I had it in my head that this was going to be a slow and steady final table. I was watching the players with most chips closely, who seemed to be a cautious bunch, so as those same players made their way to the final table I poured my energy drink and prepared for a late night of #tpoker tweeting.

I'd barely taken a sip of vitamin and caffeine concoction before my slow and steady final table entered some poker tourney dark side, it morphed into a bloodbath of crazed axe-murder eliminations. Obviously there wasn't a real bloody axe, but if there had been it would have been wielded by maden_82, and it would have been dripping with chips from all the players he'd slain.

This isn't a horror film, but we'll do you a flashback scene anyway.

Bubble flashback

With 10 players in the tournament Madest_86 was finding hands at the right time to increase his lead, while the less fortunate players would have to try to win with no hands at all. Jtamh pushed with [As][8s], bluff re-raising Stingray606 on a [Kd][Kh][5h] flop. Stingray606 called to play his flush-draw [Ah][Qh], and he hit the flush on the river. Jtamh wouldn't survive to make the final table, but here are the chips of those who did:

Seat 1: Scruller (191920 in chips)

Seat 2: customm123 (252644 in chips)

Seat 3: Roucous (164914 in chips)

Seat 4: madest_82 (401630 in chips)

Seat 5: lufam (195287 in chips)

Seat 6: siacara (159186 in chips)

Seat 7: firebreather (319966 in chips)

Seat 8: Stingray606 (428307 in chips)

Seat 9: poirot86 (208146 in chips)

 

Stingray606 had the chip lead, but a tough hand would endanger it.

Pre-flop action between Stingray606 and poirot86 led to a [Ks][9h][Kd] flop. Stingray606 bet out and poirot86 moved all-in. Stingray606 held [Qs][Qd] and faced a tricky decision, was he ahead now?  He chose to call. Poirot86 showed [Ac][Kh] and Stingray606 was stung for plenty of his chips.

Poirot86 held the lead now, but madest_82 would have something to say about that.

Madest and Scruller

 Madest_82 raised then short-stacked Scruller pushed. Madest_82 had plenty of chips to call with his [Kd][Jh] and Scruller showed [Ac][Qs]. A king was the first card out, and Scruller was the first elimination at our final table.

Madest_82 found more king-shaped joy, but wouldn't win in a straightforward way. Stingray606 held [Tc][Td] and madest_82  [Ks][Kc]. Madest_82 got it all-in on the flop of [Ts][9h][4s] but the surprise appearance of [Jd][Qd] on the turn and river gave madest_82 a straight and kept  him in the tourney.

Then Madest_82 increased his lead at siacara's expense, playing a low ace with caution with the board showing [5h][5c][As][9s][Qc].  Madest_82 was winning with [Ad][4c] but didn't set siacara all-in. Siacara mucked whatever hand he'd been lively with, he had only a few chips left to play.

This apparent unwillingness of players to drag their chip raiser to the right made me think this would be a slow, cautious final table. How wrong I was.

Energetic all-ins

Poirot86 raised with [3h][3d]. Lufam moved all-in with [Qs][Ts] and poirot86 called. There were no cards to help lufam and he was out in 8^th place.

Siacara pushed with [Td][Th]. Poirot86 , no doubt still buzzing from the recent win, called with [Ah][5]. He hit the ace. Siacara was out in 7^th place.

Stingray606 moved in on the button with [As][4d]. Customm123 called from the big blind with [Ad][Ts].  Stingray606 was out in 6^th place.

There was a raise from madest_82 and  a call by customm123, Roucous moved all-in with [Tc][Th]. Madest_82  would  take him on with [Qs][Qc] and would  take his chips. Roucous was out in 5^th place.

I then had elimination tweets stockpiled.

Another all-in! Madest_82, poirot86 and customm123 saw a [Kd][Tc][Js] flop.  Customn123 pushed with [Kc][7c] but Madest_82 held [Qh][9s] for a flopped straight. Customm123 was out in 4^th place.

We were down to 3 players with 4 eliminations in 6 minutes.

 

 After the carnage chip counts:

madest_82:  1,756,171

poirot86: 415,988

firebreather: 149,841

 

As I caught up with tweet updates, Madest_82 increased his lead, moving onwards and upwards to 2.2 million, as the stacks of firebreather  and poirot86 dwindled. Firebreather played 45,988 and poirot86 41,398. Blinds were 12,500/25,000. This couldn't take long.

On the button Poirot86 moved in. Madest_82 was in the small-blind with all his millions. What to do? He thought long and hard, and then folded.

It seemed almost cruel that madest_82 would take no part in the hand that would as good as win him the tournament. With most of his chips invested in the blind firebreather was forced to call all-in. Madest_82 would be able to sit back and watch his rivals fight to the death, knowing whoever survived the hand would still be in no shape to beat him.

Firebreather called all-in, as expected, with [Kh][7h] and poirot86's showed  [Kc][Qs]. Poirot86 hit two pair, firebreather out 3^rd, and we were heads-up.

Madest_82 played 2,212,739 to poirot86's 109,261.

Poirot86 managed one double-up with [Ah][Jh] but it  wouldn't help him defeat madest_82's millions. Poirot86's next try was with [Ac][8d] and madest_82  took him on with a lowly [5d][2d]. Madest_82 flopped a [2s]. It was enough to win him the tournament.

Congratulations to madest_82 on his killer-stack-of-chips victory. Madest_82 eliminated half the players at the final table; it was no final table for the faint of heart. His victory earned him $249 for his $1.10 buy-in.  Madest_82's 20 Twitter Poker League points won't be enough to win him a place on the leaderboard top 10. With three tourneys left this season we'll see if he builds on the score.

Manyarrasco still tops the Twitter Poker League with 31 points, but there are plenty trying to catch her. We'll report whether they get there with tweets and blog posts.

Next week's Twitter tourney can be found from the lobby with Ctrl+T and the number 291902009. Our Twitter Poker League website can be found with your favourite web browser and a click here. 

 

Twitter Poker League Leaderboard - Week 4 (08-29-10)

monyarrasco - 31

alytus73 - 28

taketime - 27

Roucous - 25

firebreather - 24

Smola37 - 24

customm123 - 22

TUZEX - 22

bryansk14 - 21

fiv31 - 21

SilAnt - 21

madest_82 - 20

This was a final table of big hands and back-from-the-dead comebacks.  SilAnt was the eventual victor, in the poker tournament equivalent of Hollywood gladiatorial combat. You think the lion's pinned our hero down and going for the kill? Not likely. With an acrobatic leap the tables are turned, our hero is chip leader and the lion's got less than 10 big blinds.

1659 players prepared for battle in this week's Twitter tourney, poised to tweet hero calls and bloody bad beats as they played.  As the bubble approached Rensten and Rafinha626 were short stacked, with final table hopes fuelled more by dreams than chip ammunition. These short stacks needed to make a move with the right hand and at the right time, and then find a dose of luck on top of that.

Rafinha626 found bubble avoidance luck when his [As][8c] hit a full house and beat mirom126@'s queens. Rensten found his when Arivan25 moved all-in before he was forced to make his all-in move.

The bloody bubble

Arrivan25 and mixaundi1 saw a [9h] [Kd] [9d] flop from the blinds, a bet from mixaundi1 was re-raised by arivan25, and they were on to the turn [6h].  Mixaundi1 bet and arrivan25 pushed all-in. [Kc][Qc] for mixaundi1 and arrivan25's [Ks][8c] wouldn't beat that.

The final table was set.

Final table chips:

Seat 1: mixaundi1 (621199 in chips)

Seat 2: SilAnt (148906 in chips)

Seat 3: miron126@ (270688 in chips)

Seat 4: privet09 (463378 in chips) out of hand (moved from another table into small blind)

Seat 5: rensten (41514 in chips)

Seat 6: crumbbum15 (441457 in chips)

Seat 7: fando67 (227699 in chips)

Seat 8: litinhoo (141145 in chips)

Seat 9: Rafinha626 (132514 in chips)

 

Living on a prayer

Rensten had made it to the final table with just 41,514 chips; he was facing blinds of 5000/10000 and was going to need something special to keep him at the table.

With an [Ac][Ks] he might have thought his final table prayers were answered, but it was not to be, crumbbum15 found [As][Ad]. It was "gg" time for rensten.

Rafinha626 was next to pray for double-up chips, he re-raised all-in with [As][Ts] but fando67's jacks finished his tournament.

The final table was less than 5 minutes old when we saw another all-in. Litinhoo played his [Ac][Jc] aggressively pre-flop then check raised all-in with [3d][5d][9h] showing.  Mixaundi1 had many chips invested already and called with [Kc][Qh] getting dramatic luck to hit kings on both turn and river. Litinhoo out 7^th.

SilAnt celebrations

SilAnt was the new short stack and might be expected to to be next in line for a "gg" and payout, but when he moved in with [9s][9d] he would fight on. Privet09 called with [Ah][Jc] and the nines took it.

SilAnt was all-in again just a few hands later, an [Ah][Qs] this time. Miron126@ called with [Qh][Qd].  The ace on the turn ended miron126@'s Twitter tourney in 6^th place, he earned $61.38 along with his 13 league points.

Fando67 needed to make a move by now, and his [As][5c] all-in couldn't catch mixaundi1's pocket nines, the only move he had left was to the rail in 5^th place.

Stealing the lead

Mixaundi1 was our chip leader with four players remaining, but that lead would swing to privet09 in a curious hand. Mixaundi1 and pivot09 raised and re-raised to make a 378,000 pot pre-flop. On the [Ad] [4d] [Jc] flop pivot09 checked, mixaundi1 looked lively with the bet, only to find a re-raise from privet09. We don't know what mixaundi1 was playing, but we can say it was a swift fold. This mighty pot gave privet09 the chip lead.

Privet09 not hedging his bets

Privet09 was on a roll and started to play more aggressively now he had chips. He took the first million chip pot of the tournament, winning a further chunk of mixaundi1's stack. With the board showing [3h] [Qc] [Js] [Td] [Kd] mixaundi1 re-raised with [Kh][Jd]. His two pair were no good, privet09 was holding [Qh][9d] for the straight.

Mixaundi1 was left with barely more than 50,000 chips, but two all-in double-ups helped him to a fast recovery.  He'd been ahead in the first two survival hands, and might have thought he was winning with a [Ad][5h] push. SilAnt said, "gl" as he called with his [Qd][Qc]. He might have regretted the good wishes because the luck went mixaundi1's way - there was an ace on the flop. SilAnt was bottom of the chip stacks yet again, but if you've read the first paragraph of this report and the headline you know this player has spirit for a fight...

SilAnt wasn't afraid of an all-in and pushed again, he re-raised mixaundi1 with [Ah][8s], but now and it was his turn to take the luck, the ace on the river beat beat mixaundi1's [9s][9c], and kept SilAnt in the tourney.

Things change

Things change fast in tournament poker, possibly more so in $1.10 tournaments, and so it proved with mixaundi1's changing fortunes. He went from chip leader to 4^th place finisher in a handful of hands.  He tangled with chip leader privet09 on a flop showing [5c][3c][5s], privet09 calling his all-in bet. Both players were chasing the club flush and would hit it on the turn [9c]. Privet09 held [Kc][Tc] with mixaundi1 fielding a lower flush with [6c][8c]. Only a miracle [7c] on the river would keep him in the game. It was a humdrum [Th] instead.

With 3 players left privet09 was in poll position with 1,454,142, SilAnt a few laps behind with 687,543 and crumbbum15 needed emergency pit stop repairs with 346,815 chips.

Crumbbum15 managed the repair operation when his pocket fives beat privet09's [Kd][Qd]. It was no longer clear which way this tournament was going to go, in numerous hands the short stacks would take the lead and the leaders would take the short stack title. It seemed it could be anyone's game.

Set fair

Crumbbum15 and privet09 got busy betting on a flop of [4s][5d][2h]. They got busier still on the [9s] turn.  It developed into a million dollar pot, as SilAnt noted with a chat box, "Wow."

Crumbbum15 had to think hard about calling privet09's all-in re-raise on the turn. His tournament life depended on it, but eventually he folded with a time out and a chat box revelation that he'd held pocket sevens. Privet09 sportingly showed his mucked cards to reveal the hand was beat, he showed [4d] [4c] for a flopped set.

Lucky fours

A family pot next, all three players taking a look at the [8c] [4d] [2c] flop. Privet09 bet out and crumbbum15 re-raised. Privet09 stayed with the hand to see the [4h] on the turn. He bet out again and crumbbum15 moved all-in. It was an obvious call for privet09 with [4s][6s] . Crumbbum15's top pair [8d][9d]  was no good. Crumbbum15 was out in 3^rd place.

Let our heads-up battle commence.

 

Privet09 was dealt [As] [Ah] in the very first hand of heads-up play, but with SilAnt folding from the small blind they were pretty but worthless.

SilAnt had a lot of work to do to catch Privet09, but as we've discussed this was a tournament where the guy with the lion's share of the chips was regularly getting mauled by the underdog.

Heads-up chips:

privet09  1,893,457 in chips

SilAnt  595,043 in chips

 

SilAnt left it late for a comeback attempt, he was down to just 385,043 chips when he moved all-in with [Ac][9h]. He hit the ace to double up against privet09's [Ks][8h].

Next he was all-in with [5s][5c] and the pair held up against privet09's [Jh][Qd]. Due to the the remarkable restorative powers of double-ups it was now anyone's game, chips were roughly even.

The heads-up players had a look at a flop showing [3s][7d][Kh] and both checked. SilAnt bet the [5s] turn, privet09 re-raised. The river was [Kd]. SilAnt bet out and privet09 moved all-in with [Td][5h]. SilAnt could do a lot better than that pair of fives, he called with [Ks][6s]. Those three kings crowned him the tournament champion.

Leaderboard heroes

The win gave SilAnt $266.76 and 20 leaderboard points, it was his first league game and the 20 are good for 5^th place on the league leaderboard.

Monyarrasco tweeted that, "I'm on the top of the leaderboard...and I am keeping it that way." And she was true to her word, she finished 177^th when her [Ah][Aq] ran into aces, but another cash gives her 5 points to add to her score.  Alytus73 is another league high-flyer to cash this week, he stays second and gains ground.

We're now half way through the league season but there's still time to get involved and win a place on the league table. To find out more about the Twitter Poker League you can follow PokerStars on Twitter  or visit the Twitter Poker League website. 

You don't have to play poker like a Hollywood gladiator to win our Twitter tourneys, but wave your sword and give it your best shot; we'll be following all the tourney action and reporting from @Tpokerstars. 

We who are about to tweet, salute you!

Twitter Poker League Leaderboard - Week 4 (08-22-10)

monyarrasco - 30

alytus73 - 27

taketime - 22

TUZEX - 21

fiv31 - 20

SilAnt  - 20

Smola37 - 19

Atis95 - 18

privet09 - 18

ROMAO2010 - 18

sweghozt  -17