Trickett's Amazing Start Continues

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 27 January 2011 / Leave a Comment

Trickett and Seidel heads up

Just three days ago we brought you the news of British poker pro Sam Trickett winning the 2011 Aussie Millions $100,000 High Roller event for a career best cash of $1,525,000, well just hours ago he added another $1,400,000 to his bankroll by coming second in the most-expensive poker tournament ever played.

There had been rumours of a $250,000 Super High Roller event taking place but they were dismissed as that, rumours. However, late yesterday evening news broke that the quarter of a million Australian dollar buy-in tournament was definitely going ahead and that 13 players had already bought in. By the time the tournament kicked off there were 18 players who had parted company with the equivalent of twenty-five $10,000 WSOP Main Event entries, split across two tables. Anyone who pays $250,000 to play in what was essentially a turbo sit 'n' go needs their head's testing and deserves a mention here!

Table One consisted of Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Phil Ivey, Alexander Kostritsyn, Richard Yong, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, John Juanda, Tony Bloom, Nikolay Evdakov and Roland de Wolfe. Table Two was the home to Annette Obrestad, Wang Qiang, David Benyamine, James "Andy McLeod" Obst, Trickett, Paul Phua, Erik Seidel, Daniel "jungleman12" Cates and 2010 WSOPE Main Event winner James Bord.

Within 30 minutes of the start the tournament lost a player in a cruel kings versus aces situation. With blinds at 1,500/3,000/500a Obst opened with a raise to 9,000, Trickett called but Seidel was not in calling mood and made it 30,000 to play. Obst then put in another raise, this one to 66,000, which caused Trickett to fold but Seidel was going nowhere and he made it 103,000 to play! This was met by a quick all in bet from Obst and an even quicker call from Seidel, with the latter turning over AhAc, a huge favourite over the KcKd of Obst. No miracle board for the youngster and he was the first man eliminated. At this point two more players, Andrew Feldman and Eugene Katchalov bought in, taking the prize money to a staggering $5,000,000, which was to be shared out between the top three finishers.

One by one the players headed for the rail empty handed until just the final table of nine remained, with Trickett leading the pack with a 1,219,500 stack, way in front of his nearest rival, Ferguson. Trickett added to his stack when his tens prevailed against the ace-queen of Evdakov to bust the Russian. Ten minutes later and Trickett was at it again, taking out Ivey with a turned straight after calling the eight-time WSOP bracelet winner's all-in preflop bet with KhQd. Ivey held pocket fives.

Feldman was the next to go, around 20 minutes after Ivey's departure, when his nine were crushed by Benyamine's kings all in preflop. "Jesus" Ferguson then suffered a cooler of a hand against the on-form Trickett, committing his stack with a set of deuces on a 7h-2d-5c flop, only to see the Nottingham lad sat there with a set fives! No miracle for Jesus and he was sent packing.

Two of the Hong Kong businessmen made famous by the nosebleed cash games in Macau were next to go. Richard Yong eliminated in fifth place by his countryman Wang Qiang when his AdQh failed to out run the red tens of Qiang and then Qiang himself was eliminated in fourth place, bursting the money bubble. Qiang was left with egg on his face when he came over the top of Trickett's opening min-raise to 60,000 with a 650,000 all-in bet with just 3h2d. Trickett is running like God at the moment and it was no surprise when he turned over bullets, which held with no drama to burst the largest bubble in poker history.

Just ten minutes later and Benyamine was on his way to pick up his $1,100,000 third place prize money after more bad luck at the hands of the golden boy Trickett! A raising battle ensued on a board reading Ts-Ad-8c-As and it looked like a split pot was on the cards as neither player's kicker came into play, Trickett holding Ah4s against the Frenchman's Ac6c. However, when you run good you can run unbelievably good and Trickett was testament to this as the river was the 4h, giving him a full house and the best hand!

Going into heads up Trickett held a 4,196,000 to 804,000 chip lead over the vastly experienced Seidel but the American did not let the gulf in chips bother him, instead he chose his spots well, applied constant pressure to his opponent and eventually turned the match around on its head. Finding himself with an overwhelming chiplead over Trickett, Seidel limped on the button with Jh9c and then called a raise to 175,000 from Trickett, who held AsQh. A flop of 3s-5h-9h saw Trickett check to Seidel and then move all in over the American's 150,000 bet. Seidel called and had Trickett in a whole world of pain. The turn brought the Ks and the river the Td to bring the contest to and end.

Trickett's $1,400,000 won here means he has won $2,892,889 already this year and now had lifetime tournament winnings of $4,598,947, placing him third in the UK all-time money listings behind de Wolfe and Dave "DevilFish" Ulliott. Seidel's year has been even better with him cashing for a total of $3,460,000 so far, putting him just $330,000 behind current all-time money winner, Daniel Negreanu.

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