| Game Type: | No Limit |
| Buy-in: | €5,000 |
| Rebuys: | no |
To read Part I, please click here
Snoopy and I were learning. Having shelled out €12 for two pints of Coke on the previous day and not been too impressed by the food, our updating trips were now scheduled to go via the local supermarket across the road where we picked up soft drinks, crisps and chocolate for slightly cheaper prices. Amazingly, they still sell push-pops (remember them?) and I managed to get one that was blackcurrant, strawberry and cola all in one go. Happy days!
Meanwhile, the players were after a sweetner of their own, the €554,300 for 1st place, but with over a hundred players left, it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. The 2nd day started similar to Baden; in a frenetic style with many players busting quicker than we could scribble down the exit hands - roughly a quarter of the field went in the first level of the day alone. By the 800/1600 level with a 200 ante, we had 84 players left with an average stack of 46,300, which basically meant that for most players, any re-raise is an all-in move. This period of unbridled chaos seems to me to be the best time to pick up a few hands, since if you've only had an average first day, you can easily gain a lot of chips early on here and put yourself into a good position for later.
But you can never be out 'til you're OUT, having doubled Stuart Fox (right) up with 7-7 vs Foxy's Q-Q, one player was left with just 400 in chips and had to stick 200 in for the ante, he doubled up with J-7 off vs K-Q hitting both cards to give him 2,400, but he had to post the big blind next, he was put all-in for the extra 2,000 by the SB who hadn't looked but had Q-2 off which was behind to the pocket 9's he managed to flip over!! Then, on the button, he pushed his 5k or so which was called by the SB but Stu Fox re-raised with A-T which was ahead of the K-8, but an Eight came on the River to put him back over 15k! Pretty impressive huh?
Over on the TV table, which again, they were kind enough to provide a live feed to the press room, Nick Slade managed to eliminate Nichlas Saarisilta with Sevens vs Kings, a 5 of diamonds on the River giving Nick a flush. He wasn't the only one to hit a bit of luck with the underpair on the TV table - a huge pot developed between William Thorsson and Andy Black, the Kings of the former were in dominating shape against Black's Nines, but the latter four flushed and scooped a 200k pot whilst apologising to the Swede. William would however later get his revenge knocking the Irishman out on the bubble, when Andy Black raised from the button with A-K after William Thorsson had limped UTG and called the raise. The flop came A-9-4 and Andy bet with William check-raising all-in, Andy called in a huge pot (450k) and was shown a set of Nines. Another Ace came on the turn but no Ace, King or Four appeared on the River.
And so into the money, Marc Goodwin (left) was a casualty, but followed up a good performance in Baden with another one here, alas running A-K into A-A on a 9-K-A-7-Q board. Also gone was Jonny Lodden, he had 3-3 on a 9-9-3 board against Nick Slade's 6-6, the Ace Turn was incidental, but the 9 River gave Nick a bigger house that made Jonny's look like a bungalow.
Doing the announcing duties, after the fun we'd had in Baden (read Jen's report or check the updates threads for that story), we had Pokerstars own Lee Jones, who would never announce, "X is all-in..." He'd say things like, "Paul puts all his cookies in the middle." Bizarre, but unintentionally very funny.
As we got to the final table, the chip counts looked as follows:
Rob Yong -- 588k
William Thorsson -- 1.3 million
Nick Slade -- 232k
Gavin Simms -- 292k
David Tavernier -- 433k
Pat Bueno -- 132k
George McKeever -- 161k
Willie Tann -- 168k
Roland de Wolfe -- 888k
Rob Yong (left) had made a remarkable comeback considering at one stage he was incredibly short-stacked whilst on the TV table. There was even a hand where Jonny Lodden had given him a walk in the small blind and Rob, who hadn't looked yet, flipped over aces! He said to me, "There's a hand that'll probably be shown on tv from earlier, I raised 7-2 suited from under the gun, got one caller, made a 20k continuation bet and then had to fold to an all-in for my last 12k!" [12k was 3 big blinds at the time!]
Willie Tann was our 9th place finisher, when his A-J failed against Roland's A-K and the remaining money was as follows:
1st -- €554,300
2nd -- €314,120
3rd -- €184,780
4th -- €138,580
5th -- €112,710
6th -- €88,690
7th -- €70,210
8th -- €51,740
Patrick Bueno (right) was first to go on the Final Day, when his K-6 failed to improve against William Thorsson's A-J on a 7-9-Q-5-J board. Shortly after, Rob got a big double-up through Roland when his Big Slick hit on the Turn against the Ladies of Roland to push him into real contention for the top cash places. Next to finish was Nick Slade who had limped after Rob and William, then Roland made a big raise which pushed Rob and William out of the pot, but Nick felt Roland was on the steal and re-raised all-in with J-9, Roland hadn't been stealing with his A-Q and hit both pairs to send Nick home.
Roland carried on making the aggressive moves, he re-raised Gavin Simms' initial 50k raise to 130k and was forced to call Gavin's all-in with J-T against Simms' A-Q, the board came down K-7-2-J and it looked as though he was about to bust another player when the River came a Queen keeping Simms in.
A revised Chip Count was as follows:
Rob -- 450k
William -- 550k
George -- 450k
Gavin -- 500k
Roland -- 1.2mil
David -- 650k
Rob raised from the cut-off, and Roland moved all-in from the big blind, Rob insta-called with his A-K which looked dominating against the A-J of Roland but the board came A-2-6-7-J. The 3-outer on the River added another huge chunk to Roland's stack and put Rob out in 6th place. Roland would continue his dominance of the table, with the next to fall being Irishman George McKeever whose K-Q failed to improve against Roland's Pocket Eights. De Wolfe just couldn't miss, his Sixes took out Gavin Simms' J-7 next leaving the three remaining players discussing a deal which was rumoured to be a 400k (for Roland), 300k, 300k deal with 60k for the winner.
All three players saw a Q-T-8 flop and the chips flew in on the blank Turn between David's Q-8 and William's J-9. The River was another 8 though as luck deserted William once again in a big pot. His last remaing chips were gobbled up by Roland whose pair of Sevens this time stood true again against Thorsson's A-T, leaving an Anglo-French battle for the title.
The battle didn't last long, however. In a raised pot pre-flop, both players checked the 3-5-A board, Roland bet 70k on the 5 Turn and David raised to 250k which was called. The River was a 9 and Roland bet 250k and David moved all-in, Roland called only to be shown Q-J for a total bluff for David whereas Roland had 5-4 for a set of Fives making him the first ever EPT and WPT champion!
So, thanks to the Regency Hotel and also Roland, who came and bought the entire pressroom Champagne afterwards. I can't wait to go back to Dublin, hopefully it won't be too soon....
