michalbata is the GSOP Grand Tournment Champion by Seth Shafer

Dec 5, 2008 The final online poker day of action of the GSOP Grand Tournament got underway on Sunday, with the 322 surviving players from the three starting days all taking their seats together. They'd be chasing a prize pool of over $1.25 million, with the winner destined to take home an amazing $205,921, as well as a $5,000 entry to the GSOP Grand Slam Finals on December 7th.

tons26 was in command during the early action on Sunday, as he held the chip lead through the first three hours of play, only to give way to pedrobio at the four hour mark, before tons26 made another charge to sit atop the field after five hours of play.

6 hours into the final day of play and there were just 24 players left, with tons26 still holding onto the chip lead. Two former Team PokerRoom.com members were also still alive, with Ovoman and realpokermon sitting in 2nd and 7th, respectively, at that stage. realpokermon's run was especially impressive as he was very short-stacked at one point during his starting day, managing to survive, and was again short-stacked on Sunday near the money bubble, only to rally again to build his stack back up once more.

Ovoman and realpokermon made deep runs in the GSOP Grand Tournament

Fast forward to the eight hour mark, and becman held the chip lead, with just 12 players remaining. realpokermon would bow out in 11th ($19,219) and the final table of six players would finally be set at about the nine hour mark:

Seat 2: lemieux1717 ($2,375,724 in chips)
Seat 4: becman ($3,207,729 in chips)
Seat 5: pedrobio ($1,804,068 in chips)
Seat 6: Ovoman ($1,565,063 in chips)
Seat 8: ricstso08 ($1,133,140 in chips)
Seat 9: michalbata ($2,444,276 in chips)

Ovoman's run would end in 6th ($38,438), with becman finishing in 5th ($51,292) and ricstso08 in 4th ($76,876). Here's how the final three stacked up, as they began the final leg of the chase for 1st place riches:

Seat 2: lemieux1717 ($1,885,088 in chips)
Seat 5: pedrobio ($958,136 in chips)
Seat 9: michalbata ($9,686,776 in chips)

michalbata had taken control in the latter stages of the final table, building up a big chip lead and aggressively putting his chips to use. That afforded him the chance to put his opponents to the test with constant pre-flop raises and make some seemingly loose calls as he was pot committed, such as the hand where he knocked lemieux1717 out in 3rd ($102,460).

With blinds of 50,000/100,000, michalbata raised pre-flop to 250,000, and lemieux1717 shoved all-in for about 250,000 more. michalbata made the call with 9c 8s and couldn't be happy to see lemieuz1717's dominating Ac 8h. Unhappy that is until a flop of 2h 9h 6s came, with turn and river of Qc and 8c sealing lemieux1717's fate.

pedrobio faced a huge uphill climb as heads-up play began, faced with michalbata's commanding lead:

Seat 5: pedrobio ($1,866,272 in chips)
Seat 9: michalbata ($10,663,728 in chips)

After 23 hands of heads-up play, a champion was crowned. michalbata bet enough pre-flop to put pedrobio all-in, and pedrobio made the call, tabling 3h 3s which was up against michalbata's Ks Jd. pedrobio's prayers for his pair to hold seemed to be answered, as the board came 6h Qd 4h 7c, but the Kd spiked on the river, giving the hand and the victory to michalbata.

pedrobio would collect a nice consolation prize for his runner-up finish, taking home $153,750, while michalbata took down the massive 1st place prize money of $204,921 plus a $5,000 entry to the Grand Slam Finals on December 7th.

Congrats to all of the players and money winners who turned out to make the GSOP Grand Tournament a smashing success!

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