Master Classics of Poker Tournament Report
By Card Player columnist and Poker School Online teacher, Rolf "Ace" Slotboom
EUR 520 Pot-limit Omaha (1 optional rebuy)
November 3, 2003:
German comes out on top in Omaha lottery
With two tables left in today's pot-limit Omaha event, some of the biggest names and high-stakes players were still in action. For instance, we had Jin Cai Lin, Tony G, Zvonimir Jozic, Lu Zhang and Sigi Stockinger, and only the last one was in serious trouble with a relatively short stack. But then Tony G lost all his chips with KKT9 double-suited against freshman Omaha player Kim Callow, who flopped the nut straight with his JT87, and who then also finished off Jozic. And we lost Zhang, who had been forced to lay down his hand on two occasions (both times when he got raised by Julian Thew), and who then got unlucky in a big pot against Norbert Holting, losing with QQJ9 against AJ94. With all these big gunners out, we had a nice and friendly final table today, with quite a few unfamiliar faces – rather surprising for an event that was filled with a lot of top professionals, who specialize in exactly this game.
Final table line-up / chip counts:
Seat # 1: Julian Thew, England, 58,500
Seat # 2: Malcolm McKinlay, Scotland, 159,500
Seat # 3: Martin Vallo, Denmark, 51,000
Seat # 4: Martin Blum, Germany, 44,000
Seat # 5: Jan Maarten Cobben, Netherlands, 85,000
Seat # 6: Kim Callow, England, 122,500
Seat # 7: Michel Claeys, Belgium, 41,500
Seat # 8: Michael Legradi, Austria, 30,500
Seat # 9: Norbert Holting, Germany, 57,000
Total chips in play: 650,000 (approx.)
Final table starts out unusually tight and timid – for a while
We had a bit of a strange final table today. For a few players this was obviously their first-ever final table appearance in an event this big, while some of the more experienced players were somewhat on the conservative side. This meant that nothing much happened in the beginning, which was rather surprising since the sum of the blinds accounted for almost two percent of the total chips in play. The only one who was doing any raising was Kim Callow, and he gained the chip lead simply because no one contested his raises. But then suddenly he changed his successful strategy and started flat-calling instead of raising, which chip leaders in big events like this don’t do very often. But he got away with it when he knocked out Julian Thew. Julian tried to represent aces by raising pot preflop out of his big blind – but he couldn’t get rid of Kim. Kim held A665 double-suited, and flopped the nut-flush draw which got there on the turn, to beat Julian’s QQ42. With eight players left, Martin Vallo then took over to double up two hands in a row, both times with the same hand: aces double-suited. He crippled Michel Claeys and knocked out Norbert Holting, and suddenly the friendly Dane had a large stack. Martin Blum also doubled up twice, against the only hometown player Jan Maarten Cobben, and against Michael Legradi, who despite playing well had been unable to build his stack up to par. In addition to Michael, we also lost Michel – a regular visitor of the Dutch pokerpit – when once again Kim flat-called from the button as the first one in. Michel moved in from the small blind with AK98 single-suited, but his English opponent called him with KJ95 double-suited and made a full house, fives over jacks.
Suddenly there’s action everywhere
Suddenly everyone started to become active – not in the last place our former chip leader Malcolm, who previously had not done anything to protect his lead. He got into serious trouble when he lost with kings against Martin Blum’s AQT7, but then recovered somewhat by cracking Jan Maarten’s aces. Jan Maarten was playing well but was rather unlucky in his confrontations, and saw his stack dwindling slowly but surely. After the beat he got from Malcolm, he was forced to go all-in on the immediate next hand. In a three-way pot with chip leader Kim and the still short-stacked Martin Blum, it was the German who beat both of them with a fine hand: AQT6 double-suited. It was only the fourth hand Martin had played, but also the fourth he had won. And he won his fifth hand as well, with jacks against Kim’s double-suited sixes. Now, Blum had suddenly taken over the chip lead from Kim. Another former chip leader, Malcolm, was finished off by Martin Vallo. With T966 double-suited against Vallo’s kings, the Scot had the nut straight on the turn with in addition to that a set of sixes, but when the top card double-paired on the river, it was Vallo who won the pot with quad kings. We were now down to three-handed with the active Kim Callow from England, the rather tight Martin Blum from Germany, and our new chip leader Martin Vallo from Denmark.
Monster pots, excessive action
With the blinds now at 15,000-30,000, the chips simply kept floating around. The chip lead had gone from Malcolm to Kim, then it went to Martin Blum, to Martin Vallo, and finally it would go back to Kim again. In a monster pot, Vallo’s AKK5 double-suited bit the dust against Kim’s QQ73, and instead of heading towards the exit the Englishman had regained the lead. And within two hands it was Vallo himself who was out. He had raised preflop to 105,000 and when Kim came over the top to 265,000 all-in he felt committed with his A953 single-suited. Kim flopped not one set but two with his JJ88 and in two hands time Vallo had gone from the chip lead to busting out. And now it was once again Kim Callow who could smell the victory, his German opponent trailing by 180,000 to 470,000.
The roller-coaster ride continues
And when heads up we witnessed Martin Blum folding four hands in row, his stack down to 90,000, it seemed just a matter of time for the tournament to end. But then the German doubled through his opponent two hands in a row (both in coin flip situations), and now it was suddenly Blum who had taken the lead again! After some deliberation, Martin and Kim decided that with luck playing such a big part at this stage of the event, and with the stacks now at about even, that it might be wise to step back from the table to take a short break. When they came back, they decided to push their entire stacks into the middle to decide who would be the eventual winner, and once again it was the player from Wiesbaden who came out on top. Martin Blum had survived six all-ins today to come back from a huge chip deficit by playing a few hands only– but by winning those hands that he did play. Congratulations to the German for this well-deserved, but amazing title.
|
