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Poker News Round-up: Week #47

By Adam Noone, 21/11/2008

GUKPT final two Clarke and Ford

In previous years there has often been something of a post WSOP lull in the action, but this year’s delayed final table leaves no such time for inactivity as 2008 draws to a close. Both main domestic tours are due to have their end of year championship events soon, but for the GUKPT there was one last leg of the regular season to be played out in Blackpool. One of the larger fields of the year played down to a thrilling conclusion with Scotsman Brian Clarke facing off against Zachary Ford who was looking to make it a very impressive double having recorded a GCBPT win in nearby Liverpool in September. Ford looked to have it pretty much wrapped up with his massive chip lead which meant that on the first hand of heads up play Clarke had to just stick it all in pre-flop with 5 6. Ford’s 10 K safely negotiated the flop and turn but a five on the river kept Clarke in the game and gave Ford a little more work to do. Sometimes doing that work perfectly is still not enough though as Ford will well know having later got it all in pre-flop with pocket jacks against 10 8. A seemingly perfect flop for Ford of 4 5 J left Clarke needing a miracle but the 9 and K which subsequently made an appearance provided just that and suddenly the chip lead had changed hands. Just when Clarke found a genuine hand to get it all in with, his pocket queens seemed to have come unstuck when Ford’s ace king paired on both the flop and turn. A winning queen on the river would be a twenty one to one shot for Clarke, but when you’re running hot such statistics become meaningless and sure enough the river was an improbable third queen. It was an amazing reversal of fortune and whilst credit is due to Clarke for getting to that stage in the first place, Ford can count himself very unlucky not to have been celebrating the win instead. There was talk of a deal being done but the official payout was £96,500 to Clarke who will now be featuring in the Champion Of Champions tournament next month in Luton.

A little further afield the Polish Open drew the smallest the smallest EPT crowd for over three years, but all that meant really was that there was a concentration of the usual talented players with less dead money floating around. Young Italian Dario Minieri got stuck into his opponents right from the start with some big bluffs to take down pots when he had nothing, which in turn ensured he did get paid off when he had a big hand. His aggressive style had plenty of early success and he held the chip lead going into the final table, where it appeared that a change in tactics was deemed necessary. Minieri steered clear of much of the early action as players busted around him until finally he decided it was time to make a move. A re-raise all in with pocket sevens turned out to be the right move at the wrong time against Joao Barbosa’s pocket nines which duly held up for the Portuguese player to hand Minieri third place in an EPT event for the third time in three years.

The task of guiding his big stack home to victory against Germany’s Nico Behling did not prove too troubling for Barbosa and after patiently waiting for the right moment he became the latest EPT champion. The small field meant that the €367,141 for first was not quite the jawdropping amount that people like Elky have picked up in the past, but nevertheless it was a very nice present for birthday boy Barbosa.

Amit Makhija

Online there have also been a few big tournaments recently with Full Tilt’s FTOPS X drawing to a conclusion. Main event winner was Va shon Watkins playing as Julian Verse who was fortunate enough to find his final opponent bluff shoving all in with Watkins sitting on the second nut flush. For outlasting a mammoth field of 5225 Watkins collected $450,708 and of course the custom avatar. The other headline event was the high roller two day event which saw 500 players put up $5,000 apiece in search of the biggest payout of the series. Following up on his recent second place at the Legends Of Poker WPT event, Amit Makhija led the final table from start to finish to seal first place for $550,000 and confirm that he is one to look out for in 2009.

In a week lacking good gossip or scandal that is about all to bring you from this week’s news, but then not having some sort of cheating episode for us to tut disapprovingly at is obviously a good thing. Next week could be even quieter still with no major tournaments coming to an end for a little while, so if anybody out there feels like livening things up by disgracing themselves in public at the tables please do feel free.

Adam Noone is a Full Tilt Pro, Play with him and the Mob at Full Tilt Poker

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