat and since they can’t split the car down the middle (what a horrible thought to such a beautiful piece of machinery!) we shall continue to roll on.

That wasn’t the ending we were expecting.

Our thoughts were more towards an AA vs. KK type cooler. Instead this is what happened. The hand started innocently enough with SixthSenSe19 min raising to one million as Laurens123 made the call. After a flop of [Ad] [Js] [Qd] Laurens123 checked as SixthSenSe19 put out another million as Laurens123 called. On the turned [7c] Laurens123 again checked as SixthSenSe19 again bet, this time 2.4 million, but Laurens123 decided to check-raise to five million and SixthSenSe19 ended the betting with a flat call. River [4s] and this time Laurens123 leads the betting with a shove all-in for 17.8 million. SixthSenSe19 went deep into the tank and decided to call with the flopped top two pair [Qc][Ac] as Laurens123 showed [Ts][8h] for the missed double-belly buster straight draw. Laurens123 wasn’t counting on SixthSenSe19 being that strong but a great fight earned $40,000.00 as the runner-up.

As for the January Turbo Takedown champion, SixthSenSe19 will ride off with $60,000.00 and a brand new Audi TT RS!

$1 Million Turbo Takedown Results (01-31-10)
1. SixthSenSe19 (uruguayo) $60,000.00 + Audi TT RS
2. Laurens123 (Lummen) $40,000.00
3. dimast1 (Minsk) $30,000.00
4. crownrsv (Aiea) $25,000.00
5. ALBANIANCHIP (st hgts) $20,000.00
6. KieFeR 427 (Kennedale) $17,500.00
7. Platon79 (Sannois) $15,000.00
8. NTHEBASEMENT (Tualatin) $12,500.00
9. nambsher (nambsheim) $10,000.00

A little double duty for your writing crew today here at the PokerStarsBlog. The finale of the World Bloggers Championship of Online Poker is taking place with 2,062 scribes on the virtual felt today battling it out for tickets to the 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker or an Omaha Eight or Better player’s favorite phrase SCOOP! But this multi-tasking crew is here for all the updates on the big end-of-the-month Sunday tournaments along with the weekly Sunday Majors.

Our Sit and Go champs are first up today with the $50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout. 595 players cashed in their weekly freeroll tickets to join us this afternoon for a shot at the $12,000.00 first prize in addition to the weekly contest earned thru the player’s respective buy-in levels or “planet”. Money on top of free money doesn’t hurt the bankroll as the 81 players who survived their first table earned $195.00 and those chronicled below at the final table will walk away with at least $775.00. Not a bad booster for those who are used to playing micro limit tables.

To get to the big money we had to first trim the playing field to 81. After an hour and a half into level eight blinds at 150/300 ante 25 while there were only four tables left, table number six managed to have four players vying for a seat into the cash. Sure enough it was table six deciding the final player into the money today as ihbcney took out Thrash370 when ihbcney’s [2d][Qd] out flopped the [Ad][6d] of Thrash370 as the two got their money in preflop on the [Qs] [3h] [Js] [Jc] [Ts]. Thrash added a “fml” in the chat box for the unlucky final row of cards; missing the second round by a lady today.

Team PokerStars Online Pros were shutout of the money today as Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc, Andre “acoimbra” Coimbra, and Thomas “Boku87″ Boekhoff all had the price for admission but left with nothing but their name and finished number in the tournament results box.

riverkila murdered the table quickly and punched the first seat to the final table after pocket queens held up against the big slick of Stephan111 all-in preflop and had to wait while for the remaining eight showed themselves. But it was JFJO216 who grabbed the all-important ninth seat to the final table. Up against PlatinumStar respect82 both would play to the 125/250 ante 25 blind level and their chips in preflop with JFJO216 holding a near 5:1 chip lead. [Ac][Qh] for JFJO216 dominated the [Qs][Tc] of respect82 as the [Ks] [2h] [2c] [8h] [6s] board hit neither of the players as JFJO216’s ace played and set up the race to the $12,000.00 shown below:

dude_whasup tried to rally the troops for chopping up the lion share of the $50,000 prize pool before the first hand was even dealt but got no takers as the PlatinumStar would have to play to win tonight. Starting off with 1,500 chips and reset blinds of 10/20 dude_whasup would take the first big pot of the final table value betting a flopped set of treys against ironOne all the way to the river and claiming the 1,190 chip pot.

Usually the elimination action doesn’t heat up until the 50/100 blind level, but just four hands after dude_whasup was shipped that big pot, the last person to the final table was on the right side of a post-flop cooler. While UTG Bonsy would raise to 60 as it folded around to JFJO216 in the cutoff who flat called and saw a flop of [2s] [4h] [Qs]. Bonsy led out for 100 and JFJO216 bumped it to 300. Immediately Bonsy shoved all-in for 1,320 total and JFJO216 covered and the call with a flopped set of ducks [2h][2d]. Suddenly the pocket aces [Ad][Ah] of Bonsy looked rather limp. The limp turned into a death knell for Bonsy’s chip stack at the board ran out [Th] on the turn and [9s] on the river to secure the 2,790 pot for JFJO216 and ninth place money ($775.00) for Bonsy.

The 15/30 blind level slid by without major incident but four hands into the 25/50 blind level saw short-stacked ironOne run into the brick wall of dude_whasup’s chip stack. In a blind versus blind confrontation ironOne bumped it to 300 from the small blind as dude_whasup made it 250 more with a three-bet. ironOne only had 450 behind put the rest in as dude_whasup snap called with pocket rockets [Ah][Ac]. Not exactly what someone holding [Ad][Tc] wants to see as both players would hit full houses on the [As] [Jc] [7c] [Td] [Th] board, but dude_whasup’s aces full beat out the tens full of ironOne who was done in eighth place ($1,200.00).

Going into the important 50/100 blind level where short-stacks would have to start trying their luck preflop with pushes here’s how the chips stacked up:

Seat 1: pluisje33 (1705 in chips)
Seat 2: luckEirishmn (1840 in chips)
Seat 3: yalpstel (1340 in chips)
Seat 4: riverkila (1210 in chips)
Seat 5: JFJO216 (2530 in chips)
Seat 7: dude_whasup (2860 in chips)
Seat 8: MirAcleJuice (2015 in chips)

Another blind versus blind battle sent our seventh place finished on their way. Folded around to the small blind luckEirshmn would shove into the big blind holding [9h][Kc] hoping to take the blinds without incident. In a hand similar to ironOne’s elimination luck was not on the Irish’s side however as yalpstel snap called with pocket kings [Kd][Ks]. Both player were even in chips as the 1,980 chip pot would end up with the preflop favorite as the board ran out [6d] [5h] [3s] [Jd] [4d] to end luckEirshmn’s night in seventh place ($1,700.00).

dude_whasup took a post-flop cooler against pluisje33 after floppeing top two pair only to be shown the flopped set from pluisje33 to knock down the once big stack of the table to chip basement. Eleven hands later with the blinds still at 50/100 dude_whasup down to just 855 in the big blind tried to take [As][7h] to victory without showdown after three-betting yalpstel’s raise to 300. But, yalpstel held [Qs][Ac] and was going no place except further up the pay scale as the board ran out all low cards [2s] [4h] [4d] [3c] [6h]. The cards spoke loud and clear for dude_whasup as he exited in sixth place ($2,200.00).

riverkila tried to sneak in a plea as the short stack for a chop of the final five money right after dude_whasup’s bust out, but probably felt better that the players didn’t respond. riverkila went from short stack to chip leader in the final hand of the 75/150 blind level right before the break, taking [Ah][Qc] to the win over pluisje33’s [Kc][Qh] on a [3d] [5d] [Js] [Jd] [7s] board for a 4,295 chip pot leaving pluisje33 with just 250 chips with the table shaping up as shown below:

Seat 1: pluisje33 (250 in chips)
Seat 3: yalpstel (3310 in chips)
Seat 4: riverkila (4295 in chips)
Seat 5: JFJO216 (2730 in chips)
Seat 8: MirAcleJuice (2915 in chips)

On the second hand after the break riverkila would finish off pluisje33 after making a small raise from UTG as pluisje33 was left with just 100 chips in the small blind and yalpstel made the call in the big blind. Both riverkila and yalpstel would check down the [6d] [Ah] [5d] [Jh] [Qc] board to reveal riverkila’s [As][8c] to be the winning hand as pluisje33’s hand couldn’t beat the pair of aces was simply mucked the unseen hand to earn $2,735.00 in fifth place.

riverkila turned up the heat on the four-handed table with several preflop raises that went uncontested but caught a bit of a cooler with pocket tens against the pocket aces of JFJO216 that held up for a 3,610 chip pot. Two hands later JFJO216 would continue to run good finding [Kc][Qd] in the small blind and pushing all-in as MirAcleJuice made the call in the big blind with [Ks][Js]. MirAcleJuice couldn’t find the magic potion of poker life on the [7d] [Ts] [4h] [3d] [Qs] board and the Juice was let loose in fourth place ($3,350.00).

As the chips smoothed out during the 125/250 ante 25 level seven blinds riverkila tried once again to play the part of politician and rally the remaining three constituents for a chop of the remaining $24,000.00 in prize money. yalpstel finally offered an three way split from $8,000 a piece but three-handed play continued as JFJO216 stayed silent.

As the blinds moved up to 150/300 ante 25 riverkila’s stack got shorter and shorter on chips as JFJO216 and yalpstel’s preflop raises went uncontested for several orbits. But, there was ray of light as riverkila found [Qh][Ks] on the button and pushed for 1,623 chips and yalpstel called in the big blind holding [7h][Kh]. The sunshine lasted as long as the computer took to show the [8c] [7d] [4c] flop as yalpstel found a pair of sevens to take the lead. The pair would hold on the [Ac] turn and [2d] river sending riverkila home in third place ($4,500.00).

Even after busting out riverkila tried to assist with a chop from the rail yet yalpstel and JFJO216 were intent on finishing this tourney out. Here’s out they stacked up going into heads-up play:

Seat 3: yalpstel (7551 in chips)
Seat 5: JFJO216 (5949 in chips)

The stacks stayed fairly even throughout the heads-up contest as it rolled on to the 200/400 ante 50 level nine with either player chirping up for an even chop or even some friendly banter.

At one point there was four all-ins in a row but JFJO216 held tight winning two of those and chopping another while dominated as yalpstel’s attempt to put away the adversary as both players took turns holding the chip lead. While nearly dead even in chips JFJO216 would take a decent sized 6,500 chip pot after rivering a pair of tens against the flopped third pair of yalpstel and never looked back. JFJO216 would win four consecutive hands ending the tournament after calling yalpstel hail mary shove from the button with only 2,104 chips left with [2s][Ks]. Holding a 5:1 chip lead and [Ac][Th] made the call an easy one as the [Qd] [5h] [4c] [5d] [4d] board complied this time with the preflop favorite and yalpstel was left to collect $7,500.00 for second place.

A little of run-good and some skill got JFJO216 into the winner’s circle tonight for the entire $12,000.00 first place prize. Congrats to all of our winners this evening and throughout the month. Be sure to start collecting those SnG points for February’s race to the top of your planet’s leaderboard!

$50,000 Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout Results (01-31-10)
1. JFJO216 (Northampton) $12,000.00
2. yalpstel (North York) $7,500.00
3. riverkila (perth) $4,500.00
4. MirAcleJuice (elnesvågen) $3,350.00
5. pluisje33 (pannerden) $2,735.00
6. dude_whasup (Aliso Viejo) $2,200.00
7. luckEirishmn (Atlanta) $1,700.00
8. ironOne (Nybergsund) $1,200.00
9. Bonsy (Marquette) $775.00