New Year's Eve Online Poker Tournament Results

The holidays are great, aren't they? Well, for most of us, they are. Online poker traditionally sees a decline in tournament attendance at such times. This New Year's Eve - December 31, 2006 - was certainly no different. For those who did make it to these events, the action was good and the prizes were still monstrous.

Full Tilt Poker lowered their guarantee to $250,000 in honor of the holiday. 1,432 players put up the cash to play in the event, pushing the prize pool to a little bit over $285,000. First place paid out $53,843.20 and 216 players made bank in the tournament. Lee Watkinson, the 2004 Cardplayer Player of the Year and friend of FTP, missed the final table by inches. The man who has made many final tables at both the WSOP and WPT couldn't burst this bubble, but took home a few thou for the effort.

As action began at the final table, Zukunft979, the eventual winner of the event, was the chip leader with 850k. PureCash25 knocked the first player out of the final table when he delivered a bad beat to Keep_Walking. Keep_Walking's pocket queens proved no match for PureCash25's 10,9s with a little help from those two extra nines on the flop, of course. Keep_Walking kept on walking away from the final table in ninth with a wee bit over $4,000 to help him celebrate the New Year.

The short stacks duked it out next. BubbaGump29 dominated bamaholdem with his A,10. bamaholdem held an A,7. Both players caught a piece of the flop which was 7,10,4. The remaining two sevens didn't come on the turn or river and bamaholdem was outta there. PureCash25 struck again. This time his pocket tens held up against Poker_Man3's K,10. Poker_Man3's seventh place finish netted him a tasty prize of $7,016.80.

PureCash25 then hit a brick wall of back luck. He was forced all-in with the rag hand of 3,6 and exited the competition in sixth. BubbaGump29 followed him not too long after. Zukunft979's A,K didn't need to improve against Bubba's nasty-looking 3,7. The turn sealed the deal with the ace and Bubba hit the rail hard. We bet the prize of $13,460.80 for fifth place will buy a boatload of shrimp though, so it's all good.

skip1640 sealed his spot in the final three when he battled rkruok, the other short stack at the table, with his pockets eights. Unfortunately, he was riding the rail himself two short hands later when robby96674, who had been pretty quiet up 'til that point, called his all-in.

Zukunft and robby played for less than 20 hands more in a heads-up match that seemed to clearly favor Zukunft. When both blokes went all-in on the last hand, Zukunft had the clear advantage both in cards and in chips. Zukunft had a dominant A,Q to robby's A,J. The flop solidified Z's lead when a queen hit the board.

Here are the final standings:

1) Zukunft979 - $53,843.20
2) robby966974 - $33,365.60
3) skip1640 - $23,055.20
4) rkruok - $17,756.80
5) BubbaGump29 - $13,460.80
6) PureCash25 - $9,623.04
7) Poker_Man3 - $7,016.80
8) bamaholdem - $5,441.60
9) Keep_Walking - $4,181.44

Ultimate Bet dropped its guarantee for the holiday. They hadn't been making it close to their $200K for a while, so it wasn't much of a surprise. The $200 + 15 event had 437 entrants, which is quite low for the site. 237 players cashed and the total prize pool was $87,400.

RProps lead the way into the final table with 350k. It was quite a sizeable lead that carried him all the way to heads-up play. sailorlobell scored the first KO of the final table when his A,K defeated SHARKER ZULU's A,Q.

AllinOnAA was the next titan to fall with his pocket nines. He lost to thelaf320's A,K after he spiked a king on the turn. RProps then knocked out sailorlobell who had pushed all-in with an A,K. RProps flopped a ten to pair his bottom pocket card and sailorlobell took $2,622 for his eighth place finish.

Randomizer3 and AWO were the next two casualties of this final table war. WATCHOUT123 made it to fifth place when his A,K crumbled under the weight of RProps' Q,8 and a lucky board that gave the chip leader a set of eights. Ouch! KnowKnutz lost most of his chips to TwoFistedLou when he played his sixes hard against Lou's pair of kings. He pushed all-in with an A,4 which was no match for RProps' K,Q. The board helped RProps again, this time bringing a pair for his queen.

thelaf320 had been the table's short stack for a while before he went all-in with his sailboats (pocket fours). He was eliminated in third place when TwoFistedLou's A,K made a set of kings with the board's assistance.

This knockout helped TwoFistedLou take the lead in heads-up play. He played aggressively against RProps and widened his lead fairly easily. On the final raised, he opened the action with a raise on his 9,7. RProps called with a K,Q. The flop - K,8,6 - gave RProps the immediate advantage with a pair of kings, but gave TwoFistedLou an open-ended straight draw. RProps then checked his top pair. TwoFistedLou bet his draw and RProps went all-in. TwoFisted called and completed his draw with a 10 on the turn.

These are the final table results:

1) TwoFistedLou - $21,850
2) RProps - $13,110
3) thelaf320 - $8,958
4) knowknutz - $6,118
5) WATCHOUT123 - $5,244
6) AWO - $4,370
7) Randomizer3 - $3,496
8) sailorlobell - $2,622
9) allinonaa - $1,748
10) SHARKER ZULU - $1,092

PartyPoker truly lived up to its name on New Year's Eve. It was a great place for players to be. The site held up its $200,000 Guarantee. Since the event only drew in 653 players, the site doled out an overlay of almost $70,000 which was good news indeed for the entrants. 100 players cashed.

SamDiam0nd was the big cheese entering the final table. He held a whopping 500k in chips while the short stacks were barely hanging on. jkonly struck first blood and caught two players after he flopped a set of sevens. (They don't call it a 'jackpot' hand for nothing!) D4NBO used his pocket kings to KO lammeliten in eighth place.

With the shortest stacks decimated from the final table, play became a bit more even for a little bit. Dibbsden took out D4NBO with his hooks. Then XX_GALTEN_XX made a full house on the turn and sent jkonly to the rail in sixth place with $8,000. Dibbsden would then bid adieu to the competition when he pushed all-in with a measly A,5. He ran up against wheelinho's A,J. To add insult to injury, wheelinho caught two more jacks on the flop. Whoa!

wheelinho had the lead after that impressive win. He then added to his chip stack with a check-raise on an all-heart flop that caused XX_GALTEN_XX and lausfloh to fold. After a short break in the action, play resumed with a passion. XX_GALTEN_XX left when his A,8 ran into a SamDiam0nd's set of queens.

Now that the competition was down to three players, everyone got their turn as the chip leader. wheelinho lost the lead and exited the final table in third place when his semi-bluff went bad and ran afoul of lausfloh's overpair.

SamDiam0nd and lausfloh played well for about a dozen or so hands. Both were playing conservative poker. For a while, it looked like the name of the game was limit holdem instead of no-limit. lausfloh eventually pulled out the win with an A,2 over SamDiam0nd's K,5 and a board that read Q,6,7,9,4.

Here are the final table standings:

1) lausfloh - $47,000
2) SamDiam0nd - $26,000
3) wheelinho - $15,000
4) XX_GALTEN_XX - $12,000
5) Dibbsden - $10,000
6) jkonly - $8,000
7) D4NBO - $6,000
8) lammeliten - $4,000
9) loubidou - $3,000
10) QUANTUM321 - $2,200

Do you want to be a big dog in the world of online tournament poker? Great! Play in one of the great guaranteed events each week at FullTilt, PartyPoker or Ultimate Bet. You can take part for less than five dollars in the site’s qualifying events.