| [Our thanks to Rolf Slotbloom, PokerSchool Online teacher, for providing us with this report from Amsterdam]
No-Limit Hold’em Freeroll
November 1, 2003: The cards are in the air
After the enormous success of the 2002 Master Classics, with sold-out events on all days except for the Big One, all people were anxious to see if this year could even be better. Well, if today’s freeroll is in line with what can be expected the rest of the week, we will see a great event this year. While in previous years people would only show up at the actual start of the Master Classics (which in this case would be tomorrow) and leave the freeroll for the hometown players, we had a packed venue full of foreigners today. Just like last year, the Holland Casinos have decided to give away seven tickets for the EUR 3,000 Main Event, and on top of that, they also add EUR 60,000 to the six tournaments this week. This means that with a whopping 81,000 Euros added prize money, the Master Classic of Poker is probably the best value in the world – and it seems that especially the European top pros have acknowledged it as such.
Almost all the Russian, French, German, Austrian, British and Scandinavian stars that we have become so familiar with, have already arrived. To name just a few: Joe Beevers, the Boatman brothers, Markus Golser, Kirill Gerasimov, Erik Sagström, Sigi Stockinger, Alan Betson, Carlo Citrone, Dave Colclough, Steve Liu and Tony G. And how about Dutch stars Marcel Lüske and Rob Hollink – not to mention top flight American Robert Williamson III? All of this means that while the Master Classics tournaments may be great value, they are also far from easy to win with such large fields, and so many top professionals competing for the money. I will provide you all with daily reports on the excitement and the drama – reports that can be found not only on www.masterclassicsofpoker.nl, but on www.pokerpages.com and www.pokerineurope.com as well.
So, how about today’s freeroll? Well, it was only two years ago when I won a ticket for the Big One in this freeroll – and therefore I had to beat a field of 64 to make the final ten, if I remember correctly. Today, it was close to 200 players competing for just seven tickets. And not just that: all this had to be done in a timeframe of only seven hours, meaning there would be quite a bit of luck involved. With about twenty players left, a lot of familiar faces were still in action with Dave Colclough, Hans Pfister, Bob Coombes, Antonio Turrisi, Carlo Citrone, Jacky Zhang, Sherkhan Farnood, Joseph Noujeim and Barny Boatman. But we also had some hometown players left (Cees, Arno, Herbert, Harry). Unfortunately, none of them would even make the final table, let alone the final seven. Most of all it was Barny who was doing the damage, eliminating both Herbert (with kings versus queen-ten suited) and Cees (with fives versus ace-queen) in large all-in-before-the-flop coups. At the start of today’s final table, things looked like this:
Final table line-up / estimated chip counts:
Seat # 1: Antonio Turrisi, Italy, 16,000
Seat # 2: Günther Mach, Austria, 4,000
Seat # 3: Bob Coombes, England, 3,000
Seat # 4: David Turnbull, Scotland, 25,000
Seat # 5: Barny Boatman, England, 46,000
Seat # 6: Sherkhan Farnood, Afghanistan, 7,000
Seat # 7: Morten Semback, Denmark, 8,000
Seat # 8: Dave Colclough, Wales, 22,000
Seat # 9: Jacky Lee, China, 30,000
Seat # 10: Joseph Noujeim, Germany, 15,000
With the blinds at 1,000-2,000 and an ante of 400, it seemed likely that Bob and Günther would be our first victims – especially with the button starting at seat # 10. When Bob immediately doubled through Günther, the Casino Austria dealer had only 600 left in chips – less that the amount that he had started with five hours ago. But that wouldn’t stop him from reaching the final seven! He got lucky on the next hand when he won with king-eight offsuit to collect ten antes for a relatively large main pot, and suddenly he was back in action. On this same hand we lost Morten, whose queen-jack of hearts was beat for the side pot by David Turnbull’s ace-ten. It was the first ever poker tournament for David, who played very well though and didn’t show his tournament inexperience in any way.
Günther got lucky a bit later as well when he raised Sherkhan’s 2,000 blind all-in to 4,000 and won uncontested – despite all the antes in the middle. Even though Sherkhan held a five-three only, he probably should have called for value, not to mention the fact that he could have busted an opponent out. With the antes this high and his stack down to 3,000, Sherkhan now decided to go all-in with eight-deuce of clubs a few hands later, but lost against Antonio. Antonio was very active and doing quite a bit of raising (with good hands, apparently: he showed both ace-king and pocket aces after uncontested wins), while Joseph was doing what he is so good at: calculating, and waiting for the right time and moment to make a move. With eight players remaining, and knowing that Günther would have to go all-in before him, the German took no chances, even though he had a very short stack himself. But he was unfortunate when Günther’s seven-four offsuit survived against two players who checked all the way to the river (Dave and Barny), and therefore was forced to go all-in on his big blind. Being the professionals they are, Dave and Barny knew what to do in this type of situation, and they checked down their hands to the river with the third person all-in. With success this time: Barny found a deuce in his hand to match the board and to bust out the unlucky Joseph. With seven players left, the freeroll was over, the winners being:
Jacky Lee, China
David Turnbull, Scotland
Bob Coombes, England
Antonio Turrisi, Italy
Günther Mach, Austria
Barny Boatman, England
Dave Colclough, Wales
Tomorrow, the EUR 220 limit hold’em tournament will take place, an already sold out event. As always, I will keep you guys posted. Take care, and good luck,
Rolf. |
