blonde poker

 
Earlier this week, Canadian plumber Jack Hinchey won the $3 million guaranteed 888.com World Poker Crown in Peralada Castle, Spain defeating his fellow countryman Michael Lawson to take down the $1 million first prize.

Heads-up, Hinchey started with a more than 3:1 chip lead over Lawson, who won his seat for $20 on Pacific Poker. The 21-year-old internet pro clawed his way back to a 1.5:1 underdog in chips but a grimly determined Hinchey dug in. The final hand saw Hinchey limp on the button with Ks-Qc and the Flop fell a favourable Kh-Jh-6h. Lawson pushed all-in with pair of 10s and Hinchey called. The Turn was a Jack and the River a third King and the Canadian grandfather was awarded the World Poker Crown.

Hinchey, who has been playing poker and hustling pool for over 30 years, started the final table as chip leader and while it was not all plain sailing en route to the title, his victory left him ecstatic.

“This is a lot better than being in a sewage pit!” he grinned after his victory. “My strategy was to keep the pressure on everybody, I flubbed a few times in the middle but it worked out in the end. They call Michael an internet pro but I think he’s proved to everybody here that he’s a poker professional, so thank you. Victoria, my granddaughter is off to uni, she might not like the idea yet but this money is going towards that!”

Eight players competed at the final table after battling through a field of over 2,214 players online on April 26 in the $1,050 buy-in event which was streamed live on the i nternet yesterday at worldpokercrown.com. The innovative event was the first in the world be streamed live on the web with graphics and holecards.

The final table chip counts and seats were:

Seat 1: Jack Hinchey (Canada) -- 349,000
Seat 2: Bjorn van Bavel (Netherlands) -- 41,000
Seat 3: Mark Castonguay (Canada) -- 52,000
Seat 4: Piotr Stanislaw (Poland) -- 102,000
Seat 5: Bart Wetsteijn (Netherlands) -- 139,000
Seat 6: Michael Lawson (Canada) -- 207,000
Seat 7: Bert van Doesburg (Netherlands) -- 38,000
Seat 8: Mark Rossler (Germany) -- 58,000

The first player out was Castonguay in the big blind when he checked his option with Kd-Jc to small blind van Bavel who had called with 10s-4s. A Flop of Kh-10d-4h helped both players but van Bavel took the initiative check-raising his opponent all-in and when he finally called Castonguay couldn’t find any help on the Turn or River and exited in eighth for $30,000.

Next out was Roessler who fell on Hinchey’s sword. On a Flop of J-9-2 the German, who had top pair, was re-raised by Hinchey before announcing all-in. Hinchey finally called getting 4-1 on his money but turned over a meager K-3 and hit Q-10 for a runner-runner straight to bust the young hopeful who took home $60,000.

Hinchey then went on to bust a short-stacked Von Dousburg when he called the Dutchman’s K-9 push with a pair of fives which held up. Von Dousburg took home $90,000.

Wetsteijn (pictured), who recently came 15th in the EPT San Remo event, was next out. Holding K-K he called Hinchey’s raise, and a 5-3-2 Flop saw the Canadian bet 30,000. The young Dutchman moved all-in and Hinchey quickly called with A-4 for the nut straight. A 3 on the Turn gave Wetsteijn some more outs to the full house but a Jack on the River sent him to the rail for a $120,000 payday.

Exiting in fourth place was van Bavel who picked up 9-9 but couldn’t overcome Hinchey’s Q-Q despite flopping a gutshot straight draw. He picked up $140,000 for his efforts .

20-year-old Polish student Pietr Stainslaw was, at one point down to only five big blinds, but worked his way back into contention before busting in third place — all-in pre-flop with A-5 against Hinchey with A-10 — for $210,000. This left Hinchey on 900,000 going into the heads up match against Lawson’s 212,000, and the rest is history.

Lawson won $397,800 and said after his defeat, “I have a few regrets. I’m pretty happy with second but once you get to heads-up that all changes and you’re gunning for the win. But I’m sure that $400,000 will make up for that. For the most part I played a pretty tight-aggressive style. But heads-up I changed that and played pretty reckless, and that didn’t work for me I should stick to ABC!”

The event was filmed by Winmedia for a two-hour TV broadcast on Sky Sports 2 on May 12 at 9:30PM BST and will be broadcast in Spain, Brazil, Holland, Italy, Poland and Germany in the following weeks. Commentary is by Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson.