WCOOP – Event #20, $530 NLHE Triple Shootout: 'lyerly_' Survives Outage to Win

September 29, 2007

Matt Wehner

WCOOP – Event #20, $530 NLHE Triple Shootout: 'lyerly_' Survives Outage to Win 0001

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) continued on Friday with Event #20, $530 NLHE Triple Shootout, with a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool. The event had a cap of 729 players, which was reached an hour prior to the event's start time. Play continued on quickly throughout the evening, with the final table of nine being reached after only nine hours of play.

Several well-known players turned out for this event, including James 'mig.com' Mackey, 'THE___D__RY,' 'lilholdem954,' Lee 'LeeNelsonP' Nelson, and 'THAY3R.' James Mackey recently won Event #14 and was hoping for a repeat performance, especially after winning his first table and going deep with his second.

Mackey (mig.com) dominated his second table, having a four-to-one chip lead heads up against THE__D__RY. Mackey amazingly lost the edge after calling an all-in by THE_D__RY with pocket tens and winding up against THE__D__RY's pocket aces. The next hand, mig.com ran pocket threes into pocket kings but only lost a small percentage of his stack. The final hand for mig.com came on a flop of 10h2s8s. mig.com made top pair (tens) with a queen kicker, raised, and was put all-in. mig.com made the call to see THE__D__RY's pocket jacks for his third pocket pair in just a few hands. mig.com couldn't improve and was eliminated prior to the final with $1,640.

The final shootout table was made up of THE_D__RY, Adam 'AJunglen7' Junglen, 'pannipha,' 'adotlee,' 'lyerly_,' '"Dumping"KGB,' 'Cobra234,' 'Nutedawg' and 'Zock'n'Rock.' "Dumping"KGB took off to an early lead with over 5,100 in chips, just an hour into the final table. The first elimination came when AJunglen7 raised to 135 pre-flop and was raised by Cobra234 to 300. AJunglen7 called and the flop came 10♣4♠2♣. Cobra234 led out for 400 and AJunglen7 bumped it up to 1,375. Cobra234 pushed back to 3,400 and AJunglen7 called and was all in. Cobra234 showed K♥K♦ while AJunglen7 showed 4♥4♣ for a set. Cobra234 failed to improve and his chip stack plummeted to just a few hundred, and he was eliminated on the next hand in ninth place.

The second elimination came just a few hands later when adotlee raised to 1050 pre-flop, and was re-raised by lyerly_ to 1800. adotlee called and was all in showing A♥K♣ against lyerly_'s A♠K♠. The flop came Q♦J♠8♠ and things seemed potentially bleak for adotlee, with lylerly_ on the freeroll for the club flush. The turn was the 3♥ but the river was the 3♠, giving lyerly_ that flush and eliminating adotlee in eighth place. Coincidentally, just a few hands prior to this, AJunglen7 had raised pre-flop and was all-in against "Dumping"KGB, with both holding pocket aces. The turn brought the third spade and had a fourth one fallen on the board, AJunglen7 would have filled a four- flush and delivered a tough blow to his opponent.

Nutedawg was eliminated in seventh place when he raised pre-flop to 241, with the blinds at 50/100, and AJunglen7 made it 4,400. Nutedawg called for his remaining 1,049 and showed A♦10♦ while AJunglen7 showed K♥Q♠. The flop came J♠7♠6♠, again giving Ajunglen7 a draw to a four-flush, which hit on the turn when the 10♠ fell. Nutedawg was drawing dead and was eliminated in seventh.

The next elimination came when THE__D__RY made it 400 to go pre-flop and lyerly_ pushed to 2,583 and was all-in. THE__D__RY made the call and showed A♥A♠ while lyerly_ showed A♣Q♣. The flop came J♣10♣9♦, giving lyerly the nut flush draw, as well as being open-ended for the straight with the Q♣. The turn came the 4♥ and the river was the K♠, giving lyerly_ the straight and eliminating THE__D__RY.

Just a few hands later, AJunglen7 pushed all-in pre-flop for 3,900 in the small blind, with the blinds at 75/150, and was called by pannipha for his remaining 980. pannipha showed A♠K♥ while AJungen7 showed Q♠4♦. The board came 9♦6♣7♣4♠2♥ which held up for AJunglen7, his pair of fours eliminating pannipha, with ace-high, in fifth place.

"Dumping"KGB, once the chip leader very early in the event, was eliminated in fourth place when Zock'n'Rock, the current chip leader, raised to 350 and "Dumping"KGB moved all-in for his remaining 1,322. Zock'nRock showed pocket queens after making the call while "Dumping"KGB showed A♣10♠. The flop came 4♥7♦5♠ and "Dumping"KGB was drawing to ace. The 4♣ didn't help, and the 2♥ on the river cemented "Dumping"KGB as the fourth-place finisher.

With just three players left, Zock'n'Rock had a commanding chip lead with 14,357, while AJunglen7 had 8,000, and lyerly_ sat on just shy of 5,000. Lyerly_ soon moved up into the second spot, and the next elimination came when AJunglen7 bet out pre-flop for 525 and lyerly_ made it 1900 to call; AJunglen7 pushed all in and made it 2,805. Lyerly_ made the call and showed pocket tens while AJuglen7 showed A♣9♠. The flop came 3♣8♦10♦, giving lyerly_ the set. The turn brought the 4♦ and the river brought the 5♦, neither of which improved AJunglen7's hand, and he was eliminated in third place.

Zock'n'Rock continued to lead, and after several large pots in his favor, his chip stack was up to nearly 20,000 while lyerly_ was down to 7,135. The two continued to play heads up for quite sometime with lyerly_ building back his chip stack, until he disconnected from PokerStars while holding 18,000 in chips. PokerStars support was able to reach him and learned that he was having computer problems. He assured them he was heading to a friend's house and play would resume after that.

After his return, lyerly_ continued to control the table, winning nearly every hand. The final hand came when lyerly_ raised pre-flop to 900 and Zock'n'Rock moved all-in for his last 6,292 and lyerly_ called. lyerly_ showed 7♦7♥ while Zock'n'Rock held 6♦3♦. The flop came A♥5♠2♣ and Zock'n'Rock still had some outs. If he could catch any four, he would double up and the game would be nearly even. However, the K♣ on the turn and the 10♦ on the river didn't improve his hand and he was eliminated in second place, making lyerly_ the winner of Event #20.