Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 12 July 2010 / Leave a Comment

Sunday night saw 75 of Betfair Poker's best players take to the virtual felt all with one common goal, to win the $12,000 first prize on offer. A mixture of ill-timed bluffs, bad beats and cooler hands saw the field whittled down to the final table of nine, at which point each remaining player would more than double up their $510 investment to at least $1,400.

Chip counts at the start of the final table

Blinds - 500/1,000/100a

1.) chuckyahla - 92,756
2.) MrdawweTILT - 89,787
3.) Paulo D - 64,904
4.) ziege - 36,311
5.) Keith A - 24,207
6.) toots 1 - 23,999
7.) Creativity - 17,688
8.) Wingding2 - 13,611
9.) 2flops - 9,353

Usually in this tournament it is the shortest stack at the start of the final table that heads for the rail first. However, this week this was not the case as Keith A was the first player to bust out and collect his winnings. After starting with 24 big blinds, Keith A lost a couple of pots to leave him with just 11,872 chips, which he decided to move all-in with when he three bet chuckyahla's min-raise from UTG. He received a call and was in good shape with his 9d9h against chuckyahla's 4d4c but his world came crashing down on a 4h7h7d flop! The Ac failed to change anything and when the Js fell on the river the tournament was down to eight players.

Joining him on the rail shortly after was toots 1 who tangled with Paulo D in a blinds-vs-blind battle. The action folded to toots 1 in the small blind and when he completed Paulo D simply checked. A flop of 8hAsKs saw toots 1 lead out for 1,680, a bet that his opponent flat called. The turn brought a second king, this time the Kd and once again toots 1 came out betting, this time with 3,360 chips and Paulo D once again flat called. The river brought the Jc and toots 1 kept his foot on the gas by moving all-in for 15,968 in total. Paulo D quickly made the call with Kc4c for trip kings, more than enough to best his opponent's ill-timed bluff with 6h5h.

Another blind-vs-blind encounter saw another player eliminated, this time Creativity fell victim to a relative cooler of a hand. Creativity completed the small blind when the action folded around to him but 2flops had other ideas and quickly moved all-in for his remaining 15,245 chips. Creativity had just 2,000 chips less than 2flops and he was the one at risk of elimination when he made the call. The cards were flipped onto their backs and it turned out Creativity would need some serious help as his As8h was being dominated by the AhQh of 2flops. He fell further behind on a QsJs2d flop and the Td on the turn meant Creativity was drawing dead. The meaningless 4c on the river shipped the pot to 2flops and sent Creativity home with $2,200 in his back pocket.

Final table regular MrdawweTILT was the next player to collect some of the $40,000 prizepool, his was a $2,600 slice. After losing a massive pot with threes against aces in the previous hand, MrdawweTILT moved all-in for around seven big blinds with the lowly holding of 6c3c. He was snap-called by chuckyahla on the button who's holecards were the much more attractive AsQs. A flop of KsKcQh meant MrdawweTILT would need running sixes or threes to stay alive but the turn and river fell 4h and 2c respectively and the tournament was down to just five players.

After eliminating Creativity earlier at the final table it was 2flops' turn to see how it felt to lose all of your chips in a Sunday Major. The action folded to Paulo D in the small blind who promptly made it 10,500 to play. 2Flops in the big blind then shoved all-in for a total of 23,414 chips and getting almost 3:1 odds Paulo D made an easy call. 2Flops' 8c8s stayed in front of Paulo D's KhJc on a 3s6h9h flop and again on a 2h turn but a fourth heart, the 7h, on the river gave Paulo D a pot winning flush and sent 2flops to the rail with $3,200 for his efforts.

Four became three as chuckyahla lost the biggest pot of the night in yet another blind-vs-blind battle. He completed the small blind and then moved all-in over the top of ziege's raise to 6,800. It was an easy call for ziege as he held AdKd, which dominated the Ah3d of chuckyahla. A flop of 6dQs3c gave the advantage to chuckyahla but a Kc on the turn put things back to how they were preflop. The 8s on the river failed to alter proceedings and chuckyahla will wake up today with an extra $4,000 in his account.

Wingding2 may count himself unlucky with the way he exited the tournament in third place. After completing the small blind with Kd3c he must have been delighted to see the flop fall Ks9cTd. However, he must have worried he was out-kicked when Paulo D check-raised his 5,750 bet to 17,250. Due to the stack sizes Wingding2 was essentially all-in and he knew this as he pushed another few thousand chips into the middle of the table. Getting 5:1 on his bet, Paulo D would have been correct to call with almost any holding so having Kh9h for two pair made his decision automatic. Wingding2 only had 8% equity in the hand but that vanished into nothing when the 5s arrived on the turn. The eight of clubs on the river completed the hand and the tournament was in the heads-up stage.

At the start of heads-up ziege held a 259,647 to 115,352 lead over Paulo D but after ten minutes of play Paulo D had turned that deficit around and lead by a similar amount. The final hand saw Paulo D limp in on the button and then call a min-raise from his opponent. The flop came down 4s8hAh and ziege lead out for 6,300, a bet that Paulo D called. The Kd on the turn made the action explode, first ziege bet out 18,000, Paulo D made it 42,000, ziege shoved and Paulo D called! Although he had paired the ace of his AdJh he was trailing Paulo D's Ks8s for two pair. The river needed to be an ace, jack or four otherwise ziege would finish as runner-up but it was the Qs and Paulo D had accumulated every chip in play and the $12,000 first prize, leaving ziege to pick up the $8,000 second prize.

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