Related Links

• Discuss News
• Signup
• TeamPlay
• Poker School
• Forum
• Texas Hold'em
• Tournaments
• WSOP 2008
• Mac Poker

ZSC-54 Will Not Be Denied a Grand Victory - By Seth Shafer

Jul 30, 2008 The last weekend of the month meant that it was time for the latest edition of PokerRoom’s biggest tournament: the Grand XXVII. 818 players turned out for the three day event (which features two different starting days on Friday and Saturday, with survivors returning for the final day on Sunday), which meant that 1st place prize money would be a cool $174,234!

198 players made it through to Day 2 on Sunday, with the money spots kicking in at 90th place. Luckynights held the chip lead an hour into play, with ZSC-54 sitting atop the leaderboard at the two hour mark.

ZSC-54 kept his headlock on the top spot for the next three hours, leading the way for much of it and only dipping slightly to 2nd place on a few occasions. Here were the chip counts with just ten players left:

ZSC-54: 2,105,729
VKHOADO: 1,530,112
Metzmagny: 1,039,390
royal-dave: 727,182
xxTaLLxx: 675,838
Juffin26: 642,034
bigbalu67: 637,672
Crazy ......: 328,452
Meowa: 326,937
Juhlapekka: 166,654

Of particular note was bigbalu67, who was just in Las Vegas with Team PokerRoom at the 2008 Main Event. While his Main Event run ended on Day 2, he battled his way to a 7th place finish in Sunday’s Grand, collecting $16,360 for his efforts.

With the final table of six players finally set after a long, grueling day of poker, here’s how they stacked up:

Seat 2: ZSC-54 ($1,304,575 in chips)
Seat 4: royal-dave ($833,182 in chips)
Seat 5: metzmagny ($1,483,567 in chips)
Seat 8: Crazy ...... ($534,520 in chips)
Seat 9: VKHOADO ($2,183,950 in chips)
Seat 10: Juffin26 ($1,840,206 in chips)

Metzmagny would exit in 6th ($24,540) when he was short-stacked and forced to shove with Kc 5c, but ran into royal-dave’s As Kd.

Juffin26 was the next to go in 5th (34,356), and his was a painful exit. He and ZSC-54 got it all in pre-flop and with a 1.6 million chip pot up for grabs turned over their hands: Juffin26 with Ah Ks and ZSC-54 with Ac Qh.

The board came Td 3d 2h 5c and Juffin26 was likely already counting his chips when the Qs spiked on the river to knock him out and give another monster pot to ZSC-54.

Crazy ...... was the next ZSC-54 victim, finishing in 4th ($50,716) when ZSC-54’s turned two pair held up.

royal-dave bowed out in 3rd ($71,984) when his top pair fell victim to a harmless looking 2 on the river, which gave VKHOADO a set of 2s and a lock on the hand and a monster pot, setting up the heads-up battle with nearly $70,000 riding on the outcome (the difference between 1st and 2nd place money):

Seat 2: ZSC-54 ($2,930,527 in chips)
Seat 9: VKHOADO ($5,249,473 in chips)

VRHOADO chipped away at ZSC-54 but ZSC-54 got a huge double-up when each player rivered a straight and got it all in, except ZSC-54 held a higher straight (Ah Jc vs. 5d Jd on a board of Ts Ks 4d 9h Qc).

That hand evened up the stacks and the two players fought back and forth from there, with ZSC-54 finally pulling out to a slight lead when the final hand went down.

Each player looked down to find a pair, and all the chips found their way into the middle pre-flop. ZSC-54 had by far the best of it with Qd Qc vs. VKHOADO’s 6h 6c and the poker gods were content to let it end there, with the board blanking out and not improving either player’s hand.

That gave a hard-fought 1st place and $174,234 to ZSC-54, with VKHOADO collecting a not-too-shabby $106,340 for his runner-up finish. Congrats to the winners and for all the players that turned out for yet another successful edition of the Grand.

Stonedancer Waltzes to the Aussie Millions by Seth Shafer

Nov 6, 2008 As has been the case with all of the Aussie Millions finals on PokerRoom of late, last Sunday’s finals were yet another sold out affair, with 45 runners battling it out to see who’d end the day on top and sitting on an $18,000 trip package to the 2009... More

Ronzie99 Rolls to Victory in the Big Deal by Seth Shafer

Nov 6, 2008 The Big Deal may not get the headlines that the Grand or ChampionChip or some of the big online finals do, but the weekly tournament held on Sundays definitely packs a punch, with more than $150,000 up for grabs in prize money. November 2nd’s Big... More

Mobilfe Madness - Win a Black Nokia N82

Nov 4, 2008 Hey there poker fans. In great new promotion to celebrate PokerRoom.com's fantastic Mobile Poker Game , PokerRoom.com is giving you the chance to win a brand new black Nokia N82 . Over the next five weekends we will be running Moblife Weekly... More

Anna K. Living the High Life After November’s ChampionChip by Seth Shafer

Nov 4, 2008 The beginning of the month is always an exciting time at PokerRoom, as that means it’s time for one of PokerRoom’s biggest tournaments to kick off: the ChampionChip. With 1,500 runners and a prize pool of $525,000 up for grabs, the November edition of... More

AKauffeldt73 Takes Down an Aussie Millions Victory by Seth Shafer

Nov 4, 2008 The Team roster for the 2009 Aussie Millions keeps growing and growing, and last weekend was no different, with two more players taking down their $18,000 trip packages to the Aussie Millions on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s online finals... More