Today we have prepared for you a description of the key and most interesting hands played on September 3 in the PokerStars Super Tuesday tournament for $1,050.
The tournament had 60 entries, and 9 people made it into the money. First place was $16,194.61, 9th place was worth slightly less than two buy-ins: $1,923.52.
The full stream is two hours and is posted on YouTube.
Final table composition and stacks:
Alex “I Attack95” Kulev (Bulgaria) – 115.6 bb
Pedro “pm_marke” Marques (Malta) – 76.7 bb
StupidFr3nch (UK) – 71.8 bb
Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky (Ukraine) – 28.9 bb
Felipe "lipe piv" Boianovsky (Brazil) – 26 bb
Renan “Internett93o” Bruschi (Brazil) – 23.4 bb
Roman “Gogac sniper” Grabec (Austria) – 12.6 bb
frAAktur (Germany) – 8.96 bb
Allison “heyalisson” Pekazevich (Brazil) – 8.45 bb
Seating arrangement:
On the first hand, Marques opened with a min-raise with AJo, and the shortest stack, after some thought, moved all-in with fives. The flop came a jack, and the Brazilian representation at the final table was reduced by a third.
Roman Romanovsky entered the game for the first time with two eights in second position. He min-raised and was called by the chip leader in the small blind. The flop came with two overcards and a flush draw The eights looked weak, but Roman, having reached the time bank, nevertheless decided to make a continuation bet of 25%. Kulev did not defend himself – he had a pair of deuces.
The participants of the following hand almost demonstrated an interesting example of micro-stakes poker:
It is clear that no one would condemn Grabec for open-pushing, but since you decided to expand and got a mini-3-bet, be consistent to the end and call against a presumably super-polar range! But the top reg knows better; he shoved against a 3-bet and couldn’t hold out. However, on the flop he would hardly have been able to bounce back anyway.
Romanovsky was faced with an interesting decision:
After much thought, he made the minimum 4-bet to 8bb. Brusky, of course, folded, and Kulev delivered and gave up on a continuation bet of 20% of the pot on the flop. .
Soon Roman attacked Kulev's big blind with a limp . On the flop they were left one on one, and on the board Kulev opened the betting with an overbet of 4.39 bb into a pot of 3.38 bb. Not only the texture suited him, but also the cards themselves: there were . Nothing else interesting happened in this hand. Roman recouped his minimal loss in the next hand, entering the pot again with an open limp (ATo) and taking the blinds and antes from the BB on the flop with two broadways.
The German representative remained in the game with a stack of less than four blinds, but Boianovski did not open his hand with an ace – A9o – from the hijack into his BB. Apparently, when an aggressive chip leader is sitting on the button, such raises are really not the best idea. Therefore, Kulev had to double the German: Q2o<K6s, and Fraktur already had 11 blinds.
In the next hand, Fraktur squeezed another pot and pushed his stack up to 16bb. Then he opened from the button, and...
An example of a decision that is almost certainly based on psychology and game dynamics. You just had four blinds, and now you have a comfortable 15 – in this situation, many will overfold to 3-bets. The German, however, decided to see the flop with his beautiful hand. And on the board , a quarter pot c-bet ended the fight.
Only Roman's fourth limp in this final encountered resistance: Bruschi's short stack decided to test his opponent:
It worked: after thinking for a bit, Roman passed the cards.
The Brazilian followed up with a min-raise with 98s. In response, frAAktur (with 14 blinds) did not go all-in with ATo, but preferred to see the flop.
A quarter pot c-bet from Bruschi, a check-raise from the German player, an obvious call... The turn is . With zero percent equity, frAAktur sent in the remaining nine blinds and finished the tournament in 7th place. And the Brazilian wrote in the chat in large letters: “I went beyond the range, I know, but don’t judge me – there were reasons!”
After some time, an indicative hand took place at the new blind level. Roman with a stack of 31.5bb suddenly raised from the first position (in five players) with . The Briton on the BB paid with .
Flop (5.25bb): . Roman bets 2.5 bb. Opponent calls.
Turn (10.3bb): . After his opponent checks, Roman thinks for a long time and bets 5 bb. And, after spending about ten seconds, his opponent chooses to fold.
What do you think it was? It looks like a lack of respect for the opponent – in the future, Romanovsky will open Q6o, 73o and 52s in the same positions.
Almost a full circle later, Roman returns to the limps, this time with . Kulev checks to the BB . Flop – . Roman makes a small overbet on the check (3.5 into a 3.25 pot), and Kulev quickly decides not to hold on to the match.
The next limp doesn't work – I have to fold to Bruski's raise. Then another limp – and again resistance, this time from Kulev.
Having spent almost the entire time bank, Roman decides that he has had enough of this and goes all-in.
And luck is on his side!
A series of fairly mundane hands follow, during which Bruschi takes the lead, but in fact he, Kulev, Romanovsky and Marques have roughly the same stacks.
Clash of the leading group players:
Call follows.
Turn (12.2bb, effective stack 31.2bb):
Roman leads 4bb. Bruschi calls.
River (20.2bb, effective stack 27.2bb):
All-in – fold. Romanovsky returns to first place.
And suddenly he does this:
Marquez, who plays this final rather passively, is forced to take a risk and doubles without incident.
An anonymous player from the UK makes a pot-committing raise:
I think the decision Roman will make is already obvious to you – of course, pass! He is clearly going to outplay this opponent without risk.
A couple of minutes later, the Ukrainian player is dealt aces for the first time in the final. He is in the BB. Everyone passes.
Well, if that's the case, we need to continue generating complex solutions.
All-in from Kulev and instant foldWith 9.66bb Roman becomes the shortest, but not for long: a few minutes later he pushes from the small blind A7o, and Marques decides to close him with JTo. He doubles without incident.
The role of the main shorty passes to Boianovski, but also not for long. Having sat until AKo, he moves Kulev's mini-raise all-in, but goes all-in without direct outs and leaves the tournament in 6th place.
In the small blind, Roman gets two queens. His stack is 12.23 bb, the BB has 36.7 bb. Everyone else folds. The Ukrainian player raises 2.5 bb. Marques with A7o is puzzled, he thinks for a long time, but still goes all-in. Call – and double.
The game gradually moves into push-fold mode. Brusky open-pushes QJs from the small blind, gets called by Kulev's pair of fives, collects a straight – and becomes the chip leader!
The limp strategy helps Romanovsky play postflop more often than others, but the results are not always pleasing.
In this hand, Kulev called from the small blind, made a small continuation bet on the flop, and check-shoved the turn. There was no call, of course.
Roman gradually became the shortest, but then an honest double came against an opponent from Great Britain – and he took the lead again!
The chip leader stack imposes certain obligations.
But Stoyan Obreshkov's unperturbed comrade called and doubled up.
And in this hand, everything ended in Roman’s favor even before the flop:
Sensing something was wrong, Kulev became active literally a minute later in the limped bank:
It is unclear whether this was a one-off action or if there could be a continuation, but Roman did not give him a chance and took the pot with a small 3-bet.
Having taken the lead again, he switched to open-pushing play.
Bruschi proved that he respects the ICM concept – the dominant hand flew into the fold very quickly.
And here too.
Roman continued his series of all-ins, and although he doubled Marques in the process, it did not cool his passions:
Bruschi spent a considerable part of the time bank, but made the call!
The flop was very combative: . But popular wisdom says for good reason that when so many outs are given at once, they usually don't close. Turn , river , and Roman simultaneously knocks out the hero of our recent MTT coverage and strengthens his dominant status.
Next hand he gets UTG. All in? Sure!
In 3-max Roman finally marked the bottom of his range and folded 72o from the button. After a while, the 73o cards went to the same address. Then, however, they dealt a cooler against Kulev – eights into tens. The Bulgarian had to double.
An interesting episode in the game from blind to blind:
Preflop, Kulev limped, the flop was checked. It seems like Kulev has the top of his range or very close to it on the turn, but why bother with an overbet? Just fold.
For the button, 73o, as we already know, is not good, but for the small blind it is just right.
Preflop, Roman min-raised, Marques called. The flop saw a 1bb continuation bet and a call. Now a neat second barrel on the turn allows Roman to take the pot.
He wins most of the hands with all-ins, but sometimes his opponents also become active, although their all-ins are placed on a much narrower range. Staying one-on-one with the chip leader, Kulev occasionally limps from the small blind. He usually gives in to aggression, but at some point his patience runs out:
The call followed and the strongest hand held. Alex Kulev finished the tournament in 3rd place.
It took Roman about three minutes to deal with the hopeless shortstack Marquez.
Congratulations to the legend of Ukrainian poker and seven-time winner of the Triple Crown online on another victory!
