Monday, February 11, 2008

Poker Stars - Nick Slade wins European Open IV

Nick Slade wins European Open IV

The 45-year-old pro from Preston, Lancashire in the United Kingdom, walked away with $200,000 at the event after besting a final table that included Annette Obrestad, Juha Helppi, Craig Burgess, Ian Frazer and Josh Tyler.

"I did a lot of work studying Annette before the tournament because I thought that if I was to get anywhere she would be there or thereabouts. I basically knew that if she got a lot of chips she would continually try and re-raise me with a bag of rubbish and it proved to be right," Slade said.

"I knew that Frazer would try and be the table captain, Helppi would be seriously solid and Tyler was a good player after encounters in cash games."

The players carried their chips through from the semi-finals and Slade was fourth at that stage with 124,000. Frazer was the chip leader with 469,000, Tyler had 351,000, Obrestad 235,000, Helppi 114,000 and Burgess 107,000.

The balance of power swung dramatically between Tyler, Obrestad and Frazer, but Slade made his move when Burgess went all-in with a pair of queens and Slade called with K-3 off-suit.

 

The flop brought another king for Slade, and his top pair survived the turn and river.

Helppi was the first player to bust out when his big slick failed to overcome Obrestad's pocket nines. Tyler followed him to the rail when his pocket queens were busted by Slade's A-8 suited when an ace hit on the turn.

Slade's analysis of Obrestad paid off when she made a move with J-7 off-suit and Slade held firm with A-K. The flop brought Slade another King and Obrestad busted out.

Slade took out Frazer next. He had T-9 off-suit to Frazer's K-Q off-suit, but a nine on the flop was all it took to send Frazer packing in third place.

That left Slade and Burgess to battle it out heads-up, and Burgess had a sizeable lead with more than 90% of the chips on the table. In the end, Slade battled back from the chip deficit and his own always-a-bridesmaid-never-the-bride reputation to win the tournament.

"This is my biggest cash by quite some way, it's an amazing feeling," said Slade. "The money will come in very handy and I intend to take my three kids to Florida on a holiday and get back on the circuit. My wife is over the worst, I just hope this is the start of a new chapter in our lives."

Slade's family has seen some hardship the last few years. In 2006, Slade was considered one of the European circuit's rising stars, but his wife Jane came down with a serious illness and then Slade had a serious water skiing accident that shattered his neck in 2007.

He had to quit the game for a while and almost gave up hope of regaining his status in the poker world again, according to a PartyPoker press release.

"There is little doubt that Nick Slade was amongst the outsiders at the start of the tournament and at the start of the final table," said a PartyPoker spokesperson. "We congratulate him on his win and after all he has been through we hope this is a new dawn for him and his family."

The final-table results were as follows:

Place
Name
Prize
1st
Nick Slade
$200,000
2nd
Craig Burgess
$100,000
3rd
Ian Frazer
$50,000
4th
Annette Obrestad
$30,000
5th
Josh Tyler
$25,000
6th
Juha Helppi
$20,000

According to PartyPoker, Slade now has his eye on the PartyPoker European Challenge in Vienna in March and a variety of other tournaments.

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Erick Lindgren wins FTOPS VII event

The big news of the day started out with the $150,000 guaranteed tournament, hosted by Peter Jepsen, maxing out at the 6,000 players that Full Tilt Poker can accommodate for a tournament. That turned the $150,000 guaranteed prize pool into a $600,000 prize pool for the players who put in their $120+$9.

That accomplishment was eclipsed later, however, with the $1 million guaranteed event. The $300+$22 No-Limit Hold'em event was hosted by Erick Lindgren, and 5,637 players signed up, boosting the prize pool to $1,691,100.

Lindgren himself bested them all to take home the top prize, marking the first time the host of an FTOPS event has gone on to win his own event. For the win he takes home $291,748.57.

The final table played out as follows:

Place
Name
Prize
1st
Erick Lindgren
$291,748.57
2nd
Kochan
$176,719.95
3rd
No Woman No Cry
$113,641.92
4th
ryhenicee
$88,782.75
5th
Renatex01
$66,798.45
6th
darrenelias
$49,887.45
7th
madmax79
$38,895.30
8th
gettin deep
$29,594.25
9th
augie00
$21,984.30

There were several other pros who made it deep in this tournament as well to take home some cash. Keith Sexton, Berry Johnston, Eddy Scharf, Mike Matusow and JJ Liu all placed in the money.

The pros weren't quite as lucky earlier on Sunday for Event 8, the $150,000 guaranteed No-Limit Hold'em six-max knockout event. Host Peter Jepsen didn't make it into the money - which is more typical for these events than Lindgren's win - but Paul Sexton and Ben Roberts walked away with some money.

The big winner of the event was Sleepy_Hippo who turned his $120+$9 buy-in into a $114,612 win.

The top 10 players in the event were:

Place
Name
Prize
1st
Sleepy_Hippo
$114,612
2nd neil003
$70,200
3rd
checkdisouttt
$48,720
4th
OnlyPlayRagz
$36,000
5th
th_IN_kB4Urail
$26,400
6th
hurikane3
$18,000
7th
smzoc2
$11,580
8th
EasyFlow
$11,580
9th
daisyxoxo
$7,620
10th
ThisIsAGrind
$7,620

The FTOPS VII action continues today with another $1 million guaranteed event hosted by Bill Edler. Full Tilt Poker players can put up $1,000+$60 today at 9 p.m. (EST) for the No-Limit Hold'em six-max event.

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