AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
TITLE: OnlyHope Takes Sunday Million
DATE: 4:41 AM
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BODY:
The PokerStars site was having technical difficulties last night which<br>prevented the Sunday Million tournament from being held at its regular time.<br>PokerStars pushed the tournament&#39;s start time back an hour and, as a bonus<br>(apology?) for the delay, added $100,000 to the prize pool. The tournament<br>attracted 6,672 entrants, despite the delay, to build a prize pool of<br>$1,434,400 with the added money. Goleafsgoeh, a player who has been showing<br>up quite frequently within the top-20 places in PokerStars tournaments<br>recently, almost made the final table of this tournament last night. He<br>eventually busted out in 12th place, earning $6,598. The final table itself<br>had its share of notoriety with Peter &quot;#1PEN&quot; Neff, a prominent Internet<br>player. He sat at the table with $6.5 million in chips, which put him in<br>sixth place. In first place was 5iveofaKind who had $11.8 million compared<br>to admiral77 in second with $11 million. 10Ten_Deuce2 was the short stack<br>with $3.3 million, but he was not the first player to go. The first<br>elimination hand was 15 minutes into the final table action. DeuceBuster<br>pushed all in for $3 million and was called by admiral77 in the big blind<br>(which was at $400,000). Admiral77 showed A 10 and was leading against<br>DeuceBuster&#39;s K Q. The board ran out 8 5 4 7 J, completely missing both<br>players, and DeuceBuster was eliminated in ninth place ($8,893). After 15<br>more minutes, Hist007 was history. He open-pushed all in preflop for $2.3<br>million and was called by 5iveofaKind in the big blind. Hist007 showed K 7<br>and was dominated by 5iveofaKind&#39;s pocket sevens. The board paired but<br>otherwise missed both players and Hist007 was sent off on eighth place, for<br>$14,344. After more than doubling his short stack earlier in the final table<br>action, 10Ten_Deuce2 was back down to just $3.5 million (with the big blind<br>at $600,000). He pushed all in preflop from under the gun and was called by<br>admiral77 on the button. Admiral77 turned over A 10 versus 10Ten_Deuce2&#39;s K<br>J. The flop paired both players when it came A K 3, but admiral77 retained<br>the lead. The turn and river were blanks and admiral77 raked in the pot to<br>eliminate 10Ten_Deuce2 in seventh place ($23,668). The blinds had broken<br>into $400,000-$800,000 and #1PEN&#39;s $7.2 million stack was hurting. He pushed<br>all in preflop from mid position and was called by admiral77, the current<br>chip leader. Admiral77 showed pocket sevens against #1PEN&#39;s A 2. The board<br>ran out K J 9 5 9 and admiral77&#39;s pocket sevens held up to eliminate #1PEN<br>in sixth ($32,991). Admiral77&#39;s stack grew to almost $25 million after the<br>hand to give him a very decent lead over 5iveofaKind&#39;s second-place stack of<br>$13.7 million. The final five players agreed to pause the tournament to<br>discuss a deal. Within a few seconds of the pause, alcswab said he&#39;d changed<br>his mind and play resumed. Alcswab was eliminated very shortly thereafter<br>when 5iveofaKind pushed all in preflop in the small blind and he called all<br>in for his last $5.4 million. Alcswab showed A 4 and was ahead of<br>5iveofaKind&#39;s Q 8. The flop put the advantage squarely in 5iveofaKind&#39;s<br>hands when it came Q J 2. The turn gave alcswab plenty of outs when it<br>brought the 3. Alcswab could count on any diamond (there were seven left),<br>ace, or 5 to give him a winning hand. He had a 30 percent chance to double<br>up. The river, however, was the K and alcswab was eliminated in fifth<br>($46,044).<p>With alcswab now gone, the players again paused the tournament to discuss a<br>deal. A by-the-chips chop with $30,000 remaining for the ultimate winner<br>(per the PokerStars rules) was quickly agreed upon.
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