One of the great things about YouTube is that we can watch online poker tournaments, sometimes with the cards face-up. Today, we'll be looking at one such event played on PokerStars.
We have the highlights and most interesting hands played on August 29 in the Thursday Thrill tournament, a $1,050 progressive knockout.
There were 63 entries in the tournament and 9 people made it into the money. First and second places were paid the same – $7,433.79 (for those unfamiliar with progressive knockouts, we will add that this is a standard payout structure since the first-place winner gets much more from the bounty). The prize for ninth place was almost equal to the entry – $1,009.85.
Final table players and stacks:
- Renan Carlos Bruschi aka. “Internett93o” (Brazil) – 170.3 bb
- Jans Arends aka. “Graftekkel” (Austria) – 53.8 bb
- Alexey Borovkov aka. "Avr0ra" (Argentina) – 48.9 bb
- "|gammi|€120" (Belarus) – 46.5 bb
- "Edelschimmel" (Austria) – 33.7 bb
- "Sxmon" (Austria) – 31.4 bb
- "FouEnculePL" (Poland) – 28.6 bb
- Roman Grabec aka. “Gogac sniper” (Austria) – 18.2 bb
- Samuel Woosden aka. “€urop€an” (Finland) – 16.1 bb
Seating arrangement:
The Austrian players showed a cheerful spirit already in the first hand. Sxmon raised from the small blind with T8o, so Edelshimmel defended with K8o. On the flop rainbow, the small blind attacked with a bet of 1.2bb into the 8bb pot. Edelshimmel with K-high responded with a small raise to 3.31bb, and that was enough for the victory.
On the next hand, Bruschi opened from first position with . Belarusian player Gammi responded with a 3-bet with KQo from the middle and got called. On a flop that was not very pleasant for the 3-bet range he checked after. On the turn – , the Brazilian's straight closed, and he bet 9.67 bb into a 14.7 bb pot. With top pair and some kind of redraw to the top straight, Gammi thought for so long that it seemed he would make this simple fold. However, he still couldn't throw away the top pair and paid the bet.
On the river came a . Bruschi thought about it and checked, and Gummy immediately checked after him. However, there is a suspicion that he would hardly have paid any additional bet.
Bruschi raised from the button with A2o, Graftekkel called from the small blind with JTo, the BB with a stack of 14.5bb folded. On the flop Bruschi bet a third of the pot, Graftekkel check-called – apparently a standard play. The turn – . Graftekkel checks and Bruschi fires a second barrel, with a noteworthy sizing – in fact, we wouldn’t be publishing this hand otherwise – almost 90% of the pot, or 8.94bb into a 10.2bb pot! Top pair no kicker is clearly not a hand that has two streets of value, so the greedy draw on the turn certainly makes sense, and the fact that Graftekkel called the bet quite quickly confirms the correctness of his non-standard sizing. The river came , both checked, and the Brazilian further strengthened his advantage.
Soon Woosden, who was left with the shortest stack, moved all in. The Polish player's fold is noteworthy: the presence of an additional bounty prize for a knockout does not mean that people are ready to call with any cards.
Avr0ra thought through all the allotted seconds in his time bank with his J4o.
The next hand saw Woosden in the big blind. Bruschi min-raised from the middle with A8o, and €urop€an called with J9o.
Flop – . A small bet of a quarter of the pot from Bruschi is called by Samuel. The turn both checked. River:
Note the "not all-in" from Sam: it seems to tell his opponent not to take into account the additional value of the knockout when calculating the call, i.e. increasing his fold equity. Bruschi thought it over for a long time, but still paid the overbet and allowed the Finnish top reg to double up.
Here's another episode that might surprise an old-school player.
Without really thinking about the possible squeeze, Sxmon in the BB made the call.
Postflop was not very exciting. The flop came . Everyone checked. The turn was a . Again, everything is checked (Aurora did not fall into the cunningly set trap!). River – . After the BB checked, Edelshimmel went into the time bank and bet 5.23 into a 7.93 pot. Both opponents wisely folded.
A couple more hands, and avr0ra became almost the shortest, but then he was given a cooler against a Belarusian player:
The next hand was a bit of a setup.
Avr0ra thought about Gammi's all-in, but decided to moved all-in, getting rid of other competitors for the bounty. He couldn't resist – an ace came.
Despite having three players with shorter stacks, Roman Grabec was not careful with a pair of nines when he opened in the middle and was more than triple-three-bet by Edelshimmel in the big blind. Grabetz moved all-in for 23.4 big blinds, got it all in against nearly the same stack of , and was knocked out when the river brought a runner-runner flush.
A good pass with a pair and a nut redraw was made by Jans Arends against avr0ra.
Arends defended against a min-raise preflop, check-called a quarter-pot bet on the flop, and on the turn, after receiving a relatively small second barrel, felt that his outs were no good and folded.
Having been bored for the last half hour and sitting until his stack was 17.6bb, Sxmon woke up and made a min-raise from the middle with AKo. For some reason, his tight play did not impress Renan Bruschi, and with a pair of sevens on the button, the Brazilian made a 3-bet of 6.5bb. When his opponent went all-in, he made an instant call. An ace came on the river.
After the break at the end of the hour, the two Austrians met again in the blinds. Sxmon limped 98o, Edelschimmel checked J8o.
The flop was a half-pot bet and a call. The turn was checked. On the river, Sxmon made a strange overbet. His opponent folded immediately!
Soon a player from Poland moved all-in from the button 9bb with A9o. Bruschi found AKo in the small blind, and the second knockout happened at the final table. By the way, the bounty for the Pole was higher than for any other player at the table – almost $1,600.
A minute later, the representative of Belarus was stacked. Edelshimmel opened 2.5 bb with QJo, Gammi shoved his 9 blinds with A9s, the opponent called on the odds and caught first a jack, and then a straight.
Stacks before the next hand:
The development of events before the flop can be considered predetermined. The chip leader makes a min-raise; he has great cards, but the range is extremely wide, so Arends, sitting to his left, pushes his ace, and avr0ra has an obvious re-shove. Bruschi is forced to fold his strongest hand, and our player gets knocked out and gets the second stack.
Another intra-Austrian showdown with an unpredictable outcome, for a change – not in the blinds. Edelschimmel raises from the first, Sxmon in the big blind suddenly bursts out with a 3-bet.
Edelshimmel apparently didn't want to bluff 4-bet his tight compatriot, and the call seemed a bit bland to him, so he just folded. Frankly, of all the actions in this hand, I personally would have guessed only his open raise.
But in the next big bank, Edelschimmel did everything very logically.
Here comes the call – Bruschi 3-bets quite leisurely, it is important not to scare off the client.
Flop (21.6bb):
Bruschi makes a continuation bet of 5.41bb, he has no direct outs, so he just calls!
Turn (32.4bb, effective stack 27.1bb):
The Brazilian has a gutshot and fires a second barrel for 8.11bb. A more timid player would have gone all-in in Edelshimmel's place, but he uses his position to continue to lure his opponent into a hellish trap and makes another call.
River:
Painful fold.
With over 150 blinds at his disposal, Bruschi terrorizes the table.
Raise preflop, continuation bet flop for two, overbet turn – and Alexey is forced to fold the best hand.
At the new blind level, Edelshimmel is left heads-up with Bruschi. The Austrian has 14.5bb in the small blind (second from the bottom) and . Follows... a calm fold.
Next, Woosden with a 17bb stack makes a min-raise from first position (in four). Avr0ra has two fours in the BB. All-in! Call!
The Brazilian, the Argentine, and two unpredictable Austrians with short stacks remain in the game.
Sxmon raises with from the cutoff, Avr0ra protects BB with .
Open the flop , and Alexey, having caught a two-way hand with an overcard, makes a lead of slightly less than a third of the pot. How will the Austrian respond?
Just some street poker! No respect!
After thinking for a while, Alexey calls.
Turn (17.3bb, effective stack 18.6bb):
When our player checks, Sxmon continues his desperate bluff and bets 8.44bb, leaving only ten blinds behind. It works – Alexey is forced to fold.
Sxmon gets a taste for it and is so full that he pushes through the chip leader with two barrels!
Bruschi folds, but soon gets a chance to retaliate and bluffs three barrels at once (70% on the flop, 75% on the turn, all-in on the river), with .
Sxmon suffers until the end of the time bank, obviously sensing some kind of catch, but still does not find the strength to make a call.
The short series dedicated to the confrontation between these players finally ends a few minutes later in a standard preflop cooler:
In the top 3, Bruschi has 150 blinds, Avr0ra has 34, and Edelschimmel has 11. It's hard to believe that the tournament will continue for almost another 45 minutes.
Edelschimmel doubles up with two tens against A8o in a preflop all-in, with an ace on the flop but a ten on the turn.
Avr0ra tries to deal with the Austrian:
However, Edelschimmel calls and wins the all-in, leaving our player with ten blinds.
The Austrian continues to get in. Here he makes a seemingly careless raise through the chip leader at a time when there is a very short stack in the game, and gets a natural 3-bet.
But don't panic! Edelschimmel just goes all-in and Bruschi is forced to move out of the way.
True, not all hands want such a hassle. AJo the Austrian prefers to limp. Bruski delivers, Aurora checks, and a limped pot is played for three.
Alexey took a long time to gather his courage for this all-in, but in fact he had an even better hand.
The result for the next hand seems predetermined.
However, Aurora folds and Edelschimmel limps. Will it bounce back? No – in response to his opponent's raise, the Austrian goes all-in. And...
Doubles.
In the next hand, Alexey doubles up too: Bruschi raises A6s and calls an all-in of 21 bb from our AKo. The battle intensifies: the Brazilian has 64 blinds left, Edelschimmel has 51 blinds and Aurora has 42. And a few minutes later, the Austrian cash player takes the lead for the first time:
He continues to limp, and Bruschi continues to attack his limps. In the next hand, the Brazilian bet three barrels... although the third barrel turned out to be somewhat plaintive:
A call followed.
Bruschi began his comeback with a hand in which he suddenly knocked out a split:
Just a minute later, he followed up his success by demonstrating the power of the weakest pair in hold'em:
In heads-up play, Edelshimmel raised to 2.2bb with , Bruschi called.
Flop (4.65bb):
Check, continuation bet 1.16 BB – check-raise 5 BB.
The Austrian calls.
Turn (14.6bb, effective stack 33.9bb):
Bruschi makes a small bet of 4.83bb. He is called.
River (24.3bb, effective stack 29.1bb):
Having spent all the main time and 15 seconds of the time bank, Bruschi goes all-in. At the last second of the time bank, Edelschimmel calls and sees bad news:
Renan Carlos Bruschi, the 77th-ranked player in the world according to Pocketfives and who rose to 4th place in 2021, took another small step towards 12 million in online winnings.
