Victory Is Sweet For Sweetster; Turns $2 into Over $85K By Winning The $500K Guaranteed!

On Saturday 11 May, when Swee Fah Chai – known as sweetster at the tables — bought into a $2 satellite to the $500K Guaranteed tournament, little did he know that 24 hours later his account would be boosted by over $85,000.

You see, sweetster qualified for the $500K Guaranteed for a paltry $2 and thanks to navigating his way through the 3,057-strong field and winning the whole shebang, is now $85,688.57 richer than he was before the weekend – quite a remarkable result, don’t you agree?

The special $500K Guaranteed kicked off at 20:00 CEST with 2,152 players in their seats, creating the prospect of a near $100,000 overlay on the prize pool. Fast forward to the end of late registration and 3,057 players had bought in, smashing the $500K guarantee by some $68,602, making the tournament the largest to run on the party network since the $1.5M Pokerfest Main Event in May 2013.

It took 11 hours and 14 minutes of betting, folding, and bluffing to whittle the monster-sized crowd of 3,057 players down to a much more manageable final table of nine. As the clock struck 06:14 CEST on Monday morning, here’s how the nine finalists lined up.

$500K Guaranteed Sunday Final Table (May 11, 2014)

The blinds at the start of the final table were 20,000/40,000/4,000a but within a couple of hands they increased to 25,000/50,000/5,000a and this left Ch1pJam and Iwilltakeallofu nursing stacks of less than 10 big blinds and in need of a timely double-up.

Ch1pJam found that double-up when his pocket sevens held against the of pablito_21, but he was still the first casualty of the high-profile final table.

An all-in bet of 336,923 from Iwilltakeallofu in early position was met with a call from pablito_21 on the button, and all-in bet of 534,400 from Ch1pJam in the small blind. Pablito_1 tossed in the extra chips and the cards were revealed.

Pablito_21:
Iwilltakeallofu:
Ch1pJam:

Quite a pickle for Ch1pJam who ran into two pairs of kings and now only had a 20% chance to stay in the tournament. Those chances reduced further on the flop, further still when the landed on the turn and Ch1pJam’s tournament came to an abrupt end when the completed the board.

Four hands later and Robbi52’s name was added to the payouts. Having ran his pocket queens into the aces of Nosferatuse, Robbi52 was left nursing a tiny stack that was only slightly more than one big blind. By the time he found under-the-gun, Robbie52’ all-in bet was for a mere 24,367. Nosferatuse three-bet to 100,000 to isolate the all-in Robbie52 with what turned out to be and when the five community cards fll it was game over for Robbie52.

It is safe to say Nosferatuse will not be on Robbie52’s Christmas card list this year.

Next to bust and have prize money added to their account was Iwilltakeallofu who will still be ruing his luck as you read this recap. Pablito_21 opened the betting with a min-raise to 120,000 from the cutoff. Iwilltakeallofu re-raised all-in from the small blind for 367,885 in total and when the big blind folded, pablito_21 called.

Iwilltakeallofu was in a great position to double up, his dominating the of his opponent. The flop left pablito_21 drawing very thin indeed as he could only hit a non-heart nine to avoid doubling Iwilltakeallofu up. Amazingly, the turn was the , a card that flipped the hand on its head and propelled pablito_21 into the lead. Now it was Iwilltakeallofu who needed help from the board in the form of an ace or any heart. It was not meant to be because the was the river card and Iwilltakeallofu exited in seventh place.

After a blistering start that saw three eliminations in quick succession, it took another 62 hands before the next player fell. By this stage sweetster had been hovering up chips and was sat with over 6 million of them and in a dominant position indeed.

His lofty position at the top of the chip counts was further bolstered when Santiniii open-shoved for 920,737 (9.2 big blinds) when first to act on the button with and sweetster looked him up with the superior . Neither player improved on the board, sweetster’s ace-kicker winning him the 2 million pot and resigning Santiniii to sixth place money.

The next player to hit the rail would pick up over $21,000, going to show how massive this tournament was. Again it was sweetster who played the role of executioner, this time moving all-in from the small blind to put maximum pressure on flatandfold in the big blind.

Flatandfold called off his remaining 13 big blinds with the and sweetster had to hope his could hit at least one of the five community cards otherwise he would have to had over more than 1.3 million of his hard-fought stack.

Hit he did, on the flop too, as the board ran out a draw heavy to bust flatandfold and to send sweetster’s stack past the 8.3 million barrier.

Four-handed play didn’t last long thanks to a relative cooler of a hand. x_zola25 was first to act under-the-gun. Down to just under 11 big blinds and finding in the hole there was only one move to make – an all-in bet. This is exactly what x_zola25 did and it folded out sweetster and Nosferatuse, but not pablito_21 who had been dealt in the big blind. Ouch.

Those aces held as the board double-paired, and the tournament was down to its final three players.

Sweetster held almost 9.4 million chips at the start of three-handed play, with pablito_21 4.85 million and Nosferatuse bringing up the rear with 1.03 million. Those 1.03 million chips were added to sweetster’s stack when sweetster raised to 200,000 from the button and then called Nosferatuse’s all-in three-bet from the small blind.

It was versus , a confrontation that rarely goes well for the smaller pair. This was true in this hand because by the river the community cards read to send Nosferatuse to the sidelines and the tournament to its heads-up stage.

Pablito_21 held a 9,026,253 to 6,258,747 chip lead over sweetster and had managed to extend that lead to 11,136,353 to 4,124,647 after the first 12 hands of play. It was looking like pablito_21 was going to run away with the tournament and become its champion, but then a hand went down that saw sweetster double and knock the wind out of pablito_21’s sails.

A raise to 240,000 from pablito_21 on the button was greeted with a raise to 1,080,000 from sweetster, a bet that left only 3 million chips behind. Pablito responded to sweetster’s aggression with some of his own, setting the price to play at 1,920,000. Sweetster pushed all-in for 4,124,647 in total and pablito_21 beat him into the pot with a call.

Sweetster:
Pablito_21:

A huge pot and one that would ultimately shape the outcome of the tournament. The first card onto the flop was the followed by the and a miracle – for sweetster at least – ! Sweetster took the lead with his set, but still had to avoid a king or running hearts or he would be eliminated.

The on the turn improved sweetster to a full house, meaning he now only had to avoid a king on the river to double up. The completed the board and sweetster found himself with 8,273,294 chips at his disposal.

There was mention of a chop in the chatbox, but sweetster wanted more money that pablito_21 was prepared to give so play continued for another 41 hands. Eventually, with the time showing 09:13 CEST on Monday morning, both players agreed to split the remaining prize pool based on their chip stacks. Sweetster had 581,456 more chips at the time of the deal so was declared the winner, although both players walked away with more than $83,400 for their effort so were both big winners in the end.

$500K Guaranteed Sunday Final Table Results (May 11, 2014)

With the $500K Guaranteed being a roaring success, do not be surprised if it makes another appearance in the future. Until it does, why not try to emulate sweetster and turn a tiny investment into a much more substantial chunk of change? Satellites for the online majors and World Poker Tour National Kazakhstan are now in the lobby, so get involved today.

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