There was a time when the one solution to play heads-up in a poker tournament was to make it through a whole field to play for the championship. Online poker changed that, and heads-up tournaments was a staple of series just like the MicroMillions for a while now. But no other series offers a heads-up tournament with a format quite just like the one played in Event #95.

"Blink and you may miss it might" has been the slogan for this tournament. With its Hyper-Turbo format bumping the blinds up every two minutes, Event #95 was capable of play through a bracket of 16,384 players in barely three hours and 13 minutes. In that point the champion, the Netherlands' Carelo, played and won 14 heads-up matches. Despite breaks and downtime after defeating opponents included, that also came out to an ordinary of just 13 minutes and 45 seconds per round.

The tournament bracket for Event #95

The $35,717.12 prize pool was distributed a few of the top 2,048 finishers. The massive money was, as always, on the top: the four players who ran the gauntlet to the semi-finals were guaranteed $837.56 each, and greater than thrice that much was just two wins away for the last player standing.

Semifinal #1: tygaie007 (Romania) vs. WTFDinoD (Australia)

WTFDinoD had progressed to the seminfinal from the round of 64 by defeating FARAON AL81 (Russia), szaty173 (Hungary), Shokhrukh.S (Uzbekistan), and lucovca (Russia). tygaie007's path included wins over boarrder (Czech Republic), Mucho Daora (Brazil), logkina (Russia), and cbkjjbenson (Germany).

WTFDinoD was aggressive from the start, taking the primary five pots in a row to transport as much as 5,480. But tygaie007 played position well and extracted just a little vaue with trip queens at the river of a Q♣ 8♠ A♠ K♥ Q♠ to bring the 2 players back to within two big blinds of each other. WTFDinoD's response was to hit the gas again and win the following six of the following seven pots, including one worth 960 chips where the Australia player three-bet out of position after which continued on a 4♣ J♣ 5♣ flop.

That run had WTFDinoD up 5,800-4,200 as Hand #14 in their match began. The Australian had 80 chips posted within the big blind and called another 80 to construct a pot worth 320 and spot a 9♠ 4♥ 2♥ flop. WTFDinoD check-called tygaie007's bet of 320 there, and of venture of 480 at the 3♠ turn, to bring the A♥ at the river. Now WFTDinoD led for 500 to construct the full pot to 2,420. tygaie007 responded with a snappy all-in for 3,240 and put the verdict to WTFDinoD, who could be left with just 1,600 chips if the decision was wrong. In any case the Australian couldn't discover a fold with 5♥ 5♠, which lost out to tygaie007's heart flush with K♥ 3♥.

tygaie007 won the following three pots with out a resistance and gave up the fourth to a pre-flop raise before the 19th and final hand in their match played out:

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With that WTFDinoD was gone in 4th place and tygaie007 awaited the winner from the opposite semi-final.

Semifinal #2: nicupintea (Romania) vs. Carelo (Netherlands)

The path from the round of 64 to the semi-final for nicupintea was composed of wins over Henrikcfc (United Kingdom), oSOH (Latvia), mactimo (Germany), and Podar0k (Russia). Carelo got there via victories against Katzo666 (Germany), Ochi147 (Brazil), satriales3 (United Kingdom), and buvaisar (Russia).

Both players were content to play stay at arm's length within the beginning, trading blind steals with the occasional small pot won at the turn or river. At the 20th hand in their match there has been finally a large pot after nicupintea min-raised to 240 at the button and Carelo three-bet to 600 within the big blind. nicupintea called to look the 9♣ 4♦ 4♣ flop, after which called another 720 chips at the A♥ turn. That brought the J♥ at the turn, and Carelo check-folded to an all-in bet of 2,140 from nicupintea.

The Romanian now had 6,960 to Carelo's 3,060, that is roughly where the stacks remained over the following 11 hands until Carelo brought them back to within two big blinds of one another with this win:

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Carelo took a small lead with a pre-flop three-bet at the next hand, a turning point which might be the overall lead change of the match. Hand #41 began with the blinds at 100/200 and Carelo holding a 5,400-4,600 advantage, one the Dutch player expanded after opening for 400, having nicupintea three-bet to 800, and moving all-in to win the 1,600-chip pot. That win and a blind steal at the next hand after the blinds rose to 150/300 gave Carelo a lead of 6,350-3,650.

Hand #43 saw Carelo open the betting for 600 at the button, and the Dutch player called after nicupintea moved all-in from the massive blind. Carelo's call with A♠ J♠ came quickly, and that hand was in great shape against the Romanian's A♦ 6♦. The board came 8♣ A♣ 5♦ 2♦ 5♠, nicupintea finished in 3rd place, and the general match was set.

Final: tygaie007 (Romania) vs. Carelo (Netherlands)

There was brief discussion of a potential deal when the general match began, but Carelo cited heads-up skill because the reason behind wanting a bigger share. "i'm running toooooooo hot let's play," tygaie007 said, and the match continued.

The Romanian's hot run cooled off on just the third hand. Carelo opened for 100 at the button and tygaie007 called to look the K♣ 7♦ 8♦ flop, which both players checked. tygaie007 led for 144 at the 7♣ turn after which called Carelo's raise to 520 to bring the A♣ river. tygaie007 check-called Carelo's 720-chip bet but mucked when Carelo showed 7♠ 5♣ for trips sevens to win the pot.

That pot gave Carelo a 6,140-2,860 lead and the Dutch player put those chips to good use, winning 15 of the following 20 pots. Most of them were small and brought before the flop, however the three largest (two worth 960 and another worth 800) all went to Carelo for a 7,680-2,320 lead. Then tygaie007 mounted a comeback, winning seven of nine pots including a near-double to come back to within 10 big blinds:

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Another strong run winning seven of eight pots directly after that not just brought tygaie007 back into the competition but gave the Romanian a chip lead of 5,480-4,520 at the 100/200 level. But that will be the high point for tygaie007, who would win only one of the tournament's last nine pots. Both players hovered near where they began for the primary three of these before Carelo began to gain some momentum and expanded the result in 6,120-3,880.

That set the stage for Hand #41, when one strong heads-up hand bumped into the strongest of all of them. Carelo opened for a minimum raise to 400 at the button with A♦ A♥ and tygaie007 moved all-in with A♠ 8♦:

tygaie007's runner-up prize was $1,658.34, the third-highest score of the Romanian player's career and the largest win on anything not up to an $8.80 investment. Carelo's $2,612.62 prize as champion was smaller than some of the Dutch player's past accomplishments, including a 2009 Sunday Warm Up final table, but at $2.22 and 3 hours' investment, it was also probably the most effective bets Carelo ever made.

MicroMillions-095: $2.22+R NL Hold'em (Hyper-Turbo, Heads-Up)Entrants: 16,384Prize pool: $35,717.12Places paid: 2,038

1. Carelo (Netherlands) $2,612.622. tygaie007 (Romania) $1,658.343. nicupintea (Romania) $837.564. WTFDinoD (Australia) $837.56

Jason Kirk is a contract contributor to PokerStars Blog.

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