Do you remember that famous line in the 1998 movie Rounders, where Mike McDermott is trying to explain that poker is a skill game by saying, “Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker every year? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas?” Well it applies to online poker, too.
This week’s partypoker $200K Guaranteed Sunday was taken down by one of the games greats. A player that is both respected and feared in equal amounts, a player better-known as “ch0ppy” but who plays at partypoker under the alias FiveSecRule. The online legend that is Matt Kay.
On June 17, Kay had to make do with the $16,900 runner-up prize in our flagship event after losing heads-up to aggr0vated in that week’s $200K Guaranteed Sunday. Kay collected $16,900 that day, a most welcome addition to his impressive winnings total – Kay currently has almost $6.5 million in online winnings according to PocketFives – but Kay is a true champion who plays to win and is bitterly disappointed when he doesn’t walk away with the lion’s share of the spoils.
This week, Kay did emerge victorious, outlasting a 997-strong field to get his hands on yet another online poker title and the $27,400 in prize money that came with reeling in the $200K Guaranteed Sunday. Let’s find out how Kay helped himself to the top prize, starting at the nine-handed final table.
partypoker $200K Guaranteed Sunday Final Table (August 3, 2014)
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IsabelLahiri | 585,493 |
| 2 | murderlicious | 574,663 |
| 3 | tunsheiken1 | 503,462 |
| 4 | FiveSecRule | 573,704 |
| 5 | enjoin_iom | 498,551 |
| 6 | TIMEXCNT | 440,758 |
| 7 | ineedsheet | 588,258 |
| 8 | JVieira114 | 716,228 |
| 9 | ricestuud | 503,883 |
The final table was played at a blistering pace and from the time the first cards were dealt until Kay walked away with the win, only 117 hands were played.
It took a mere seven hands before the remaining player count dropped to eight. TIMEXCNT min-raised to 30,000 from under the gun, one player folded and JVieira114, who won this very tournament in September 2013, re-raised to 66,555. The action then folded back to TIMEXCNT and he moved all-in for 421,258 in total with what turned out to be 
and JVieira114 snapped him off with the 
.
Those aces remained true as the five community cards ran 
and TIMEXCNT was gone.
Kay then sent IsabelLahiri to the rail on the next hand. A raise to 30,000 from IsabelLahiri in middle position was called by murderlicious in the next seat, only to see Kay squeeze to 84,000 from the button. When the action passed back around to the original raiser, the price to continue was increased to 158,032. Murderlicious mucked, but Kay moved all-in for 577,136 and was called.
It was one of tournament poker’s many coinflip scenarios that would settle the outcome of the hand, the 
of Kay versus the 
of his opponent. The 
board improved Kay to an unnecessary straight and IsabelLahriri crashed out in eighth place.
Three hands later and Kay won another flip with pocket tens to rob the table of another player. This time, it was Kay who opened the preflop betting round, raising to 30,000 from early position. Nobody wanted to tangle with the talented Canadian at first, that was until it was murderlicious’ turn to act in the big blind. A brief pause was followed by an all-in bet of 252,908 and a call from kay.
The 
of Kay were racing against the 
of murderlicious and when the 
board was complete, Kay had one the race and was now up to almost 1.46 million chips.
That big stack leapfrogged JVieira114 into the chip lead after the completion of the next hand because Kay sent yet another player to the sidelines. Kay raised to 30,000 from under the gun with 
and tunsheiken1 called in the big blind. Tunsheiken1 checked the 
flop, Kay continued with a 15,000 bet only to see his opponent check-raise to 45,000. Kay called the raise.
The turn brought the into play and now tunsheiken11 moved all-in, betting 214,462 into the 159,000 pot. Kay called only to discover that his hand was second best to the 
of tunsheikan1. Only a king would do for Kay and like magic, the 
landed on the river to bust tunsheiken1 and send Kay up 1.754 million chips.
Twenty hands later and enjoyin_iom fell by the wayside in fifth place, which incidentally is where he finished a couple of weeks ago. Down to less than 10 big blinds, enjoyin_iom raised all-in for 191,051 with and must have been delighted to see ricestuud call in the big blind with the dominated 
.
Any elation he was feeling soon turned to despair as the board ran out a cruel 
to improve ricestuud’s hand and leave enjoyin_iom to collect fifth place money for the second week running.
Four-handed play lasted all of two hands before ricestuud sent ineedsheet to the rail. From the button, ricestuud raised twice the big blind to 40,000 and then called when ineedsheet raised all-in for 317,063 from the big blind. It was for ricestuud against the 
of ineedsheet and when neither player improved their hand on the 
board, it was game over for ineedsheet.
After losing most of the final table in the first few hands, a period that lasted 47 hands was needed to send the next player home for the proverbial early bath. By this stage, the blinds and antes were 15,000/30,000/3,000a and Kay raised to 60,000 from the button. JVieira11 re-raised all-in for 562,602 with and Kay called with . The 
was void of aces and therefore safe for Kay and heads-up was set.
It was ricestuud who led going into heads-up, his 2,782,926 stack having an extra half-a-million chips than Kay’s 2,196,074. Kay fell way behind, but when his flopped an ace to crack the of ricestuud 24 hands into the one-on-one battle, the tie was turned onto its head and the contest over five hands later.
The 117th hand of the final table saw Kay open to 60,000 with 
and ricestuud responded with a 168,965 three-bet with 
. Kay called and the flop fell . Ricestuud check-called a 78,000 bet from Kay and was rewarded with a on the turn to improve him to two pair.
Despite holding two pair – a monster hand heads-up –ricestuud checked like an expert to allow Kay to bet again, which is what he did, setting the price to play at 287,000. Ricestuud then leapt into life and check-raised all-in for his 1,393,887 stack, but receiving almost two-to-one on his money and holding top pair, Kay was going nowhere.
Kay called and was a huge underdog in the hand, one similar to running into pair of aces with a pocket pair preflop. The river, the , came to Kay’s rescue because it improved him to a stronger two pair than that of ricestuud and with that it was game over, Kay was this week’s $200K Guaranteed Sunday champion.
partypoker $200K Guaranteed Sunday Final Table Results (August 3, 2014)
| Place | Player< | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mat “FiveSecRule” Kay | $27,400 |
| 2 | ricestuud | $16,500 |
| 3 | JVieira114 | $9,800 |
| 4 | ineedsheet | $7,400 |
| 5 | enjoyin_iom | $5,300 |
| 6 | tunsheiken1 | $3,900 |
| 7 | murderlicious | $2,900 |
| 8 | IsabelLahiri | $2,400 |
| 9 | TIMEXCNT | $1,920 |
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