| The Cards Are In The Air
By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom
With a field of 270 players instead of the usual 220, this year’s Master Classics of Poker is expected to be the biggest and the best so far. It is also the first time all tournaments will be non-smoking. Because of the bigger fields, management has decided that one day was not enough for tournaments this size, and in order to minimize the luck factor somewhat we now have two-day events. Or, to be more precise, on day one all events will be played until the final nine players, and then the next day the final table will be played – with limits going up every 75 minutes instead of the usual 45. In addition to all this, the Main Event will have a 5,000 Euro buy-in instead of 3,000, and will be played over three days. Quite a few changes I would say, changes that could and should benefit the skilled player – and at events of this magnitude, there are lots of them.
When this afternoon I arrived at the Lido at about 1 p.m. (the opening time of the casino), a crowd of at least 100 players had gathered in front of the main entrance – a sight I had never seen before. Of course, most of them had a reason to be there, other than simply to have lunch: they had come to find a ticket somewhere for this already sold-out event. With a full field of 270 entrants and a bunch of people on the waiting list (who were allowed to replace those players who busted out during the first two levels and then declined their rebuy option), things were rather crowded to put it mildly – crowded but fun. Even yours truly was lured into participating, and exactly as promised I dutifully pumped some dead money into the event. The main beneficiary of this rare act of friendliness of mine is still in contention, most likely because of my donations – let’s just hope he appreciates them, and acknowledges them as such. So anyway, how does tomorrow’s final table look?
Well, in addition to familiar names as Erich Kollmann and the extremely short-stacked C.T. Law, there are the good and capable locals Noah Boeken and the chip leader of the event, “Holy Man” Mozes Fahin. Unfortunately, two of my favorites (the last remaining ladies) just came short of reaching the final. They busted out in 15th place -the stylish and elegant but dangerous Isabelle Mercier- and on the bubble, in 10th place -the beautiful Rosa Paldino of Dortmund’s Spielbank who had her AK cracked by A6 just when it mattered most-. All in all, tomorrow’s final table will consist of the following nine men (names / figures are as handed to me by casino management, in order of chip counts):
· Mozes Fahin, 126,000
· Charles Malhot, 83,000
· Mi King Chou, 77,000
· Erich Kollmann, 65,700
· X. Laszcz, 56,400
· Noah Boeken, 40,100
· Osman Mustanoglu, 35,800
· Marc Ohana, 14,600
· C.T. Law, 500
The Action Starts Heating Up
By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom
With the chips distributed the way they were, and taking into account the experience of chip leader Mozes, it seemed the Holy Man was a big favorite to win today’s final table. But because of an extended run of bad cards and an unwillingness to gamble with them, he would not even reach the final three. One of the other Dutch trumps, young Noah Boeken, didn’t get there either. So, who did?
Final table EUR 220 no-limit hold’em / unlimited rebuys
Players / Nationality / Chip Counts:
Seat # 1: Noah Boeken, Netherlands, 40,100
Seat # 2: Miking Chou, Netherlands, 77,000
Seat # 3: Erich Kollmann, Austria, 65,700
Seat # 4: Osman Mustanoglu, England, 35,800
Seat # 5: Charles Mailhot, Canada, 83,000
Seat # 6: Marc Ohana, France, 14,600
Seat # 7: Mozes Farhin, Netherlands, 126,000
Seat # 8: C.T. Law, England, 500
Seat # 9: Xavier Laszcz, France, 56,400
According to good Master Classics tradition, we lost our first player on the very first hand. With blinds of 1,500 and 3,000 and an ante of 500, C.T. Law was all-in even before looking at his cards. He lost to Erich who had open-raised with A8, and who didn’t need to improve against either Mozes or C.T. Erich also won another pot with what looked like a resteal (first flatcalling a late-position raise by Marc Ohana from the big blind, and then moving all-in himself on a flop that is unlikely to have helped his opponent, K94).
In the beginning, it was young Noah who got a lot of respect from his fellow players, and because of this won quite a few pots uncontested. But he lost back all of the chips he had stolen when Marc came over the top of him for 24,200 total and Noah decided it was worth calling, having invested 9,000 already.
His queen-jack of spades and the Q63JT board seemed to match perfectly, but it was Marc who got the dough - having flopped a set of threes, he managed to stay alive.
So, with Noah having lost a significant part of his stack, and Mozes unable to win even a single (!) pot, things didn’t look so well for our two Dutch favorites.
More play, less action
Because of the slower structure, with limit increases every 75 minutes instead of the usual 45, there was a lot more play on this final table than in previous years.
Unfortunately, this also meant long stretches of time when nothing much happened. It was mostly raise / fold or raise / reraise / fold, and it was no exception to see 10 hands in a row without a flop – something that is unheard of in Master Classics history, especially for a relatively small event like this.
We lost our second player on hand # 37, when Marc Ohana couldn’t survive his second all-in. Having reraised Miking’s 18,000 raise all-in to 37,000, Miking decided to call the extra 19,000 with his king-jack of hearts.
He was drawing slim against the Frenchman’s pocket jacks, but when a king flopped we were seven-handed. In the meantime, Erich had leaked quite a bit of chips by either calling before the flop and then receiving no help, or by raising and then having to lay down against a reraise. He doubled up to 75,000 again when his AK survived against Osman’s A5 of spades. (Erich had raised and then Osman came over the top, but this time Erich had an easy call of course.) It was all over for Osman when again he ran into a good hand. This time it was Canadian Charles Mailhot who had an easy call with his jacks against Osman’s A8 all-in raise. And then it was Mozes’ turn to exit.
Having won not even a single pot (because as I said he just didn’t get any good cards, and also because he seemed unwilling to become aggressive with the bad ones), he decided to make a stand with QJ in the big blind against Erich’s button raise. This time, the Austrian had the goods though, and his AJ sent out the hometown favorite.
Excellent Canadian takes control
Despite all these pots that were won by Erich, it was another person who slowly but surely had taken the lead. It was Charles Mailhot from Montreal, Canada. By starting out with a relatively tight game, he made sure that his opponents gave him enough respect for the times that he would play.
More and more, he began to take advantage of this. On two consecutive hands, he came over the top of raises by Erich to make the Austrian lay down his hands. And when the dangerous Noah, holding JT for an all-in raise, ran into Miking’s AQ that held up, yet another potential threat for him was out.
The Canadian now looked in total control to win the event, holding 200,000 of the about 500,000 chips in play.
But the young student economics Miking Chou from Eindhoven started gaining chips too! First, he dodged two bullets against Erich, correctly check-folding on the river in a pot that was initially raised by him (check-folding on the river against the board KK3J4, his opponent showing KQ), and then check-folding again when his opponent had flopped a ten-high flush in a blinds only pot.
And then he won a huge pot against the chip leader to move into the lead himself. Coming over the top of a 30,000 raise by Charles to 80,800 all-in, the Canadian called with AQ, and Miking’s red sixes scooped the pot by making a flush.
Charles seemed a little affected having lost this important pot, but got lucky when it mattered most. Caught stealing with a mere king-five offsuit against Xavier’s pocket sixes, the Man from Montreal managed to win a 100,000 pot by catching a king on the turn – a king that not just sent out the Frenchman, but that also gained him the lead again.
With three players left, I estimated the chip counts at:
Miking 145,000
Erich 130,000
Charles 215,000
Action again slows down in Sunny Final
With three large, relatively even stacks and enough room to maneuver, the players had all the time to watch each other, to look for tells etc. It was a Sunny Final no doubt, all three players looking equally sharp with their designer glasses.
They had all the time in the world to just look at each other through them, because frankly there was not much exciting stuff going on. More and more, Charles started using his chip lead to bully the table, and he won quite a few pots uncontested when his opponents couldn’t or wouldn’t call his big bets. He finished off Miking, who had raised to 40,000 on the button with a J4 and called 36,200 extra when Charles (holding A9 of spades) had set him all-in. Usually, a board with both a jack and a four would be more than sufficient to stay alive in this type of situation, but with also an ace and a nine on the table the young student’s two pair lost to a higher two pair.
And when Charles then copied Erich’s move from earlier that night (first flatcalling a large button raise from the blind, and then moving in himself after the flop to take away the bluff from his opponent), the Canadian suddenly had a 4-to-1 chip lead, and it seemed just a matter of time for the tournament to end.
Flamboyant Austrian fights back and gets lucky
While Charles had a big strength in winning lots of small pots uncontested, Erich was able to
counter this with a possibly even bigger strength: the ability to win huge pots in a showdown.
He was on the verge of elimination, all-in with a dominated hand – A9 versus AJ. Despite the fact that Charles was almost a 3-to-1 favorite to win the hand and as a result the tournament as well, Erich managed to stay alive by catching a nine.
And he doubled through again when he check-raised all-in with top pair against his opponent’s open-ended straight draw (87 vs. 65 on a 843 flop) that didn’t get there. And some fifteen hands later (having lost 12 of them against his more aggressive opponent), he even moved into a serious lead by once again winning a big pot. Having called a preflop raise from the big blind, and then having check-called 30,000 and 90,000 bets on the board As 9c 4c 8s, the Austrian finally bet out his remaining 45,000 on the river (7s), with his opponent unable to call him. And Erich finished things off on hand # 134, when he had flopped a true monster but was able to convince his opponent that he didn’t hold much. Holding 87 of diamonds, Erich had flopped gold with a 6d 5d 4h flop.
When they both checked, Erich decided to come out betting on the turn 5h with a weak-looking 20,000 wager. Charles fell for it and raised him all-in to 100,000 holding nothing more than a QJ for no pair, no draw.
The Austrian had trapped his opponent perfectly, and had gotten lucky by coming up with winners every time that he needed to.
Some words of wisdom
A few hours before, when I had talked to Erich during the dinner break, he said to me: “You know Rolf, a lot of players think that becoming a full-time pro is the ultimate goal. For me, nothing could be further from the truth. Focusing on poker alone would simply make things too boring for me.
Some people may think that I’m silly to keep my day job when there’s so much money floating around during the big events – and in theory, they may well be right. But for me, focusing on more than just one thing helps me keep my mind fresh. Because I don’t have to think about poker and money all the time, I am ready and eager for the times that I do play, and I am positive that this will be beneficial to my results.
” Judging from his performance today, there can be no question that he is right. He seemed fresh alright, focused, and he had the ability to battle things out in tough spots and to come back from behind on more than one occasion. What’s more: He won all the big pots that he played – and for a poker player, that can almost never be bad.
Erich Kollmann was lucky to stay alive that’s for sure, but he also showed a lot of heart and fighting spirit to pull it off. As a result, he is our first 2004 Master Classics champion – and a worthy one.
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