Resultate und Kommentare vom Masterclassic of Poker im Lido Amsterdam

11.11.2003, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «Resultate und Kommentare vom Masterclassic of Poker im Lido Amsterdam».

Events: Pot Limit Omaha November 3, 2003 at 3:00 PM Buy-In EURO500 + EURO20 Prize Pool EURO168,500 Entries 202 + 123 rebuys

Rang, Name, Preisgeld 1 Martin Blum (Germany) EURO 64,350 2 Kim Callow (England) EURO 32,175 3 Martin Vallo (Denmark) EURO 16,088 4 Malcolm McKinlay (Scotland) EURO 10,457 5 Jan Maarten Cobben (Netherlands) EURO 8,044 6 Michel Claeys (Belgium) EURO 5,631 7 Michael Legradi (Austria) EURO 4,022 8 Norbert Holting (Germany) EURO 3,218 9 Julian Thew (England) EURO 2,413 10 Lu Zhang (Austria\) EURO1,931


No Limit Hold'em November 4, 2003 at 3:00 PM Buy-In EURO200 + EURO20 Prize Pool EURO108,800 Entries 220 + 312 rebuys

Rang, Name, Preisgeld 1 Johan Storakers (Sweden) EURO 42,134 2 Job Van Dommelen (Netherlands) EURO 21,067 3 Anthony Chapman (England) EURO 10,534 4 Noah Boeken (Netherlands) EURO 6,847 5 Patrice Boudet (Netherlands) EURO 6,847 6 Bob Morley (England) EURO 3,687 7 Elias Brussiamos (Greece) EURO 2,633 8 Lawrence Robjent (England) EURO 2,107 9 Rino Mathis (Switzerland) EURO1,580

No Limit Hold'em Lido Main Event November 5, 2003 at 3:00 PM Buy-In EURO3,000 Prize Pool EURO651,000 Entries 205

Rang, Name, Preisgeld 1 Johan Storakers (Sweden) EURO 243,540 2 Ian Oldershaw (England) EURO 121,770 3 Dave Ulliott (England) EURO 60,885 4 Marcel Luske (Netherlands) EURO 39,575 5 Wolfgang Pilecki (Germany) EURO 30,443 6 Adam Lee (England) EURO 21,310 7 C.T Law (England) EURO 15,221 8 Sergei Pevzner (Russia) EURO 12,177 9 Yves Aknin (France) EURO 9,133 10 Dan Uzan (France) EURO 7,306 11 John Kabbaj (England) EURO 7,306 12 Antonio Turrisi EURO 7,306 13 Robert Mizrach EURO 6,089 14 Mick Cook EURO 6,089 15 Robin Keston EURO 6,089 16 Ed de Haas (Netherlands) EURO 4,871 17 Michael Akrich (France) EURO 4,871 18 Van Bum Nguyen (Germany) EURO 4,871


No Limit Hold'em November 7, 2003 at 3:00 PM Buy-In EURO800 + EURO20 Prize Pool EURO278,400 Entries 220 + 128 rebuys

Rang, Name, Preisgeld 1 Henrik Gwinner (Denmark) EURO 110,246 2 James Vogl (England) EURO 55,123 3 Julian Gardner (England) EURO 27,562 4 Marcel Luske (Netherlands) EURO 17,915 5 Mickey Finn (Ireland) EURO 13,781 6 Tanh Nguyen (Vietnam) EURO 9,647 7 Michael Keiner (Germany) EURO 6,890 8 Fari Badimansour (England) EURO 5,512 9 Alexander Tarasenko (Russia) EURO 4,134


Pot Limit Omaha November 8, 2003 at 3:00 PM Buy-In EURO300 + EURO20 Prize Pool EURO159,000 Entries 220 + 301 rebuys (unlimited rebuys)

Rang, Name, Preisgeld 1 Arno Weber (Netherlands) EURO 61,895 2 Nazari Pour (Iran/England) EURO 30,947 3 Alexander Tarasenko (Russia) EURO 15,474 4 Marcel Kluft (Netherlands) EURO 10,058 5 Charles Riesner (England) EURO 7,737 6 Kirill Gerasimov (Russia) EURO 5,416 7 Albert Berta (France) EURO 3,868 8 Ali Sarkeshik (England) EURO 3,095 9 Jos Hu (Netherlands) EURO 2,321

Tournament Reports from Rolf Slotboom

No Limit Hold'em November 4, 2003 at 3:00 PM

Young Swede's excellent poker too much for hometown favorite

The 2003 Master Classics of Poker have now gone into its third day. As expected, all tournaments so far have been full or almost full, and in addition to that there are a lot more money games than last year, when the cash game action was a little bit slow. In fact, it seems as if quite a few big gunners have come over to Amsterdam almost exclusively for the cash games, which can be considered a great thing for the house. (Casinos usually make their profits from cash games, as tournaments in itself are not - or not always - very profitable to them). As in previous years, the organization of this event is tip-top. Peter Voolstra, Marco Deen, Adèle Bruijn, Marie-Louise Overtoom and specialists Martijn Klein Essink (speaker) and Gérard Aussems (photographer) are all doing an excellent job. In addition to that, it is also the dealers who are doing some great work - which is an achievement in itself, considering the fact that quite a few of them do not deal, or have not dealt, poker very often.

OK, enough about this - let's talk about today's event, the 220 Euros no-limit hold'em. This was a great event to watch, with a highly attractive final table. We had two regular players of our pokerpit still in action (Dutchmen Job van Dommelen and young Noah Boeken) plus the second- and third-place winners at last year's Main Event, Johan Storakers and Rino Mathis. To be precise, the final table looked like this:

Final table line-up / chip counts: Seat # 1: Elias Brussiamos, Greece, 20,400 Seat # 2: Rino Mathis, Switzerland, 47,900 Seat # 3: Patrice Boudet, France, 38,100 Seat # 4: Lawrence Robjent, England, 17,800 Seat # 5: Noah Boeken, Netherlands, 89,100 Seat # 6: Bob Morley, England, 41,400 Seat # 7: Anthony Chapman, England, 80,900 Seat # 8: Job "Brabo" van Dommelen, Netherlands, 44,700 Seat # 9: Johan Storakers, Sweden, 154,000 Total chips in play: 534,500 (approx.)

Early exit by Swiss favorite One of the favorites to capture today's trophy was undoubtedly Rino Mathis, who has been rather successful in recent Master Classics history. But he had an unlucky draw. With antes of 1,000 and the blinds at 2,000-4,000, he had to start in the big blind - putting his already marginal stack under even more pressure. When he had to fold to Johan Storaker's raise, and then also lost the immediate next hand (with AK against the short-stacked Lawrence Robjent), he was in serious trouble - and could not recover. When he got the big blind for the second time, he felt obliged to call with ten-four of hearts against Johan's jacks, and was the first one out.

Chip leader maintains the initiative Our chip leader Johan kept the initiative, and in general played in a manner that I like very much. He was active, but not too active, and he wasn't afraid to call, say, 15 to 20 percent of his stack with a marginal hand in order to knock someone out. Because of his stack, he knew he probably could afford to lose one or even two pots and still be in contention - and if he got lucky he would bust out another opponent and build his chip lead even further. But when he called an all-in raise by Job van Dommelen (99) with king-queen and lost, with Lawrence Robjent also in (KJ), and when on another hand he also called an all-in raise but then had to fold to a big reraise by a third person, this strategy cost him quite a few valuable tournament chips. Lawrence was busted out in the hand mentioned above, and another early casualty was Greek player Elias Brussiamos, who lost with 99 against Patrice Boudet's AK. Patrice then went on to knock out Bob Morley. Holding queens against the Englishman's eights, the first card off the deck was the only one he didn't want to see (an eight), but luckily for him the four other cards were a king, a jack, a ten and an ace to give him a straight. Just when the Frenchman looked like he was going to take over, he was out - and for a large part, he only had himself to blame. Holding the 6,000 big blind, he called Job's 60,000 all- in raise with king-jack of hearts only, and he had no chance against the Dutchman's black kings. And on his next 10,000 blind, he called all-in (for 40,000 more, this time) with once again a hand that was dominated: ace-nine versus Johan's ace-ten.

Slowly on our way to the final It was around this time that English top player Anthony Chapman decided to steal a few pots here and there, and because of the respect that the others gave him, he hardly ever needed to show a hand. He came over the top of raises by both Johan and Noah, and on both occasions he won the pot there and then. The two hometown players Noah and Job both battled very hard to maintain a decent stack – but especially Noah seemed a bit unlucky to run into resistance time and again. After the hand he had to lay down against Anthony, young Noah had to release on two other occasions as well, having made the initial raise himself. The first time, he raised Job's 6,000 blind to 18,000 from the button, and when Job moved in here, Noah made the right decision to fold - Job showing aces. When just a few hands later Job again came over the top of Noah, and reraised his 35,000 bet to 100,000 (this time from the small blind), I figured this was the time for him to say: "the hell with it, let's gamble" - but again, he folded. With only 45,000 left and the other smelling blood, he was out on hand # 37 when he did decide to gamble. Holding the 10,000 blind, he called about 35,000 more with jack-five against Anthony's ace-jack and received no help. We were down to three- handed, the stacks now about even:

Anthony: 160,000 Job: 200,000 Johan: 170,000

We were slowly on our way to the final, and the game continued in an excellent atmosphere, with no one even considering a deal. The entire evening, player behavior had been exemplary, and especially today's final three were all gentleman players – in fact, it sometimes looked as if there was not a lot of money involved. But they played some serious poker as well, and every one of them battled hard to move into the lead. And they caught some good cards as well: based on the hands they showed (aces, kings, queens, ace-king a couple of times), it looked like maybe the Holland Casinos had decided to add some picture cards to the deck. Then, on hand # 45 Tony moved all-in from the small blind with KQ, and Job called from the big blind with pocket nines. In a coin flip situation that we see so often in no-limit hold'em, Job's nines held up, and he was heads up with Swede Johan Storakers, runner-up at last year's Big One. The chips: 350,000 for Job, about 185,000 for Johan.

Hometown favorite loses momentum Job had done a great job by battling his way into the lead, and it looked like maybe Johan had lost momentum, having lost the chip lead that he had at the very start. But the Swede had saved his best poker for when it mattered most: for the final. He took advantage of the fact that Job didn't put enough pressure on him, and he picked up some pots to gain ground on the Dutchman again. Job made the mistake of letting his opponent see flops for free, instead of using his chip lead to keep the pressure on. On two of these hands were he flat-called from the small-blind button, Johan got a free play and was able to turn things around. First, after a 642 flop and two checks, Johan bet 22,000 on the turn (with Job calling), and then again 22,000 on the river (with Job releasing). The Dutchman obviously thought that his young opponent may have been putting a play on him - and I thought that, too. Then, when two hands later an almost identical situation occurred (Johan betting 25,000 on the turn against a 5437 board, after once again having gotten a free play), Job decided to raise 75,000 more. But now the young Swede did have the goods, and when he came over the top for his entire stack, Job once again had to release – and it was now Johan who was in front. Johan won yet another pot to gain a 425,000-110,000 chip lead, and then got very lucky on the final hand when his AJ outdrew Job's AQ. But most of all, he had played some excellent poker, and they both had done their best to make today's event a great showing, which was a pleasure to watch. Congratulations to Johan and his lovely girlfriend Izabella Magnusson, and also to Job, Tony, Noah and the others for the good poker they played - and for the excellent atmosphere they helped creating. Rolf Slotboom


Tournament Repor from Rolf Slotboom No Limit Hold'em Lido Main Event November 5, 2003 at 3:00 PM

Young Swede conquers Devils, Foxes and Unknowns for a Record Win - and for yet another Victory

When I arrived in the casino at about 8:30 p.m., we still had three tables going. With blinds of 3,000-6,000 and an ante of 1,500, everybody with less than, say, 60,000 in chips couldn't afford to wait for very long. And indeed, the short stacks all fought very hard to stay in contention. One of these short stacks was Robin Keston, the chip leader at the end of day one. He went out against the aces of Tuesday's no-limit hold'em winner Johan Storakers. The young Swede now had over 300,000 in chips and looked sharp but relaxed - an excellent combination for a poker player. Johan gained even more chips when he also busted out Robert Mizrach. Robert's jack-ten was trailing against his opponent's deuces on the flop, but when a ten came on the turn he jumped out of his chair - only to see a deuce on the river give the Swede bottom full, and even more chips.

As I noted in my report two days ago, there's one thing in Johan's play that I appreciate very much: he likes to do his own dirty work. In other words: he doesn't mind taking some chances in order to knock someone out. When the dangerous John Kabbaj raised all-in to 50,000 from the button, Johan immediately called him from the small blind with king-ten only, even though the blinds were still just 3,000-6,000. Not many players would have made that call (by the way, he was right: Kabbaj was on a steal with a J3 only), because they would have figured: let's wait for a better opportunity - or let's just hope someone else will call him. Johan got rewarded for the chances he took by reaching today's final table with over 25% of the chips in play. However, the aggressive C.T. Law, and also "Devilfish" Dave Ulliott (three-times WSOP bracelet winner) and "Dutch Flying Fox" Marcel Lüske (the current number 1 in the European poker rankings) were not that far behind.

Final table / chip counts: Seat # 1: Sergei Pevzner, Russia, 124,000 Seat # 2: Marcel Lüske, Netherlands, 192,000 Seat # 3: C.T. Law, England, 411,000 Seat # 4: Ian Oldershaw, England, 213,500 Seat # 5: Yves Aknin, France, 191,500 Seat # 6: Dave Ulliott, England, 216,500 Seat # 7: Adam Lee, England, 119,000 Seat # 8: Wolfgang Pilecki, Germany, 53,500 Seat # 9: Johan Storakers, Sweden, 532,000 Total chips in play: 2,050,000

Final table starts out fast and furious Despite his good chip position, it was only on the second hand that Johan lost a huge pot, to double up the relatively unknown Ian Oldershaw from Derbyshire, England. With blinds of 5,000 and 10,000 and an ante of 2,000, Ian had raised under the gun to 30,000, with the Swede flat-calling on the button. When the flop came 227 and Ian bet out 30,000 again, Johan raised him to 150,000, and when Ian moved all-in for about 60,000 more, the Swede knew he was in trouble. Aces for Ian, tens for Johan, and suddenly it was an Unknown who had taken over the chip lead. Then, on the very next hand a Fox (Marcel) and a Devil (Dave) were involved in a huge clash. The Devil raised preflop to 35,000 and when The Fox came over the top of him, Dave had to think for quite some time. But he called anyway and was a big favorite, holding ace-king over Marcel's ace-queen. But like yesterday, the ladies were good to the Flying Fox. He found a queen on the flop, and not only did he have one of the largest stacks by now with almost 400,000 in chips, he had also severely crippled one of his most dangerous opponents, whose stack was now down to a mere 45,000.

Devil unwilling to surrender With his stack this small, and after the huge beat he had taken, it seemed probable that Dave would not be able to recover. But he did! He doubled through C.T. Law two hands in a row: with jack-ten versus ten-seven and then with ace-queen versus king-eight. And then he doubled his stack again - against Russian Sergei Pevzner this time. When Dave raised his big blind, Sergei thought that he was stealing, and went for the re-steal by raising all-in. But Dave had AQ, called quickly and was right: the Russian was making a move with a nine-three only. Devilfish had fought back from way behind to threaten Johan's chip lead now. After Yves and Sergei had busted out, I estimated the chips at:

Marcel: 230,000 C.T.: 280,000 Ian: 500,000 Devilfish: 400,000 Adam: 100,000 Wolfgang: 50,000 Johan: 460,000 Blinds: 10,000-20,000 / Antes: 3,000

Big guys battling for chips Both the Fox and the Devil went out of their way to get involved with the short-stacked Wolfgang Pilecki. But, the first time the German took a stand, his jack-nine of clubs proved good against Dave's eight-high only. The man from Hull did have a hand when he came over the top of C.T. Law, and his pocket tens held up against ace-king. Devilfish had busted out his fellow countryman C.T. and now held almost one-third of the chips, a more than remarkable comeback. Marcel also gained some ground when he called Adam Lee's all-in raise quickly, and the Dutchman's ace-ten proved good. Slowly but surely we headed into the expected direction: the two big gunners Dave and Marcel preparing for the Big Final, with the young, calm and talented Johan caught in the middle. When Wolfgang finally surrendered against Marcel, we had three poker stars battling for the trophy with the unknown-but-fearless Ian, who had a big stack as well. At hand # 50, I estimated the chips at:

Marcel: 440,000 Ian: 580,000 Devilfish: 640,000 Johan : 390,000

Young Swede takes over again Johan was most certainly not pleased to see that both the Fox and the Devil had gained so many chips, but he got an excellent chance to double through Ian. Holding jacks, his opponent came over the top of his raise with pocket nines – an excellent situation to be in for the Swede, who was a huge favorite to win. But the crowd roared when the flop came Q97, and now the Swede had become a big dog, his opponent having flopped three-nines. The turn (a ten) gave Johan an open-ended straight draw and some hope again… and then the crowd roared yet again when on the river he did make the straight! Ian's three-nines were cracked, and his stack was down to 90,000 now, while the young Swede suddenly had a stack of close to one million - almost 50% of the chips in play.

Two more recoveries by crippled players But just like Devilfish had done before, the fearless Ian was simply unwilling to give up. And it was precisely against the man from Hull that he recovered his chips. Devilfish seemed very keen on trying to bust Ian, but Ian survived two all-in confrontations (with Q7 vs. JT and with AJ v. A9) to build his stacks to over 400,000 again, with the Devil now down to 350,000. But Dave kept the pressure on with his constant preflop raising. He took the initiative whenever he could, and because of this he forced Marcel to sit and wait for premium hands - which the Fox didn't get. Slowly but surely his stack deteriorated, and with only 45,000 in chips left, things looked rather dim for the hometown favorite. But then he won an all-in pot against both Dave and Johan, and the crowd loved the fact that Europe’s No. 1 was still in contention. And not just that. A few hands later, he caught the Devil stealing with 85 only while holding kings himself, which got the crowd cheering some more. He got out of his chair and told the people to scream even louder – and this they did! It was an electric atmosphere, and with so many people supporting the Fox, he looked stronger and stronger with every hand he played.

But then, for whatever reason, Marcel lost momentum. First, after having called a big raise by the Devil, he had to check-fold on the flop, and he was once again the smallest stack. And then he was caught stealing by Johan, who called a big all-in raise with king-queen to see that the Dutchman held an eight-seven only. Suddenly, the crowd's favorite was out, and we were now three-handed with:

Ian 370,000 Devilfish 540,000 Johan 1,120,000

Young Swede takes no prisoners Even though Johan had been up against two highly aggressive and experienced players all day (the Fox and the Devil), he didn't seem the least intimidated by them. Quite the contrary: I had seen him come over the top of the Devilfish on at least four or five occasions – and the Devil had to release on all of them. While it is possible that Johan had a great hand every time, it is more likely that the Swede simply knew that Dave doesn’t like to make big calls early in the hand, and that he took advantage of this knowledge. But then, with all things going so well, Johan suddenly got trapped himself. In the small blind, he raised Ian's 30,000 big blind to 80,000. Ian came over the top for 360,000 with what very much looked like a re-steal (after all, Johan didn't need to have much in this spot to attack Ian's blind). When Johan called the big raise, he looked into the Two Eyes of Texas, though (AA), and with king-ten offsuit he was in very bad shape. But then he flopped a ten, and on the turn he got another ten to give him a full house, tens over sixes with the board T66T. Ian could not believe how his monster had been outdrawn in such a horrible manner – and the crowd felt his pain, too. But then, just when he was about to get out of his chair, the dealer burned and turned… and came up with a gorgeous ace! Aces full for Ian against the tens full for Johan: a truly amazing pot with only two players in the hand, at this stage of the event, and with these amounts of money at stake.

Suddenly everybody starts pounding on the Devil With Ian now having a big stack himself, he decided to do what he had seen Johan do so often: let Devilfish do the betting, and then play back at him to make him lay down his hand. On hand # 92, Dave raised to 80,000, Ian moved all-in and the Dave folded. And on hand # 93, with a flop T84, small blind Ian checked to big blind Devil, who bet 100,000 only to see his opponent check-raise him all-in. Once again, the Devil was unable to call, and he was now in serious danger. It was Johan, who finally finished him off. In a three-way pot with Devilfish on the button and a Qd Jc 3c flop, everybody checked. After the turn 8c (three clubs were now on the board) both Johan and Ian checked again, and now Dave bet 120,000. Johan thought it was impossible for Dave to have a flush here, he even thought it was highly unlikely that the man from Hull even had a pair - so he check- raised him all-in with a pair of fours only. A truly excellent read by the young Swede, as his opponent had the bare king of clubs for a king-high only, and when he couldn't improve on the river, he was out.

The chips: Ian 590,000 Johan 1,460,000

Johan has the lead, but the Unknown is scared of nothing - and even refuses a deal With Johan having the chip lead and bigger experience in this type of situation (he was runner up at last year’s Main Event, and won the no-limit hold’em event just two days ago), he was a clear favorite to win at this stage of the event. But when Ian’s pocket eights survived all-in against the Swede's A8, the stacks were suddenly back to even again. With the blinds at 20,000-40,000, antes of 10,000 and a difference of more than 120,000 Euros between first and second prize, it seemed wise to make a deal, or at least some kind of save. But despite the experience and the reputation of his excellent opponent, Ian simply said: "Please don't be offended - but I simply like to play." A more than admirable attitude from someone who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself… and who played a great game of poker. So, the game continued, and they kept chipping away at each other, until the Englishman finally took the lead, with Johan trailing by 820,000 to 1,230,000.

Late breakthrough for the favorite But then things finally worked out well for the Swede after all. When his opponent made a huge all- in move from the big blind, he decided to call with pocket fives, and he was indeed in front, the man from Derbyshire holding ace-three. Having started with more than 800,000 in chips, Johan was now in front by a wide margin. And then, on hand # 132, it was all over. Preflop, Johan moved in with six-five of diamonds, got called by Ian's ace-nine and then flopped a six to end today's Main Event for his second victory in only three days. An amazing accomplishment by an excellent player, who without a doubt has a very bright future ahead. Congratulations to Johan Storakers for yet another excellent win, and for the biggest prize ever handed out in Master Classics history: a monstrous, and unparalleled, 243,540 Euros.

Tournament Repor from Rolf Slotboom November 8, 2003 at 3:00 PM Buy-In EURO300 + EURO20 (unlimited rebuys)

Master Classics of Poker Tournament Report (By Card Player columnist, Rolf Slotboom)

November 8, 2003: Smiley puts end to super-bully’s one-man show in true poker promotion The Master Classics of Poker 2003 are over – and what an event it has been! All tournaments have been full or almost full, with at least 200 out of the maximum 220 players for every event. We had a record field of 205 runners for the Main Event, a young star who has set his mark on the poker scene in the person of Johan Storakers, and a total prize pool for the entire week of almost 1.5 million Euros. Also, today’s Omaha tournament was the best poker promotion anyone could have wished for, with a superb atmosphere and no less than three Dutch players at the final table – including the eventual winner. But it didn’t always look like that at all, because it was Iranian Englishman Nazari Pour who started out by making today’s final table a true one-man show. He bullied his way into a large chip lead by literally raising every hand – and if someone else raised, he would simply come over the top. With blinds of 3,000-6,000, a total of only slightly more than 500,000 chips in play and with quite a few players waiting for others to bust out, this highly aggressive strategy proved to be extremely effective. And he was not just a bully, he was a bully in an excellent mood, laughing and joking with his opponents, giving hi-fives to the persons who would beat him, and in general helping this table become the most exciting one I have ever witnessed. It may not have been the most outstanding poker ever played, but it was most certainly a highly interesting spectacle. The spectators were enjoying every single minute of it – with as eventual winner the person they had hoped, wished and cheered for.

Final table line-up / chip counts: Seat # 1: Ali Sarkeshik, England, 45,000 Seat # 2: Charles Riesner, England, 26,000 Seat # 3: Marcel Kluft, Netherlands, 19,000 Seat # 4: Albert Berta, France, 52,000 Seat # 5: Alexander Tarasenko, Russia, 127,000 Seat # 6: Arno Weber, Netherlands, 78,000 Seat # 7: Kirill Gerasimov, Russia, 50,000 Seat # 8: Jos Hu, Netherlands, 9,000 Seat # 9: Nazari Pour, Iran / England, 125,000 Total chips in play: 521,000 (approx.)

One-man show by Nazari paralyzes all others It was from the very first hand that Nazari made his intentions clear: he had not come to the final table to throw away many hands. Quite the contrary, in fact: about the only hand he folded was when he had gone to the bathroom for a toilet break, and couldn’t get back to the table in time. And it was not just that he played every hand, more than that he was raising and re-raising whenever he got the chance. So, he basically forced everyone to wait for premium hands in order to play back at him.

But this being Omaha, even then he would win a fairly large percentage of the time, as four random cards are usually not that much of a dog even against aces or kings. While everybody seemed to wait for someone else to get involved, there was one guy who wasn’t afraid of battling heads with the raising machine; it was hometown favorite Arno Weber. Arno, also called “Smiley” because he always finds a reason to smile even in very tight pressure situations, played back at the bully with AKJ3 double-suited to double up his 70,000 stack, and to take away some chips from the man who previously had so many of them. But Nazari didn’t seem bothered at all, saying: “Son, as a student, you probably need the money; well, I don’t”, and giving the young man a smile and a big hug. But this didn’t stop him from winning back all his chips on the very next hand. Once again, Arno moved in (with AKQ8 double-suited), but he lost against Nazari’s AKJ3 who immediately regained the chip lead again. With all this firework going on, all others were basically just sitting there watching, waiting for premium hands to take up against Iran’s Super Bully, in the hope that they could have them hold up.

Raising machine makes many victims But they didn’t always hold up against the Iranian – in fact, they almost never held up. First, Jos Hu’s AQ98 single-suited stood no chance against Nazari’s JT43. And then Ali’s AKT5 double-suited was an easy prey for the little guy’s AJ97. The only one who refused to be bullied was Smiley, who raised and won with A532 double-suited when Nazari was having his toilet break. With the young Dutchman slowly but surely catching up with him, the Iranian decided that no one would win a pot anymore from now. He finished off the excellent Kirill Gerasimov, who thought he had a good hand with KJTT, only to see the little guy waking up with aces. And when Nazari also sent home Charles Riesner (who had raised all-in after having seen two queens, to discover at the showdown that he also held a third queen in his hand), the short-stacked Marcel Kluft (with AQ62 versus the Dutchman’s QJTT) and the dangerous Alexander (with AJ97ss against A774ds), he had busted out everyone except for Arno. And he was probably a big favorite by now, having his young opponent outchipped by 380,000 to 140,000. But the crowd obviously didn’t think so. They thought the young Dutchman still had a chance, and encouraged him to stand tall, and to fight fire with fire.

Smiley turns things around – or does he? And this he did. First, he came over the top of the Iranian’s 30,000 raise to make him lay down his hand (!). And then, he had the guts to raise his opponent’s 60,000 flop bet to 140,000 with the flop Jd 9d 9c, holding two aces only with no back-up. His opponent called with T87x for a wraparound straight draw, but the crowd roared when an ace came on the turn to give the young man aces full. Arno jumped out of his chair, screaming “Yes!”, and also all the people behind him who were supporting him went berserk. Having gotten the chip lead now, he went for the kill by putting his opponent all-in on the very next hand, with A654 double-suited. Nazari had the same type of hand, though (A765), and when both of them couldn’t manage to make even a single pair, it was Nazari who won a 386,000 pot with an ace-seven high!

Young man refuses to give up While giving each other yet another hi-five, they prepared for the very next clash – and of course, for this we didn’t need to wait very long. On a flop Ah 9h Kc, Arno check-raised all-in with king- queen of hearts for the best hand and the best draw (Nazari having JJ54, no suits), and he was in there again with about 230,000 in chips now. And then he doubled through again. Going all-in with AKJT against the Iranian’s 9965, he won by catching a king, and with finally a big chip lead the young Dutchman went for the gold. Nazari was able to stop him once (winning with kings against queens by making a flush), but on the second attempt we had a decision. Once again going all-in before the flop with AJJ3 against his opponent’s AKT6, Sm

		
 
Weitere Nachrichten der Gaming-Branche