Betfair Poker Ambassador Jonathan Driscoll Wins GSOP Mini-Grand Slam

Betfair Poker Ambassador Jonathan Driscoll has woken up this morning with an addition $63,479.37 in his Betfair account after taking down the GSOP Mini Grand Slam. It was also a superb day for his fellow Team Betfair players, with Simon "123jalla" Ravnsbaek, the winner of GSOP 8's Grand Slam, finishing as runner-up at GSOP 9 for over $100,000!

GSOP 9 Grand Slam: $4,900+$100 No Limit Hold'em($500,000 Guaranteed)

Like the majority of poker players across the world, the $5,000 buy-in for the GSOP 9 Grand Slam was outside of my bankroll constraints, so I gave this one a miss. However, 183 players did pony up the $5,000 which helped create a massive prize pool that was almost $900,000!

Some of the online poker world's top players turned out for the $5,000 event, though the likes of John "x_johne3939" Eames, Toby "Tony Almedia" Lewis, Mathew "get thereeee" Frankland, Chris "ROSSTHEBOSS6" Moorman and Chris "NigDawG" Brammer would all ultimately fall short of the money places.

Although the aforementioned players will have been disappointed not to have at least cashed in this event, spare a thought for how lugabuga77 is feeling today because he busted out in 27th place with 26 spots paid! Ouch indeed.

The exit of lugabuga77 meant the surviving players had all locked up at least $8,697.80 for their efforts, the first player to collect this sum being Betfair Poker ambassador Jonathan Driscoll -- more on him later. Driscoll was followed into the money by Pots12 (21st), FINISHzFISH (13th) and MILLZCHAMP (12th), whilst Im-John-Galt from Finland fell in seventh place. When the Finn fell there were still two Team Betfair players remaining, but one of those busted out in third place, Dsavo, for a $100,459.60 score.

That left Simon "123jalla" Ravnsbaek the lone Betfair flag flier but his tournament came to an end shortly afterwards in second place, earning the Dane $140,643.50. A remarkable result when you consider Ravnsbaek won this very event at GSOP 8! Maybe we should rename this tournament the $5,000 123jalla-fest? No? OK. I'll get my coat.

GSOP 9 Grand Slam Statstics

Total entrants: 183
Team Betfair entrants: 64 (34.97% of the field)
Team Betfair cashes: 8 (12.5% ITM)
Team Betfair winnings: $333,804.29

GSOP 9 Mini Grand Slam $500+$25 No Limit Hold'em ($200,000 Guaranteed)

Like its big $5,000 brother, the mini Grand Slam completely smashed its guarantee, as 681 players paid $525 for the chance to become a GSOP champion and to win a slice of the $340,500 prize pool. I was there, though I didn't buy in, instead I used my ticket that was awarded when I won mini Event #9.

My $525 bought me a stack of 10,000 chips, a seat to the direct left of John Eames and one that was directly opposite to Giuseppe Pantaleo. Not the best starting seat at all, but I suppose it could have been much worse. My first real pot of note came during the first level when raidalot2 opened to 150 (blinds 25/50) from under the gun and received three callers. I was in the big blind with Ad-Ac so bumped it up to 875, which may have been too much because everyone folded pretty quickly.

During the 60/120 level I opened with Jd-10c and only raidalot2 made the call. I c-bet the 8h-Kh-10s flop and villain called, but he folded to the second barrel on the perfect barrelling turn the As.

The same level saw me lose some ground when vrymetalos2 opened to 240 from the cutoff, Sanazz called on the button and I called in the big blind. I held Jc-Jh and I should really raise preflop here, never mind. I checked the 4c-2c-2d flop, varymetalos2 continued with a 490 bet and only I called. The 8c turn saw two checks and when I checked the Kh river, villain bet 1,350 into 1,760 and although I wanted to call I couldn't bring myself to do it and folded instead.

My first big loss came in the 250/500/25a when JohnRTurk min-raised to 500 from UTG. I was seated in the hijack with Ah-Kh and three-bet to 1,245. only JohnRTurk called and I had a feeling the chips were going into the middle. The flop came down 10s-7s-7h and it went check-check. Villain checked to me on the As turn and then called when I fired a bet of 1,375. The river was the 6d and villain checked again. Something just told me that I was chopping at best so I checked behind and was shown Ad-Ac for the second nuts. Good job I didn't get it all in!

For the next hour I treaded water an finally pushed my 8bb stack into the middle with Qh-10s and was called by varymetalos2's Ac-Js. I caught a ten on the turn to buy myself some breathing time but it would soon be all over.

With blinds at 300/600/60a, I was sat with 9,640 which is a pretty good re-shoving stack, so when fleck005 opened to 1,250 from early position, I decided to get my chips in with Jd-10h and pick up the 2,750 that was already in the pot. It would have worked because fleck005 folded , but unfortunately not before AdminGL woke up on the button with pocket kings! AdminGL spiked a third king on the flop, but the Qs on the turn gave me outs to a straight. The 3d river was not one of them and my tournament came to an end in 261st place, way short of the money.

Although I was not overly pleased with my performance, I was delighted by those of my fellow Team Betfair players. Twenty three of them managed to navigate their way into the top 92 finishing places where the money was paid out, among them Rhys "floppinhell11" Jones (62nd) and Jack "Ellw00dinh0" Ellwood (29th). Denmark's ROB1N H00D burst the final table bubble and finished in 11th place, paving the way for no fewer than five Betfair players to make it to the final table! FIVE!

OGbeatnick busted in ninth, Claxton123 in seventh -- Claxton123 earning the first of the five-figure scores -- raidalot2 in fifth and pokerdings finished in second place for a massive score of $44,101.46. But it was Johnathan Driscoll who took down the not-so-mini Grand Slam, netting himself a staggering $63,479.37 in the process! Those five heroes making it to the final table helped Betfair players win $171,117.01 from the mini Grand Slam alone; that is almost half of the total prize pool! Amazing stuff!

GSOP 9 Mini-Grand Slam Statistics

Total entrants: 681
Team Betfair entrants: 183 (26.87% of the field)
Team Betfair cashes: 23 (12.57% ITM
Team Betfair winnings: $171,117.01

What a way to end the GSOP 9, with Team Betfair winning just shy of $500,500 from the two events! Absolutely unbelievable tekkers from everyone!

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