| Seat 1 : Mohammed Ravai
(Iran) |
journeyman player based in Austria |
Seat 2 : Debi Berlin
(UK)
 |
the
lady from St. Albans |
| Seat 2 : Kevinn
O'connell (UK) |
occasional big tourney player |
| Seat 3 : Steve Vladir
(UK) |
very
solid, strong successful tournament player |
| Seat 4 : Jan Lunberg
(Sweden) |
bookmaker |
| Seat 6 : James Bonallack
(UK) |
amateur into TV dubbing |
| Seat 7 : Dave Colclough
(UK) |
IT
man in form |
|
| |
| |
| |
| Early
play had little to say for itself. Everybody appeared tight. |
 |
| Debi
short stacked after trying to play Q-Q and finding one of the blind men
making a tiny two-pair. On flopping a straight draw with her 4-6 ( flop
2-5-7 ) she felt obliged to raise the Ace-7 of O'Connell. Nothing
came. |
|
| Bonallack tried it on for no apparent reason with K-Q and a
flop of 2-J-Ace, giving him a gut-shot straight draw at best. Ravai had Ace-Ace
and saw first a Jack to make full and the fourth Ace! No prizes for best
hand. |
|
| Vladir
never found his feet and gave chips to Lunberg needlessly. After that he made a
desperate call with K-8 to see O'Connell flip 10-10. A 10 came and there was no
doubt he was out. |
|
Colclough gets caught on a steal with 10-9 and has put too
many chips into the pot to get away from it. He faces 8-8 and is luckily only
11-9 underdog. The flop comes J-10-8 to give a straight draw that
doesn't deliver.
This shorts him to the extent that his raise all-in with
9-9 is not enough to take O'Connell out with 6-6. The River card brings
a six and then there were three. |
|
| Lunberg
never showed any ability to bluff or read his opponents in the heat or this
semi. His chips were taken by the others taking advantage and when he finally
put it all in with 9-9 he found O'Connell with the
Cowboys
and a King flopped. |
|
The
heads-up dual decides who goes into the final.
So the last spot was
between O'Connell and Ravai. The was a lot of passive play and one small pot
went to Ravai. Finally a good hand developed with both players paying small
amounts to see the flop. Ravai had Ace
 -
Four
 and
O'Connell Queen
-
Six
.
The flop came Ace - Jack - Seven with two spades. O'Connell bet his flush
draw and Ravai smoothly called. The
Turn brought
a Six and now O'Connell bet with more of a confident vibe now that he had a
pair to go with his draw.
Ravai was confused by this positve note but,
as he thought, he picked up the true value of his opponents hand and put him on
(assumed that he had) a draw. He raised all-in knowing that it could not be the
Ace-flush draw and O'Connell called without thinking, as he should. With a
Queen, Six or Spade to lose, Ravai was 70-30 favourite and none of those
came.
Ravai actually played quite well here although O'Connell took
five people out. Best player on the day to the final. |
Main Menu
