The PartyPoker Premier League IV began on February 12th without Texan poker legend Doyle Brunson, who missed out due to an enforced break after surgery. His replacement, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, must be thanking his lucky stars in the build up to the final of the prestigious poker tournament.
Laak was drafted in last minute and declared the opposition to be “the toughest field I have ever faced”. That certainly didn’t appear to be the case as he proceeded to take down heats one and two, to race into an early lead in the Premier League table. He wasn’t in heat three, which was won by David Benyamine, but he certainly featured in heat four, where he completed an unbelievable hat trick worth $96,000 (three first place prizes of $32,000) and 48 PartyPoker Premier League points.
Laak didn’t feature again until the final heat, where he was first out, busted by Daniel Negreanu in a coin flip. Not that it mattered, for his 48 points had already sealed his automatic qualification to the six-handed final table. Benyamine, who finished second in the Premier League table with 38 points, as well as Luke “Fullflush” Schwartz and online qualifier Giovanni Safina, who tied for third with 29 points, will join Laak in the final. The other two slots will be filled by the winners of the heads up play-off matches, which see Daniel Negreanu (5th, 26 points) take on JC Tran (8th, 20 points), while British pair Ian Frazer (6th, 26 points) and Roland de Woolfe (7th, 22 points) also do battle.
Former World Series of Poker champion Phill Hellmuth (9th, 19 points) missed out on a play-off spot by a single point, after he was beaten heads up in the final heat by Negreanu, while Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Vanessa Rousso finished joint 10th on 16 points and Tony G propped up the table, with a mere 11 points.
Laak must surely be favourite for the event after his crushing performances so far, but the real story in the PartyPoker Premier League IV is that of Safina, a 44 year old lawyer from Palermo, Sicily. Safina qualified for the event online with just a €100 investment and these are his first ever live poker games. He described his initial experience as “emotional”, adding that he feels “confident” about his chances in the final. No matter the result, he says it has been “an amazing experience”.
Let’s hope the final is just as amazing for him. It is certainly set up for an exciting climax.
Betsson Poker is a great poker room and offers 40% cash back Note that US players can not play here | |
| Advert | Read more » |
Poker News
| Related Articles
|
Submit a Comment