Iceman1278 Cometh, Saweth, Conquereth the Sunday Million
Friday, 20 March 2009
We know over here in Europe that our American friends are a little slow. Apparently PokerStars know this too, which is why they had this week’s Sunday Million tournament also shifted in time an hour, just in case the yanks had taken a week or more to adjust to a minute shift in their sleeping patterns.
A strong turnout of 8,001 runners in the event allowed the prize pool to coast past the $1.5 million guarantee, all the way to a chunky $1,600,200.
Over ten hours passed before the final table was set:
Seat 1: kendog39 (2,967,891 in chips)
Seat 2: JLande (6,975,660 in chips)
Seat 3: pokerbrat13 (5,343,928 in chips)
Seat 4: TheCronic420 (9,472,220 in chips)
Seat 5: Brendan42 (2,953,483 in chips)
Seat 6: Iceman1278 (13,610,483 in chips)
Seat 7: vietcong01 (13,521,196 in chips)
Seat 8: WhatArunAA (7,955,854 in chips)
Seat 9: bayleesmom (17,209,285 in chips)
The first to go after just a few hands was kendog39, when his 44 found itself well-trapped and dominated by bayleesmom’s AA. The same hand then busted another player as pokerbrat13 shoved, only to have Iceman1278 flip the pre-flop nuts, which held.
JLande and vietcong01 were the next two to leave in that order, eliminated by Brendan42 and eventual winner Iceman1278 respectively. Play then slowed down four-handed as the prizes loomed, with few major pots going down and those that did not eliminating players or else ending in a split.
Then bayleesmom went for an all-in with AT only to run into TheCronic420 with JJ. The hooks held and we were down to three. TheCronic420 held a huge lead as the final three negotiated a deal but he demanded substantially more than the chip-chop numbers of $147km, asking for $180k and not getting it. Play resumed.
Not long after, Brendan42 pushed all-in preflop with pocket fours, but TheCronic420 called with - you guessed it - pocket jacks. He turned a boat to take it to heads-up:
Seat 4: TheCronic420 (56,024,849 in chips)
Seat 6: Iceman1278 (23,985,151 in chips)
Iceman1278 began play aware of the need to get chips and his aggressive play ground TheCronic420 down, until his A5 sucked out on his opponent’s AQ to launch him into the lead.
The lead changed hands as often as the dealer button before finally both saw a limped pot of Kd-7c-3c. Both checked and the Kh fell on the turn. This saw a check-raise and a call from Iceman1278 and TheCronic420 respectively before the 6h river had all the chips flying in.
Iceman1278 had K6 for the second nuts, and TheCronic420’s pair of sevens couldn’t quite match that. TheCronic420 finished in second with $132,176.52, while Iceman1278 won just over $196,000. Looks like TheCronic420 should have taken that deal…