Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 28 June 2010 / Leave a Comment

With a large number of players being in Las Vegas for the 2010 World Series of Poker and thousands of English players all crying into their beer after England's humiliation at the hands of Germany in the World Cup, there was a slightly smaller field of 72 for Sunday's $500+$10 HOT! $40k GTD Freezeout meaning Betfair Poker, being the nice guys they are, made up the shortfall in the guaranteed prizepool.

The final table was made up of some regulars of this tournament and some unknown players but which would fare the best and walk away with the $12,000 first prize?

Chip counts at the start of the final table

Blinds - 600/1,200/120a

1.) pirate bay - 79,564
2.) volvere - 70,823
3.) Doobs - 65,807
4.) FISHDONKEY - 36,533
5.) CHIVETE - 36,261
6.) Yeppe - 31,882
7.) Team Sweden - 15,231
8.) GSMTitan - 14,737
9.) maddybird1 - 9,159

In last week's tournament GSMTitan finished in third place but he could not repeat those heroics this time around. Finding himself with just under ten big blinds he moved all-in in early position with AcQs and it looked as if he was going to claim the much needed blinds and antes. That was until FISHDONKEY, making his third $40k final table in four weeks, woke up in the big blind with pocket aces. A QdTc8c flop gave GSMTitan a glimmer of hope and when the Kh arrived in the turn he could hit either a queen or jack to double up. but it was not to be as the 2d fell, condeming him to a ninth place finish, good for $1,400.

The very next hand saw another elimination and again it was due to a pair of aces. Team Sweden moved all-in for 17,751 in early position which saw pirate bay re-raise, forcing everyone else out of the pot. Team Sweden held a pair of tens, normally a great hand when short-stacked but not as good as the AsAh in pirate bay's hand. The 3s2d4d9sKh board was no help to Team Sweden and the aggressive Swede made his way to the rail with $1,800 to console himself with.

After entering the final table with an "M" of just three and 7.5 big blinds everyone thought maddybear1 would be the firs player out but she hung on to finish in seventh place. The blinds had risen to 750/1,500/150a at this point and FISHDONKEY raised UTG to 4,000. With only 3,549 chips remaining maddybear1 called off her stack and CHIVETE and Dobbs also came along for the ride. Four players saw the flop come down 9s3s9h but the other two active players folded when FISHDONKEY lead out for 8,000 chips. He showed 5h5d, ahead of maddybear1's AdKd and they stayed ahead on a 9d turn and 7h river.

Six became five with the departure of CHIVETE in sixth place. The action folded to volvere on the button who quickly made a raise to 4,000. CHIVETE wasted no time in moving his 28,491 chips into the middle but he must have feared the worse when volvere quickly called. The TdTs of volvere were around a 72% favourite over the Kd8h of CHIVETE and they stayed in front all the way to the river on a board reading 6c2dJc4cAc. A good aggressive play by CHIVETE but one where his timing was ever so slightly off.

With the remaining players all now guaranteed $3,200 the prize money was becoming more significant with each elimination and it showed as it took 25 minutes for the next player to bust out. The next player to pick up their cash was FISHDONKEY and in cruel circumstances too. He raised to 6,400 UTG, which was called by pirate bay. Doobs in the big blind then made a squeeze play and went all-in for his entire 46,346 stack. FISHDONKEY could not call quick enough and when pirate bay got out of the way it was easy to see why as he revealed AdAs, way in front of Doobs' 9c9s.

Doobs was the next player to head for the rail in fourth place. The action folded to pirate bay in the small blind who raised to 10,200 and after a brief pause Doobs moved all-in for a total of 57,844 chips. When pirate bay instantly called the players and observers all thought he must have a monster hand but alas he made the play with just As5d! Maybe it was a soul read as Doobs only held a pair of twos which were quickly drawing to just two outs when pirate bay paired his five on a Qc6c5h flop. A 4h turn meant a three or two would now see him survive but the Tc on the river sent Doobs packing.

Not long after pirate bay was the executioner again, this time dispatching Yeppe in third place. He open raised on the button to 15,200 with blinds at 2,000/4,000/400a and Yeppe called off his remaining 10,665 chips. Knowing he would be guaranteed a higher payout by just folding volvere in the big blind did just that, leaving Yeppe to pray his Ah4h could best pirate bay's JdJh. It did not look likely on Td9c6s6d board and the river was a 4s, not the ace needed to saty in the tournament and Yeppe left the table $4,800 richer.

Chip counts at the start of heads-up play

1.) volvere - 225,909
2.) pirate bay - 134,091

Pocket queens heads-up are an extremely powerful hand so pirate bay must have been delighted when he was dealt them late into the heads-up encounter, especially as he had lost over half his stack when volvere turned a queen-hight flush around 10 hands previously. From the button volvere raised to 9,900 and pirate bay made it 30,500 chips to play. It was obvious there was going to be an all-in and it came from volvere who shoved, with pirate bay beating him into the pot. It looked like a timely double up for pirate bay but any thoughts of that were quickly obliterated when the flop came down AsKc3d to give his opponent bottom set. The 2h on the turn meant pirate bay needed one of the two remaining queens in the deck to survive but unfortunately for him it was the Td and he exited in second place with a bad beat story to tell his friends about and $8,000 in prize money.

So this week's champion is volvere who walks away with $12,000 and bragging rights about taking down Betfair Poker's flag ship poker tournament.

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