The fourth stop of the UKIPT hit Ireland last week as a 602-thick field ambushed the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork with €560 in their back pocket. After four days of hard-fought poker, the last man standing was Black Belt Poker sponsored pro Sam 'KODDZILLA' Razavi. He toppled 28-year old Dubliner David O'Connor to take home the illustrious trophy and wallet-expanding first prize.
Sam's tournament started off steady as he finished Day 1B 11th in chips. On Day 2, however, he really took the event by the scruff of the neck, mainly thanks to a mammoth 1.8 million pot where he found aces versus the kings of 14th place finisher Sam MacDonald. This scoop placed him top of the pile, before finishing the day chip leader of 11 with 1.9 million.
On the final day, it was Sam who led us to our final table as he despatched of ninth place finisher Vincent O'Connor. With Sam opening for 33,000 with A-9, O'Connor moved all in for 116,000 with Ad-5d and Sam called. Despite a teased flush draw on the flop, the turn and river were blanks and Sam headed to the final with a commanding stack of 2 million and a tiny Irish hat and leprechaun mascot.*
As Peter Burnett fell in eighth, Sam became the last remaining Brit in the tournament. With his eyes fixed on the trophy, he then extended his chip lead to a whopping 3.5 million by eliminating Chris Dowling in seventh with jacks versus tens all in preflop. Sam experienced a less hectic period, until he doubled up Jamie Flynn and slipped to 2.5 million with four remaining.
After Martin Mulsow desposed of Flynn in fourth, the former would become involved in the pot of the tournament with Sam little more than a bystander. All in versus David O'Connor with A-A versus A-K, it looked as though the German would be taking us to heads-up, but running cowboys on the turn and river shattered his hopes and left him with just 1 million. Moments later, he was snipered down by the same assassin.
Heads-up, and Sam was facing a near 3:1 chip deficit, but his experience as a heads-up cash pro on Black Belt Poker paid dividends as he ground his way back to even. The key pot saw Sam call a raise to 135,000 from O'Connor before check-calling 185,000 on the 2c-5h-9c flop and check-raising a bet of 290,000 on the Js turn to 1.4 million. O'Connor moved all in with Tc-8c for the open-ended straight and flush draw, while Sam made the call with Jh-9h for top two pair. The Ks river missed the Irishman and several minutes later Sam was crowned champion when his Ad-7c held up against Kc-6c on an ensuing 7h-8c-2s-Td-2h board.
"I'm really grateful for all the support I received over the three days," thanked Sam. "It's fantastic to finally scoop a title, and I was delighted to reward the four Orange Belt Freeroll winners with some hard cash. It's great to have some dough to blow in Vegas and not worry about. Heeeee Heeeee, Chamone!"
A 30-year old part-time actor from Brighton, Sam joined Black Belt Poker in the summer of 2010. He soon scaled his way up to Blue Belt in the Belt-Up Rewards System before winning a £10,000 Aussie Millions package through the Black Belt Poker Grading. In the A$10,000 Main Event, Sam finished an admirable sixth place for A$225,000 catapulting him to Black Belt as a result.
Sam came into UKIPT Cork in good form, having denied London Live Vegas Freeroll winner Philip Mildon a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat the day prior. Mildon had already won four consecutive heads-up bouts against Neil Channing and Richard Ashby for a combined $6,500 in WSOP tournament entries, but was unable to defeat Sam.
Sam's triumph in Cork means that Black Belt Poker now boast two UKIPT Champions with Blue Belt Jamie Burland winning last year's Brighton leg for £65,400. Jamie also made the money in Cork, cashing in 22nd for €1,400. Ultimately, he fell foul of a coin flip when his Ah-Jh failed to better Tc-Td on a Ks-7s-6h-9c-4s board.
After deals three-handed and heads-up, Sam took away a cheque for €46,710. The great news about this win was that four Black Belt Poker members had shares ranging from $25 to $100 courtesy of our 'Slice of the Action' Orange Belt Freeroll. Freeroll winners David Meunier, Jason Layland, Trevor Ingman and Dean Aldred therefore made thousands of dollars out of nothing thanks to Sam and Black Belt Poker. If you would like to see how you could do the same, then check out the site now.
For more on the Orange Belt Freeroll and what the four winners won, see here.
Sam is a featured blogger at Black Belt Poker. Click here to read Sam's blog.
The official results are as follows:
1st Sam Razavi (United Kingdom) -- €71,000
2nd David O'Connor (Ireland) -- €41,200
3rd Martin Mulsow (Germany) -- €25,200
4th Jamie Flynn (Ireland) -- €18,500
5th Allen McCauley (Ireland) -- €14,800
6th Adam Jaguscik (Poland) -- €11,300
7th Chris Dowling (Ireland) -- €8,900
8th Peter Burnett (United Kingdom) -- €6,900
9th Vincent O'Connor (Ireland) -- €4,915
* Not a real leprechaun.
Image courtesy of Neil Stoddart / PokerStars.
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