Online Tournament Results - First Weekend of 2007

This weekend was a banner one for online tournaments and the rooms that host them. The lull that occurred over the holidays was but a faint memory. Most sites had record-numbers of entries and easily met their guarantees. Over at Full Tilt Poker, the $350,000 Guarantee was raised to $400,000. Over 2,500 entrants pushed the total prize pool well over $500,000. Whoa!

Derek Snyder, aka DSnyder66, an online pro, made the final table of this event. He was third in chips as the action began and just a wee bit behind The Omaholic and pitt2700. datldo ran into The Omaholic and was sent careening into the rails. His pocket sevens were soundly defeated when The Omaholic caught a lucky nine on the turn, making him the first casualty of the night.

JCarver followed him home soon. First, he gave the bulk of his chips to DSnyder66 when snyder’s pocket rockets dominated his measly A,9. Then, DSnyder finished him off with a K,Q that spiked bottom pair on the flop. Ouch!

SBPoker06, MavFish and kidzero all hit ground zero in quick succession. Then, pitt2700 attempted a blind-steal that went bad. His suited 6,10 was no match for DSnyder’s K,Q especially after the board brought D two pair. pitt’s elimination earned him over $30,000.

I_am_Hugh then found himself all-in with a J, 10 against The Omaholic’s dominant K, J. A king came on the flop and I_am_Hugh missed the turn and river. This left The Omaholic with the chip lead over DSnyder at the start of heads up play. Although they both had loads of chips to play with, both D and the ‘holic came to play aggressive poker. The final hand took place about five minutes into the head-to-head action. The Omaholic made a wheel on the turn and rolled over DSnyder to take the title and the first place prize of $94,000.

Here are the final table results:

1) The Omaholic - $94,513.44
2) DSnyder766 - $58,011.52
3) I_am_Hugh - $37,970.24
4) pitt2700 - $30,293.76
5) kidzero - $22,926.40
6) MavFish - $16,486.40
7) SBPoker06 - $12,107.20
8) JCarver - $9,479.68
9) datldo - $7,212.80

Ultimate Bet had hit a rough patch, especially over the holiday season. They were having some trouble meeting their guarantees. This weekend the site saw over 981 players, a vast improvement over attendance prior to the holidays. This is good news indeed for the folks at UB.

Online pro, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, was in attendance at the final table, adding a little bit of ‘star power’ to the event. He was in seventh place when the action got started, well behind the chip leader, x2then. He made it through the first elimination but couldn’t last past that.

Lewie05 held pocket tens against JohnnyBax’s pocket eights. The flop looked promising for the Baxman as he caught a third eight and held the lead. Unfortunately, the turn and river would complete Lewie05’s queen-high straight which sent JohnnyBax to the rail with $3,400 and a ninth place finish.

Lewie05 left the tournament in fourth place, paving the way for an intense three-way battle between t1mmen, x2then and driller777. About a half-hour into three-handed play, driller777 succumbed and left t1mmen with an even bigger lead than he had before. Heads-up play lasted less than ten minutes before t1mmen took the top prize.

Here are the final table results:

1) t1mmen - $45,000
2) x2then - $26,500
3) driller777 - $18,000
4) Lewie05 - $13,100
5) Skim_Mocha - $10,500
6) strumpan - $8,500
7) easytiger2 - $6,500
8) dapster - $4,500
9) JohnnyBax - $3,400
10) B00mer888 - $2,000

Things sure were hoppin’ over at Party Poker. They had 1,167 players enter their weekly guarantee, pushing the prize pool up to an impressive $233,400. 150 players cashed and first-place would’ve netted 49k had it not been for a deal, but more on that in a bit.

As the final table began, hgvkhygfnbkj from Finland (no, my hands were on the right keys!), had over 1.1 mil in chips and the lead. Sweden’s XX_GALTEN_XX made his third straight final table appearance in this event. Whoa! money_smell was thrown out of the competition in ninth place, earning $2,234 – which certainly doesn’t stink.

genshiken was blinded down to the virtual felt and mucked his final hand. weeman121 earned the knockout with an ace-kicker on a board that had two pairs, twos and tens. Ichan111 didn’t hang around once the blinds moved up to 30k/60k. His K, 10 proved no match for the A,8 of gn0871 especially after an eight hit on the flop.

Things tightened up until the unfortunately-named fartage ripped pocket rockets out and and sent hgvkhygfnbkj careening into the rails in seventh place with over $6500 in duckets. fartage then lost most of his chips to kitbul and succumbed to weeman’s dominant A,6. weeman then knocked out gn0871 by flopping a set of deuces.

weeman couldn’t turn those two knockouts into a winning formula. Instead, he found himself the next man out. First, he handed over most of his chips to kitbul. Then, XX_GALTEN_XX took the rest with the Siegfried & Roy (That’s pocket queens to those of you who don’t watch Vince Van Patten on the World Poker Tour).

Then, in a karmic sort of way, kitbul took a chunk out of XX_GALTEN_XX with a pair of kings vs. galten’s pocket threes. The flop gave XX_GALTEN_XX a set, but the board paid dividends for kitbul when one of his two remaining kings spiked on the turn for the much-needed double up. Soon after, kitbul finished the job when he made a flush. XX_GALTEN earned over $16k for this final table run, but we know he’ll be back again – possibly even as soon as next week.

kitbul entered heads-up play with a commanding lead over TheSinSinAnteKid evened things up rather quickly. At this point, the final two decided on a chop and ended the match. 

Here are the final table results:

1) TheSinSinAnteKid - $38,606.59
2) kitbul - $38,415.42
3) XX_GALTEN_XX - $16,921.50
4) weeman121 - $13,420.50
5) gn0871 - $11,086.50
6) fartage - $8,752.50
7) hgvkhygfnbkj - $6,651.90
8) Ichan111 - $4,434.60
9) genshiken - $3,384.30
10) money_smell - $2,334

Bodog saw a record number of entrants – 990 – and only had to pay out $1,000 to meet its $100K Guarantee this past Sunday. MuckMan23 was at the top of the heap when the final table action got underway with almost 600k in chips. Bjartur, the eventual winner of the event, wasn’t far behind. With some impressive plays, YoungGun7 made his move and there was a three-way ‘dog-fight’ for first place.

As the action was whittled down to four players, YoungGun7 went all-in with an Ah, Kd. Muckman23 called him with pocket queens. An ace on the flop gave the win to YoungGun while leaving Muckman on life support. He was eliminated only a few short hands later. After that, BudmansCom made his exit in third place with $9,000.

It only took one hand of heads-up play to decide the match, and what a hand it was! Let's set the stage. Bjartur had YoungGun7 covered slightly. He raised to almost 100k pre-flop. YoungGun7 reraised all in for 1.2 mil.

Bjartur called and flipped over his two ladies. YoungGun7 turned over big-slick. The flop was Ah, 9c, 6c, giving YoungGun7 an early lead. However, fourth street – it ain’t called THE TURN for nothing, people – changed everything. It was the queen of diamonds. The river brought no more surprises. It was a ten of spades. This eliminated the gun and gave Bjartur the win.

Here are the final table results:
1) Bjartur - $25,000
2) YoungGun7 - $14,000
3) BudmansCom - $9,000
4) MuckMan23 - $6,500
5) johnnybignutz - $5,400
6) koke - $4,400
7) Poker Man3 - $3,400
8) doubledownT - $2,400
9) brutice456 - $1,550

Are you tired of just reading about the action? Are you ready to get in on it yet? You can qualify for these big-time events for only $1.00 in some cases. Check out Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet, Party Poker and Bodog for more information. Who knows? Next week you might see your online username in this here article.