August 15 2012, Donnie Peters
Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Parx Open Poker Classic saw 16 players return with Tony Gregg holding a big lead over the rest of the field. At the end of play, only six players remained, all at the official WPT televised final table, and all guaranteed at least $61,619. Stephen Reynolds was clinging to the chip lead with a stack of 4.035 million.
Reynolds is coming off a decent World Series of Poker where he made two deep runs. Both times, he placed 11th. His first deep run of the summer was in Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry for over $46,000 and the second was in Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em for over $38,000.
The action didn’t disappoint early on, and the chips were flying minutes after the first cards were dealt. Kevin Calenzo and Vinny Pahuja found themselves with all the chips in the middle, a confrontation that resulted in Calenzo’s elimination in 16th place. According to the WPT Live Reporting Blog, Calenzo moved all in preflop with the 
and was up against the 
for Pahuja. The flop put Pahuja in the lead when a jack spiked, and he held from there as the board ran out 
.
Next out the door was Brent Roberts, who fell at the hands of Gregg when his pocket eights ran into the start-of-the-day chip leader’s pocket aces. Timothy Chang then fell in 14th and Pahuja in 13th. It seemed Pahuja had used up all of his luck when he busted Calenzo by coming from behind as he was busted holding the best hand. All-in preflop, Pahuja held the 
to Joseph Wertz’s 
. Although Pahuja stayed in front on the 
flop, the turn was the 
and catapulted Wertz to the lead. The river landed with the 
and Pahuja was off to the payout desk. After the hand Pahuja said on Twitter, “Guess I deserved that after getting it in bad twice.”
Following the bust outs of Alan Kraut in 12th place and Athanasios Polychronopoulos in 11th place, the remaining 10 players were seated at one table. Robert Pyne then fell in 10th place and Tommy Miller headed to the rail in ninth place. With eight players left, Wertz was next to go to put the tournament on the official final table bubble.
Wertz went out during Level 24 with the blinds at 12,000/24,000/4,000. He raised from under the gun to 50,000 and Gregg reraised to 124,000 from the small blind. Action went back to Wertz and he shoved for 460,000. Gregg called holding 
. Wertz, with 
, was at risk and looking to double. On the 
flop, Wertz missed and was down to just two more cards. The turn was the 
, though, and put the final dagger through Wertz’s heart and leaving him officially drawing dead. The river completed the board with the 
.
Level 24 ended around 1850 EDT (2350 BST) and the final seven players went on a 75-minute dinner break. At that break, Reynolds was on top with 3.205 million in chips. Bringing up the rear and in need of food to fuel his post-dinner comeback attempt was Andre Nyffeler with 534,000.
Roughly 90 minutes after the players’ return from dinner, the final hand of the day came up. Nyffeler was the shortest stack returning from dinner and at the most risk, but he was able to stick around and watch Joey Couden be eliminated.
With the blinds at 15,000/30,000/5,000, Couden min-raised from middle position to 60,000 and action folded to Gregg in the small blind. He reraised all-in. Play got back to Couden and he called to put himself at risk for 550,000. He held the 
and was in front of the 
for Gregg. After a flop, turn and river of 
ran out, Couden finished second best to Gregg’s full house.
With Couden’s elimination, six players remained, all officially at the WPT televised final table. Reynolds proved to be the man to catch with over 4 million while Gregg finished on 3.6 million. You will find the seat draw for Wednesday’s final table below.
| 1 | Stephen Reynolds | 4,035,000 |
| 2 | Andre Nyffeler | 895,000 |
| 3 | Chris Lee | 3,040,000 |
| 4 | Tony Gregg | 3,600,000 |
| 5 | Larry Sharp | 870,000 |
| 6 | Chris Vandeursen | 2,430,000 |
The final table is scheduled to kick off at 1600 EDT (2100 BST) on Wednesday and things won’t end until a winner is crowned. There’s $416,127 up top and everyone left is licking their chops. Following the completion of play, PokerNews will bring you a complete recap.
*Hands and Data courtesy of the WPT Live Reporting Blog.
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July 16 2012, Brett Collson, Mickey Doft
With the World Series of Poker slowly winding down, many online grinders returned home in time to participate in the Sunday Majors at PokerStars this week. All of the big tournaments went beyond their guaranteed prize pools, making for a big day on the felts. Hungary’s “ShipTheFliip” was the biggest winner after taking down the Sunday Million – his second six-figure score in that tournament in less than a year. Poker pros Ondrej “Vinkyy” Vinklarek and Ben “Delaney_kid” Delaney barely missed out on their own glory, but both collected a nice chunk of change for their runner-up finishes on Sunday.
PokerStars Sunday Million ($1M Guaranteed)
| $200+$15 | 5,892 | $1,178,400 |
“ShipTheFliip” won the PokerStars Sunday Million this week, claiming a top prize of $182,654. ShipTheFliip outlasted a field of 5,892 players and defeated “BAGBAGBAGBAG” heads-up for the largest online poker tournament triumph of his life.
ShipTheFliip took the lead with five players remaining after doubling through “Timorm1″ on multiple occasions. The first came in a preflop confrontation ShipTheFliip’s 
improved against pocket eights. Then, after his own double-up, Timorm1 got the rest of his stack in preflop with 
against ShipTheFliip’s 
and failed to come from behind. Timorm1 exited in fifth place and was followed by “#1StefanLiv” and “dcdilton”, leaving just two players standing.
ShipTheFliip had a 2.5-to-1 lead over his adversary when heads-up play began, and it took only 11 hands to finish him off. According to the PokerStars Blog, ShipTheFliip limped the button with pocket nines and BAGBAGBAGBAG moved all in with 
. ShipTheFliip called instantly and the board ran out 
to give him a full house and the victory.
Amazingly, it was ShipTheFliip’s second Sunday Million final table in eight months. Last November, ShipTheFliip finished third in the flagship event for $121,000. Some players just have a talent for slicing through large fields.
| 1 | ShipTheFliip | $182,654.79 |
| 2 | BAGBAGBAGBAG | $135,516 |
| 3 | dcdilton | $95,540.40 |
| 4 | #1StefanLiv | $66,167.16 |
| 5 | Timorm1 | $49,492.80 |
| 6 | Maimonidess1 | $37,708.80 |
| 7 | kekenida | $25,924.80 |
| 8 | pastierik | $14,730 |
| 9 | asbsolute6 | $9,191.52 |
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up ($500K Guaranteed)
| $200+$15 | 2,808 | $561,600 |
The dangerous Ronald “ronaldgrauer” Grauer bubbled the final table of the Sunday Warm-up, leaving nine lesser-known players to duke it out for the $88,452 top prize. After several hours, “ProXimaVez” and “PikkuHUMPPA” decided on a two-way chop, with each locking up $69,750. ProXimaVez went on to win the tournament
| *1 | ProXimaVez | $84,690.43 |
| *2 | PikkuHUMPPA | $69,750.31 |
| 3 | bingogobernd | $47,174.40 |
| 4 | trollllort | $32,292 |
| 5 | DJSlow | $24,429.60 |
| 6 | MishnuNona | $18,813.60 |
| 7 | Lede007 | $13,197.60 |
| 8 | PamPamPake | $7,592.83 |
| 9 | biezpienelis | $4,773.60 |
*denotes heads-up deal
PokerStars Sunday 500 ($300K Guaranteed)
| $500+$30 | 671 | $335,500 |
Andras “probirs” Nemeth (17th – $2,348) and Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov (26th – $1,677) were among the players who made deep runs in the always-tough Sunday 500, but both missed out on a chance at a $61,564 payday. WSOP Bracelet winner Pascal “Pass_72″ LeFrancois made the final table but bowed out in eighth place for $7,381. When it was all over, “young_diam18” had taken the tournament down outright after defeating “FISHyFINGA” in a heads-up battle.
| 1 | mr.thome | $43,837.50 |
| 2 | pampa27 | $31,563 |
| 3 | PjotrNL | $23,380 |
| 4 | WaGe N Warz | $17,535 |
| 5 | UpiterSL | $12,274.50 |
| 6 | N1lmar | $9,936.50 |
| 7 | Eduts | $7,598.50 |
| 8 | GadMO | $5,260.50 |
| 9 | igorluigi | $3,296.58 |
PokerStars Bigger $109 ($200K Guaranteed)
| $100+$9 | 2,440 | $244,000 |
The final table of the Bigger $109 was headlined by poker pros Ondrej “Vinkyy” Vinklarek and Felipe “Improved” Montenegro, but both players came up short of the title on Sunday. In the end, it was Germany’s “sk2ll_m0dR” who claimed victory and the top prize of $39,040.
| 1 | vonBaranow | $28,170* |
| 2 | sirgenutz | $24,394* |
| 3 | Twengod | $18,830* |
| 4 | H.Ouusale | $20,162* |
| 5 | Sheeter 200 | $9,897 |
| 6 | 3zMyers | $7,898 |
| 7 | davertxx | $5,898 |
| 8 | skydiveoslo | $3,899 |
| 9 | apalma2156 | $2,159 |
*denotes four-way deal
PokerStars Sunday 2nd Chance ($175K Guaranteed)
| $200+$15 | 1,086 | $217,200 |
Aussie poker pro Ben “Delaney_kid” Delaney found himself heads-up with Denmark’s “mypoker25″ after several hours of play in the Sunday 2nd Chance, but it was the Dane who provided the final blow to claim the title and more than $39,000. Notables Sebastian “p0cket00″ Sekorski (25th place) and Mike “Pipedream17″ Dietrich (31st place) also made deep runs but fell short of the final table.
