In an excellent display of power poker, chip leader Amir Babakhani dominated the final table to take down the victory at the World Poker Tour Canadian Spring Championship at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Quebec, last night.
Babakhani came into the final table with over 6.6 million chips, amassing that stack by being the “power player” over the final levels of Wednesday night’s action. That was good for a nearly two million chip lead over the second place contender, Barry Kruger, who was in a fight with Jason Duval for the second place slot. Tao Liang wasn’t far back either with his 3.87 million in chips, while Jonathan Bardier (1.47 million) and Martin Leblanc (1.14 million) were looking to double up to get back in the fight.
The players would spend the first fifteen hands shuffling chips between each other before the first significant action occurred. On Hand 16, Liang made a raise only to see Bardier move all in from the cutoff. In the big blind, Leblanc called off his stack and, after Liang stepped out of the fray, the two short stacks went at it. Leblanc, holding an off suit K-Q, was in tough shape against Bardier’s A-10 and the flop and turn (9-6-5-7) didn’t change much. Lightning struck on the river, however, as a King peeled off to give Leblanc the double up and leave Bardier in dire straits.
Bardier didn’t back down, doubling up a few hands later against Duval to get back over the million chip mark. Over the next five hands, Bardier would take down three of them to move over the two million chip level and put Leblanc back in the short stack position. It wasn’t until after over two hours of play before the first departure would occur and it solidified Babakhani’s hold on the field.
After Bardier completed from the small blind, Babakhani put the pressure on by raising from the big blind. Bardier moved all in in response and was immediately called by Babakhani. Turning up his cards, Babakhani’s Big Chick was in a dominant position over Bardier’s A-J and a Queen on the flop pushed him further into the lead. When the turn eight paired the flop, Bardier was drawing dead and out of the tournament in sixth place while Babakhani leapt over the ten million chip mark.
The elimination of Bardier seemed to loosen up the remaining five players at the table as the pace of action ramped up. Babakhani and Kruger were the aggressors at this time as they stretched away from the other three players, but it would be Babakhani who would be the benefactor of most of the play towards the heads up showdown.
Babakhani would be responsible for the knockouts of Leblanc (once again dominating with Big Chick over Leblanc’s A-6), and Duval (who knocked off Liang in fourth place) to set up what many had expected over the final couple of days of the tournament, a heads up showdown with Kruger. With his nearly 2.5:1 lead over Kruger, Babakhani could almost taste the victory before a hand of heads up play was dealt.
Babakhani kept the pressure on Kruger, taking ten of the first 14 hands of heads up play to extend his lead to a whopping 10:1. Kruger, for his part, attempted to strike back in making quads to double up, then would do it again by rivering a higher two pair against Babakhani’s flopped two pair. All of a sudden, Kruger was back within striking distance of Babakhani (13.4 million to 8.6 million), but the end came as suddenly as Kruger’s resurgence.
On the final hand, Babakhani kicked the action up from the button and was called by Kruger to see a 5-5-3 flop. Kruger would check-call a 600K bet from Babakhani and a deuce on the turn lit the fuse for the fireworks. Kruger checked again and, after Babakhani fired a 1.3 million bullet, moved all in. To his surprise, Babakhani immediately called him and the men turned their cards up.
Both thought they were trapping the other as the cards laid on their backs. Babakhani and Kruger held the other two fives in the deck, but Babakhani’s eight played over Kruger’s four to give him the edge. Looking for an Ace, six or four to take the hand outright or the board to pair to split, Kruger instead saw an innocuous Queen come on the river to end his tournament and crown Babakhani the champion.
1. Amir Babakhani, $442,248
2. Barry Kruger, $272,555
3. Jason Duval, $199,029
4. Tao Liang, $136,700
5. Martin Leblanc, $102,251
6. Jonathan Bardier, $81,767
With the victory, Babakhani not only etched his name onto the WPT Champions’ Cup, he also earned a seat to the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas that begins May 18. The traditional final stop for the season on the WPT, this year’s $25,500 buy-in tournament will have a tremendous amount of drama as the battle for the WPT Player of the Year award is extremely close. For now, however, Amir Babakhani can make his reservations for the tournament and revel in the honor of being a WPT champion.
