Once again, the partypoker Premier League VII saw a relatively speedy heat Sunday, as Heat 5 was completed in fewer than 160 hands. The first three heats were knockdown, drag out affairs, each lasting over 200 hands, but Saturday’s Heat 4 started a new trend, coming in at a nifty 156. It was Brian Rast who emerged victorious yesterday in the second straight “short” heat, and it was much needed, too, as he went into play at the bottom of the points leader board.
Heat 5 was an important one in the opening stage of the Premier League, as it marked the final chance for Jason Koon, Dan Cates, Phil Laak and Dan Colman to earn points towards a final table appearance; this was to be their fourth and final preliminary heat. Jeff Gross, Antonion Esfandiari, Dan Shak and Rast were all just on their third heat, so barring horrible finishes, they would still likely be in the running going into Monday. That said, Rast (6 points) and Shak (7 points), still really needed solid finishes to give themselves hope for the final heat.
Unfortunately for Shak, that didn’t happen. On Hand 41, he was all-in with suited 8-7 and got picked off by Rast and his Cowboys. Shak was eliminated in 8th place and received no points for this heat. Though he still has Heat 6 to go, it is mathematically impossible for him to finish in the top four overall and thus earn an automatic bid to the final table. He will have to hope the order of finish Monday ends up just right so that he can finish high enough to compete in the playoff for the last two final table seats.
Six hands later, Esfandiari busted, his A-K all-in pre-flop and falling to Rast’s pocket Jacks. Esfandiari earned one point for the 7th place finish and still has some work to do to assure a chance at the final table. Those two eliminations also put Rast way out in front with just over a million chips. Jeff Gross was the closest to him with 402,500.
It took a while for the next elimination, but it finally happened on Hand 74 when Laak, Rast, and Colman got into a raising war pre-flop. Colman eventually ended up all-in with Jacks having called Rast’s larger bet. Laak folded and it was a good thing he did, as he would’ve lost to both players. In the end, Rast got lucky, finding a 2 on the turn to make his pair of deuces a set and knock out Colman.
Laak wasn’t able to stay out of trouble for long, hitting the rail just four hands later when his K-Q fell to Gross’s A-K. And on the very next hand, Cates moved all-in with Fours pre-flop, only to get caught by Rast and his Sevens. With three players remaining, it was still all Rast, all the time. His nearly 1.5 million chips were one and a half times as much as Gross and Koon had combined.
On Hand 98, Rast knocked out Koon in 3rd place to go into heads-up play against Gross with a humongous chip lead, 2.034 million to 366,000.
Perhaps shockingly, less than 20 hands into heads-up, Koon doubled-up twice to take the chip lead. Rast wasn’t flustered, though, and on Hand 149 of the final table had gotten the lead back, though just slightly. Four hands after that, it was over. With K-8, Gross raised to 48,000 pre-flop. Rast re-raised to 120,000 with Aces and Gross decided to try to force him out (presumably) by moving all-in. Obviously that didn’t deter Rast and that was all she wrote.
Thus, the Heat 5 standings looked like this:
1. Brian Rast – 14 points
2. Jeff Gross – 11 points
3. Jason Koon – 9 points
4. Daniel Cates – 7 points
5. Phil Laak – 5 points
6. Dan Colman – 3 points
7. Antonio Esfandiari – 1 point
8. Dan Shak – 0 points
And the overall standings:
1. Dan Colman (4 of 4 heats played) – 37 points
2. Jeff Gross (3/4) – 36 points
3. Jason Koon (4/4) – 29 points
4. Sorel Mizzi (3/4) – 26 points
5. Daniel Cates (4/4) – 24 points
6. Brian Rast (3/4) – 20 points
7. Phil Laak (4/4) – 14 points
8. Jonathan Duhamel (3/4) – 17 points
9. Antonio Esfandiari (3/4) – 12 points
10. Scott Seiver (3/4) – 9 points
11 (tie). Dan Shak (3/4) – 7 points
11 (tie). Vanessa Selbst (3/4) – 7 points
Though he is now done with his preliminary heats, Dan Colman is guaranteed a spot at the final table, as it is mathematically impossible for him to drop further than 4th place after Monday’s Heat 6. Same goes for Jeff Gross, who could skip the last heat and still finish in the top four. On the flip side, Seiver, Shak, and Selbst are all just trying to make the playoff, as they cannot finish amongst the top four.