Andoni “Pollopopeye” Larrabe Wins His Third Super Tuesday
The United Kingdom-based Spaniard Andoni “Pollopopeye” Larrabe is no stranger to success in poker, both live and online. On Oct. 4, 2016, Larrabe won the Super Tuesday at PokerStars for the third time in his career, adding $74,810.28 to his ever-growing list of victories.
It is fair to say that 2013 was Larrabe’s breakout year. He started in 2013 as he meant to, going on to win a $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em side event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for a career-best score of $218,710. Then he won what was the largest-ever Super Tuesday a couple of months later for $124,644.
A year later, Larrabe navigated his way to the final table of the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event, eventually falling in sixth-place for his first seven-figure score, one that weighed in at $1,622,471.
Now, two years later, playing at PokerStars as “Pollopopeye,” Larrabe has won his third Super Tuesday title by outlasting a field of 417 of online poker’s biggest stars.
Larrabe found himself second in chips at the Super Tuesday’s final table narrowly trailing South Korea’s “YedOr,” but then claimed the chip lead when he sent British grinder Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford to the rail in ninth place, Larrabe’s queens holding against the young Brit’s suited king-jack.
Thiago “KKremate” Crema was the next to fall. After losing all but five big blinds to Ivan “BanicIvan” Banic, Crema got his chips into the middle with a pair of fives and lost to the king-queen of “Pardal77” which improved to top pair on the flop.
Seventh place went to former Sunday Million runner-up Nikita “fish2013” Bodyakovskiy. He was followed to the sidelines by Mayu “marroca5” Roca, “Pardal77”, “TiltMeBig” and “YedOr”, the latter’s exit sending the tournament to the heads-up stage.
Larrabe held a near two-to-one chip lead over Banic at the start of heads-up, but Banic won the first major pot of the battle to soar into a dominant position. Then during the 45,000/90,000/9,000a level, Larrabe made a big call that flipped around the direction the tournament was heading.
A min-raise to 180,000 from Larrabe was three-bet to 495,000 by Banic and called by Larrabe. Banic led for 252,000 on the 4♦A♦7♦ flop. Larrabe called. Banic fired a second barrel worth 907,000 on the 5♠ turn and Larrabe again called. The river was the 8♥ and Banic greeted it with a 3,300,000 bet, which again Larrabe called, turning over A♥Q♦. As he did so, he beat the 4♣2♣ of Banic who had been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.
Banic won the next pot but then lost the next six hands, including the final hand of the tournament where Banic pushed all in with ace-six of hearts. Larrabe called with jack-six, and after both players improved to a pair on the flop, Larrabe caught a third jack on the river to bust Banic in second place.
Super Tuesday Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andoni “Pollopopeye” Larrabe | $74,810.28 |
| 2 | Ivan “BanicIvan” Banic | $54,835.50 |
| 3 | YedOr | $40,194.25 |
| 4 | TiltMeBig | $29,462.25 |
| 5 | Pardal77 | $21,595.76 |
| 6 | Mayu “marroca5” Roca | $15,289.61 |
| 7 | Nikita “fish2013” Bodyakovskiy | $11,603.06 |
| 8 | Thiago “KKremate” Crema | $8,505 |
| 9 | Conor “1_conor_b_1” Beresford | $6,234.10 |
