The fields for the Sunday Majors here at PokerStars continue to climb back to normal as one World Championship is firmly in the rear view mirror until November, and the other World Championship, as in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) starts up in September. 4,265 players paid their $215 tonight cracking the $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up and creating a prize pool of $853,000.00 paid out to 630 places. Let's go to the felt!

87 is 86'd

Bubble time and the difference between a potential six figure payday and a $5K consolation prize awaits. LVSEO would lead out UTG for 328,000 as the blinds just moved up to 80K/160K ante 16K, folded around to ATHIED87 on the low end of the chip count in the big blind holding [Ks][9c] he would shove for 1.7 million. Costing of the stack LVSEO would calm cut the chips out and made the call with big slick [Kc][Ah]. No nine for ATHIED87 came down the [4c] [Qs] [2c] [Qh] [7c] board and our final table was set as ATHIED87 took down $5,118.00 in tenth place.

Seat 1: BigFlopper01 (9933184 in chips)
Seat 2: BFGI800 (2620584 in chips)
Seat 3: Ivan MC 2007 (4832073 in chips)
Seat 4: AB1001 (3262380 in chips)
Seat 5: Patonius2000 (6691895 in chips)
Seat 6: LVSEO (5350831 in chips)
Seat 7: strflushtome (3079193 in chips)
Seat 8: drew5927 (4621150 in chips)
Seat 9: Sick´nSocial (2258710 in chips)

Not very social

Sick' nSocial was sitting with the least amount of chips at tonight's Sunday Warm-up final table with just over ten big blinds as the first hand was folded to him in the cutoff holding a small suited ace [2d][Ad]. Sick' nSocial would shove those 2.2 million chips in as BigFlopper01 on the button held a big hand, pocket jacks [Jd][Js], and quickly made the call. No wheel and no diamonds found their way onto the [Ks] [Ts] [6h] [8s] [3h] board and Sick' nSocial left the table gracefully in ninth place ($6,824.00).

We're going with grabbing a four-pack of Red Bull

Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein dropped by for hosting duties tonight and quipped during the hourly five minute break "I'm going to take a five minute break let me know what happens". Hour nine had eight players still vying for the six figure payday and BigFlopper01 holding a sizable lead as the table's only player over ten million in chips as Patonius2000 at eight million and drew5927 were the closest competitors.

No straight, no flush, no chips

Back from the break at blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K, Patonius2000 led out from the cutoff for 442,568 as strflushtome would shove from the small blind holding [Ah][Td] for 1.9 million chips. drew5927 folded the big blind as Patonius2000 had a suited big slick [Ad][Kd] and eased by the five cards across the middle [3h] [2c] [9d] [7s] [Qs] and collected the 4.2 million chip pot without incident. strflushtome was unable to catch a ten and took home $10,662.50 in eighth place.

Big Bully

Crippled in a five million chip preflop coin flip against LVSEO, Ivan MC 2007 was down to just 806,534 chips in the small blind and facing a raise from BigFlopper01 that would but put him all-in. Holding [6c][Ac] Ivan MC 2007 would shove those chips into the middle as BigFlopper01 made the math call holding [7h][Js]. Watch the "I knew it would hit the river" video below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The eight indeed would hit the [5d] [Th] [9d] [3h] [8c] river giving BigFlopper01 the straight, the two million chip pot, and forcing Ivan MC 2007 to take the party elsewhere in seventh place ($19,192.50).

Nancy Drew Mystery Solved: BigFlopper01 did it

The rich got richer as drew5927 with just 1.6 million chips, open shoved holding a modest [4s][Ks] but BigFlopper to the direct left held a not-so-modest [As][Jh] made the quick call. A trail of cards [Qs] [6c] [Td] [6d] [5c] led the chips to their rightful owner as BigFlopper acquired another pelt and drew5927 became the next victim of the seemingly unstoppable chip leader and left with hammerific score ($27,722.50) in sixth place. July has been good for drew5927 as just two weeks ago he notched together a final table at the Sunday Million finishing 5th for a $63,000.00 score.

We're still playing for $133,818.64 right?

Just three hands later with the blinds moving up to 125K/250K ante 25K LVSEO and AB1001 would mix it up preflop. LVSEO spammed the five key for a 555,555 chip raise as it folded to AB1001 in the big blind who would shove for 1.8 million chips holding pocket nines [9h][9s]. LVSEO started the hand with over 11 million chips and had plenty to make the call holding pocket tens [Th][Td]. Lots of broadway cards found the [Ac] [4h] [Jh] [Kd] [As] board as LVSEO's tens held and AB1001 was done in fifth place ($36,252.50).

Court Full of Kings

As the blinds just moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K LVSEO would raise to 666,666 as BigFlopper01 bumped it to 1,555,555. Patonius2000, who was unable to gain traction tonight, was down to 5.9 million and shoved those chips in. LVSEO was undeterred and re-shoved for 15 million as BigFlopper01 left the tax for the re-steal on the felt and folded. Watch the video below for the results:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Not needed LVSEO would hit the other two kings in the deck [2d] [2h] [Kh] [Ks] [7d] for quad kings [Kd][Kc] as pocket nines [9c][9d] were not lucky for the holder once again and Patonius2000's night ended in fourth place ($48,194.50). This was Patonius2000 second big score of 2010, after taking runner-up honors at the 2010 SCOOP $2,100 PLO Event #11 and earned $75,000.00

Squeezed out

Sitting in-between two huge stacks, BFGI800 had nowhere to run and a shortened stack of just 1.6 million chips after paying the big blind and was facing a raise from BigFlopper01 for the remainder of his stack. Heads-up [Ah][3s] looked really good at that moment so BFGI800 would make the call and saw that [9d][Ad] twinkling above BigFlopper01's name. Neither player would match their kicker on the [Th] [Js] [5d] [2s] [8s] board and heads-up play was about to begin after BFGI800 received $70,372.50 in third place.

Shotgun marriage of money

Do you? I do.

Do you? I do.

And so it was done, no fuss as LVSEO gave up a little and the chop nuptials were signed. With LVSEO in a slight lead 25 million to BigFlopper01's 17 million, they both took six figure paydays shown below:

LVSEO $113,192
BigFlopper01 $110,000

The wheels come off quickly

On the seventh hand of heads-up play LVSEO opened up the lead to 27 million over BigFlopper01's 15 million as both would flip preflop for a 30.3 million chip pot. BigFlopper01's pocket fours [4h][4s] would survive on the [Qs] [9s] [5c] [3s] [Th] board over LVSEO's [Ad][6h] as LVSEO was knocked down to 12.3 million chips. Five hands later we would name this week's Sunday Warm-up champion and award the extra $10,000. With a flop of [2c][3c][2h] both players would get their chips in the middle, watch it play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

LVSEO laid the trap perfectly with pocket rockets [Ah][Ad] as BigFlopper01's top pair [3d][7d] could only hope for one of two treys in the deck.

Turn card: [3h]

Did not wait for a dramatic river as the three gave BigFlopper01 the lead and the resuck would not hit [9c] giving BigFlopper01 the final 24.6 million chips and the extra $10,000.00 as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion! BigFlopper01 laminated about being the chip leader of the Sunday Million two weeks ago on the same final table with 6th place drew5927 and finishing in 9th for $11,625.00, BigFlopper01 will not have to worry about that missed shot any longer after taking down $120,000 tonight.

Be sure to check out PokerStars.TV for the Sunday Wrap show later on this week for commentary and hole cards revealed from tonight's big hands.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (07-25-10)
(* denotes part of two-way deal)
1. BigFlopper01 (Vancouver) *$120,000.00
2. LVSEO (Henderson) *$113,193.14
3. BFGI800 (Karlovi -Vari) $70,372.50
4. Patonius2000 (Las Vegas) $48,194.50
5. AB1001 (Breda) $36,252.50
6. drew5927 (stumptown) $27,722.50
7. Ivan MC 2007 (Monaco) $19,192.50
8. strflushtome (ENSCHEDE) $10,662.50
9. Sick´nSocial (Leipzig) $6,824.00

Tired? Sleepy? Need a nap? Perhaps a shot of five-hour energy, six pack of Red Bull, or if the World Series of Poker PokerStarsBlog crew is to be believed, a handful of Atomic Fireballs would help you make it through the $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up in one piece. The post-WSOP time started after a marathon to go from ten to nine in the Main Event with Brandon Steven busting out after his big slick failed to catch against Matt Jarvis' pocket queens, and the final nine will reconvene in November to play for $8.9 million. Today also marked our sleepy online players returning to the virtual felt in droves as last week's 2,990 player field was trampled by the 3,997 players that showed up tonight breaking the guarantee and muscling up the prize pool to $799,400.00 with $125,507.15 going to our winner.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin showed no signs of fatigue from the World Series of Poker as he ran extremely deep tonight. With ten tables remaining though Victor tried taking control of a blind versus blind situation after Bostero10 made a raise from the small blind to 40,050 with blinds at 7,500/10,000 ante 1,500. Ramdin would shove from the big blind for a not-so-small 305,605 with [6c][As] but Bostero10 had the pro covered and made the call with a dominating [Ad][9d]. By the turn [2s] [7d] [2c] [8d] Victor would lose another potential out and the [9h] on the river meant his lost all his chips in 85th place ($1,119.16).

Bounce back

Down to the bubble where the hand immediately after MrNebula was all-in and dominated A8 vs. the A9 of mement_mori but managed to flop an eight and have it hold for the 6.2 million chip pot, we would bust our 10th place finisher. mement_mori possibly steaming from the previous hand would open shove from the button for 5.5 million with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K holding [Jd][Kh]. Directly to his left, korjae would make the call for less holding [Qd][Ad]. A king on the [6c] [4h] [Ks] flop had korjae scrambling for an ace. No help on the [4s] turn and the [Qh] on the river wasn't enough as mement_mori took down the four million chip pot as korjae earned $4,796.40 in tenth place.

Seat 1: Mazzze (6699187 in chips)
Seat 2: tollgate (3246504 in chips)
Seat 3: marcuscha (2405400 in chips)
Seat 4: SPAZdos304 (4116596 in chips)
Seat 5: jackmeplz69 (3113393 in chips)
Seat 6: Bulat09 (2258483 in chips)
Seat 7: mement_mori (7743977 in chips)
Seat 8: MrNebula (6237012 in chips)
Seat 9: danger0us (4149448 in chips)

High blinds and low chips is no way to go through life (or a tournament)

Five hands into the final table Mazzze would lead off the betting by raising to 600,000 as it folded to shortstacked Bulat09 in the small blind. Holding 1.9 million in chips Bulat09 would shove holding pocket fives [5c][5d] as Mazzze quickly made the call with pocket jacks [Jc][Jd]. Neither player improved on the [Qs] [3d] [9c] [7h] [Qh] board and Bulat09's short stint at the Sunday Warm-up final table was over in ninth place ($6,395.20).

aMazzzing

Not discounting the nickname but if someone named "danger0us" is cutting out a raise I'd think twice about calling. danger0us was on the lighter side of the chip count holding 2.6 million with blinds bumped up to 125K/250K ante 25K and shoved in early position holding [As][Ts]. But, Mazzze was to the immediate left holding [Ad][Jc] and an eight-figure chip stack to make the call. No excitement came down the [8d] [Qh] [3h] [2d] [Jh] board and Mazzze scooped up the 5.7 million chip pot while danger0us was off to terrorize other tables finishing in eighth place ($9,992.50). This was not danger0us' first Sunday major final table, back in August 2009, danger0us frightened off 8,001 players taking 6th place in the Sunday Million for $48K.

Seven left for $125K

As the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K here's how our final seven stood shortly after a double up by tollgate who managed to trim a few chips off the chip leader Mazzze:

Seat 1: Mazzze (8,721,787 in chips)
Seat 2: tollgate (5,793,008 in chips)
Seat 3: marcuscha (5,785,800 in chips)
Seat 4: SPAZdos304 (2,743,192 in chips)
Seat 5: jackmeplz69 (4,907,772 in chips)
Seat 7: mement_mori (6,825,995 in chips)
Seat 8: MrNebula (5,192,446 in chips)

Flipped Out

After losing a 10 million chip preflop flip to jackmeplz69 with big slick unable to catch pocket queens, mement_mori tried his luck against tollgate the very next hand. Watch the pocket eights [8c][8d] race against the [Qs][Ks] on tollgate below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The win would wait for a nasty river as the king hits [2c] [Jd] [Ah] [5s] [Kd] and tollgate offered this send-off for mement_mori in seventh place ($17,986.50). The high-stakes tournament pro wasn't able to quite catch the $72K won after taking 5th place in Event #23-high at the 2010 SCOOP tournament series.

tollgate offered this in chat after busting the unfortunate mement_mori: "now lets hear about mement_mori a dane who made this tale gory. his stack went and up and down, he made his opponents frown but tollgate will be finishing this story".

Potential deal six handed? Not if the bard has his way

tollgate again with the quotes: "more flops we will peel because tollgate says no deal".

tollgate is quickly becoming more quotable than former NBA star Charles Barkley.

Black hole of chips

Shortly before the hourly break, MrNebula made a move from UTG by shoving for 3.9 million and was re-raised by Mazzze on his left for 6.3 million shutting out the rest of the table. MrNebula's star was dimmed by the fact that Mazzze's big slick [Kc][As] far out-shone MrNebula's [9h][Ac]. Wheel cards would hit the board [2c] [3d] [2d] [Jh] [4h] but no nines as MrNebula took in $25,980.50 for sixth place.

Deal but no deal

Team PokerStars Pro Nuno Coelho was on held to dish up the numbers to our five-handed table:

jackmeplz69 $93,678.88
Mazzze $89,917.49
marcuscha: $57,029.91
tollgate $57,029.91
SPAZdos $50,856.70

No quip from tollgate this time as the players could not accept nor alter the numbers to their liking and the cards were back in the air.

Don't be a SPAZ

On the extreme shortstack, SPAZdos tried to take down the blinds with an open shove from the small blind holding [7d][Kd] and 2.3 million in chips. jackmeplz69 had more than enough to gamble with and did so making the call with a suited [Js][6s]. jackmeplz69 was true to the name as a jack hit the flop and held for the win on the [2d] [Jh] [Th] [5s] [5d] board for the 4.9 million chip pot. SPAZdos had a quick unkind "die" for jackmeplz69 in the chat after taking fifth place money this evening ($33,974.50).

jackmeplz69: $106,748.99
Mazzze: $88,574.89
tollgate: $63,182.42
marcuscha: $62,446.65

Again marcuscha and tollgate wanted $70K and again we had an impasse. "Play" said the two big stacks, and play they did.

No encore

With the blinds set at 200K/400K ante 40K and four-handed, a sense of urgency started to trickle in to all the players. Mazzze would open from the cutoff with a min-raise as the poet tollgate would shove for 4.2 million. Back to Mazzze who thought for a bit before making the call holding [Qd][Tc]. The cards were live against the big slick [As][Kc] of tollgate, and even more live after a ten hit the [Td] [5h] [6h] flop. The ten had enough staying power to fade the [9d] turn and [8h] river for the 9.1 million chip pot and sadly our chat box star was no more, out in fourth place ($45,965.50).

Third time is anything but a charm

More numbers...

jackmeplz69: $99,456.35
Mazzze: $96,872.15
marcuscha: $78,658.95

And the same result. Back to the felt!

Diamonds Forever

Yuck. Ick. PU. Much like trying lima beans for the first and only time, this hand will leave a foul taste in marchuscha's mouth for awhile (unless you like lima beans of course). Watch the video below for the first hand after the third aborted deal:

RSS readers click through to see replay

A string of diamonds made their way across the [8d] [Kd] [5d] [7d] [3d] and jackmeplz69's pocket fours [4d][4s] matched up just enough from a potential counterfeiting rivered diamond to defeat the pocket black jacks [Js][Jc] of marcuscha. 13.4 million chips to jackmeplz69 and $65,950.50 for third place to marcuscha.

Dealing dealing one more time

Starting out heads-up play with a 24.1 million to 15.7 million lead, jackmeplz69 tried to cut a deal right away asking for $113K, but Mazzze would have nothing of it and play continued. Mazzze would briefly hold the lead after doubling through jackmeplz69 when the two threw the chips in the middle for a 27.7 million gamble. [Ks][5h] for Mazzze, [Th][Ac] for jackmeplz and Mazzze would pull of the win with a king on the flop [Kd] [7d] [8h] [2c] [8d].

Navigating the Mazzze to victory

jackmeplz69 would take the lead back just as quickly doubling thru ten hands later and taking a 15 million chip pot two hands after that to reclaim the lead 25.9 million to 14 million. Mazzze however would grind a bit and pull within 17.6 million to jackplz69's 22.3 when this 35.2 million chip pot happened:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Pocket queens [Qd][Qc] for Mazzze stayed ahead of the pocket sixes [6s][6c] for jackmeplz69 on the [7s] [5s] [Kh] [Ah] [Kc] to leave jackmeplz69 with just 4.7 million in chips and blinds at 250K/500K ante 50K. Those chips would find their way to the middle immediately as both players showed strong hands again on the very next hand. Pocket eights for Mazzze [8h][8d] and suited Mrs. Slick [Qs][As] for jackmeplz69. No spades, no queens, no aces [9h] [Tc] [6s] [3d] [7h] meant no chips as jackmeplz69 would finish second ($93,529.80) and Mazzze by not taking any deals took home the whole first place pie getting a six-figure score ($125,507.15) as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-Up Results (07-18-10):

1. Mazzze (orebro) $125,507.15
2. jackmeplz69 (brookville) $93,529.80
3. marcuscha (Bremen) $65,950.50
4. tollgate (diggingafoxhole) $45,965.50
5. SPAZdos304 (Evergreen Park) $33,974.50
6. MrNebula (Graz) $25,980.50
7. mement_mori (Copenhagen) $17,986.50
8. danger0us (Houston) $9,992.50
9. Bulat09 (Novokuznetsk) $6,395.20

Tired? Sleepy? Need a nap? Perhaps a shot of five-hour energy, six pack of Red Bull, or if the World Series of Poker PokerStarsBlog crew is to be believed, a handful of Atomic Fireballs would help you make it through the $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up in one piece. The post-WSOP time started after a marathon to go from ten to nine in the Main Event with Brandon Steven busting out after his big slick failed to catch against Matt Jarvis' pocket queens, and the final nine will reconvene in November to play for $8.9 million. Today also marked our sleepy online players returning to the virtual felt in droves as last week's 2,990 player field was trampled by the 3,997 players that showed up tonight breaking the guarantee and muscling up the prize pool to $799,400.00 with $125,507.15 going to our winner.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin showed no signs of fatigue from the World Series of Poker as he ran extremely deep tonight. With ten tables remaining though Victor tried taking control of a blind versus blind situation after Bostero10 made a raise from the small blind to 40,050 with blinds at 7,500/10,000 ante 1,500. Ramdin would shove from the big blind for a not-so-small 305,605 with [6c][As] but Bostero10 had the pro covered and made the call with a dominating [Ad][9d]. By the turn [2s] [7d] [2c] [8d] Victor would lose another potential out and the [9h] on the river meant his lost all his chips in 85th place ($1,119.16).

Bounce back

Down to the bubble where the hand immediately after MrNebula was all-in and dominated A8 vs. the A9 of mement_mori but managed to flop an eight and have it hold for the 6.2 million chip pot, we would bust our 10th place finisher. mement_mori possibly steaming from the previous hand would open shove from the button for 5.5 million with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K holding [Jd][Kh]. Directly to his left, korjae would make the call for less holding [Qd][Ad]. A king on the [6c] [4h] [Ks] flop had korjae scrambling for an ace. No help on the [4s] turn and the [Qh] on the river wasn't enough as mement_mori took down the four million chip pot as korjae earned $4,796.40 in tenth place.

Seat 1: Mazzze (6699187 in chips)
Seat 2: tollgate (3246504 in chips)
Seat 3: marcuscha (2405400 in chips)
Seat 4: SPAZdos304 (4116596 in chips)
Seat 5: jackmeplz69 (3113393 in chips)
Seat 6: Bulat09 (2258483 in chips)
Seat 7: mement_mori (7743977 in chips)
Seat 8: MrNebula (6237012 in chips)
Seat 9: danger0us (4149448 in chips)

High blinds and low chips is no way to go through life (or a tournament)

Five hands into the final table Mazzze would lead off the betting by raising to 600,000 as it folded to shortstacked Bulat09 in the small blind. Holding 1.9 million in chips Bulat09 would shove holding pocket fives [5c][5d] as Mazzze quickly made the call with pocket jacks [Jc][Jd]. Neither player improved on the [Qs] [3d] [9c] [7h] [Qh] board and Bulat09's short stint at the Sunday Warm-up final table was over in ninth place ($6,395.20).

aMazzzing

Not discounting the nickname but if someone named "danger0us" is cutting out a raise I'd think twice about calling. danger0us was on the lighter side of the chip count holding 2.6 million with blinds bumped up to 125K/250K ante 25K and shoved in early position holding [As][Ts]. But, Mazzze was to the immediate left holding [Ad][Jc] and an eight-figure chip stack to make the call. No excitement came down the [8d] [Qh] [3h] [2d] [Jh] board and Mazzze scooped up the 5.7 million chip pot while danger0us was off to terrorize other tables finishing in eighth place ($9,992.50). This was not danger0us' first Sunday major final table, back in August 2009, danger0us frightened off 8,001 players taking 6th place in the Sunday Million for $48K.

Seven left for $125K

As the blinds moved up to 200K/400K ante 40K here's how our final seven stood shortly after a double up by tollgate who managed to trim a few chips off the chip leader Mazzze:

Seat 1: Mazzze (8,721,787 in chips)
Seat 2: tollgate (5,793,008 in chips)
Seat 3: marcuscha (5,785,800 in chips)
Seat 4: SPAZdos304 (2,743,192 in chips)
Seat 5: jackmeplz69 (4,907,772 in chips)
Seat 7: mement_mori (6,825,995 in chips)
Seat 8: MrNebula (5,192,446 in chips)

Flipped Out

After losing a 10 million chip preflop flip to jackmeplz69 with big slick unable to catch pocket queens, mement_mori tried his luck against tollgate the very next hand. Watch the pocket eights [8c][8d] race against the [Qs][Ks] on tollgate below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

The win would wait for a nasty river as the king hits [2c] [Jd] [Ah] [5s] [Kd] and tollgate offered this send-off for mement_mori in seventh place ($17,986.50). The high-stakes tournament pro wasn't able to quite catch the $72K won after taking 5th place in Event #23-high at the 2010 SCOOP tournament series.

tollgate offered this in chat after busting the unfortunate mement_mori: "now lets hear about mement_mori a dane who made this tale gory. his stack went and up and down, he made his opponents frown but tollgate will be finishing this story".

Potential deal six handed? Not if the bard has his way

tollgate again with the quotes: "more flops we will peel because tollgate says no deal".

tollgate is quickly becoming more quotable than former NBA star Charles Barkley.

Black hole of chips

Shortly before the hourly break, MrNebula made a move from UTG by shoving for 3.9 million and was re-raised by Mazzze on his left for 6.3 million shutting out the rest of the table. MrNebula's star was dimmed by the fact that Mazzze's big slick [Kc][As] far out-shone MrNebula's [9h][Ac]. Wheel cards would hit the board [2c] [3d] [2d] [Jh] [4h] but no nines as MrNebula took in $25,980.50 for sixth place.

Deal but no deal

Team PokerStars Pro Nuno Coelho was on held to dish up the numbers to our five-handed table:

jackmeplz69 $93,678.88
Mazzze $89,917.49
marcuscha: $57,029.91
tollgate $57,029.91
SPAZdos $50,856.70

No quip from tollgate this time as the players could not accept nor alter the numbers to their liking and the cards were back in the air.

Don't be a SPAZ

On the extreme shortstack, SPAZdos tried to take down the blinds with an open shove from the small blind holding [7d][Kd] and 2.3 million in chips. jackmeplz69 had more than enough to gamble with and did so making the call with a suited [Js][6s]. jackmeplz69 was true to the name as a jack hit the flop and held for the win on the [2d] [Jh] [Th] [5s] [5d] board for the 4.9 million chip pot. SPAZdos had a quick unkind "die" for jackmeplz69 in the chat after taking fifth place money this evening ($33,974.50).

jackmeplz69: $106,748.99
Mazzze: $88,574.89
tollgate: $63,182.42
marcuscha: $62,446.65

Again marcuscha and tollgate wanted $70K and again we had an impasse. "Play" said the two big stacks, and play they did.

No encore

With the blinds set at 200K/400K ante 40K and four-handed, a sense of urgency started to trickle in to all the players. Mazzze would open from the cutoff with a min-raise as the poet tollgate would shove for 4.2 million. Back to Mazzze who thought for a bit before making the call holding [Qd][Tc]. The cards were live against the big slick [As][Kc] of tollgate, and even more live after a ten hit the [Td] [5h] [6h] flop. The ten had enough staying power to fade the [9d] turn and [8h] river for the 9.1 million chip pot and sadly our chat box star was no more, out in fourth place ($45,965.50).

Third time is anything but a charm

More numbers...

jackmeplz69: $99,456.35
Mazzze: $96,872.15
marcuscha: $78,658.95

And the same result. Back to the felt!

Diamonds Forever

Yuck. Ick. PU. Much like trying lima beans for the first and only time, this hand will leave a foul taste in marchuscha's mouth for awhile (unless you like lima beans of course). Watch the video below for the first hand after the third aborted deal:

RSS readers click through to see replay

A string of diamonds made their way across the [8d] [Kd] [5d] [7d] [3d] and jackmeplz69's pocket fours [4d][4s] matched up just enough from a potential counterfeiting rivered diamond to defeat the pocket black jacks [Js][Jc] of marcuscha. 13.4 million chips to jackmeplz69 and $65,950.50 for third place to marcuscha.

Dealing dealing one more time

Starting out heads-up play with a 24.1 million to 15.7 million lead, jackmeplz69 tried to cut a deal right away asking for $113K, but Mazzze would have nothing of it and play continued. Mazzze would briefly hold the lead after doubling through jackmeplz69 when the two threw the chips in the middle for a 27.7 million gamble. [Ks][5h] for Mazzze, [Th][Ac] for jackmeplz and Mazzze would pull of the win with a king on the flop [Kd] [7d] [8h] [2c] [8d].

Navigating the Mazzze to victory

jackmeplz69 would take the lead back just as quickly doubling thru ten hands later and taking a 15 million chip pot two hands after that to reclaim the lead 25.9 million to 14 million. Mazzze however would grind a bit and pull within 17.6 million to jackplz69's 22.3 when this 35.2 million chip pot happened:

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Pocket queens [Qd][Qc] for Mazzze stayed ahead of the pocket sixes [6s][6c] for jackmeplz69 on the [7s] [5s] [Kh] [Ah] [Kc] to leave jackmeplz69 with just 4.7 million in chips and blinds at 250K/500K ante 50K. Those chips would find their way to the middle immediately as both players showed strong hands again on the very next hand. Pocket eights for Mazzze [8h][8d] and suited Mrs. Slick [Qs][As] for jackmeplz69. No spades, no queens, no aces [9h] [Tc] [6s] [3d] [7h] meant no chips as jackmeplz69 would finish second ($93,529.80) and Mazzze by not taking any deals took home the whole first place pie getting a six-figure score ($125,507.15) as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-Up Results (07-18-10):

1. Mazzze (orebro) $125,507.15
2. jackmeplz69 (brookville) $93,529.80
3. marcuscha (Bremen) $65,950.50
4. tollgate (diggingafoxhole) $45,965.50
5. SPAZdos304 (Evergreen Park) $33,974.50
6. MrNebula (Graz) $25,980.50
7. mement_mori (Copenhagen) $17,986.50
8. danger0us (Houston) $9,992.50
9. Bulat09 (Novokuznetsk) $6,395.20

The celebrations from the beginning of the World Series of Poker's Main Event last week seemed to have left a bit of a hangover on the Sunday Majors. PokerStars $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up had to use a bit of that guaranteed money tonight as 2,990 players lined up their $215 buy-ins causing an overlay on this evening's tournament. It would take a little less than nine hours to chop up the last four spots in the money pool, but another 45 minutes to determine a winner. Let's see how we got there.

No choppy here

Down to five aside on two tables and the prized final table awaiting all but one, short-stacked ch0ppy tried to take the blinds down from the button by open shoving for 954,560 chips with blinds at 40K/80K ante 8K holding [Kd][Qc]. But, Fled was standing his ground with [Ah][9d] in the small blind and made the call. Despite notching a king on river [3h] [2h] [8h] [Ts] [Kh] ch0ppy would lose to Fled's nut flush and was tonight's bubble boy in tenth place ($4,687.50). Don't feel bad for ch0ppy as there's an Audi TT sitting his garage from taking down the $1 Million Turbo Takedown last year in July.

Seat 1: OMGSHIPIT (2068737 in chips)
Seat 2: Mighty_L (1550824 in chips)
Seat 3: Mr_Lanne (1080336 in chips)
Seat 4: xAndorx (2228821 in chips)
Seat 5: Dang_Girl85 (3512018 in chips)
Seat 6: Fled (3624660 in chips)
Seat 7: SirSwish6 (4000767 in chips)
Seat 8: DONNAN123 (7910827 in chips)
Seat 9: Akustikus (3923010 in chips)

Just five hands into the final table, short stacked Mr_Lanne would use big slick to pass SirSwish6's [As][Tc] and take down a much needed double up as the blinds moved quickly to 50K/100K ante 10K.

The mighty have fallen

With just a little more than ten big blinds Mighty_L let out a roar from early position with a shove for 1.1 million chip holding pocket eights [8h][8d]. Around to the cutoff where Dang_Girl85 was awaiting with [Qh][As], with a slightly larger stack Dang_Girl85 would make the call. Top two on the flop [9c] [Ad] [Qd] [Kh] [9h] was enough as Dang_Girl85 silenced Mighty_L in ninth place ($6,000.00).

Is it cold in here or is it just me?

Five hands later the blinds bumped up to 65K/130K ante 13K and Akustikus led off the betting with a raise to 390,000. Two doors to the left, Mr_Lanne was ready to mix it up again holding pocket queens [Qd][Qs] and shoved for a shade less than two million chips. Folded back around quickly to Akustikus who covered and held a cooler in the form of pocket kings [Kh][Ks], made the call. The two-outer would hit the flop [9h] [Ac] [Qh] for Mr_Lanne with a flopped set of queens. [3h] and the 4.2 million chip pot looked good for Mr_Lanne but cruel justice came on the rivered [Kc] giving Akustikus a set of kings and driving Mr_Lanne off the final table road in eighth place ($9,750.00).

One is not enough

We would take seven into the beginning of the 80K/160K ante 16K level but lose two players nearly back-to-back. First, watch below as xAndorx tries a little bluff after the flop against Akustikus.

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After a preflop raise and call, Akustikus would lead out for 480,000 after the [Qd][6s][6d] flop. Sensing weakness xAndorx bounced and shoved for 1.6 million holding [Td][As]. Having a sizable amount of chips already, Akustikus would make the call quickly after out-flopping xAndorx with [Qc][Tc] good for top pair. Another queen on the river [9h][Qh] and xAndorx took leave in seventh place ($17,250.00).

OMGSHIPTHEPOT2Fled

Just two hands later OMGSHIPIT would shove a small stack of 1.4 million from the button holding [Jd][Th]. Fled sitting in the big blind would take a few tickets to think about it but made the right call holding [5c][Ac]. Fled would be rewarded by taking down the hand immediately after flopping the nut flush [3c][9c][2c]. The rest of the cards were moot as the 2.9 million chips headed into Fled stack, and OMGSHIPIT received $24,750.00 in sixth place. OMGSHIPIT received just a little less than he did two years ago at the Sunday Warm-up taking fifth place in that one for $30K.

Is everyone late for supper?

Just four hands after bidding OMGSHIPIT a good night SirSwish6's short-stack of 1.2 million would also find its way into the middle preflop holding [Kh][8d] and hoping no one would wake up with a hand. DONNAN123 let the card lie, but Akustikus found a couple of jacks [Jh][Jc] and quickly made the call. A eight would flop [8c] [Td] [4c] but the five outs would not materialize on the [2d] turn nor [Tc] river and SirSwish6 was flushed out of the final table in fifth place ($32,250.00). This was Sirswish6's second run at the Sunday Warm-up final table, taking home 6th place last December for $29K.

Debating War and Peace would have been shorter

Our final four would play three quick hands and began to sit down for a very lengthy conversation of poker acumen and a love for rounded numbers. Back and forth the chop talks went until finally Akustikus and DONNAN123 shaved enough off their dollar amounts to come to the agreed to four-way chop below:

$80,000.00 Akustikus
$79,890.00 DONNAN123
$71,000 Fled
$70,000 Dang_Girl85

Flips for fours

We'll slip a little alliteration in there for the fireworks between Fled and Dang_Girl85 shortly after the tournament clock was unfrozen. Watch the ten million chip preflop flip between the two in the video below:

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The pocket fours [4d][4s] for Fled flopped... oh I'll stop it now, managed to weave by all of the outs for Dang_Girl85's suited big slick on the [Jd] [7h] [3s] [8s] [Qh] board knocking Dang_Girl85's stack down to under a big blind. Depsite a couple of double ups, Dang_Girl85 would bust out to Akustikus' [Kc][Jc] outflopped her [Ac][Qh] and Dang_Girl85 received $70,000.00 from the chop in fourth place.

One pip and we are down to two

Blinds moving up to 100K/200K ante 20K and DONNAN123 was slipping a bit to 5.5 million chips after holding a virtual lead with Akustikus during the chip chop talks. After Fled started the betting with a button raise to 445,666 chips, DONNAN123 would three-bet to 1.4 million. Akustikus got out of the way but Fled answered with a shove for 9.7 million. Holding [Qs][Ac] DONNAN123 had a big decision with the rising blinds and decided to make the call. Fled was more than happy to turn over the dominating big slick [Ad][Ks] and more happy when the 11.4 million chips hit his stack after the [2h] [8d] [3c] [Ts] [Js] failed to produce a suckout. $79,890.00 for a little more than nine hours of work as DONNAN123 exited in third place.

Neck and neck

Fled holding 15.5 million to Akustikus' 14.3 million and blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K would give both players time to dance a bit before awarding the $10,000.00 left from the chop to tonight's champion. Akustikus would strike the first blow by value betting pocket tens on each street of the [4s] [Ks] [9h] [Kd] [5h] board and claimed a 11.6 million chip pot when Fled mucked.

Two aces arrive, one is left standing

Down 6.8 million to 22.9 million and blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K Fled would make a move preflop with [Ac][8h] by four-bet shoving from the button. Akustikus clearly covered and would make the call turning over the dominate [Ah][9d]. An all-low board [6h] [3s] [2s] [3h] [5s] prevented a chop and pushed the final 13.8 million chip pot to this week's Sunday Warm-up champion Akustikus who added the $10K to take his winning total to $90,000.00!

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (07-11-10)
(* denotes part of four-way chop)
1. Akustikus (Luzern) *$90,000.00
2. Fled (la) *$71,000.00
3. DONNAN123 (WHITEHAVEN) *$79,890.00
4. Dang_Girl85 (Plano) *$70,000.00
5. SirSwish6 (Chicago) $32,250.00
6. OMGSHIPIT (Orlando) $24,750.00
7. xAndorx (Makeyevka) $17,250.00
8. Mr_Lanne (Stavanger) $9,750.00
9. Mighty_L (Brøndby Strand) $6,000.00

The 4th of July holiday in the United States meant a smaller field than what is usually expected for the Sunday Warm-Up this afternoon. The field of 3,189 players meant an overlay of over $110,000 for the 495 players who made the money, with the winner taking down a hefty $117,750. Several members of Team PokerStars were part of the field, with Team PokerStars Online member Alvaro "VARICO" Ballesteros making a deep run in finishing 51st for $1,425. The only other Team PokerStars member to make the money was Anders "Donald" Hoyer Berg, 409th for $367.50.

Ace on the River, by marado86

With the field hand-for-hand at the final table bubble, it appeared marado86 would finish 10th, when he moved in with [Ac] [5s] from the small blind for 1.3m after joemac17's 230k raise with [4d][4s]. The flop looked good for joemac17: [3d][8c][8d], the [6c] on the turn gave marado86 more outs, but the [Ac] worked just fine to give him the double-up he needed. The final table bubble would burst at the other table, as buldermar's min-raise was followed by a shove by s0nny_bLacCk for just under 1.5m in chips. When buldermar snap-called with [Td][Ts}, s0nny_bLacCk's [Js][9s] weren't looking good, especially when the board ran out [7c][Qs][5h][9d][Ac], for the 10th place finish and more importantly for s0nny_bLacCk, $4,500 as the field was combined at lucky (for the winner) table 13 with the blinds at 50k/100k with a 10k ante.

Seat 1: kashmirpoker (2047286 in chips)
Seat 2: buldermar (4320046 in chips)
Seat 3: marado86 (2628530 in chips)
Seat 4: kloris83 (6755244 in chips)
Seat 5: ImDaNuts (3855557 in chips)
Seat 6: Wing-Tsun (2180924 in chips)
Seat 7: taxidromos (2872722 in chips)
Seat 8: joemac17 (2465683 in chips)
Seat 9: Bear4rms (4764008 in chips)

joemac17 flushed away

On the fifth hand of the final table, joemac17 was hoping to get some of the chips he had lost from marado86 during final table bubble play. Another raise to 230k from joemac17, and marado86 shoved (again) from the small blind for about 2.7m in chips. A quick call followed by joemac17 with [Ac][Kd], while marado86 was dominated with [As][9s]. The [5s][Qd][Ks] helped both players, but the [Ts] left joemac17 drawing dead. The [Qs] on the river just a footnote for the hand history as joemac7 will be wondering what he did to deserve finishing in 9th for $6,000.

ImDaNuts clips Wing-Tsun

The blinds had moved up to the 65k/130k/13k level when the next elimination took place after another two orbits of the final table. Wing-Tsun was the short stack with under 2m in chips, and shoved from under the gun with [Ac][Qh]. Action folded around the table until ImDaNuts double-fist pump-snapcalled with [Ks][Kd] from the big blind. The [6s][Ts][4s] flop left Wing-Tsun was drawing very slim. The [4c][9d] turn and river meant an 8th place finish, good for $9,375.

Buldermar binked, broken down

The blinds had now moved up to the 80/160/16k level with buldermar third in chips, and
primed to make a move. After a raise to 344k from kashmirpoker, buldermar smooth called, followed by a three-bet from marado86 to just under 1m. kashmirpoker gets out of the way, as buldermar moves in for the rest of his stack, over 3.75m. Marado86 calls for 2.75m and can't be happy to see buldermar turn up [Kc][Kd], dominating marado86's [Js][Jd]. The [2c][Ts][2h] flop wasn't what marado86 was looking for, but the [Jc] on the turn turned his frown upside down. The [9d] gave marado86 an over 8m chip pot, taking over the chip lead from kloris83. On the very next hand, buldermar moved in the remaining chips with [Kh][Th], only kloris83 would call with [Kc][Jc]. The board came down [2c][6s][Ad][Qh][Kd}, earning buldermar $16,875 for the 7th place finish.

No Sunday Warm-up for Bear4arms

Four weeks ago, Bear4arms took down the Sunday Million for over $200,000, hoping to add another six-figure score tonight. Fifth in chips, bear4arms made a min-raise to 320k as kloris83 called from the big blind. The flop of [5s][7s][Qh] brought a bet of 456,789 from bear4rms, followed by a raise to 2.56m from kloris, almost enough to put Bear4rms all-in. Bear4rms 3-bet the remaining 171k, and kloris83 called, turning over [Kd][Qd], while Bear4rms showed [As][Ks]. No further help came on the [Th] turn and [2h] river meant a 6th place finish, good for $24,375 while kloris moved into the chip lead with nearly 10m in chips.

More chips for kloris83

Two hands later, kloris83 knocked out another player at the final table. Kashmirpoker had lost a huge 9m chip pot to ImDaNuts to fall to around 2m in chips. Seeing [Ad][Qh] under the gun five-handed looked like a really good time to shove, only to see kloris83 snap-call with [Kd][Ks]. The [9s][4d][3s][Jd][3c] board meant a 5th place finish, as kashmirpoker earned $41,875.

Let's try to make a deal

With four players remaining, the first discussion of a deal at the final table got underway with kloris83 looking to do a chip chop deal. After Team PokerStars Online's Steven Paul gave the figures for the deal ImDaNuts, 2nd in chips at the time, was asking for $100,000, well above the $82,000 that he would have been earned from the deal. After kloris83 attempted to negotiate ImDaNuts down to $90,000, a counter-offer of having the other three players give him $5,000, then $4,200, were all denied as play got underway again.

Taxidromos sent for a ride

With the blinds now at 100k/200k/20k, taxidromos eventually fell to under 10 big blinds before mounting a comeback, fueled by a double up with [Ac][Ts} against ImDaNuts [As][4d], eventually approaching the 6m chip mark to close the chip deficit against the other three players. Marado86 min-raised to 200k, followed by a call from taxidromos. The [5s][7c][8c] led to taxidromos check-raising all-in after for 5.3m after marado86 bet 480k. Marado86 had an overpair and a gutshot straight draw with [9c][9s], but taxidromos was looking great with [7s][7d]. However, this was marado86's tournament to win, hitting the straight as the [6c] appeared on the turn. The [Qh] on the river mean taxidromos would drive off with $43,125 for the 4th place finish.

ImDaNuts not danuts today

With ImDaNuts success in last week's Sunday Million, along with several other big finishes at PokerStars this year, you'd figure this would be his tournament to win. With the blinds now at 125k/250k/25k, ImDaNuts briefly held the lead when play was three-handed, but fell to under 3m in chips after kloris83 rivered a straight. ImDaNuts picked up [Js][Th] in the small blind and shoved, only to find marado86 wake up with [As][Ac] in the big blind. The board was [2d][Ts][9h][9s][Qc] and ImDaNuts had to settle for 3rd place money, $61,875.

Let's try to make a deal, part 2

Heads-up play began with kloris83 holding just a 300k chip lead over marado86 when talk of an even chop and playing for the remaining $10,000 began. After a brief discussion, marado86 wanted $100,000 and kloris83 declined.

Marado86's wins with the ace-highl

After a few hands of heads-up play, kloris83 had increased their chip lead slightly, holding 17.2m in chips to marado86's 14.6m. Kloris83 made a raise from the small blind to 600k, with marado86 making the call. On a [Js][4h][Th] flop, marado86 check-raised kloris83's 750k bet to 1.95m, with kloris83 making the call. The [2d] on the turn had marado86 betting 2.2m, as kloris83 called. The [2s] on the river had marado86 check-calling a bet kloris83's bet of 5.5m. Kloris revealed [Qh][9s] for a busted straight draw, while marado86 showed [Ad][5d] to take down a 20.55m chip pot with just ace-high. I leave it to the reader to decide how one could make such a call.

Marado86 straightens out a set to win

Facing a 4-1 chip deficit, kloris83 hung in for a few more hands, doubling up on what turned out to be the the next to last hand of the tournament, to get back up to nearly 12m in chips. The blinds were now at 150k/300k/30k and kloris in the big blind. After a min-raise to 600k, kloris83 re-raised to 1.2m as marado86 calls. On a flop of [Tc][7c][Js], kloris83 leads out with a 2.1m bet, with a raise to 4.8m from marado86, followed by a 3-bet all for kloris83, with marado86 making the call. When the cards were turned over, kloris83's [Ad][Ah] certainly didn't feel comfortable seeing the [9c][4c] for the gutshot and flush draws with two cards to come. The [As] was a good card for kloris83, but the [8h] on the river closed the book on this tournament, as kloris83 sees an additional $87,750 appear in his account, while marado86 takes down a first place prize of $117,750 to wrap up another exciting edition of the Sunday Warm-Up

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (07-04-10)>

1st marado86 (Gamsen) $117,750
2nd kloris83 (Nieuwoop) $87,750
3rd imdanuts (Las Vegas) $61,875
4th taxidromos (komotini) $43,125
5th kashmirpoker (Levanger) $31,875
6th Bear4rms (Knaresborough) $24,375
7th buldermar (Humlebæk) $16,875
8th Wing-Tsun (Otterstadt) $9,375
9th joemac17 (Coventry) $6,000

The 4th of July holiday in the United States meant a smaller field than what is usually expected for the Sunday Warm-Up this afternoon. The field of 3,189 players meant an overlay of over $110,000 for the 495 players who made the money, with the winner taking down a hefty $117,750. Several members of Team PokerStars were part of the field, with Team PokerStars Online member Alvaro "VARICO" Ballesteros making a deep run in finishing 51st for $1,425. The only other Team PokerStars member to make the money was Anders "Donald" Hoyer Berg, 409th for $367.50.

Ace on the River, by marado86

With the field hand-for-hand at the final table bubble, it appeared marado86 would finish 10th, when he moved in with [Ac] [5s] from the small blind for 1.3m after joemac17's 230k raise with [4d][4s]. The flop looked good for joemac17: [3d][8c][8d], the [6c] on the turn gave marado86 more outs, but the [Ac] worked just fine to give him the double-up he needed. The final table bubble would burst at the other table, as buldermar's min-raise was followed by a shove by s0nny_bLacCk for just under 1.5m in chips. When buldermar snap-called with [Td][Ts}, s0nny_bLacCk's [Js][9s] weren't looking good, especially when the board ran out [7c][Qs][5h][9d][Ac], for the 10th place finish and more importantly for s0nny_bLacCk, $4,500 as the field was combined at lucky (for the winner) table 13 with the blinds at 50k/100k with a 10k ante.

Seat 1: kashmirpoker (2047286 in chips)
Seat 2: buldermar (4320046 in chips)
Seat 3: marado86 (2628530 in chips)
Seat 4: kloris83 (6755244 in chips)
Seat 5: ImDaNuts (3855557 in chips)
Seat 6: Wing-Tsun (2180924 in chips)
Seat 7: taxidromos (2872722 in chips)
Seat 8: joemac17 (2465683 in chips)
Seat 9: Bear4rms (4764008 in chips)

joemac17 flushed away

On the fifth hand of the final table, joemac17 was hoping to get some of the chips he had lost from marado86 during final table bubble play. Another raise to 230k from joemac17, and marado86 shoved (again) from the small blind for about 2.7m in chips. A quick call followed by joemac17 with [Ac][Kd], while marado86 was dominated with [As][9s]. The [5s][Qd][Ks] helped both players, but the [Ts] left joemac17 drawing dead. The [Qs] on the river just a footnote for the hand history as joemac7 will be wondering what he did to deserve finishing in 9th for $6,000.

ImDaNuts clips Wing-Tsun

The blinds had moved up to the 65k/130k/13k level when the next elimination took place after another two orbits of the final table. Wing-Tsun was the short stack with under 2m in chips, and shoved from under the gun with [Ac][Qh]. Action folded around the table until ImDaNuts double-fist pump-snapcalled with [Ks][Kd] from the big blind. The [6s][Ts][4s] flop left Wing-Tsun was drawing very slim. The [4c][9d] turn and river meant an 8th place finish, good for $9,375.

Buldermar binked, broken down

The blinds had now moved up to the 80/160/16k level with buldermar third in chips, and
primed to make a move. After a raise to 344k from kashmirpoker, buldermar smooth called, followed by a three-bet from marado86 to just under 1m. kashmirpoker gets out of the way, as buldermar moves in for the rest of his stack, over 3.75m. Marado86 calls for 2.75m and can't be happy to see buldermar turn up [Kc][Kd], dominating marado86's [Js][Jd]. The [2c][Ts][2h] flop wasn't what marado86 was looking for, but the [Jc] on the turn turned his frown upside down. The [9d] gave marado86 an over 8m chip pot, taking over the chip lead from kloris83. On the very next hand, buldermar moved in the remaining chips with [Kh][Th], only kloris83 would call with [Kc][Jc]. The board came down [2c][6s][Ad][Qh][Kd}, earning buldermar $16,875 for the 7th place finish.

No Sunday Warm-up for Bear4arms

Four weeks ago, Bear4arms took down the Sunday Million for over $200,000, hoping to add another six-figure score tonight. Fifth in chips, bear4arms made a min-raise to 320k as kloris83 called from the big blind. The flop of [5s][7s][Qh] brought a bet of 456,789 from bear4rms, followed by a raise to 2.56m from kloris, almost enough to put Bear4rms all-in. Bear4rms 3-bet the remaining 171k, and kloris83 called, turning over [Kd][Qd], while Bear4rms showed [As][Ks]. No further help came on the [Th] turn and [2h] river meant a 6th place finish, good for $24,375 while kloris moved into the chip lead with nearly 10m in chips.

More chips for kloris83

Two hands later, kloris83 knocked out another player at the final table. Kashmirpoker had lost a huge 9m chip pot to ImDaNuts to fall to around 2m in chips. Seeing [Ad][Qh] under the gun five-handed looked like a really good time to shove, only to see kloris83 snap-call with [Kd][Ks]. The [9s][4d][3s][Jd][3c] board meant a 5th place finish, as kashmirpoker earned $41,875.

Let's try to make a deal

With four players remaining, the first discussion of a deal at the final table got underway with kloris83 looking to do a chip chop deal. After Team PokerStars Online's Steven Paul gave the figures for the deal ImDaNuts, 2nd in chips at the time, was asking for $100,000, well above the $82,000 that he would have been earned from the deal. After kloris83 attempted to negotiate ImDaNuts down to $90,000, a counter-offer of having the other three players give him $5,000, then $4,200, were all denied as play got underway again.

Taxidromos sent for a ride

With the blinds now at 100k/200k/20k, taxidromos eventually fell to under 10 big blinds before mounting a comeback, fueled by a double up with [Ac][Ts} against ImDaNuts [As][4d], eventually approaching the 6m chip mark to close the chip deficit against the other three players. Marado86 min-raised to 200k, followed by a call from taxidromos. The [5s][7c][8c] led to taxidromos check-raising all-in after for 5.3m after marado86 bet 480k. Marado86 had an overpair and a gutshot straight draw with [9c][9s], but taxidromos was looking great with [7s][7d]. However, this was marado86's tournament to win, hitting the straight as the [6c] appeared on the turn. The [Qh] on the river mean taxidromos would drive off with $43,125 for the 4th place finish.

ImDaNuts not danuts today

With ImDaNuts success in last week's Sunday Million, along with several other big finishes at PokerStars this year, you'd figure this would be his tournament to win. With the blinds now at 125k/250k/25k, ImDaNuts briefly held the lead when play was three-handed, but fell to under 3m in chips after kloris83 rivered a straight. ImDaNuts picked up [Js][Th] in the small blind and shoved, only to find marado86 wake up with [As][Ac] in the big blind. The board was [2d][Ts][9h][9s][Qc] and ImDaNuts had to settle for 3rd place money, $61,875.

Let's try to make a deal, part 2

Heads-up play began with kloris83 holding just a 300k chip lead over marado86 when talk of an even chop and playing for the remaining $10,000 began. After a brief discussion, marado86 wanted $100,000 and kloris83 declined.

Marado86's wins with the ace-highl

After a few hands of heads-up play, kloris83 had increased their chip lead slightly, holding 17.2m in chips to marado86's 14.6m. Kloris83 made a raise from the small blind to 600k, with marado86 making the call. On a [Js][4h][Th] flop, marado86 check-raised kloris83's 750k bet to 1.95m, with kloris83 making the call. The [2d] on the turn had marado86 betting 2.2m, as kloris83 called. The [2s] on the river had marado86 check-calling a bet kloris83's bet of 5.5m. Kloris revealed [Qh][9s] for a busted straight draw, while marado86 showed [Ad][5d] to take down a 20.55m chip pot with just ace-high. I leave it to the reader to decide how one could make such a call.

Marado86 straightens out a set to win

Facing a 4-1 chip deficit, kloris83 hung in for a few more hands, doubling up on what turned out to be the the next to last hand of the tournament, to get back up to nearly 12m in chips. The blinds were now at 150k/300k/30k and kloris in the big blind. After a min-raise to 600k, kloris83 re-raised to 1.2m as marado86 calls. On a flop of [Tc][7c][Js], kloris83 leads out with a 2.1m bet, with a raise to 4.8m from marado86, followed by a 3-bet all for kloris83, with marado86 making the call. When the cards were turned over, kloris83's [Ad][Ah] certainly didn't feel comfortable seeing the [9c][4c] for the gutshot and flush draws with two cards to come. The [As] was a good card for kloris83, but the [8h] on the river closed the book on this tournament, as kloris83 sees an additional $87,750 appear in his account, while marado86 takes down a first place prize of $117,750 to wrap up another exciting edition of the Sunday Warm-Up

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-Up results (07-04-10)>

1st marado86 (Gamsen) $117,750
2nd kloris83 (Nieuwoop) $87,750
3rd imdanuts (Las Vegas) $61,875
4th taxidromos (komotini) $43,125
5th kashmirpoker (Levanger) $31,875
6th Bear4rms (Knaresborough) $24,375
7th buldermar (Humlebæk) $16,875
8th Wing-Tsun (Otterstadt) $9,375
9th joemac17 (Coventry) $6,000

A smaller than average field--see World Series of Poker for likely reason--created a nearly 100k overlaid Sunday Warm-up this weekend; a juicy little bonus for the 3,258 internet ringers that turned up to play. And in spite of both World Series and World Cup action in full swing this past Sunday, a number of your favorite Team PokerStars players posted the $215 entry-fee and took to the virtual felt. EPT regular and PokerStars Team Germany Pro Benjamin Kang carried the PokerStars flag the furthest this week, busting out in an impressive 49th place, good for $1,425. Kang wasn't the lone PokerStars player to make it into the money this Sunday, however. Online Team members Denys "diatty" Shcherbakov (308th for $420) and Martha "marene" Herrera (104th for $1,012.50), and former racing star and current Brazil teamer Gualter Salles (102nd for $1,012.50) managed to join Kang at the virtual payout cage at the end of the day.

Tîmexed out

By the time the Warm-up had gotten down to two tables all eyes were on one screen name, Tîmex. Tîmex, or Mike McDonald as he's known in the three dimensional world, boasts an impressive live and online resume, including five EPT cashes and one win at the 2008 EPT German Open. Yes, Tîmex can mix it up with the best with them, and with just 18 players left yet another Tîmex final table looked assured. Alas for the young Canadian it was not in the cards, as time ran out on McDonald in 12th place ($4,500). Just a few hands later, and we had our final table, with a short stacked bikkles failing to run down naupen07's [Ac] [Qc] with [As] [8s]. Bubble boy bikkles took home $4,500 for his oh-so-close finish, while the remaining nine players took their seats at table 9 for final action.

With the Sunday Million on hiatus due to 8,669 players who are trying to gain a last minute ticket into this year's World Series of Poker Main Event, the big tourney of the evening started a few hours earlier. The $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up had a strong showing tonight despite all the players looking for a last minute Father's Day gift, much like a certain writer who picked up a Home Depot gift card on the way to see his dad. 4,129 showed up for with the $215 buy-in and unlike last week, crushed the guarantee creating an $825,800.00 prize pool leaving aside $129,553.34 of that for tonight's winner. Perhaps the victor tonight will show up at his or her father's place with little more than I did after taking home the six-figure win.

Down to the final table bubble and a difference of around $1,600 on the line, not to mention the six figures awaiting for our winner, short-stacked Mochuelo1 with just over one million chips and 80K/160K ante 16K blind tried to improve with a shove from the cutoff holding [Ks][Qh]. JoeJ1337 in the big blind looking down at pocket tens [Tc][Ts] refused to relinquish the blinds and made the call. In an odd reverse fade, JoeJ1337 started spamming "Q" in the chat box, and sure enough nary a "Q" found the [7s] [5h] [8s] [7h] [Th] board and Mochuelo1 was sent home in tenth place ($4,954.80).

Seat 1: needdollarz (7782684 in chips)
Seat 2: Nitrite (3644958 in chips)
Seat 3: degiomusic (6655267 in chips)
Seat 4: SiiliSuhonen (2076100 in chips)
Seat 5: JoeJ1337 (4826878 in chips)
Seat 6: raare01 (3537032 in chips)
Seat 7: QazMiNowPlz (5872951 in chips)
Seat 8: lankeshwar (2080064 in chips)
Seat 9: da produca (4814066 in chips)

Blinds would move up to 100K/200K ante 20K within a few minutes of the final nine being seated as needdollarz came in with the most tournament dollars followed closely by degiomusic and QazNiNowPlz who was flying the colors of Denmark.

Hearts Ahoy

After losing a huge eight million chip pot to SilliSuhonen, lankeshwar was left with just a half million in chips. Three hands later with the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K, lankeshwar found [Ad][Qs] in early position and open shove for 476,916 chips. Folded around to degiomusic in the big blind who only had to call another 226,916 while holding 3.4 million behind, made the math call with [4h][9h]. 1.3 million chips in the middle with lankeshwar having to fade a flush draw [Th] [3h] [3d] after two hearts hit the flop. [Js] on the turn was fine, the red lady on the river [Qh] completed the flush for degiomusic sending lankeshwar off in ninth place ($6,606.40).

Moving with the chip rhythm

Five hands later da produca would open shove from UTG holding pocket nines [9s][9d] for 3.3 million. Two spots over degiomusic held pocket kings [Kd][Kh] and called all-in for just 82,947 chips less as the rest of the table went back to watching World Cup highlights. Two pair came out on the [Qh] [5s] [Td] [Ts] [Qs] board as degiomusic's kings over queens reigned supreme, taking in the 7.1 million chip pot. The very next hand da produca's 82,947 chips went into the middle in the big blind as QazMiNowPlz and degiomusic made the call. After the [Kd][7d][6c] flop, degiomusic led out for the minimum as QazMiNowPlz left the hand and turned up [Kc][Js] for top pair. da produca still had some life with the ragged [5h][9h] and an inside straight draw. But, the saving eight would stay away from the [6h] turn and [3c] river sending the da produca back to da studio in eighth place ($10,322.50).

Nitrite blows up

In one of the biggest pots of the tournament to this point, chip leader SilliSuhonen would put needdollarz to the test preflop after needdollarz found his preflop raised by both Nitrite and SilliSuhonen. needdollarz would abandon the 532,123 chips as Nitrite was all-in against SilliSuhonen for the 7.9 million chip pot. Watch the results below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

Pocket queens for SilliSuhonen [Qd][Qc] would trample Nitrite's [Jd][Ac] on the [3d] [3h] [Kd] [8d] [Th] board and scoop the 7.9 million chips as Nitrite took in $18,580.50 in seventh place.

1337dOOd done

The blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K as JoeJ1337 and QazMiNowPlz tried to combine their similar five million chips and change stacks into one massive stack preflop. JoeJ1337 would cover by 57,705 chips and turned over pocket eights [8s][8d] to QazMiNowPlz's big slick [Kc][Ad]. Much like the final table bubble hand, JoeJ1337 immediately went for the reverse sweat and started spamming "aaaaaaaaaa". Obviously, that worked as no ace hit the board but a king did on the river [3s] [7h] [4c] [4h] [Ks] sending the 11 million chip pot to QazMiNowPlz. The next hand SilliSuhonen would scoop up JoeJ1337's scraps and send the elite one out in sixth place ($26,838.50).

Time to face the music

Just two hands later degiomusic, who helped carve a few players from the final table would find his own head on the chopping block facing chip leader SilliSuhonen. After raare01 and degiomusic made the call of SilliSuhonen preflop raise to 700K all three would see the [Qs][Ks][5d] flop. From the big blind degiomusic tried to scare off the remaining players with a shove for 2.7 million. Instead the response was an equally quick call from SilliSuhonen holding big slick [Ks][As] and quick fold by raare01. degiomusic also held top pair but a lesser kicker [9h][Kd], and failed to catch up on the [8h] turn and [7s] river leaving the tournament in fifth place ($35,096.50).

3-2-1 Contact!

Three eliminations in four hands tends to make writer's hands cramp up. With the blinds holding steady at 150K/300K ante 30K raare01 tried to hop into the action by shoving for 2.3 million over the top of a preflop raise by needdollarz. Holding 6.1 million in chips and only having to call 1.7 million more, needdollarz would make the call holding [7s][Ac]. raare01's [Ah][8c] looked a lot brighter after the [6d][9s][Jc] flop. But, the [7h] would dim the lights on raare01's tournament as the [3s] turned those five million chips in needdollarz's direction. raare01 would finish just outside of the proposed deal in fourth place ($46,657.70).

Did I mention a deal?

Immediately the final three had our PokerStars host pause the time clock for one of the quicker deals I have had the pleasure of covering. Details below leaving $10,000.00 for the winner:

needdollarz: $88,320.19
QazMiNowPlz: $87,678.76
SilliSuhonen: $107,888.59

Eight is not enough

Watch this massive 17 milllion chip pot between needdollarz and QazMiNowPlz play out below:

RSS readers click through to see replay

After the [4h][6h][8s] flop QazMiNowPlz would check as needdollarz would lead out for one million. QazMiNowPlz check-raised all-in and covered as needdollarz could not hit the call button quickly enough with the flopped straight [5d][7s]. QazMiNowPlz's top pair [Kh][8d] would be drawing dead by the [3s] turn as 17 million chips went to needdollarz. QazMiNowPlz's remaining 666,873 chips would be placed in the middle for a snack on the next hand as SilliSuhonen would hit a broadway straight to send off QazMiNowPlz in third place ($87,678.76).

Quick end to a long tourney

Ten hours after 4,129 players started, heads-up play would begin with needdollarz in a 15.8 million to 25.4 million chip deficit to SilliSuhonen. Three hands in needdollarz would score a needed double-up with another eight high straight, scoring 31.2 million chips. After the reversal in chip counts, needdollarz would apply the pressure in winning six of the final eight hands including the final hand where SilliSuhonen decided to test his luck preflop and shoved for 7.5 million chips holding two face cards [Qh][Jc]. With decent suited ace [Td][Ad] needdollarz made the call. A jack on the flop [Ks] [8s] [Jh] had SilliSuhonen looking good to get back into the tournament. [9d] helped no one on the turn but the rivered [Qs] improved both hands as needdollarz racked up yet another straight and the final 15 million tournament chips to become this week's Sunday Warm-up champion and collected the additional $10,000 bringing the total winnings to $98,320.19!

$750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up Results (06-20-10)
(*denotes part of three-way deal)

1. needdollarz (St.Petersbourg) *$98,320.19
2. SiiliSuhonen (roma) *$107,888.59
3. QazMiNowPlz (Jyllinge) $87,678.76
4. raare01 (no chat) $46,657.70
5. degiomusic (cournonterral) $35,096.50
6. JoeJ1337 (Livonia) $26,838.50
7. Nitrite (Stockholm) $18,580.50
8. da produca (Zurich) $10,322.50
9. lankeshwar (Northborough) $6,606.40

For the second time in as many weeks fewer than four thousand players ponied-up the necessary $215 entry fee to sit down in the Sunday Warm-Up. Nevertheless, a healthy 3,674 runners entered to compete for their share of the slightly overlaid, $750,000 prize pool. Even with the World Series in full swing, plenty of PokerStars Pros decided spend their Sunday playing on the virtual felt, with PokerStars Nordic Team pro Johnny "johnnylodden" Lodden (469th for $322.50) and PokerStars Online Team pros Grayson "spacegravy" Physioc (392nd for $352.50) and Anders "Donald" Hoyer Berg (288th for $435) making it into the money.    

Penthouse to Outhouse

At eleven players left, with the final table in sight, the shortest stacks jockeyed with each other for their spot among the final nine. Predictably, this cautious play was to the benefit of the tournament leaders, who were able to chip-up relatively unchecked. Initially, it looked like HOMERos would glide into the final table as one of the chip leaders, enjoying a more than six million chip stack as play approached the final table bubble. However, a big misstep with [Ad] [Qh] against TommyGunn34 flopped set left HOMERos with less than 500,000 chips, just two spots away from the final table. A few hands later, HOMERos, very short and in a heads-up pot with verehaga, open shoved all-in with [10d] [7d] on a [2d] [2s] [Ad] flop. verehaga called and was ahead with [Ac] [8c] for top pair, but had to sweat HOMERos ten-high diamond flush draw. Alas for HOMERos it wasn't meant to be, as the [Kc] fell on the turn and the [4h] on the river, knocking HOMERos out in tenth place ($4,500) and setting the final table.


Seat 1: SOXFAN83 (5066199 in chips)
Seat 2: jackziyang (2077828 in chips)
Seat 3: TommyGunn34 (10803673 in chips)
Seat 4: PremiumStud (2330164 in chips)
Seat 5: modyla (3421072 in chips)
Seat 6: Aftret (2562683 in chips)
Seat 7: hithenose (3309454 in chips)
Seat 8: turataika (2169995 in chips)
Seat 9: verehaga (4998932 in chips)

HOMERos exit sent everyone to Table 260 for the tournament's final stretch. TommyGunn34, with an assist from HOMERos's downfall, came into the final table with a substantial chip lead over the field--10.8 million in chips good for nearly 30 percent of all the chips in play. The rest of the final table started off relatively bunched together, with SOXFAN83's five million chip stack in second place. Blinds were 65k/130k with a 13k ante as play resumed.       

Does Everyone Have a Plane to Catch or Something?

Things got off to a quick start when play restarted. In the second hand of final table play SOXFAN83 opened for 272,345 in the cutoff position only to have jackziyang push in his last 1,986,828 on the button. Play folded to SOXFAN83, who called jackziyang all-in bet with [8s] [8c]. jackziyang was in bad shape, holding a dominated pair of sevens. The board kept kosher, running out [10h] [3s] [2h] [9c] [Ac] and bringing jackziyang's brief run at the final table to an end in ninth place ($6,000).

It wasn't long until jackziyang had company on the virtual rail, however. Just two hands later SOXFAN83 opened for just over 340k from middle position. PremiumStud, from the button, then moved all-in over the top of SOXFAN83's raise for 2,656,941. Aftret called off his last 2,507,683 and, amazingly, SOXFAN83 also made the called, having both players covered. SOXFAN83 was well ahead of both all-in player, with [Kh] [Kd] versus PremiumStud's [Ah] [10d] and Aftret's [Qs] [Qc]. SOXFAN83 retained his lead on a flop of [8s] [9h] [6c], but PremiumStud vaulted ahead when the [7c] came on the turn, giving him a ten-high straight and a hammerlock on the hand. Both SOXFAN83 and Aftret were drawing to a ten on the river for a split pot, but instead the [8d] came, eliminating Aftret in eighth place ($9,375) and nearly tripling-up PremiumStud.

The Carnage Continues

The first two exits at the final table came so quickly that final table moderator, PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, wasn't able to make an appearance at the table until both Aftret and jackziyang had already been eliminated. Not that Victor's presence at the final table meant any less action. At hand 13, nine hands after Aftret made his exist in eighth place, PremiumStud opened for 345,678 in the hi-jack seat. modyla called from the cutoff, but turataika decided to play it decidedly less friendly and moved all-in for just under 2.5 million. The original raiser, PremiumStud, folded, but modyla made the quick call. turataika was the player at risk and showed [4c] [4d], which was crushed by modyla's [Jh] [Js]. Things became bleaker for turataika after a flop of [5h] [5s] [10s], leaving turataika just two chances to hit one of the two remaining fours in the deck. The turn and river came [9d] [Ah] respectively, and turatiaka was eliminated in seventh place, good for a $16,875 payday.

Can I Still Take the Deal?

Play slowed down a bit once the table became six-handed. A deal was briefly discussed by four of the players remaining, but ultimately rejected by the largest stack, TommyGunn34 with 14 million, and the smallest, verehaga with less than five million. A comeback never materialized for verehaga, who, after spiking an ace to outdraw modyla's [7c] [7d] with [Ah] [7h] in an all-in confrontation, ran into trouble against PremiumStud just one hand later. verehaga opened with 600k in the cutoff position only to be raised all-in by PremiumStud. verehaga called off his last 2.1 million and exposed [As] [9h], which was dominated by PremiumStud's [Ac] [Qd]. The board ran out dry for verehage, [4c] [4h] [7d] [10c] [Kd], who still collected a healthy $24,375 payday for his sixth place finish.

MC Ramdin

In spite of the big money at stake the mood was pretty light as the final table moved into five-handed. Moderator Victor Ramdin traded jokes with a few of the final tablists, as the players began to trade blinds back-and-forth. At one point hithenose made a proposition to Victor; if Ramdin performed a rap he would transfer a whopping $5 to Victor's PokerStars account. In case you're wondering, Victor Ramdin has over $2.6 million in career tournament earnings. The ever jovial Ramdin jokingly replied "double it" before deciding to reject the idea altogether. However, before the joke was totally dead TommyGunn34 decided to put in his two cents, writing in the chat box "Hey that's ten bucks, better than minimum wage you know."

Anyway, here is how the final five looked as the blinds raised to 125k/250k with a 25k ante:

Seat 1: SOXFAN83 (3842741 in chips)
Seat 3: TommyGunn34 (14478116 in chips)
Seat 4: PremiumStud (7215644 in chips)
Seat 5: modyla (5254591 in chips)
Seat 7: hithenose (5948908 in chips)

No es Bueno
         
About 30 hands after verehaga made his exit in sixth, modyla and hithenose got tangled in a heads-up pot after a flop of [Jh] [9h] [Ah]. modyla first checked to hithenose, who made the less than half-pot bet of 500k. modyla raised hithenose 5 million, effectively moving hithenose all-in. hithenose snap called and showed [As] [Kh] for top pair with the nut flush draw. modyla was in trouble with [Ad] [10c], needing runner-runner to knock out hithenose. The turn card, [8s], provided a little sweat to a possible straight for modyla, but a blank river three doubled-up hithenose and crippled modyla down to 220k. modyla, who was sporting one of the newly available World Cup avatars, representing Spain, said adios to the final table two hands later when his [Kh] [9d] was out drawn by SOXFAN83's [5c] [2h]. modyla collected $31,875 for his fifth place effort.

Sox lose Twice!

Two hands after modyla's demise, and with the blinds creeping up on him, a short stacked SOXFAN83 raised his button to 522,345 with [Ah] [10s] only to be reraised all-in by PremiumStud in the big blind. SOXFAN83 called the all-in, PremiumStud showed [4c] [4s] and they were off to the races! Unfortunately for him, SOXFAN83 ran about as well as his Red Socks did earlier in the day against Philly, coming up dry on a [3s] [Jc] [Kh] [2d] [Kc] board. PremiumStud's pocket fours held, sending SOXFAN83 out the door in fourth, $43,125 richer or roughly the same amount Daisuke Matsuzaka makes for everyday he's on the DL.

Chop-Chop

The idea of a deal was brought up once again following the elimination of SOXFAN83 in fourth. The players were fairly even in chips, with TommyGunn34 leading the way with 14,453,116. PremiumStud and hithenose were just a couple million behind the leader, holding 11,669,320 and 10,617,564, respectively. A strict chip-chop was agreed upon, setting aside $10,000 for the eventual champion.

TommyGunn34: $89,278.48
PremiumStud: $87,536.91
hithenose: 80,559.61

Put out to Stud

After losing a big pot to hithenose on the first hand after the deal, PremiumStud got himself into a raising war against TommyGunn34 in a battle of the blinds. hithenose passed on his button allowing TommyGunn34 to raise his small blind to 666,666, prompting PremiumStud to move his last 7 million into the pot. TommyGunn34 called, showing [Ah] [Kh]. PremiumStud was behind, but still very much alive with his [Qh] [Jc]. That is, PremiumStud was very much alive until the flop came down ace high, [Ad] [7d] [2s]. A queen on the turn gave PremiumStud a little hope, but a brick four on the river sent PremiumStud packing in third with $87,536.91.

Looking for the Comeback

Taking the low end of the chop, hithenose was looking to overcome a slight chip disadvantage to TommyGunn34 (16,255,128 to 20,484,872) in order to leapfrog both PremiumStud and TommyGunn34 in the final payouts. Blinds were 150k/300k with a 30k ante as heads-up play commenced, leaving the final two competitors with plenty of play, each wielding stacks of more than 50 big blinds.

Brrr, it's Cold in Here

After 53 hands of heads-up play, fortunes were now reversed from the start of heads-up action, with hithenose commanding a 22 million chip stack and TommyGun34 looking for the comeback with 14.5 million chips. Then came the awfully cold 54th hand. hithenose made it 800k on his button. TommyGunn34 countered with a raise to just over 2.1 million. hithenose wasn't satisfied with 2.1 and made it 4.2 million back to TommyGunn34. TommyGunn34 put in the last raise, all-in for 14.5 million. hithenose made the quick call and revealed two red aces. TommyGunn34' s hand wasn't much worse, [As] [Kh], but was crushed by hithenose's pocket aces. No funny business on the board, [3d] [4d] [8h] [2s] [10c], and TommyGunn34 was eliminated in second, collecting $89,278.48 for his great runner-up performance.  

hithenose manages to barely top TommyGunn34 in money ($90,559.61 to $89,278.48) thanks to his victory. No word yet on if hithenose will use is new found wealth to fund a Victor Ramdin rap album.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (06-13-10):
(* denotes part of a three-way deal)

1. hithenose (Montclair) *$90,559.61
2. TommyGunn34 (Minooka) *$89,278.48
3. PremiumStud (Las Vegas) *$87,536.91
4. SOXFAN83 (Abington) $43,125.00
5. modyla (Sahrah-beduine) $31,875.00
6. verehaga (Russia) $24,375.00
7. turataika (Helsinki) $16,875.00
8. Aftret (Strindheim) $9,375.00
9. jackziyang (London) $6,000.00

A quieter crowd once again for the Sunday Warm-up this week as the first crowd this year fewer than four thousand showed up for tonight's $750,000 guarantee tournament. 3,965 runners lined up their $215 buy-ins which still beat out the guarantee and allotted the $793,000.00 to award two players a six-figure score. How did they get there? Find out below after bluffdeez503 set up the final table.

No need to bluff these

Down to the bubble and five aside on two tables with blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K, jaxxonxxx would try to take down the blinds with a button shove holding pocket deuces [2h][2c]. But, bluffdeez503 held a higher pair, covered the bet in the small blind, and would make the call holding pocket sevens [7s][7c]. Bookended by eights [8h] [Ts] [3d] [Qh] [8c] the board showed no surprises in breaking the final table bubble for nine finalist and sent jaxxonxxx home in tenth place ($4,758.00).

Seat 1: trionojnika (3825052 in chips)
Seat 2: Showťime (4222252 in chips)
Seat 3: ValueH (3925108 in chips)
Seat 4: bullyon (9925874 in chips)
Seat 5: Jeremysl98 (3989460 in chips)
Seat 6: Sunny220v (2416900 in chips)
Seat 7: CHRISCCC (3440612 in chips)
Seat 8: ginofluit (3186592 in chips)
Seat 9: bluffdeez503 (4718150 in chips)

Night time for Sunny220v

Team PokerStars Pro Tom McEvoy took time away from the busy World Series of Poker floor to MC tonight's Sunday Warm-up final table. And no sooner than the former world champ stating the amount for tonight's ninth place finisher, that player was named. bullyon with the bullying stack led out for 360,000 with blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K as shorter stacked Sunny220v two seats over shoved for 2.7 million. Folded back around to the chip leader who would snap call with pocket queens [Qh][Qd]. The pocket nines [9d][9s] for Sunny220v looked very cloudy, especially after a queen hit the flop [2s][5c][Qc]. By the turned [As] Sunny220v's sunset was complete in ninth place ($6,344.00).

All bullyon does is flop sets and take names

You are sitting down with a coin flip holding a pocket pair and flop your set. Life is good. But, suddenly the turn cards comes over giving your opponent an open ended straight flush draw and realize the celebration may have started a bit early. Check out the hand below between bullyon and Jeremysl98 for the river card that helped both players:

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Jeremysl98 would catch a rivered flush holding the overcards [As][Qh], but on the board of [6h] [Jc] [9h] [Th] [Jh] bullyon's nines full [9d][9c] would take down the 6.8 million chip pot eliminating Jeremysl98 in eighth place ($9,912.50).

It's a monster!

Not the best way to go out of a tournament but CHRISCCC had little choice to go after the blinds with maybe less than premium cards. With blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K CHRISCCC would open shove holding [Jc][3c] and no sooner than the cards folded to trionojnika in the small blind making the quick call as Showt'ime in the big blind found time to fold. Pocket kings [Ks][Kh] for trionojnika looked good for the three million chip pot, even more after the [Ts][4c][4h] flop. But, a club would pop off on the turn [Tc] giving CHRISCCC a flush draw, which failed to fill on the [Jd] river shipping CHRISCCC off in seventh place ($17,842.50).

Big bully(on)

As the blinds moved up to 125K/250K ante 25K here's how the stacks lined up with bullyon firmly in the lead:

Seat 1: trionojnika (9,731,190 in chips)
Seat 2: Showťime (3,595,253 in chips)
Seat 3: ValueH (4,353,104 in chips)
Seat 4: bullyon (15,617,122 in chips)
Seat 8: ginofluit (3,430,620 in chips)
Seat 9: bluffdeez503 (2,922,711 in chips)

More lunch money for bullyon

Playing some big stack poker and making the others come up with an answer to his aggression bullyon would lead out on the button for 3.75 million forcing both the blinds to call for their stacks if they wanted to play. ginofluit would fold in the small blind, but bluffdeez503 made the call holding [Ad][Ts]. bullyon held [2s][Kc] and would be at a slight disadvantage until a deuce was produced on the door and held on the [2d] [6h] [4c] [9s] [9d] board sending the person who broke the final table bubble home in sixth place ($25,772.50).

Value call

Eight hands later bullyon had someone all-in again, this time it was ValueH trying to shove in small stack of 2.2 million from the small blind holding [4d][Ac]. But, bullyon had the stack a suited ace to make the call [5h][Ah]. Sometimes this hand would end in a tie but the flop [8d] [8h] [9h] showed bright red hearts for bullyon. The hearts were not needed though, as a [5c] hit the turn shutting out ValueH in fifth place ($33,702.50).

Express train to victory?

As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K bullyon would put ginofluit to the test after re-raising ginofluit's UTG 900K raise and putting him all-in from the big blind. Holding [9d][8d] and only 1.3 million behind, ginofluit would make the call. bullyon had the upper hand in more than one way holding two diamonds himself [Ad][Td]. No slowing down bullyon's declamation of the final table so far as the flop showed two aces [Ah] [2s] [As] [3s] [6d] making the rest of the board moot and shipping the 4.7 million chip pot to bullyon's overflowing stack. ginofluit's night was ended in fourth place ($45,597.50). This finish would top ginofluit's recent April score in this very tournament, getting seventh place for $20,646.00 (click here for the recap).

Agree to disagree

Two hands after ginofluit's departure the three would try to hash out a deal but unable to come up with a suitable amount. And as soon as McEvoy turned on the poker machine the two smaller stacks shoved preflop to combine for one big stack. Watch Showt'ime and trionojnika combine their stacks for a 15.8 million chip pot below:

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Showt'ime: [Td][Ts]
trionojnika: [Ah][Qc]

Queen on the flop would be Showt'ime's dagger as the board ran out [Qs] [2d] [Jh] [3d] [2c] in favor for trionojnika. Showt'ime would settle for the third place check ($65,422.50) and armed with the 15.8 million chips from the pot, trionojnika would have the chips to take on bullyon heads-up for the title.

A bluff called

bullyon would ask for $107,000 for the chop as he now held a very slight lead 20.3 million to 19.2 million. trionojnika balked at the idea with the chip counts so close. "You called my bluff, we have a deal" said bullyon as the two would lock up six-figure scores and play for the remaining $10,000 left in the prize pool.

bullyon: $104,120.08
trionojnika: $103,161.92

Not backing down from the bully

After battling back from the several chip deficits, trionojnika would make the chase for the final $10,000.00 of the prize pool a lengthy one. After over ten hours of play, with the blinds moving all the way up to 250K/500K ante 50K the two players decided to let their cards do the talk on the final hand.

bullyon: [5d][5s]
trionojnika: [Jc][Ks]

The all low [7s] [7d] [4c] flop was safe for trionojnika who was looking for a much needed double-up with this 20.9 million chip pot. [Kc] on the turn flipped things in bullyon's direction leaving two outs on the river for trionojnika to stay alive. [3h] appeared as trionojnika avatar disappeared from the table leaving bullyon with all the chips as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up Results (06-06-10):
(* denotes part of two-way deal)
1. bullyon (chandler) *$114,120.08
2. trionojnika (Pazardjik) *103,161.92
3. Showťime (Vechta) $65,422.50
4. ginofluit (sint jansteen) $45,597.50
5. ValueH (Sliema) $33,702.50
6. bluffdeez503 (Sherwood) $25,772.50
7. CHRISCCC (Leicester) $17,842.50
8. Jeremysl98 (Souderton) $9,912.50
9. Sunny220v (Kiev) $6,344.00