Last night, Adam sirusthevirus1 Stoneham became the fourth Samurai Champion to date, defeating Black Belt Poker co-founder Neil Channing heads-up to collect the title and $4,347.50 first prize.
The combination of a $250+25 buy-in and $10,000 guaranteed prize pool attracted 47 to the felt, including some of online poker's finest talents: Matthew Frankland, Alex Goulder, Jerome Bradpiece and defending Champion Andrew LegendKing1 Dwyer.
Also vying for gold was Green Belt Colin cheekyweeguy Timms, multiple WSOP finalist Spencer dionysian Lawrence, and two-time League Champion Adam JHobbit1 Saunders.
Perhaps the most fortunate entrant was Richard wowsickriver Hinds; he was the recipient of a free ticket generously donated by blogger Lil Dave Nicholson who entered readers into a free prize draw on Twitter. Sadly, Richard was unable to prosper when he departed in 19th.
A number of big names suffered early exits, with poor David DavidBlackBelt Pomroy handed the wooden spoon, closely followed by Sam SamSquid1 Grafton, Kevin Kevish47 Williams and Orange Belt Freeroll qualifier Nick nickhem1 Hemming.
Instead, the final six looked as such, with Stephen eamsie007 Eames the tortured bubble when his 4d-2h was unable to unravel Ah-As despite a rollercoaster 4c-5c-2c-Ad-7h board:
redarmi1 -- 83,136
NeilChanning -- 52,473
sirusthevirus1 -- 34,120
dbaby86 -- 32,492
Bowlyflush -- 17,659
NPStars1 -- 15,850
The final table witnessed more action than a Die Hard boxset as the chip lead changed countless times. The first casualty, however, was short stack Ken NPStars1 Johnston, the Orange Belt's A-J unable to improve against Channing's A-K.
Joining him on the rail was Mega Satellite qualifier dbaby86 (J-9s vs. A-J) while not too far behind was Jack Bowlyflush Ellwood, whose double-up with A-A versus T-T wasn't enough to prevent him from falling in fourth (2-2 vs. 9-9).
After redarmi1 took the bronze, it was left to Adam sirusthevirus1 Stoneham and NeilChanning to battle it out for the remaining medals with the latter boasting a lead of 142K to 93K.
Heads-up would prove an epic affair with more ups and downs than a kangaroo on a trampoline. Having doubled through with K-Q vs. Q-7 ("Rush of blood," claimed the victim), the final hand saw Stoneham's Qc-Tc outgun Kc-Js on an exciting Ks-3h-Td-Th-7s board.
A former Brown Belt from London, Stoneham is a 28-year old online pro who specialises in heads-up poker. Along with Sam Razavi, he was one of two recipients of an Aussie Millions package when he won the Black Belt Poker Grading in 2010.
"With my track record for coming second and Adam's experience playing heads-up, it wasn't looking too peachy," confessed Channing. "It was a close battle in the end, but Adam played great and deserved the win, although I must have more silver medals than Roger Black by now…
"It was marvellous to see so many familiar names turn up for Samurai," he continued, "and also many of our regulars and satellite qualifiers who got to compete for a big prize against some of the UK's best players. There was a great atmosphere with plenty of banter, and I'm already looking forward to defending my runner-up spot in the next one."
Final results:
1st sirusthevirus1 -- $4,347.50
2nd NeilChanning -- $2,585.00
3rd redarmi1 -- $1,762.50
4th Bowlyflush -- $1,292.50
5th dbaby86 -- $940.00
6th NPStars1 -- $822.50
No comments:
Post a Comment