INTERCEPTOR Wins Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. yet again!

The January 31st edition of Sunday Night HORSE saw a dramatic increase in traffic. Due to Full Tilt’s Double Guarantee Week, the guarantee prize pool was $60,000 for the event. Although it left a huge overlay, 248 players turned out for this week’s event, up from only 100 players last week. $15,900 was to be awarded to the first place finisher with 32 players paid.

Full Tilt Poker red pros turned out for this event in force, including Jeff Madsen, Chip Jett, Artie Cobb, Alan Boston, and Cyndy Violette. The only red pro to make the money was Alan Boston, who made the final table. Among those making the money but falling short of the final table were LunisticTweak, the aviator1, and LarryBertleman. Alan Boston headlined the final table, but former champion INTERCEPTOR entered the final table with a healthy chip lead. This is how the final eight started final table play:

CHAZZandJIMMY 39,696

INTERCEPTOR 183,831

justakid69 73,988

We Are Wolves 140,677

22clown 57,517

Alan Boston 84,540

RELES 95,734

rafiboy 68,017

Alan Boston came into the final table as the third largest stack, but he was not intent just to sit back and move up the pay ladder. He was involved regularly in the action and down to his last 55,000 during the Stud round. Action was capped on third street between Boston, INTERCEPTOR, and justakid69. On fourth, showing 6-5 INTERCEPTOR bet out, justakid69 raised showing Q-J, and Boston three-bet with 8-5 showing. INTERCEPTOR folded and justakid69 capped. Boston called and caught a 7 on fifth street and justakid69 paired his jack. Justakid69 bet out 10k and Boston moved all-in for his last 14k. Justakid69 made the call and turned over Q-J in the hole for a full house on fifth. Boston had to catch running aces or an ace and pair up another of his cards to win. The turn brought Boston a 10 and he was drawing dead. Alan Boston finished in 8th place. At this point justakid69 took over the chip lead.

Three hands later, 22clown was down to his last 12k and put his stack at risk against INTERCEPTOR with three diamonds. INTERCEPTOR had split 10’s with a queen with two diamonds. 22clown never improved and INTERCEPTORS 10’s sent 22clown out in 7th place.

CHAZZandJIMMY never got much going at the final table and with their last 37k, they made a stand during Stud 8. He was all-in by fifth street with split fives and was against the fours-up of justakid69. Justakid69 improved to sixes-up on sixth and CHAZZandJIMMY improved to a low draw. Seventh brought a meaningless jack for CHAZZandJIMMY, and they were out in 6th.

INTERCEPTOR then started doing what he does best, eliminate players at the final table. Rafiboy was all-in during Holdem on a K-4-2 flop holding 10-7 of club. INTERCEPTOR held K-6 for top pair. The turn 3s left rafiboy drawing dead and out in 5th place.

Three hands later, We Are Wolves took on INTERCEPTOR. After calling a raise pre-flop, We Are Wolves checked raised INTERCEPTOR on a flop of Js-8s-3h. INTERCEPTOR called and We Are Wolves moved all-in for his last 9,677 on the turn 4d. INTERCEPTOR made the call showing pocket rockets. We Are Wolves held Ah-7s and was drawing dead. The river fell the case ace, but that was not enough to save We Are Wolves from his 4th place fate.

RELES put up a great fight. He was short stacked and built his way up to over 120k, but it would not hold. His final hand was during Razz. He was all-in by fifth street with a made ten. Justakid69 called with a made queen, but his queen was Q-A-2-4-5. Anything under an eight would leave RELES drawing dead. Sixth street fell a six for justakid69, giving him a six low and RELES was eliminated in 3rd.
Going into heads-up play, INTERCEPTOR had 389,738 and justakid69 held 354,262. One hand into play, the two hammered out a deal. INTERCEPTOR claimed that a deal had to favor him. The initial deal numbers had both receiving over $13k a piece but INTERCEPTOR wanted a more favorable deal. He then stated that he would take $13,850 or he wanted to play it out. That left $12,610 for justakid69. Seeing how that 2nd place was supposed to pay out $10,560, justakid69 was agreeable to the deal, and the tournament was over.

INTERCEPTOR wins yet another Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. title. He came into the final as chip leader and held off a strong challenge from justakid69. While a heads-up battle between the two may have been entertaining, the two still walked away with much more than a typical week’s top prize for this event. Congratulations to both, but especially INTERCEPTOR, once again Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. Champion.