Continued from Part One...
The Rise and Fall of Giovanni Pennetta
Like the recent Irish Open, the London Live also boasted two bubbles. Admittedly, we couldn’t quite match the €100,000 offered by Paddy Power for their Sole Survivor, but we were able to pay the final four Orange Belts $500 a piece, whether they made the ‘official’ money or not. Sadly, and despite only five Orange Belts making it through to Day Two, Simon Morris (pictured) felt the splash of both bubbles and went home with nothing but an empty wallet, whilst Giovanni Pennetta, Craig Wakeman, Toby Lewis and Tom Drew all doubled their money.
If you thought this would allow the Orange Belts to rest on their laurels, then you’d be sorely mistaken, as Giovanni Penetta in particular seemed mustard keen to mount a serious assault on the tournament, knocking out players like skittles in a bowling alley. Having eliminated double GUKPT winner Priyan de Mel, Pennetta set his sights on another former Champ, Brown Belt Jerome Bradpiece. “I’m obviously winning,” said Bradpiece as he moved all in with A-J. “Let’s see how lucky you are.” Pennetta, irked by suspicion, sat back, arms crossed, and replied, “I don’t know, I have a strange feeling.” “Fold then please!” smiled Bradpiece. “When anyone says they have a strange feeling, they tend to flop the nuts.” Pennetta did indeed call, with K-Q, and although he didn’t flop the world, his waters were simmering enough for him to spike a queen to eliminate his foe and collate an impressive 650,000 stack.
Unfortunately, and despite knocking out Toby Lewis in 17th with kings versus jacks, Pennetta’s ambush of the London Live was ultimately short-lived as he made one move too many against eventual winner Paul Pham, getting a one million stack in on a 5s-9c-4s flop with pocket deuces. Pham called with jacks, and after a blank turn and river, took a behemoth of a stack into the final. A stunned Pennetta, meanwhile, was forced to settle for 10th as the rest of the table high-fived their buddies and braced themselves for the home straight.
“When we moved to the final 10, I was involved in a crazy hand against him,” regaled Pham after the tournament. “He was the other big stack at the time. We had a bit of history because at the start of Day Two, I four-bet him with A-Q, he called me with nines and I hit a flush. Then after that I pushed him all in and he called me with J-T against my A-J and hit his 10. On the final hand, I thought he was trying to fight back again, which is why I made the call against deuces.”
Pennetta may have been unpredictable, but he certainly entertained.
The Final Coutdown
The final table counts were as follows, with Paul Pham boasting considerably more chips than the other nine, as well as the freezer in the Vic kitchen:
Seat 1: Nicholas Aly -- 297,000
Seat 2: Paul Pham -- 2,078,000
Seat 3: Jack McDermott -- 885,000
Seat 4: Daniel Laming -- 278,000
Seat 5: Dean Aldred -- 413,000
Seat 6: Hugo Martin -- 375,000
Seat 7: Karim Louis -- 774,000
Seat 8: Roy Farranat -- 885,000
Seat 9: Warren Wooldridge -- 729,000
Pre-Final Rubdowns
Ah, there’s nothing like boosting a player’s confidence levels with a pre-final rubdown, and with Neil Channing on the microphone, combined with Black Belt Poker staff members/contributors in the final nine, a slagging off was imminent.
"I have no idea how he got this far,” announced Channing when introducing Black Belt Poker CEO Warren Wooldridge. “I was hanging around the cashier and player after player would come up shaking their head asking, 'Who's the guy that knocked me out that looks like you?'”
And Black Belt Poker blogger Hugo Martin wasn’t safe either: “Despite his looks, Hugo is a grizzled veteran who's been playing in the Vic for almost as long as Pedro. He's never had this many chips. In fact, I think this is his first final table, and I expect it'll be his last."
Off camera, Neil and Hugo are actually good friends. Like Andy and Red in The Shawshank Redemption, they’ve become almost institutionalized, and have formed a bond that only those serving a similar sentence in the Vic would understand. Hugo is even partly responsible for luring Vicky Coren into the game, and features heavily in her book “For Richer For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker” as ‘The Sweep’. So, in fact, this final table was his second dose of fame.
Tragically, the dream win wasn’t to be, and although he ducked and dived like a Dodgeball champion, Hugo departed in third, Ac-9s running into the pocket queens of neighbour Karim Louis. An Ah-7h-8d-Tc-Qc board later, and the Sweep was swept away.
Phamtastic
Paul Pham later claimed that he had no interest in laddering, and the fact that others were, allowed him to utilise his stack to good effect and play a more aggressive game. Either way, it worked, as he made short work of the final, eliminating four players in the process including fourth place finisher Jack McDermott whose A-K was unable to hold up against Pham’s A-J on an ensuing J-9-4-5-8 board.
The final hand was a bizarre encounter, if only because it was so out of the blue. After just a hand or two of heads-up, all the chips went in on a 7d-Td-Jc flop, Pham’s Kc-Jd in dominant shape against Karim Louis’ Js-6d. “Oh, it’s all over,” announced Channing, slightly bemused by the anti-climaxing nature of the Kd turn. An academic Ts river later and we had our winner and inaugural Black Belt London Live Champion, 27-year old VIP Manager Paul Pham.
Pham, who has been playing poker since 2005, commented: “I play pretty much all of my poker online and am mainly a cash game player. I don't play live very often and have only played three tournaments so far. I only played this one because the structure was deep and it suited my game.”
“There were a lot of strong players in the tournament,” he continued. “Daniel Laming was very good and gave me a bit of a hard time on Day One. So was Jack [McDermott] on my left. He’s a decent player and I managed to get lucky against him on the final table with A-J versus A-K.”
Main Event Results:
1st Paul Pham -- $15,000
2nd Karim Louis -- $10,000
3rd Hugo Martin -- $6,000
4th Jack McDermott -- $4,500
5th Dean Aldred -- $3,500
6th Warren Wooldridge -- $2,500
7th Nicholas Aly -- $2,000
8th Daniel Laming -- $1,500
9th Roy Farranat -- $1,000
Next Time, Gadget, Next Time
And so, the first ever London Live was in the bag, a sell-out crowd and a hitch-free two days signifying what we believe was a roaring success. Whilst many departed mumbling, “Next Time,” the ultimate question was indeed when would that next time come, if at all. Some suggested October, “Three a year!” cried others, whilst the more level-headed argued for just an annual occurrence. Well, we’re currently digesting all possibilities, but I think if there’s one thing we can say for sure, it’s that the London Live will return, and when it does, it’ll be bigger and badder than ever. Mohahahaha.