blonde poker

 
Last night in Dublin, Ireland, American stock trader Reuben Peters denied Annette Obrestad of a second European title in as many months by becoming the Pokerstars.com Dublin EPT Champion.

With the lack of television cameras and increased buy-in depleting the field to 221, many were predicting a rather lack-lustre affair, but with a star-studded field, which included the likes of Erik Seidel, Ram Vaswani, Julian Thew and defending champion Roland de Wolfe, not to mention the usual contingent of unrelenting aggressive Scandinavians, there was always going to be a horde of intriguing clashes.

One that prised out a rye smile or two involved Ali Mallu, the infamous Brit accidentally revealing his Aces pre-flop before shoving all the chips in against J-9 on a J-9-5 Flop. A Five on the River left one Spaniard aghast whilst proving that (1) Mallu was back to his old tricks and (2) this event was going to be much more entertaining than first imagined.

With Mallu falling short before his time, the maniacal baton was passed onto hometown hero Andy Black, the cheeky Irishman rocketing his way into Day 3 with a more than impressive 350,300, almost 70,000 ahead of Annette_15 who lay happily in second.

However, although touted as a potential winner, Andy Black blew on the bubble, losing a mountain of chips with K-5 vs. K-Q on a King high Flop before finally suffering at the hands of Annette with Threes vs. Jacks to snap up 10th spot. “I’m the sickest poker player in the world,” confessed the charismatic Monk.

Meanwhile, back on the final, it was Annette Obrestad who was to dominate proceedings, her demolishment of Casper Hansen in 9th (A-A vs. Q-Q), Daan Ruiter in 5th (A-J vs. A-T), Trond Erik Eidsvig in 4th (A-A vs. J-J) and Reijo Manninen (right) in 3rd (A-3 vs. A-J) leaving her with a 4.5 to 1 chip-lead against plucky American and Poochie from the Simpsons lookalike Reuben Peters.

However, although the Norwegian WSOPE Champ’s lethal luck and skill combination had engravers prematurely marking her name down on the trophy, Peters had other ideas, first doubling up with 6-4 vs. J-9 on a 9-6-4 Flop before taking down a couple of crucial pots to knock Annette off the chip leader spot for the first time that day.

After about an hour of heads up play, the defining moment arrived, Reuben Peters re-raising Annette all-in with A-T on a Ten high Flop and being called by his 19-year old foe’s Pocket Sevens. Drawing to two outs, things looked slim for Annette who was clearly devastated as the Turn and River drew blanks.

With Peters as taken back as the onlooking crowd, he stood over the table and thus the winning hand with his mouth ajar, perhaps not quite realising that he was to be taking a cool €532,620 back home to Telluride, Colorado.

A big round of applause goes to online qualifier Reuben ‘seaanchor’ Peters whose patience and timing were second to none, but also to the Pokerstars team and RDS staff who made us so very welcome with their never-ending hospitality.