22-year old ‘james666’ from Canterbury is a very happy young man this week after beating 645 players in a deep stack freezeout to win an amazing $18,650 first prize in the Ladbrokes online poker festival, LEOCOP IV. James, who has been playing online poker at Ladbrokespoker.com for four years has now guaranteed himself a place in the invitation only online Masters Event on the 22nd November where a place in the semi finals Poker Million VII, a televised tournament on Sky Sports 2 for a million dollar first prize on December, is at stake.
Edward Ihre, MD of Ladbrokes Poker said: "This has been one of the most hotly contested tournaments so far. ‘james666’ has played in three other events although he didn't cash in any of those, so this is obviously a great result for him. I think his perseverance has paid off! It’s worth playing in as many tournaments in the festival as possible. Apart from the massive added money we’re giving away a ‘top ten’ position on our LEOCOP Leaderboard guarantees you a share of $14,000 in bonus cash and a top 80 placing an exclusive invitation to play for a seat in a million dollar tournament."
The points awarded on the LEOCOP Leaderboard are weighted and take into account the number of runners, the place the player finishes in and the level of Buy-in of each tournament. At present ‘james666’ second in the LEOCOP Leaderboard is in line to win an extra $3000 in cash, although with six days and six events to go anything could happen. Second place went to Swede ‘MadeInSweden’ 31 who wins $10,630 and secures fifth on the Leaderboard and third, ‘Im_all_in1’ from Kent, wins $6,900.50 and is tenth on the LEOCOP after securing ninth in the Ladies Championship last Wednesday and 49th in Omaha Hi/Lo.
The Deepstack proved to be an endurance test. Nine hours of play was undertaken before players reached the final table and blinds of nosebleed proportions $10,000 and $20,000 with a $2,000 ante. ‘PapaBurgundi’ left in tenth after just two hands. He raised preflop in first position with hooks (J-J), ‘acebenny’ reraised and action folded round to ‘PapaBurgundi’ who went all-in, this was quickly called by ‘acebenny’ who showed A-K. A flop of K-K-2 and the turn and the river cards bringing two tens saw the two pair for ‘PapaBurgundi’ beaten into submission. ‘slim_boy', who came second in the $150 LEOCOP opening tournament, found himself short-stacked, he shoved with A-9 and ‘james666’ insta-called and turned over A-K. With neither hand hitting ‘slim_boy’ was duly sent to the rails.
The heads-up between ‘MadeInSweden’ and 'james666' commenced after 11 hours of intense play. Hand after hand saw the blinds yo-yo between each player until ‘MadeInSweden’ pushed all-in with pocket nines. After a lenghty deliberation, ‘james666’, who had him covered, called with A-6. The nines held up giving the Swede a healthy advantage. Some amazing play and a hand from the poker gods saw ‘james666’ regain the majority of his chips within half a dozen hands. 'james666' then made a stand with A-4 only to be called by MadeInSweden's’ K'8. There were three sixes on the board, but ‘james666’ higher kicker meant he was crowned the winner of the $100+10 Deepstack and as well as the cash guaranteed himself a place in the Masters Event later this month.