Every now and then, the shortest of stacks finds a way to turn the tides at the final table and rush his or her way to victory. More often than not, however, the players with the biggest stacks at the final table find themselves fighting for the biggest prizes in the last few spots. Event #75 culminated in a fairly nice marriage of those two themes as a long-lasting chip leader and a long-suffering short stack ended up heads-up for the title.
Friday’s $5.50 NL Hold’em event marked the three-quarter point in this MicroMillions II. Event #75 was played in six-max format with big antes really pressing the action. The prize pool’s $40,000 guarantee was met and surpassed with 9,193 players showing up to play.
When the field combined down to two tables, Denmark’s Bombjack1 and Russia’s maks198004 were in a dead heat for the chip lead. Maks198004 had a notion to change that, though, and he got himself involved in a big pot against petros19890 with 11 players remaining. The latter had aces, but it was of no consequence to the big stack.
Maks198004 happily took a stroll down Broadway to pad his lead, and he was still the chip captain when the field shrank to six. The final table was set with the elimination of Australia’s raftingboot in seventh place, and the last six players stacked up thusly:
Event #75 Final Table
Seat 1: silvane123 (Singapore) – 3,071,868
Seat 2: ian04x (Germany) – 4,598,270
Seat 3: fader holic (Austria) – 4,876,488
Seat 4: maks198004 (Russia) – 15,311,764
Seat 5: Bombjack1 (Denmark) – 12,924,068
Seat 6: alphik1 (Belarus) – 5,182,542
Level 47, blinds 125K/250K, ante 50K
About ten hands into the final table, a three-way all-in broke out, and maks198004 had very much the best of it. Ian04x was the one doing the shoving, and maks198004 flatted with the covering stack. Silvane123 had less than 2 million chips and decided to join the fun with a chance to triple up. He called all-in from the big blind.
ian04x: 5♥ 5â™
maks198004: Q♥ Qâ™
silvane123: A♥ 9♥
Board: A♦ K♥ 8♣ 6♣ 10♥
That was the end of the line for ian04x, sent to the rail in sixth place with just shy of $700 in newfound spending money.
The five remaining players passed the button for a few more hands before pausing the clock to talk numbers. The host presented them with a deal that left $800 on the table, and everyone agreed to lock up an easy payday. The remainder of the event took just a blistering few hands to finish up.
Another three-way all-in fest sent silvane123 out the door in fifth place shortly thereafter:
That fifth-place finish was worth a healthy $2,852.13 for Singapore’s silvane123.
Just moments later, a crippled Bombjack1 exited in fourth place when the mighty 2♥ 3♣ fell to maks198004’s Q♦ 3♥ . The board ran A♥ 8♥ Jâ™ 5♥ Q♣ , and Bombjack’s deal allowed him to walk away with $3,866.08 — more than third place money in the original payouts. A fine deal, indeed.
Those third-place honors went to fader holic after getting the last of a short stack in with 9♣ 9â™ . There’s no fault to be found there, but maks198004 was lucky enough to wake up with queens again. The Qâ™ Q♥ held this time as the dealer ran out A♦ K♦ 7♦ Jâ™ J♥ . For his work, fader holic locked up $3,391.82.
When heads-up play began, maks198004 had about a 2.5:1 chip lead, and it took just two hands to end it. Alphik1 raised 3x to 1.2 million, and maks198004 made the covering shove. The short stack still had about 30bb left, but the K♠Q♣ was good enough to go with. The call all-in came, and maks198004 was a small favorite with A♠4♣ . There was no help for either player on the 6♥ 3♠J♥ 10♣ 2♦ board, and that was that.
Since he was the shorty when the deal was made, alphik1 had to settle for $2,364.34 — just about half of the original payout for second place.
The lion’s share of the money went to maks198004, and yet another Russian has risen to the top of MicroMillions II. The victory was worth $5,467.08, and he’s got another 25 events to try and become the series’ first double champion. Better yet, he’s freerolling from here on out.
Final Table Payouts
1: maks198004 (Russia) – $5,467.08
2: alphik1 (Belarus) – $2,364.34
3: fader holic (Austria) – $3,391.82
4: Bombjack1 (Denmark) – $3,866.08
5: silvane123 (Singapore) – $2,852.13
6: ian04x (Germany) – $689.47
