In Level 27 with blinds of 18,000/36,000 and an ante of 4,500, all of the chips went in the middle preflop, with "SnashuaJ" all in on the button for 1.1 million against "Borgatcha", who was in the big blind.
"SnashuaJ":
"Borgatcha":
"SnashuaJ" was in their biggest coin-flip situation of the tournament with a chance to take the chip lead should they win. The flop left them with two chances to hit and stay alive, but the turn spelled doom, giving "Borgatcha" a set of eights that left them drawing dead to the river to finish the tournament in third place.
In Level 26 with blinds of 16,000/32,000 and an ante of 4,000, there was 268,000 in the middle from preflop action between "Borgatcha" in the small blind and "SnashuaJ" in the big blind.
The flop came and "Borgatcha" bet 72,000. "SnashuaJ" called and the turn came . "Borgatcha" checked and "SnashuaJ" bet 174,000, which "Borgatcha" called. Action then went check-check on the river .
"Borgatcha" showed a flopped set with but it was no good against the backdoor gutshot Broadway that "SnashuaJ" hit with , earning them the pot to further level stacks.
In Level 26 with blinds of 16,000/32,000 and an ante of 4,000, "Borgatcha" raised to 70,000 on the button and received a call from "pay4medsch00l", defending their big blind.
The flop came and "pay4medsch00l" checked. "Borgatcha" made a continuation-bet of 48,000 and "pay4medsch00l" check-raised to 128,000. "Borgatcha called.
The turn fell and "pay4medsch00l" checked again. "Borgatcha" thought for a little and then bet 160,000. "pay4medsch00l" check-raised for a second time, making it 346,000 to go, and "Borgatcha" thought for a bit before letting their hand go.
In Level 25 with blinds of 14,000/28,000 and an ante of 3,500, "Borgatcha" raised to 61,600 on the button and "pay4medsch00l" three-bet shoved for 693,000 in the big blind. "Borgatcha" called.
"pay4medsch00l":
"Borgatcha":
"pay4medsch00l" won the coin flip via a ten on the turn as the board ran out and earned the double to stay alive.
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In Level 25 with blinds of 14,000/28,000 and an ante of 3,500, "Gohednpopoff" shoved for 575,000 in the cutoff and received action from "Borgatcha" in the small blind.
"Gohednpopoff":
"Borgatcha":
"Gohednpopoff" was only able to find a ten on the river of a runout , leaving their hand still second best against the queens of "Borgatcha" to take fourth in the tournament along with over $2,150 in combined earnings.
The final four players have reached a five-minute break with a minute remaining in Level 24 (12,000/24,000/3,000). "Borgatcha" has chipped back up over 3 million in the last few minutes of play, while the other three players remain with arm's reach of one another.
In Level 24 with blinds of 12,000/24,000 and an ante of 3,000, "pay4medsch00l" got all in preflop for their last 300,000 on the button against "Borgatcha" in the small blind.
"pay4medsch00l":
"Borgatcha":
"pay4medsch00l" was able to successfully navigate a runout of and doubled as a result, bringing them near the pack as four still remain.
One player who has been doing quite well on the network is bracelet winner Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall that last summer, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Earlier this year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.
PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.
Q&A with Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo
PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?
Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn’t play much online early on, regrettably.
What sort of poker do you play these days?
Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I’m on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.
What’s it like to play poker while raising young children?
It’s been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I’ve had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.
Daniel Lupo and his family
What are some of your poker goals?
Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.
I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.
How did it feel to take down the partypoker US Network Phased Main Event last month?
I was pretty stoked about the partypoker US win. I love their structure and it was a very tough field when we were deep; I was fortunate to run pretty well and the be able to leverage my chip stack at the final table. I had made a bunch of top 18 runs in their series Main Events but couldn't crack a solid finish lately so this felt a little extra special.
In Level 24 with blinds of 12,000/24,000 and an ante of 3,000, "Borgatcha" opened the action with a raise to 52,800 in the cutoff and "BoozeHound" called on the button.
Action went heads up to the flop and "Borgtacha" made a continuation-bet of 75,100. "BoozeHound" raised to 216,000 and "Borgatcha" three-bet jammed to put "BoozeHound" to a decision for their remaining chips, which they called.
"BoozeHound":
"Borgatcha":
"BoozeHound" had flopped top two pair but was up against an open-ended straight flush draw. The turn added to the total number of outs that they needed to fade, which proved to be too many as the river gave "Borgatcha" a flush and sent "BoozeHound" to the rail in fifth place, earning a combined $1,181 for their efforts as a result.
left them with two chances to hit and stay alive, but the turn 
spelled doom, giving "Borgatcha" a set of eights that left them drawing dead to the river 
to finish the tournament in third place.
and "Borgatcha" bet 72,000. "SnashuaJ" called and the turn came 
. "Borgatcha" checked and "SnashuaJ" bet 174,000, which "Borgatcha" called. Action then went check-check on the river 
.
but it was no good against the backdoor gutshot Broadway that "SnashuaJ" hit with 
and "pay4medsch00l" checked. "Borgatcha" made a continuation-bet of 48,000 and "pay4medsch00l" check-raised to 128,000. "Borgatcha called.
and "pay4medsch00l" checked again. "Borgatcha" thought for a little and then bet 160,000. "pay4medsch00l" check-raised for a second time, making it 346,000 to go, and "Borgatcha" thought for a bit before letting their hand go.
and earned the double to stay alive.
, leaving their hand still second best against the queens of "Borgatcha" to take fourth in the tournament along with over $2,150 in combined earnings.
gave "Borgatcha" a flush and sent "BoozeHound" to the rail in fifth place, earning a combined $1,181 for their efforts as a result.