If you read my last article, you’ll know that day 7 was scheduled to start with two heads up matches to determine who would sit in the remaining two seats of the final table. Tony G, Andy Black, Alex Kravchenko, and Marcel Luske already had seats at the prestigious table, which boasted a $520,000 prize pool and $250,000 for first place. Roland de Wolfe, Annie Duke, Dave Ulliott, and Eddy Scharf were the players who earned playoff spots and their matches were scheduled to take place in the first half of this final day of 2008’s PartyPoker Premier League.
The playoffs featured a best of five heads-up competition, with de Wolfe playing Scharf and Ulliott playing Duke. The de Wolfe and Scharf series played out first.
De Wolfe won the first match of his series with Scharf, getting it in with 33 versus Scharf’s KQo preflop. “How can I fold a pair?” he said before calling and winning the race.
The second match only lasted eight hands after de Wolfe limp/pushed with A2 and Scharf called with 88, saying, “Like you said, I can’t fold a pair.” Despite getting it in behind, however, de Wolfe was able to spike an ace on the turn and he went up 2-0 in the heads-up series. He apologized for the bad beat, but we all know that never makes a poker player feel better …
Things didn’t get better for Scharf during the next match. Unable to build much of a chip lead over de Wolfe, he eventually lost most of his stack in a limped pot with KK versus 33, losing to a set after a 3 fell on the turn. He finally got knocked out after getting it in with K8o preflop and losing to de Wolfe’s K4s. “Why do I always have to outdraw people?” de Wolfe asked as he hit his flush on the river. I’m sure he was really disappointed 😉
Ulliott and Duke were up next, with one seat left to fight for. The first few hands were unexciting, aside from Ulliott calling Duke ‘darling’ and ‘babe’ (ah, to be a female poker player). Duke eventually built up a fairly large chip lead, but stacks evened up again when she correctly called Ulliott’s 3-bet shove with A7o versus his K7s but lost when he flopped the nuts. With only seven hands per blind level, the match eventually became a push/foldament. Ulliott complained, “Are you serious, the blinds are up again?” while Duke quipped, “Hey, let’s play craps!” She eventually won the first match a few hands later, beating Ulliot’s JTs with 86o all in preflop. “I wanna say for the record that Devilfish is a better player than me,” she said after taking a 1-0 lead.
The second match took 32 hands before Duke finally won another and earned a 2-0 lead. The key hand of the match was when they got it all in preflop, Duke with Q2o, Ulliott with 44. Flop came 22K, to which Duke said, “I hope you hit a four, that’s so ridiculous.” Ulliott responded with “Deuce!” No deuce and no four, and Duke won the pot.
Match three saw Ulliott getting unlucky several times. He got dealt pocket queens in back to back hands but got absolutely no action for either (Duke actually walked him for one of them). In another hand he called Duke’s preflop push with 55 and was against her KJo on a 43A5 board. Duke’s only outs were four 2’s to hit a wheel in the board cards and sure enough the river was a 2. “This is just so fucking sick,” Ulliott said. “Find a hand and put me out of my misery.” It was Ulliott who found hands after that, however, and he finally won the match after calling Duke’s push with 58o while holding K7o. 2-1 for Duke!
Heads-up match number four only lasted 18 hands. Ulliott lost his right to complain about bad beats after his AQo spiked an A on the turn after getting it in on a T44 flop with Duke’s QTo. He won the match when he flopped middle pair with 89o and called Duke’s push with 79o. Now the score was 2-2.
One more heads-up match to determine who would move on to the final table! It was over in just 13 hands, with Duke building a chip lead by playing poker and taking down pots without made hands. She got a little luck when she needed it, however, calling a raise preflop with J4s and then calling Ulliott’s push with AKo on a 994 flop. “Wow, you called the raise with jack-four, eh?” was Ulliott’s reply as he missed the turn and river. Duke won the match and with it the series between her and Ulliott, which meant that she was bound for the final table!
This article is getting long (once again), so I’ll be posting the second half of day 7 in a separate article. Here’s how the final table will look (chips stacks are based on how the players placed in the Round One):
Tony G – 380,000
Andy Black – 330,000
Alex Kravchenko – 260,000
Marcel Luske – 210,000
Roland de Wolfe – 200,000
Annie Duke – 190,000
My final table summary will be posted shortly!