Tuesday night at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Quebec, saw the finale of the partypoker Premier League VII. 12 of the best (and deep-pocketed) pros in the poker world laid down $125,000 for the chance to play in the Premier League’s latest incarnation last Thursday and, after six heats and one playoff heads up match, five men were left standing for action.
The reason there were five men was there was one more heads up playoff match to be held before the Championship Table was set. Scott Seiver and Jonathan Duhamel battled it out in that best-of-three set, with Seiver taking the first match and Duhamel the second. In the rubber match, Seiver would emerge victorious to move onto the Championship Table.
In stark contrast to the heat stages, the six men were rapid with their chip attacks at the Championship Table. Only eight hands in, Brian Rast would five-bet (with only a J-9) Sorel Mizzi out of an early pot. Eight hands later, Dan Colman (who had been sitting comfortably atop the standings through much of the heat stages) would turn a flush against Jason Koon’s flopped top pair to take the early lead.
That set up a clash between Colman and Rast from which one man wouldn’t return. A pre-flop raising war put all the chips in the center, with Rast at risk, and the cards were turned up. Colman’s A♠ K♣ was in tough shape against Rast’s pocket Kings, but the 8♣ 10♥ Q♣ 4♣ 10♣ board had other ideas. Nailing his second four-flush in a row, Colman would eliminate Rast in sixth place and take a strong chip lead.
After that early flurry, the table then settled into a more sedate mode. Over 40 hands would be played before Mizzi would eliminate in fifth place Koon after Koon flopped two pair and Mizzi turned a straight. Two hands later, Colman and Seiver would both hit on an A-10-9 flop which set off more fireworks. Colman checked his option to Seiver, who moved all in with his A-7, and Colman beat him into the pot and showed his pocket tens for the flopped set to leave Seiver drawing thin. Once an eight appeared on the turn, Seiver was drawing dead and out in fourth place, leaving Colman (1.09 million), Mizzi (693,000) and Gross (234,000) to contend for the title.
Mizzi began to stake his claim to the Premier League championship only four hands later. Getting his stack in pre-flop, Mizzi’s pocket Kings held court over Colman’s pocket fours and, when the 10-3-2-10-Q board rolled out, suddenly found himself in a commanding lead on the table. He continued to batter Colman over the next ten hands, eventually eliminating Colman in third place when his pocket Kings withstood the assault of Colman’s K-10 to reach heads up play against Gross with a nearly 9:1 advantage.
With a Canadian player now guaranteed to win the Premier League, Mizzi set about what many thought would be a quick affair in eliminating Gross. Gross wouldn’t go that easy, however, doubling up twice to bring the match to nearly even. The players would pass the century mark in hands at the final table, with Mizzi now holding only a roughly 150K chip lead. It would take another eighty-plus hands before Mizzi would finally wear down Gross to finish the tournament.
On the final hand, Gross looked down to find two ladies in his hand and moved all in. After checking his cards, Mizzi didn’t believe Gross and made the call with only a Q♠ 8♠ to go to battle with. The 9♥ 4♠ 10♠ flop opened some more outs for Mizzi to the flush and a gutter ball straight and the flush came home on the 7♠ turn to leave Gross drawing dead. The needless 5♣ on the river ended the night and crowned Sorel Mizzi the champion of the partypoker Premier League VII.
1. Sorel Mizzi, $466,000 ($66,000 received for his 33 points ($2000 per point) earned during heat stages)
2. Jeff Gross, $274,000
3. Dan Colman, $194,000
4. Scott Seiver, $130,000
5. Jason Koon, $118,000
6. Brian Rast, $102,000
The six players who rounded out the Premier League lineup finished as such:
7. Jonathan Duhamel, $52,000
8. Daniel Cates, $48,000
9. Antonio Esfandiari, $40,000
10. Phil Laak, $38,000
11. Dan Shak, $20,000
12. Vanessa Selbst, $18,000