The recent Sussex Masters was a big success at Brighton's Rendez-Vous Cardroom a week or two ago. With the main event a £500 freezeout and the side events all much smaller than that, this made it more attractive to the smaller, more local players, whilst still providing a big enough field and prizepool to justify interest from the big boys.
In the opening event, Pawan Nayyar and Kevin Williams took home the lion's share of the £12k prize money in the £100 Freezeout.
£100 NLH F/O:
1st Pawan Nayyar -- £2,500
2nd Kevin Williams -- £2,330
3rd Krysia Holland -- £1,970
4th Lim-wai Cheung -- £1,800
5th Joe Campbell -- £1,200
6th Ray Miller -- £600
7th Richard Harley -- £450
8th Graham Neave -- £350
9th Pavlo Iacovou -- £250
Entries:
120
The £100 rebuy was the second event, won by blondeite James 'Flushy' Dempsey, who snatched the title outright ahead of Michael Shalabi, in a smaller, but more profitable field which managed a prizepool of £17.7k. Graham Neave also continued his good run with a 2nd consecutive final table appearance.
£100 NLH R/B:
1st James Dempsey -- £5,600
2nd Michael Shalabi -- £4,000
3rd Dixie Dean -- £2,300
4th Dean Coombes -- £1,750
5th Debbie Rogers -- £1,250
6th Graham Neave -- £900
7th Piers Whyman -- £700
8th Alex Notman -- £550
9th Neil Fox -- £350
Entries:
85
In the £150 Freezeout, the flamboyant Koroush Nikkah could only manage 2nd place to David Pearlman, with ex-cricket player Ed Giddins picking up 5th spot and Lim-Wai Cheung hitting his second final table of the week.
£150 NLH F/O:
1st David Pearlman -- £3,130
2nd Koroush Nikkhah -- £2,720
3rd Nicky Evans -- £2,550
4th Steven Dover -- £1,800
5th Ed Giddins -- £2,150
6th Fraser Bentley -- £750
7th Chris Smith -- £600
8th Dave Pullen -- £450
9th Lim-Wai Cheung -- £300
Entries
98
In an event that was meant to be a two-dayer, the remaining 10 players agreed on a chop of the £27k prizepool at the end of Day 1, with many of them not wanting to come back for a second day for the final table. Ed Giddins took slightly more than the rest, being, at the time, the chip leader, and subsequently finishing off what was a fantastic week for the Sky Open star.
Also notable in their presence on the final were James Dempsey, who finalled earlier in the week, Luke 'Doc12345' Smith and well-known circuit player Steve Bovis, who fought well to achieve a highly deserved runner-up spot.
£300 NLH F/O:
1st Ed Giddins -- £3,000
2nd Steve Bovis -- £2,700
3rd Debbie Clark -- £2,700
4th Paul Rosati -- £2,700
5th James Dempsey -- £2,700
6th Luke Smith -- £2,700
7th Piers Whyman -- £2,700
8th Nicky Evans -- £2,700
9th Pavlo Iacovou -- £2,700
10 Adrian Pollard -- £2,700
Entries
92
£200 NLH F/O:
1st Richard Iwaniak -- £8,000
2nd Parvis Tafreshi -- £4,300
3rd Adam Vinson -- £3,000
4th Tina Abery -- £2,200
5th Linda Iwaniak -- £1,600
6th Craig Stokes -- £1,200
7th Neil Fox -- £900
8th Tom Smith -- £650
9th Ronnie Debeaulox -- £450
Entries
117
Finally, in the main event, £150 Freezeout runner-up Koroush triumphed ahead of the £100 Freezeout winner Pawan with local player Ian Cox in third.
The event was somewhat void of big names and familiar circuit regulars, although Pete 'The Prof' Singleton did creep onto the final table to take home £850 for 9th.
£500 NLH F/O:
1st Koroush Nikkhah -- £12,400
2nd Pawan Nayyar -- £11,000
3rd Ian Cox -- £5,600
4th Mehdi Kafi-farashah -- £4,300
5th David Johnson -- £3,000
6th Paul Damamy -- £2,250
7th Jack Honey -- £1,750
8th Dean Coombes -- £1,300
9th Pete Singleton -- £850
Entries
87