Main Event down to seven tables
After a couple of relatively small buy-in tournaments, today it was down to the real stuff: the no-limit hold'em freeze-out. This Master Classics Main Event used to have a 5000-guilder buy-in, which has now been increased to 3000 Euros (or 6600 guilders). It is being played over two days, to give the tournament a proper balance between luck and skill, in accordance with the amount of the buy-in. Despite (or maybe because of) this higher buy-in, a record field of close to 200 players showed up for today's tournament. Because Holland Casinos have decided to add a whopping 36,000 Euros to the prize pool, this event is probably the best value in the world for any serious tournament player.
Because of the freeze-out nature, the pressure because of the big money involved, AND simply because all players wanted to make it to the important and prestigious second day, action was rather slow and multiway pots were a rarity. Which made the following hand I witnessed even more surprising. With about nine tables left, an aggressive player made a big raise from early position, holding the relatively weak 98 of clubs. He probably thought there was a decent chance to steal the blind and ante money, and of course hoped no one was able to call. He was in for a rude surprise: the guy to his left went all-in, as did the next… and the next… and the next! Five players were all-in before the flop, holding 98 of clubs, two red jacks, two tens, two black kings, and two black aces, or four big pairs and a nice snap-off hand. The flop came ten-eight-seven with two diamonds, giving the wired tens top set and leaving the others only a tad of hope to improve to the winner. Turn: ace of diamonds, with the best hand on the flop now suddenly drawing to one out, and giving the rockets a huge hand: top set, three aces. But when the river came a fourth diamond, a red jack was enough to claim this amazing pot, with the three aces having to settle for the side pot. Five people all-in before the flop in a big freeze-out tournament, with an incredible match-up of hands, and a ditto board; no-limit hold'em, what a game!
A lot of betting has been done on this year's Main Event Some of the pre-tournament favorites were Peter Costa, Dave Ulliott and Julian Gardner (all 64-to-1 to win), Nicky Katz and Ram Vaswani (60-to-1), Marcel Lüske (56-to-1) and Surinder Sunar (46-to-1). However, if my information is correct, Surinder, Ram, Julian and Peter are out already, and all others are more or less short-stacked. With an average stack of about 35,000, Marcel is down to 26,000, Dave to 14,100 and Nicky to 10,200, in contrast to the 102,000 chipleader Angelo Yu Zuoping is holding. At the end of the day, things look like this:
Players / chip counts:
(What I'm giving to you here is the information as I received it from the casino. Because of constraints in time, language and a few other complicating factors as well, mistakes in names and / or chip counts are not just possible- they are to be expected.)
Table # 19
Seat # 1: Pirrot, 25,400
Seat # 2: Paul Testud, 21,200
Seat # 3: Mark Brochard, 28,900 (button)
Seat # 4: Carlos Fuentes, 47,100
Seat # 5: Paul Macgrill, 68,100
Seat # 6: Paul Pot, 19,500
Seat # 7: Espen, 24,900
Seat # 8: -
Seat # 9: Marcus Solo, 63,100
Table # 20:
Seat # 1: Johan Koops, 53,500 (button)
Seat # 2: Patrick, 72,100
Seat # 3: Bill Thorning, 14,800
Seat # 4: Simon Trumper, 26,300
Seat # 5: Barry Pitt, 36,300
Seat # 6: -
Seat # 7: Johan Storakers, 28,100
Seat # 8: Piers Shepperson, 10,900
Seat # 9: John Kabbaj, 55,400
Table # 21:
Seat # 1: Sherkhan Farnood, 36,500 (button)
Seat # 2: Peter Karall, 90,200
Seat # 3: Barny Boatman, 18,400
Seat # 4: David Mehrmand, 9,100
Seat # 5: Michael Keiner, 43,400
Seat # 6: Martin Pollak, 56,400
Seat # 7: Jim Reid, 22,100
Seat # 8: -
Seat # 9: Tristan MacDonald, 19,500
Table # 22:
Seat # 1: Dave Ulliott, 14,100
Seat # 2: Jan Sjavik, 60,200
Seat # 3: Andreas Raattamaa, 42,600
Seat # 4: Cryan, 35,600
Seat # 5: Palermo, 28,200 (button)
Seat # 6: Nic Szeremeta, 40,100
Seat # 7: -
Seat # 8: Jan Maarten Cobben, 22,700
Seat # 9: Mairhofer, 4,600
Table # 23:
Seat # 1: Koray Saka, 10,600
Seat # 2: Mathis Rino, 22,800
Seat # 3: Scott Gray, 45,900
Seat # 4: -
Seat # 5: Chister Johansson, 21,500
Seat # 6: Angelo Yu Zuoping, 102,000
Seat # 7: Alex Kravchenko, 7,500
Seat # 8: Simon Hennessey, 58,000 (button)
Seat # 9: Donnacha O'Dea, 24,400
Table # 24 :
Seat # 1: Patrice Bouitel, 39,400
Seat # 2: Senny Boy, 7,900
Seat # 3: Paul Alterman, 15,900
Seat # 4: Paul Samuel, 34,900
Seat # 5: Jan Fredriks, 26,500
Seat # 6: Marcel Lüske, 26,000
Seat # 7: Sigi Stockinger, 57,700
Seat # 8: Dani Tanner, 40,100
Seat # 9: Dave Colclough, 50,400 (button)
Table # 25:
Seat # 1: Torstein Iversen, 33,400
Seat # 2: Harry Casagrande, 73,100
Seat # 3: -
Seat # 4: Ronnie Gustafsson, 18,300
Seat # 5: Hans van der Zijden, 6,900
Seat # 6: Nicky Katz, 10,200
Seat # 7: Ben Battle, 29,400 (button)
Seat # 8: Michel Abecassis, 49,900
Seat # 9: Erich Kollmann jr., 38,600
Some final words
Tomorrow at 3 p.m. play will resume, with antes of 200 and blinds of 1,000 and 2,000, if I’m not mistaken. At the end of that day, there will be a first prize of over 200,000 for one lucky winner, and prize money paid until the 30th spot. I will keep you guys posted. Take care, and good luck,
Rolf.
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