LONDON CALLING!
The sound of the traditional English summer—the evening mowing of grass, the smack of leather on willow, was added by a new noise*#8212;the clatter of thousands of poker chips as the World Series of Poker Europe kicked off in London in September.
Making the historical first trip outside the US, we on the other side of the pond were keen to show that we could hold the poker calendar’s premier event, and boy did we deliver. Like a pent-up Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday, we wanted to show the world what Britain had to offer: culture; sophistication; a little bit more than a hot dog, know what I mean? After all, London was Europe’s #1 poker destination (according to gambling.com’s sister magazine Bluff Europe, so who were we to argue?) so let’s show them the fibre of our fabric.
And in true Brit style, the opening of the WSOPE coincided with, er, a 72-hour tube strike. RMT Union boss Bob Crow must hate poker—that’s the only reason for calling a strike during the biggest poker tournament ever to hit these shores, a time when we’re meant to be showing the hesitant American poker stars who’ve dipped their toes in the Atlantic and made it all this way that we’re a serious contender for holding the world’s greatest tournament. Hell, even the 74 year-old Doyle Brunson has made the trip. Did he not realise?!
Playing host were three of London’s best casinos, part of London Clubs International’s repertoire: the recently-opened Empire at Leicester Square, Fifty in St.James Street and Mayfair’s Sportsman casino. And first up was the £2500 H.O.R.S.E. event.
H.O.R.S.E. –ing around
105 runners anted up for the opening act of the WSOPE soap opera. With alternating rounds of Limit Hold ‘em, Omaha, Razz, 7 card Stud and Stud Eight-or-better, the requisite big-hitters were all in place–Doyle, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu and Greg Raymer, Lederer, Harman and Hellmuth, a veritable smorgasbord of the great and good of the poker fraternity. And after 2 days the last day served up a final table truly fit for a WSOP. Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, Jennifer Harman and Kirk Williams against the European contingent: Thomas ‘Buzzer’ Bihl from Germany and Joe ‘Elegance’ Beevers, the popular Hendon Mobster from England.
The field had dwindled from 105 runners from the kick-off (including a staggering 98 WSOP bracelets among the numbers) on Thursday to get to this point and led to a heads-up duel between Bihl and Jennifer Harman.
The diminutive American was the early favourite with a significant chip lead. It looked like short heads-up play for Bihl and a new gold bracelet for Harman. However, Bihl, who later noted that his aggressive style came into its own when he started drawing decent cards, began to chip away at Harman’s lead. Little by little, chunk by chunk, the quiet German put the woman who many credit as one of the best players in the world, to the test.
The hours passed, and the marathon began to draw to a close. After hours of gruelling battle, tiredness effected players, fan and casino personnel. Jennifer donned two coats to keep warm, fans ordered food and drink to sustain them, the hour approached four, but with ruthless German efficiency, Bihl kept the pressure on Harman who was vying for her 3rd WSOP bracelet.
In the end, Bihl proved the victor. At 4.15am, Bihl took Harman’s final chips in a round of Hold ‘em. His 8-9 bested Harman’s 10-x with a board of K-7-7-10-6 and the straight was enough to take down the title.
Bihl said shortly afterwards:
“I was happy with the whole tournament. I didn’t get into real stack problems and the structure was really fantastic, I was able to play a patient game. I played premium hands mostly and I got paid off!”
Event 3: £10,000 No Limit Hold ‘em Main Event
Following a superb weekend of action that saw German Thomas Bihl holding off the best that America could offer over the H.O.R.S.E table, and Italian Dario Alioto taking down the £5000 Omaha event, could the Europeans make it three out of three to bag every title in the inaugural WSOPE?
362 runners made the final tally (surely a few prop bets on numbers of runners were won and lost between the pros that morning) and a quick scan of the entry list made awesome reading— WSOP bracelet winners past and present littered the 3 hosting casinos (The Empire at Leicester Square, The Sportsman, and FIFTY) for Day 1A. A starting stack of 20,000 chips with a lengthy clock ensured some early cagey play, but it was in Level 1 over at The Sportsman where things were getting messy, with Annie Duke crippling German Andreas Krause’s stack. The job was finished when Andreas pushed with K-K, only to be called by Q-9 which duly hit 2 pairs on the board. A dejected Krause left the room barely unable to speak.
In the refined surrounds of one of London’s more relaxed cardrooms, a strangely subdued Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott and Humberto Brenes got on with the job in hand. On the cash board at the end of the card room, someone had scrawled on the waiting list ‘BAN ALL H.O.R.S.E’– presumably it wasn’t Hassan ‘Freddie’ Deeb, H.O.R.S.E. champion at this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas, plying his trade over on table 31. It wasn’t to be Deeb’s day as he exited before the break, his A-K cracked by A-Q which paired up.
“Let me tell you something. If I’m going to go broke, I’d rather go broke in the first 3 hours than play for 3 days then go bust!” said a pragmatic Deeb afterwards.
WSOP big-hitter Paul Wasicka, making his first ever trip to Europe, was soon following as his trip 3s were blasted by trip 10s. An early flight back to New Jersey and the family was the order of the day. Also hitting the rail on Day 1 were Liz Lieu, Todd Brunson and Mizrachis, Mike and Robert.
The remaining half of the field commenced play on Tuesday at 2pm London time, where the players left were looking to catch big stacks Phil Hellmuth (riding high on 94,000) and French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, following up his excellent show at the EPT in Barcelona recently (see Issue 10) with solid progress in London. Also beginning to make strong headway were Patrik Antonius (see Features in Issue 10) and Great Dane Gus Hansen.
The two good friends were making strong progress right up to the penultimate day, but a rash all-in with pocket 3s was a bold move too many for Patrik who was sent to the rail. Gus, on the other hand, who’d been bullying his way along for days (sending a visibly shaken Greg Raymer on tilt on the feature table for all to see), looked set to go the distance, when he was busted out in 10th, just one place short of the final table.
But it was the Europeans who were left to battle it out for the honours, with Matthew McCullough the sole American at the final table. The young 18 year-old prodigy from Norway, Annette Obrestad, had been a solid presence for the entire tournament, and, despite being a medium stack, looked poised going into the last 9 to take down the title and the glory. Making up the numbers alongside the lone American: 3 Brits, 2 Norwegians, 1 Dane and 2 Swedes.
Obrestad started the day in the middle of the pack, on a stack of 697,000, well short of Matthew McCullough’s 1,278,000 and Magnus Persson’s 1,231,000. Brit James Keys started the day on the short stack, and got all his chips in the middle on the third hand of the day, moving all in from the small blind with Q-10. Magnus Persson called with A-9, and when the board came down A-10-3-7-3, Keys was eliminated. The 21-year-old Englishman took home £61,540 for his ninth-place finish.
Theo Jorgensen came to the final table with more major tournament experience than his tablemates, having a WSOP final table under his belt ($5,000 Stud in 2007) and an EPT final table as well (in Copenhagen). The oldest member of the final table at 35, Jorgensen went to the rail in 8th after being crippled by John Tabatabai. After starting the day second in chips, Magnus Persson saw his stack slowly disintegrate over the first few levels. He found himself on a short stack, and pushed all in pre-flop with K-10, only to find himself called by Tabatabai, holding pocket kings. The final board was A-7-5-4-3, and Persson picked up £114,030 as he departed.
Another Englishman, Dominic Kay soon followed, and Johannes Korsar was following quickly behind. Oyvind Riisem was the next to fall when he called McCullough’s all in with pocket nines. McCullough showed aces, and Riisem got no help from the deck. The 22-year-old Norwegian picked up £257,020 for his fourth-place finish.
With the last American McCullough out in 3rd, an arduous heads-up match followed that lasted almost as many hands as the rest of the final table.
Obrestad got all her chips in the middle with Tabatabai drawing all but dead. On a flop of 7-6-5, Obrestad led out and Tabatabai raised. Obrestad pushed all in with pocket 7s, and Tabatabai called with 5-6, after hitting 2 pairs.
Obrestad’s top set was good enough and she became the first winner of the WSOP Europe Main Event, the first woman to win a WSOP tournament with a buy-in over $10,000, and the youngest player (by far) ever to win a WSOP bracelet. Ironically the 19-year-old Obrestad can’t even play in the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas, because she’s too young.
For the good of the game, the tournament couldn’t have picked a better or more popular champion, as Annette Obrestad’s victory will surely tap into a market that the game has so far been unable to reach. A young, likeable, Internet-based, and most importantly, female winner, will have been the kind of result the organisers could only have dreamt of when the decision was made to send the game’s most recognised brand to Europe.
Annette’s victory was everyone’s victory. Harrah’s have got their wish for a successful expansion into Europe, Betfair have poker’s hottest property in their stables, poker has a new superstar, women poker players have a new role model, the online community has a certified icon, and Europe has proved once again that it houses some of the finest talents in the modern game. That’s a pretty favourable return in anyone’s book.
Annette_15 may have to wait until she is Annette_21 before she can attempt to light up the World Series in Vegas, but she can rest assured that her name will forever be inscribed in the annals of WSOP folklore.
WSOPE Main Event
Top 10 Cashes
1st Annette Obrestad Norway £1,000,000
2nd John Tabatabai UK £570,150
3rd Matthew McCullough USA £381,910
4th Oyvind Riisem Norway £257,020
5th Johannes Korsar Sweden £191,860
6th Dominic Kay UK £152,040
7th Magnus Persson Sweden £114,030
8th Theo Jorgensen Denmark £85,070
9th James Keys UK £61,540
10th Gus Hansen Denmark £41,630
Omaha Landing
The second bracelet winner of the WSOPE was 23 year-old Italian Dario Alioto, bagging the 2-day £5000 PL Omaha event (beating Tony G and Istvan Novak to the title), the coveted gold bracelet and £234,390 in cash. A quick scan of Dario’s previous cashes make this win no surprise; his warm-up for London came with a win in the PL Omaha event at the Italian Poker Championships, and he left the WSOP in Vegas this summer with 2 cashes, in the $5000 PL Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better and the $10,000 Omaha event. We spoke to Dario as he was having a torrid time in the main event.
Congratulations Dario! How does it feel?
The Omaha event was great for me. I had good position on the final table with the small stack on my left and there was a very tight player also on my left too who was only playing premium hands, so the table allowed me to be aggressive. Were you confident throughout the entire tournament? Yes, definitely. Omaha is my main game—I’d say 90% of the poker I play is Omaha. I’d like to play more as I certainly have a bigger edge there. With Hold ‘em, you play with just 2 cards, it can get boring, but in Omaha, it’s easier to find playable hands.
Who did you fear most during the event?
[At this point, Patrik Antonius walks past]. Erm, this guy! Yes, I respected Patrik very much during the tournament.
You haven’t been playing that long. How did you get into poker?
I’ve only been playing for a couple of years, Hold ‘em at first, playing a lot online. I qualified for the EPT in Barcelona [in 2005, where Dario finished 7th], which was my first ever live tournament. I realised that I could make a living from poker, so I quit my studies and concentrated on poker [a pharmacy student, Dario was following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps, both pharmacists]. I just wanted to see if I was good enough to turn pro. My bankroll management is also very good, so I make sure that I never go broke—that’s one of the things that makes me successful.
So you’ll be back in Vegas next year trying for another bracelet?
Yes for sure. I’ll be playing every big Omaha event from now on [Andy Black wanders up to congratulate the young Italian]. I have one now [bracelet], and that means everyone looks at you differently. I’ve won in Europe, so I’d like to go and win in America.
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