Experience pays off in Super-Value Tournament
By Rolf “Ace” Slotboom
Our second tournament this week and once again we had a sold-out venue. And not without reason: There can be no doubt that the annual Master Classics of Poker is the best value when it comes to major tournaments. On this day alone, we had an added prize money of 7,200 Euros, and this is no exception whatsoever. On every final table, including the 5,000 Euros no-limit hold’em freeze-out, the house will give nine players their initial buy-in back – which translates into a whopping 45,000 Euros added prize money for this year’s Main Event. For today it meant that the places 19-27, the ones who would finish just outside of the money, would get their initial buy-in returned, and knowing that the buy-in was 820 Euros, it should be clear that we are not talking peanuts here.
The fact that despite fierce competition from a prestigious event in Monte Carlo, the Holland Casino is truly packed every day, makes clear that the players just love to come over to Amsterdam. Compliments to (in random order) Peter Voolstra, Adele Bruijn, Marie-Louise Overtoom, Marco Deen, Marco Guldenaar, Ronnie Boonstra, Eroll Menders, Martijn Klein Essink, Debby Heus, Marc Jansen, photographer Gerard Ausems and the entire dealer staff. I think I can speak on behalf of all players here that you guys are all doing a great job – thanks a lot for that.
Back to business
But hey, we’re not here to talk about how great we all are, are we – we’re here to play poker. And some excellent poker we saw today. Once again, as in yesterday’s event, the initial chip leader, the big favorite to win, would not even reach the final three, and some other favorites would not make it either. Here’s how things developed:
Final table EUR 820 no-limit hold’em (one optional rebuy)
Players / Nationality / Chip Counts:
Seat # 1: Arno Weber, Netherlands, 151,500
Seat # 2: Valery Ilikian, Russia, 34,000
Seat # 3: David Benyamine, France, 142,500
Seat # 4: Jacques Missone, Belgium, 104,000
Seat # 5: Mikka Puro, Finland, 84,000
Seat # 6: Isabelle Mercier, Canada, 290,500
Seat # 7: Mohammed Peyman, Germany, 47,500
Seat # 8: Frederic le Roux, France, 63,000
Seat # 9: Mike Magee, Ireland, 77,000
Seat # 10: George McKeever, Ireland, 208,000
Total chips in play: 1,192,000 (approx.)
Four players stood out in this group. In addition to experienced tournament players David Benyamine and Mike Magee, we had our only remaining hometown player in Arno Weber. Arno is one of the most talented players in our regular cash game, the 500 Euros buy-in pot-limit Omaha.
In addition to that, he was also the winner of the last event of the 2003 Master Classics, when he won the pot-limit Omaha event in spectacular fashion. (The archived report of this event is still available in the “Tournament Reports” section on my own site, www.acespeaks.cjb.net).
But more than on all these three excellent players, all eyes were on Isabelle Mercier, runner up at this exact same no-limit hold’em event two years ago and also the winner of this year’s World Poker Tour Ladies Event. (For those of you who are not familiar with what the World Poker Tour is about: It is a televised series of poker tournaments, hosted by Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten and Shana Hiatt. This televised poker tour has made poker grow huge in the U.S., or at least has helped poker go mainstream.)
Isabelle, who has quit her job at the Aviation Club some time ago to turn pro, and who has been living out of her suitcase for the past few months, had acquired over 25% of the chips in play, and knowing her highly aggressive style of play it was clear all other players would be in for a very tough ride.
Off to a flying start
Isabelle indeed took control over the table right away, winning the first pot of the day against George McKeever, but then it also didn’t take her very long to run into trouble.
On hand # 6, with blinds of 3,000 – 6,000 and an ante of 1,500, she called 30,000 more from her big blind with pocket sixes in order to eliminate Mohammed Peyman. Peyman had raised all-in with AJ and found a jack to double up. Within seconds though, Isabelle regained her chips to eliminate this exact same player. She had raised in early position to 16,000 and then called the somewhat strange 16,000 reraise from her opponent – strange, because he now only had about 42,000 left and thus probably would have been better off raising all-in.
Now, he let her catch top pair on a J82 flop and he even got check-raised by her (having bet 20,000), holding nothing but an unimproved AQ. (Had he moved in before the flop, she would probably have released.) So, with over 300,000 in chips now, Mercier seemed in charge again, but just a few hands later, she ran into trouble once more - when she lost a chunk of chips against the seemingly inexperienced, but solid playing Jacques Missone.
From early position, Isabelle made it 16,000 to go with Qc9c, and everybody folded to Jacques in the big blind who called. Flop: QT7 rainbow. Jacques bet out 20,000, with Isabelle calling quickly. When an eight came on the turn and Jacques checked, Isabelle bet 40,000, and now Jacques made an excellent play, check-raising all-in to 122,000 with AQ for top pair, top kicker. After long deliberation, Isabelle called, but she failed to hit one of her 11 outs – and now her relatively unknown Belgian opponent was suddenly a serious threat.
By that time, we had already lost the colorful Valery in a coin flip (AQ vs. the same Jacques Missone’s JJ), and we also lost Frederic (again with ace-queen against jacks; this time it was Mikka Puro who had them). Immediately after the Frenchman got busted, we also lost Mike Magee. It was his fellow countryman George McKeever who did the damage by making a remarkable move, calling 52,000 more from his 3,000 small blind with king-queen of spades to beat Mike’s pocket tens. And we lost another big name when Arno raised to 24,000 from his small blind and then got pooped by big blind David Benyamine for all his money, 86,000 total.
Arno had just a king-nine of clubs, but knowing he would still have some chips left in case he lost the hand, he decided it was worth the gamble. He was actually in better shape that he probably thought - his opponent holding ‘only’ pocket threes.
When the final board showed KKA99, one could claim that Arno actually beat his experienced opponent four times, and whether or not he had in fact made the correct decision, it paved the way for him to start bullying the table – as he had done so well in last year’s event. All in all, within 20 hands we had lost half of the players and we were five-handed with no short stacks: every player now had 200,000 or more.
Action slows down
With lots of money on the table in relation to the size of the blinds, it was to be expected that the action would slow down a little. Suddenly, the table had turned into the raise / fold or raise / reraise / fold type of plays that are so characteristic of no-limit hold’em events. And then, just when it seemed everybody had accepted this sudden lethargy, it was former chip leader Isabelle who busted out.
In the lethargic situation that I just described, she had moved all-in two or three times from the small blind with only the big blind to be heard from – and all times, big blind George had dutifully folded. But when he finally did call, she was out. Having raised the 10,000 big blind all-in to 165,000 with the ten-nine of hearts, she saw George waking up in the big blind with queens to bust her out.
George and the active Arno were now the two chip leaders, and it seemed clear what this would all boil down to: a clash between the relatively young Arno Weber (33 – yes, I know: he looks younger) and tournament veteran George McKeever (69).
All goes according to plan
Jacques was indeed our first casualty, and he went out exactly the same way as Isabelle did. (So, one might say that he was in good company.) Raising all-in to about 150,000 from the small blind with KQ, the 15,000 big blind Mikka called him quickly with AJ – and that held up.
So, with now over 300,000 in chips it seemed Mikka would become a serious contender, but just a couple of hands later he was out himself. On the button with pocket nines, he made it 45,000 to go. When George raised him 75,000 more to 120,000 total, Mikka decided to come over the top for his entire stack.
He was indeed in front, albeit by a slight margin, but George’s AQ found a favorable flop - and we now had the heads up situation that we’d been anticipating.
Years of experience against relative youth – but they both make the same daring moves
Trailing in chips by 384,000 to 808,000, Arno knew that he had some work to do. And work he did! In the biggest pot of the night so far, George called Arno’s 20,000 big blind from the small blind / button (SBB). Arno raised him 40,000 more, with George calling. When the flop came 986 rainbow, Arno bet out 50,000, only to see that within a second George had raised him 115,000 more.
After his usual (long!) deliberation, Arno came over the top for another 265,000 and this was too much for George. Then, on the immediate next hand, Arno was once again the preflop raiser. When his opponent came out betting into him for a mere 35,000 on a K62 flop all spades, Arno responded by moving all-in, and once again his opponent was unable to call. Now it was the young man who had the lead, and it was the veteran who was trailing: 450,000 – 740,000.
But this didn’t stop the veteran to fight fire with fire! Once again, Arno had raised to 60,000 from the SBB, and George called quickly. On the flop 8d 3d 3c, he checked, and when Arno bet another 60,000, George check-raised him all-in, holding nothing more than two red sixes! On the World Poker Tour, Vince Van Patten would undoubtedly have said: “Wow Mike – that’s a bold move”, because that was exactly what it was: a bold move. It may also have been the correct move, because the young man was unable to call him, and because it leveled their stacks again. Probably just as importantly, the Irishman showed that he simply would not get shoved around, that he refused to let his opponent bully him.
From there, it was George who won one medium-sized pot after another (on hands # 127, 129, 131, 134 and 138 he all came out on top) to move into a serious lead, and on hand # 140 he was able to finish things off. In once again a pot that was raised by Arno from the SBB, both players checked the flop 8c 3d 2s. When the turn came 4d, George checked again, having caught the absolute joker in the deck. (He held Ad 5d for the second nut straight and the ace-high flush draw.) Arno bet 50,000 and after some thinking, George check-raised him to 150,000 total.
Now Arno went into his usual routine of thinking and thinking. Holding a mere Q4 for third pair / decent kicker, he knew very well that he could be in serious trouble, yet on the other hand it was far from certain that in fact his opponent did have a hand – or at least a hand strong enough to stand the heat. So, the young man decided to raise all-in for 155,000 more, but when he got called instantly he knew immediately that he was drawing dead.
Kudos to George McKeever from Ireland for being able to cope with Arno’s ability to change gears and especially for luring him into making the wrong decision – by making him bet his entire stack when in fact he had no chance of winning.
But kudos to Arno too, who once again made some excellent plays, and who plays at a high level in a very pleasant manner – as if it costs him no effort whatsoever. On this day, it was not enough though. It was the calm and capable George McKeever who was standing in the spotlights – o yes before I forget, with a mere 126,000 Euros for all his efforts.
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