Towley88 wins the Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E

Five Full Tilt Poker pro’s turned out to play in the event. Alan Boston, Cyndy Violette, Diego Cordovez, Scott Fischman, and Thomas Bihl were here representing the Full Tilt pros. Only Fischman cashed in the event, finishing in 19th. Other notable players in the field were Dim, INTERCEPTOR, Shaun Deeb aka tedsfishfry, and . Micon was the only notable to cash, finishing in 13th. 24 players made the money in this event with Darby21 finishing as the bubble boy in 25th.

A new cast of characters took their spot at the final table with nilsef entering play as the chip leader. This is how the final 8 sacked up at the start of play:

Towley88 84,314

cjack51 65,564

Alchemist1 49,246

nilsef 110,219

aarrgghh1 28,528

LuckyHat7 81,544

NikGMD 89,958

kg101 18,627

Kg101 was the first eliminated from the final table. The last of his chips went in at the river. Kg101 held jacks up with now low and cjack51 rivered a flush to send kg101 out in 8th place.

Nilsef was eliminated in 7th place. All of the chips went in on 3rd street during razz with nilsef holding a three card nine and Towley88 holding a three card ten. By sixth, Nilsef made his nine, but Towley88 made a six low on 6th and nilsef was drawing dead.

Alchemist1 had let himself get blinded down to his last 346 chips and they were all in on the ante during Razz. Play was four handed until 7th and LuckyHat7 bet NikGMD out at the river. LuckyHat7 showed a seven low at the river and Alchemist1 mucked as with his board, the best he could have made is an 8-5.

Aarrgghh1 was the 5th place finisher. He was all in on 3rd during stud with A-Q-J against a suited A-9-6 from Towley88. Towley88 picked up a pair of sixes on 6th and aarrgghh1 never made better than A-Q high.

After losing most of his stack the prior hand when NikGMD rivered a flush against him, cjack51 put the rest of his chips in on third. He had A-J-2 against the split threes of NikGMD. NikGMD immediately caught jacks up on fourth and cjack51 was needing a near miracle to win. cjack51 picked up his own pair of jacks on sixth street and had nine outs to win. He was unable to catch a 2nd pair and headed out in 4th.

At the break, this is how the three remaining players stacked up:

LuckyHat7 270,890

NikGMD 203,749

Towley88 53,361

Play continued for quiet a while with Towley88 making a nice comeback to move up over 130,000 in chips. LuckyHat7 slid the opposite direction, losing several key pots and was finally all-in during a big pot against NikGMD. The flop was capped and NikGMD put LuckyHat5 in on the turn. NikGMD held A-5 for trip fives and LuckyHat7 held K-4 for a straight draw. The river gave NikGMD a full house and the chip lead heading into heads-up play.

Going into heads-up, NikGMD held a 392,556 to 135,444 chip lead over Towley88. Play went back and forth between the two for a while with NikGMD being crippled during Holdem and then fighting right back to take the chip lead. A rarity during Sunday Night HORSE is when heads-up play reaches the Razz round. These two players reached razz, but the game would prove NikGMD’s ultimate downfall.

In two hands, NikGMD went from chip leader to 4 to 1 underdog. The first pot saw Towley88 draw a 7-6 low at the river to take down a 220,000 pot. At the river, NikGMD had a board of 8-7-6-5, and we figured that he must had finished either with an 8 low or had a 7-6-5 low coolered. The turning point during the match was a hand that didnt even make it to 7th. On 6th street, Towley88 bet 24,000 into a pot of 268,000 with a board of Q-8-7-A. NikGMD had a board of Q-9-7-2 and went into the tank. NikGMD had been aggressively betting the board to the point but must have either been bluffing or drawing really thin as he folded to Towley88’s bet. He was left with only 105,448 after the hand.

After dropping another 100k pot to Towley, NikGMD was down to his last 55,000 in chips. Most went in on third, but the rest went in on 4th with NikGMD holding K-7-5-A. He actually had the lead over the J-J-3-A of Towley88. Towley88 caught sixes on 5th and 6th to leave himself with a draw to a jack and NikGmd paired his king on 5th and caught a 2 on sixth for a made king. The river brought a 2 for Towley88 to give him a jack low and NikGMD caught another ace. Towley88’s jack low was enough to take the pot and win Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E.

Towley88 entered the final table 3rd in chips and hovered right around that position until play was three handed. Just when it looked as if he would finish in 3rd, he picked up key pots to stay alive. He then held his own with NikGMD until the cards broke his way during heads-up. Eventually, the high limits caught up to NikGMD and Towley88 took down the title.

Towley88 wins $9,680 and bragging rights until next weekend.