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Five More Freeroll Winners Join
Growing List for $1,500 Finale
Today’s second freeroll for seats in the St. Maarten Open championship event attracted 135 hopefuls Five lucky players earned their tickets into the two-day no-limit hold’em event which starts December 2. They join the other five who won seats in the first $7,500 freeroll held November 20.
The championship event promises to be a monster. International Poker Federation CEO Thomas Kremser says 200 seats are locked up for sure, and he is sticking to his prediction of a total of 250 entrants. That means that a prize pool of more than $300,000 is pretty much guaranteed.
By contrast, the biggest prize pool last year was $56,995 for a $1,000 no-limit event that drew 60 entrants and was won by Antonio Turrisi of Italy.
Planet Poker is sponsoring this year’s St. Maarten Open by paying for all ten $1,500 seats that were won in the freerolls. Planet Poker’s new marketing manager, Michael Yates, has been on hand to describe Planet Poker’s new software, and he was later joined by Roy Cooke, the online site’s cardroom manager as well a senior columnist for Card Player magazine.
Planet Poker also gave out 30 seats to the main event in online tournaments. Another 53 players got seats in satellites at Party Poker.
Players have to play in at least five open events to qualify for the freerolls.
Given the seductive charms of this island paradise, the growth of online poker rooms offering trip-prize tournaments, and the expected additional sponsorship, it’s anybody’s guess how many players will be getting off the plane here next year.
As for the freeroll itself today, there’s only one way to describe it:
Fast!
Well, fast and frenzied, perhaps. At the first freeroll, there were plenty of small, strategic bets. This time it was pretty much all in and pray. Players were dropping out in bunches. The whole tournament, which had 20-minute rounds, didn’t last much more than two hours.
As for the final table, it was over in a couple of eye-blinks. Only five players needed to be eliminated, and the hands went by so fast it was hard to even keep track of the cards. To the best of my ability, this is how it went.
Play began with limits of $500 and $1,000 and $200 antes, with eight minutes remaining. A player from Germany giving his name only as “Gerhard” and describing himself as a beginner, began the action by being first out in five hands. He raised all his chips with A-Q and lost to Steve Vladar’s A-K.
Six hands later, same cards. Blinds were now $800-$1,600 with $300 antes. Harry Juvonen went all in with A-Q and lost to e Vladar’s A-K. Two down.
A few hands later, Simon Nowab raised $7,000 with 8c-7c, and Emile Elias came over the top, going all in for $7,000 more with pocket kings. The cowboys prevailed, with a third one on the turn for good measure, and Nowab was now short-chipped.
A couple of hands later, an A-Q finally won. It belonged to Robert Mizrachi, who had Nowab all in with A-3. The board came K-10-5-J-7, and there was only one player left to go.
That player was a lady named X Pham. She moved in for her last $2,400 with the best hand, A-8 to Elias’s A-6. The flop gave both of them an ace, and then a 6 on the turn ended the tournament.
Surviving and winning their $1,500 championship seats were Robert Mizrachi, Sigi Stockinger, Emile Elias, Steve Vladar and Morten Tvergaard
—Max Shapiro
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