High-stakes action continues today on PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker with SCOOP-43-H: $25,000 NLHE [8-Max, Super High Roller], $1.5M Gtd.
The nosebleed stakes commence about 40 minutes from now with players getting 250,000 in their starting stacks and playing 20-minute levels, which promises to offer plenty of play. Those sitting down for Level 1 will start at 1,200/2,400/300.
The plan for Day 1 is to play until the field is in the money. That won't be for some time as late registration remains open for a hefty five hours-plus. Those going bust may also exercise the option to reenter during that time frame, up to twice.
PokerStars will certainly be looking for players to take them up on that as there's a $1.5 million guarantee attached, meaning 62 entries are needed post-rake to make the number, and only six players are registered currently. Still, the high-stakes grinders are expected to trickle in as the day goes on, making for an exciting and highly competitive contest on PokerStars.
Stay tuned here on PokerNews to follow the Day 1 action.
Luuk "pokerkluka" Gieles opened under the gun for 7,424 and picked up one caller before "roo_400" made it 24,000 on the button. Only Gieles continued and they saw a flop. Gieles checked and roo_400 bet really small with 9,454. Gieles came back with 27,200 but then checked the on the turn. roo_400 bet 35,227 and Gieles stuck around for the .
Gieles checked, roo_400 shoved for 108,732 effective, and Gieles quickly called with for top set. roo_400 turned up for an inferior set.
Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker has rocketed to the top of the counts by a country mile.
First, he busted Conor "1_conor_b_1" Beresford with jacks over nines, three-betting in the small blind versus a button open then calling Beresford's cold four-bet shove for 294K.
Then, Muehloecker opened under the gun and called a three-bet to about 33K from Luuk "pokerkluka" Gieles a couple of seats over. Muehloecker check-called 15,620 on the flop and checked the turn. Gieles bet half-pot with 54,670 and Muehloecker made it 154,010. Gieles called.
On the river, Muehloecker set Gieles in for about 301K and Gieles called with . He'd been coolered and one-outed as Muehloecker had .
After that, Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger opened for 10,650 on the button and Muehloecker defended. He check-called 19K on , bringing a . Both players checked. Muehloecker came out betting on the four-flushing river with 49,590. Loeliger shoved for 263,185. Muehloecker tanked and found a call.
Loeliger showed but Muehloecker stumbled into a winning flush with .
Jordo "prot0" Urlings raised in the cutoff, Michael "imluckbox" Addamo three-bet in the big blind and Urlings shoved for 216K. Addamo called with and easily dusted Urlings' as he turned a flush.
At another table, Sam "Str8$$$Homey" Greenwood opened for 19,800 in the hijack and big blind Christoph "26071985" Vogelsang made it 62,800. Greenwood peeled for the flop. Vogelsang bet 40,973 and Greenwood shoved for Vogelsang's remaining 117K.
He opted to go for the hero-call with and he was good as Greenwood had . However, it ran , to give Greenwood a winning flush.
Wiktor "Iimitless" Malinowski opened for 24,000 under the gun and Thomas "WushuTM" Muehloecker called in the cutoff. The small blind came along and action checked to Muehloecker on the flop. He bet 23,250 and Malinowski raised to 87,000 after the small blind mucked. Muehloecker called and the turn was the . Malinowski barreled for 200,250. Muehloecker called again.
On the river, Malinowski checked and Muehloecker jammed for 495K. Malinowski called with and Muehloecker had been coolered flopping second set with pocket fives.
Registration for SCOOP-43-H closed with 71 entries after the late rush pushed it well clear of the overlay zone for PokerStars. The final nine of those will split the prize pool, which ended up at $1,741,275. The winner will get $469,987, with descending payouts to a min-cash that will be worth $54,286.
Click the "Payouts" tab above for a full breakdown of the prize money.
Jordi "prot0" Urlings completed the blind and Michael "imluckbox" Addamo checked. Urlings check-called 56K on the and checked the . Addamo bet 375,000, about twice the pot. Urlings called and the river was the . Urlings checked and Addamo shoved for just under 1.1 million, just over the pot.
Urlings went for the call with but was no good against .
Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden opened in the cutoff and Jason "jakoon1985" Koon shoved on the button for 847,409. Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle tanked and then stuck his stack in also from the small blind. That chased the other players away.
Rolle:
Koon:
The brought nothing for Koon but the actually improved his equity on the turn. No matter, though, as it was Rolle improving on the river.
That means the final nine are in the money and in the virtual bag until tomorrow.
It was a tidy seven-hour Day 1 in SCOOP-43-H: $25,000 NLHE [8-Max, Super High Roller], $1.5M Gtd, and when it wrapped up, a familiar high roller name far outdistanced the rest in the final nine players heading to Wednesday's final table.
Aussie sensation Michael "imluckbox" Addamo has been a name that has appeared over and over in the payout tables of the big online events since last spring, and he's once again in command after "bagging" more than 125 big blinds in the compact 71-entry field.
He leads a final table that includes the usual of stars, players like Wiktor "Iimitless" Malinowski, Mikita "fish2013" Badziakouski, Christian "WATnlos" Rudolph and Niklas "lena900" Astedt.
Addamo was one of the later registrants and his day got started off on the right foot when he three-outed Sergi "srxakgirona" Reixach for stacks, ace-jack over ace-queen.
He really picked up steam late with three more bustouts, the most important of which came in a limped pot blind-on-blind when he flopped two pair and hit a full house on the river against Jordi "prot0" Urlings. Addamo blasted his favored overbets on the turn and river and Urlings couldn't get away from flopped top pair to bust a few spots shy of the money.
Other players making deep runs but not quite deep enough included Christoph "26071985" Vogelsang, Timothy "Tim0thee" Adams and Jason "jakoon1985" Koon, the latter bubbling when a three-bet shove with king-jack suited ran into an ace-queen suited behind him and didn't get there.
The remaining players have all locked up $54,286, meaning everyone has secured a profit since none fired the maximum of three shells. They'll play for $469,987 up top starting at 1:05 p.m. EDT, and PokerNews will again be on top of the live updates right here.