The latest incarnation of the ever-popular Pokerfest Championships kicked off on Sunday 19 October with the first nine of the 76 value-packed events, including the first tournament to carry a six-figure guarantee.
This week’s $200K Guaranteed Sunday made way for a heftier $250,000 version, much to the delight of the 1,295 entrants, especially British grinder Rick “tHeClaImEr1” Trigg who walked away with more than $35,000 (after a heads-up chop) for his $200 investment.
It took almost 10.5 hours for the 1,295 entrants to be whittled down to the final table of nine, with each of those nine finalists locking up a minimum of $3,800 for their substantial efforts. tHeClaImEr1 went into the final table third in chips, but there were hardly any differences in chips between the four biggest stacks at the start of play.
Let’s see how the final table went down, how huge sums of money were won and how tHeClaImEr1 navigated his way to yet another major online title.
Pokerfest #6: $250,000 Guaranteed NL Hold’em Freezeout Final Table (October 19, 2014)
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | swagswagswag | 1,196,205 |
| 2 | Remcovitch | 1,034,599 |
| 3 | INDIGEESTO | 499,035 |
| 4 | Omfg72oAgain | 492,049 |
| 5 | TPaces | 278,332 |
| 6 | flopped6810 | 528,722 |
| 7 | tHeClaImEr1 | 1,100,793 |
| 8 | Taveren | 1,172,568 |
| 9 | rodicamoiad | 172,697 |
First to bust from the final table was rodicamoiad who had started the finale as the shortest stack by far. His tournament ended when the action folded to Taveren in the small blind and he raised all-in to put rodicamoiad to the test for his last seven big blinds.
Those blinds were called off with 
, a hand that was ahead of the 
of Taveren, a fact that only remained true up to the flop of the 
board.
Nine hands later, flopped6810 made a move to improve his short stacked status only for it to backfire horribly. Everyone folded to flopped6810 in the cutoff and he moved all-in for 381,222 at the 15,000/30,000/3,000a level with the 
, a respectable enough hand for the situation. Sadly for flopped6810, tHeClaImEr1 was laying in wait on the button with the dominating 
and he re-shoved to fold out the blinds and put his all-in opponent at risk of elimination.
The 
was not good for flopped6810 and left him with an 11% chance of winning the hand and staying in the tournament. The 
on the turn reduced those chances to 7% with the 
river ending any hopes of a comeback.
Thirty-six hands later and tHeClaImEr1 sent another player for the proverbial early bath, this time busting TPaces. Blinds and antes were now 20,000/40,000/4,000a and TPaces moved all-in for 354,328 from late position with the 
and tHeClaImEr1, next to act, three-bet all-in for more than a million chips with . The active players mucked and when the five community cards fell 
it was all over for TPaces and the surviving six players were now guaranteed at least $10,100 in cold, hard cash.
A real cooler of a hand busted INDIGEESTO in sixth place and catapulted tHeClaImEr1 into the chip lead. A min-raise to 80,000 from tHeClaImEr1 was re-raised all-in to 766,080 by INDIGEESTO in the small blind. tHeClaImEr1 instantly called, as would you had the 
been in your hand. INDIGEESTO flipped over , which was an expensive second best hand. A few seconds later the 
board was displayed and INDIGEESTO headed for the sidelines.
Pocket aces were responsible for the elimination of Remcovitch shortly after INDIGEESTO’s demise. Taverer opened to 80,000 from the button and then had one of the easiest calls of his poker career when Remcovitch re-raised all-in from the big blind for 599,128. Remcovitch showed and was in a whole world of pain against the in his opponent’s hand. The 
board provided little in the way of drama and Remcovitch crashed out.
Four-handed play spanned 21 hands and ended with the exit of swagswagswag. After losing all but five big blinds when his 
failed to get there against the lowly 
of Omfg72oAgain, swagswagswag got his chips into the middle with against the of tHeClaImEr1. A queen on the 
flop put tHeClaImEr1 firmly in the lead, and the turn only gave outs to a chop for swagswagswag. The completed the community cards and sent swagswagswag home in fourth place, a finish worth a cool $15,325.
Taveren was the next tHeClaImEr1 casualty. Taveren raised to 120,000 from the button and tHeClaImEr1 called from the big blind. The flop fell 
]
, tHeClaImEr1 checked and Taveren continued with a 120,000 bet. tHeClaImEr1 check-raised to 255,511 only to see his opponent push all-in for 948,244 chips. tHeClaImEr1 made a gutsy call with 
and was shown 
by Taveren.
The 
turn gave Taveren extra outs to a straight, but the river was not one of them and he fell in third place, sending the tournament into the heads-up stage.
tHeClaImEr1 went into heads-up with a 4,165,142 to 2,309,858 lead, yet opted to agree to a variance-cutting deal after two hands of play. Once the deal was finalised, Trigg walked away with $35,079.29 and the victory, leaving Omfg72oAgain to add $32,070.72 to his bankroll!
Pokerfest #6: $250,000 Guaranteed NL Hold’em Freezeout Final Table Results (October 19, 2014)
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | tHeClaImEr1 | $35,079.29* |
| 2 | Omfg72oAgain | $32,070.72* |
| 3 | Taverern | $20,325 |
| 4 | sawgsawgsawg | $15,325 |
| 5 | Remcovitch | $12,600 |
| 6 | INDIGEESTO | $10,100 |
| 7 | TPaces | $7,600 |
| 8 | flopped6810 | $5,100 |
| 9 | rodicamoiad | $3,800 |
*reflects a heads-up deal
Pokerfest Continues!
If you want to follow in tHeClaImEr1’s footsteps – and why wouldn’t you – then you need to get involved in some of the Pokerfest events. Each day, until November 2, there are at least three Pokerfest events taking place. These three events are split into Low, Medium and High buy-ins meaning there is something for everyone to enjoy
Let’s not forget that there are scores of satellites taking place throughout the day that feed into all Pokerfest events so don’t let a tournament’s buy-in deter you from following your dreams, win your way to it instead!
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