Heat 5 of the ongoing PartyPoker Premier League played out from the M Casino in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Ian Frazer, a member of Team PartyPoker, outlasted Luke “Full_Flush” Schwartz heads-up.
Frazer has played in four matches so far and amassed 26 points, which is good for the fourth largest total among the unique tournament’s participants. Frazer told PartyPoker officials following his win, “This is the interview I’ve been waiting to do – a winner’s interview! The game plan in these things is patience. I knew I had to get in the top three to get into the heads-up, but now that I’ve won this heat, I could end up in the final anyway.”
Entering heads-up play, Frazer was a 2:1 chip leader. On the final hand of the match, Schwartz called all-in with A-9, but Frazer picked up pocket kings. The board came 10-4-3-9-8 and the wired pair held, propelling Frazer to victory. Schwartz earned 11 points for second place and sits in fifth on the overall leaderboard with 23 points, three behind Frazer. However, Frazer has played one more match.
Coming up empty on Tuesday was reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, who was crippled when he raised to 16,000 pre-flop holding K-J; Giovanni Safina, Tony G, and Daniel Negreanu came along. The flop came Q-4-3 and Safina led out for 22,000. Timoshenko made the call and everyone else got out of the way to bring a 10 on the turn. Timoshenko check-raised all-in with his open-ended straight draw and Safina called with pocket queens for top set. The river blanked out and Timoshenko was sent to the rails.
Exiting in seventh place was UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth, who ran A-Q into the A-K of Schwartz. As is typical for Schwartz, the hand did not go without drama. Coverage of the Premier League on PokerNews.com noted, “Schwartz left the Ravello Bar at The M Resort and Casino and went into the slot machine area before the flop was dealt. The production team had to go run and get him while everything was stalled until he came back. A few minutes went by and Hellmuth had to sit and wait the entire time. Then the board was run out without Schwartz being back.” Hellmuth rode Tony G’s chopper around the bar before departing.
Schwartz dismissed J.C. Tran in sixth place before Negreanu’s pocket tens defeated the pocket nines of Tony G to send the fiery European to the rails in fifth. In the latter hand, the board ran out K-J-3-K-7 and Tony G earned four points for his efforts. Frazer eliminated Negreanu in fourth with A-K against K-6 when the board fell J-8-4-10-J. Negreanu picked up six points and is third to last on the leaderboard at the M Casino. He’s one of several players who will take to the felts on Wednesday.
Safina, an online qualifier from Italy, was all-in pre-flop with A-2 against Schwartz’s Q-J. Schwartz flopped top two pair and never looked back. Here were the results from Heat 5 of the PartyPoker Premier League:
1. Ian Frazer – 16 points
2. Luke Schwartz – 11 points
3. Giovanni Safina– 8 points
4. Daniel Negreanu – 6 points
5. Tony G – 4 points
6. J.C. Tran – 3 points
7. Phil Hellmuth – 2 points
8. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 0 points
The overall standings are as follows:
1. Phil Laak – 48 points
2. David Benyamine – 35 points
3. Giovanni Safina – 29 points
4. Ian Frazer – 26 points
5. Luke Schwartz – 23 points
6. J.C. Tran – 20 points
7. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 16 points
8. Roland De Wolfe – 14 points
9. Vanessa Rousso – 12 points
10. Daniel Negreanu – 10 points
11. Tony G – 9 points
12. Phil Hellmuth – 8 points
The last heat of the Premier League will play out today featuring Schwartz, Laak, Benyamine, De Wolfe, Rousso, Negreanu, Tony G, and Hellmuth. The top four players on the leaderboard are guaranteed a spot at the final table, while the fifth through eighth place finishers will square off in heads-up matches to determine the final two spots.
