The Sunday Warm-Up continued to blaze hotter and warmer because the weather got colder this November weekend, with a whopping $925,600 within the prize pool. 4,628 players bellied as much as the virtual felt to take their shot on the massive payout, and the highest 675 finishers got paid for his or her efforts. Of course, the large money was concentrated on the final table, so after rather less than nine hours of grueling poker, the nine survivors gathered 'round the general table.

Action was tentative to begin off, with players avoiding any major confrontations within the first few hands, but because the blinds and antes grew, the fast stacks needed to take their shots to double up simply to stay alive. Melano26 put his previous couple of chips within the middle with A♠-8♠ and located a caller in CruSader1981. Big stack angevert then moved all in excessive to isolate, and CruSader1981 got out of how. Angevert was ahead with J♦-J♠, and the flop of J♥-7♠-Q♣ left melano26 needing to catch runner-runner perfect to stick alive. The 2♥ at the turn meant that melano26 was drawing dead, and when the meaningless 6♠ rolled off at the river, melano26 was busted in 9th place ($7,404.80).

Floes came into the general table because the second-shortest stack, and it was only a few hands after melano26's elimination when floes open-shoved from the small blind with A♦-5♣. It was a great time for the move, with a host of dead blinds and antes within the pot, but Mr. Shanish aroused from sleep with A♣-J♣ within the big blind and made the simple call. Already a dominant favorite, Mr. Shanish took final control at the flop because it came down 9♦-3♥-J♥. Running nines at the turn and river gave Mr. Shanish a whole house, and gave floes 8th place money to the tune of $11,750.00.

Bahneyyy lost most of his stack in an enormous hand earlier on the final table, but hung on for a couple of more orbits before he got all of it in preflop with A♠-5♣ against CruSader1981's A♣-9♠. The board did nothing to assist Bahneyyy, running out 8♣-J♣-2♥-3♣-9♥, and CruSader1981 picked up some much-needed chips as Bahneyyy busted in 7th place ($20,826).

CruSader1981 played his short stack well, but he eventually found plenty of outs he couldn't fade when he went out in 6th place ($30,082) by the hands of angevert on this hand.

After a lengthy period of five-handed jousting, one misstep by cspdealer left him watching the sport from the sidelines after busting in 5th place ($39,338). The aggressive Mr. Shanish opened for a raise from the button, and cspdealer re-raised from the large blind with K♦-J♠. Mr. Shanish moved all in over the top, and cspdealer called, only to search out he was dominated by Mr. Shanish's A♠-J♣. The flop hit both players because it came down A♣-K♣-9♥, but Mr. Shanish's top pair was well prior to cspdealer's middle pair. The Q♥ at the turn gave cspdealer few more outs to stick alive, however the Q♣ at the river ended his tournament.

After losing a large pot to double up the short-stacked $saxo$, Mr. Shanish came right back at the very next hand to bust rivermanl in 4th place ($52,296.40). Rivermanl moved all in preflop from the small blind on a steal with Q♠-5♠, but Mr. Shanish found J♣-J♥ within the big blind and made the simple call. The flop of T♣-7♥-7♣ helped neither player, however the 5♣ at the turn gave rivermanl a couple of more how one can survive. None of these ways included the T♦, so when that fell at the river, there have been only three.

With the stacks exceptionally close, the overall three survivors took a couple of moments to speak about a maintain. the stacks almost even, the players selected a good chop of the rest money, with $10,000 left within the middle for the eventual champion. That locked up $106,468.22 for every player, a fantastic day's work by almost any standard. With their six-figure payday in hand, the remainder three players settled in to duke it out for the last $10K.

It only took a couple of minutes of folding before a large confrontation brewed up between our three survivors. The ever-aggressive Mr. Shanish opened for a raise from the small blind with A♦-9♥, and $saxo$ moved all in excessive with 3♥-3♠. The race was on because the flop came down 7♥-8♠-Q♥, and $saxo$ had faded the overcards. The 2♥ gave both players a flush draw, and the 4♥ at the river gave Mr. Shanish the larger flush to send $saxo$ home in 3rd place.

Heads up play lasted only three hands, and Mr. Shanish won they all to secure his extra $10,000 and the Sunday Warm-Up title. The last hand went down like this -

When the dust cleared, Mr. Shanish's aggressive play had locked up the last $10K at the table and made a $116,468.22 payday for himself. Congratulations to Mr. Shanish and all our Sunday Warm-Up players!

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars Sunday Tournaments]