In March, a stage of the PokerGo series was held in Las Vegas, where they played exclusively pot-limit Omaha. One of the first tournaments, for $5,100, was won by Daniel Negreanu. A couple of days later, he reached the final table of the $15,100 tournament, where he took 6th place. However, the heroes of the series were two representatives of Finland. Online cash legend Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen and his old friend, two-time SCOOP champion Samuli Sipilä, each won two tournaments (out of ten played in the series!), and Sipilä also took 2nd place in the main tournament. They even made a movie about these wonderful players!
The documentary series about poker players written by Miikki Anttonen has been replenished with a new episode, the hero of which is one of the strongest poker players in the world, Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen.
In our review, we cover the final table of the $15,100 event, where Pärssinen defeated Erik Seidel, Alex Foxen and $10k WSOP Omaha bracelet winner Lou Garza.
Final table with comments from JNandez87:
Tournament #8 was played with two re-entries and received 83 entries. Those who made the money but didn't make it to the final table included Dan Smith (12th place, $31,125) and Sam Soverel (9th place, $37,350).
Pärssinen started the final table second from last.
Alex Foxen – 3,695,000
Lou Garza – 2,470,000
Michael Duek – 1,495,000
Joao Simao – 1,450,000
Eelis Pärssinen – 855,000
Erik Seidel – 510,000
Blinds 20k/40k, BB ante 40k
Sit back, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and let's watch high-stakes MTTs together.
JNandez87:
Eelis is a very aggressive player who always enters the finals with a huge stack and crushes his opponents." He currently has 20 blinds, it will be interesting to see how he adjusts, if at all. ICM requires a tighter game, but it is not a fact that Eelis will want to listen.
The Finnish player's first open did not answer this question: such a beautiful hand should be opened in any case.
After Foxen's super-short raise from the button, Seidel shoved with a hand more suited to Omaha hi-low. Obviously, due to the chip leader's ultra-wide range, he had fold equity, but Foxen was dealt an acceptable hand, so he called.
JNandez87:
If I were Seidel, I would prefer to just call preflop with the idea of pot-betting on many flops. This is not Hold'em, there is very little fold equity preflop, but the opponent can fold on the flop.
The flop came with an ace, and Seidel doubled up to 1 million chips with top pair.
A couple of minutes later, he missed what Nandez considered a mandatory 3-bet on the button and put Garza in the pot.
On the flop Garza's hand looked good – second pair, full wrap! – however, had only 2% equity. Duek c-bet less than a third of the pot, Seidel raised the full pot to 475,000, and Garza was able to find a pass. No wonder he won bracelets!
Duek's hand, although it had 41% equity against Seidel, could not call the raise either.
Soon Seidel's raise and Pärssinen's 3-bet led to the field:
The last king in the deck was folded, and Eelis confidently doubled, after which he began to relax for a few revolutions, throwing out cards until he got aces again.
Garza in the middle looked at his hand, then on my short stack, then on my opponent – and 3-bet. Calling the all-in was already against the odds. And again the Finn had significantly more than 70% equity – Foxen folded two kings. The hand ended without surprises – Lou was eliminated in 6th place and received $62,250.
"It's just not fair when aces come to a player with such a reputation! What should his opponents do?" one of the PokerGo commentators was indignant.
An attempt to expand the opening range from the cutoff did not work.
Left with a stack of less than 10bb, Seidel doubled up again against the chip leader, making a flush on the flop.
Soon he was dealt aces for the small blind. When it was his turn, Seidel raised. Pärssinen defended a very weak hand, apparently reasoning that an ante in the big blind would maximize his calling range.
The flop was checked and Eelis bet 100k on the turn. Seidel unexpectedly called.
On the river, Pärssinen caught the fourth pair and tried to raise the bet to 220k, but his opponent quickly folded.
Duek tried to fool around from the cutoff, opening something that didn't even look like a hand.
The 3-bet had to be folded, and Pärssinen moved into second place.
The next hand, Seidel raised a third of his stack from first position. Pärssinen looked at the visually attractive hand and sent them to pass without hesitation. Skill! Seidel had kings.
Having won a couple of medium pots on the card, Duek moved up to chip leader, but his every attempt to go beyond the range ran into fierce resistance from Pärssinen.
In the next hand, you can check out the power style of former American football player Alex Foxen.
I wonder if Alex was going to continue on the blank river? We won't know: despite the extra outs that came on the turn, Duek chose not to dig up the hatchet and folded.
"I had an interesting decision on the turn," he told his opponent.
"Me too," Foxen responded and explained: "I was thinking how much to bet: 320 or 360?"
Feeling a tailwind, Alex opened the most complete garbage from the first position:
He probably doesn't sit in tournament Omaha simulators, but he understands well that the big blind of the second stack should not be missed from the end.
However, Simao found himself with a and made a call.
On the flop, the Brazilian checked, but didn't fold to 130,000, a small continuation bet – he called.
Turn (780,000):
A good reason for the second barrel, and 475,000 from Foxen decided the outcome of the hand, although Simao thought for a very long time and clearly felt something.
In the next hand, the Brazilian limped with kings under Foxen's big blind. Foxen checked.
On the flop, Simao check-called a small bet, the turn was checked, and on the river the Brazilian decided that his hand had lost all value at the showdown and turned it into a bluff. Foxen immediately called and strengthened his advantage.
A very interesting spot appeared in the following hand:
Mickey Duek had a very easy call, but he suddenly decided to squeeze 1,100,000. Potential ICM suicide – with two very short stacks at the table! But the move worked – both opponents folded their cards.
Another Seidel double gave Duek the lead. Then the new favorite won the middle pot against Foxen: he flopped a nut straight with a nut flush draw and made some money. Foxen paid the flop with two pairs and an opener, and on the turn he strengthened to a backdoor flush draw, but folded for a big bet. After this, the following draw took place:
Foxen limps, Duek decides to call from the small blind with an unimpressive hand (we don't see one of his cards, but does little to improve the situation), Seidel checks. Three players watch the flop and, one after another, knock on the table.
On the turn, Duek leads with a full pot. Seidel quickly folds, but an incredulous Foxen decides to look at the river.
A lot of straights have closed and Duek checks.
"If Alex wants to bluff here, he has to bet a lot to get two pair," Nandez says. Foxen thinks for a long time and bets the full pot. Duek looks at his opponent hesitantly and throws away his cards.
"We will never know his fourth card!" Remko Rinkema is sad.
"Come on, we know that there's a ten of clubs there," Nandez names some random card and laughs.
And then, very belatedly, the broadcast director opens Duek's .
"What? Did he throw away the set? Oh my God..." American commentators are extremely surprised.
In the last hand of the level, Duek took revenge.
Alex only had enough for one barrel; he did not bluff with the five of clubs.
At the beginning of the new level, Seidel moved Duek's all-in raise, and he, to everyone's surprise, called, although against a stack of 10 blinds he could have taken pity. Eric was on his way to doubling up again, but the turn dashed his hopes.
The flush on the river did not close, the veteran went to the cashier for a prize of $87,150.
Following him, Simao went all-in.
"I am absolutely confident that I will win," he said.
And he was not mistaken!
Both players now have about 10 blinds. Soon their colleagues left them in the blinds. Simao called the full pot preflop and got all-in on the flop.
After much thought, he threw it out, earning applause from the commentators.
Using his stack, Duek began to open just random cards, including against the big blind of his only competitor. I wonder why Foxen didn't 3-bet aces? ICM or clever slowplay?
If this was a slow play, he shot himself in the foot. Duek bet 150,000 on the flop and 300,000 on the turn. And on the river he bet another 750,000 with blockers on the straight:
Foxen is one of the most tenacious regulars in tournament hold'em and goes beyond the range more often than many of his colleagues, but he didn't dare to call here.
"Pure cheating," Alex grumbled, throwing away the cards.
"It was a bluff with no outs. Emptiness," Pärssinen spoke authoritatively, squinting slightly.
"Am I good or not? I will not say! Sorry, William," Duek grinned.
There was some tension at the table. This often happens when a 120-pound athlete loses a big pot and realizes that he seems to have been bluffed.
The next hand did not disappoint expectations.
"Bad luck to you. Are there any backdoors?" Eelis sympathized with his opponent.
In an all-in with 93%, the strongest hand survived.
Doubling up, the Finn immediately tried to call Duek to order, but a small accident almost occurred.
On a 4-bet, Pärssinen had to deliver on the odds. After showing the cards, he learned from Duek that he was left with one straight out.
However, this turned out to be quite enough.
4th place brought Joao Simao $118,275.
Pärssinen took the lead in a rather rigged hand in which he barreled all the streets and nearly got a hero call at the end.
After a couple of minutes of torment, Duek still did not check his opponent.
The game calmed down for a while – raises and folds, limps and folds, no fight... but Pärssinen won almost all the hands. It wasn't until he finally found a hand trashy enough to throw away from the button that the Americans turned on each other.
Limp call preflop. All-in on the flop. Duek's outs did not open, he was left with only four blinds and was eliminated in the next hand.
The heads-up between Pärssinen and Foxen lasted longer than expected after the American made some half-hearted bluff on the river in the first big pot.
It took Eelis a while to call even against that size.
However, Foxen almost immediately doubled up in a working cooler on the flop, and then won a standard coin – and now he has 7,250,000 against 3,125,000!
About 20 minutes passed in a tough fight, and then Foxen played a little on the edge (or maybe a little beyond) of what was allowed: he called a 3-bet with a hand with suit up to eight and paid all-in on the flop for A-high!
Considering the short stacks, the decision is not completely crazy, especially against an aggressive regular, but we wouldn't blame Alex for folding on the flop.
"I don't have anything yet," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
A jack was placed on the turn and river. Pärssinen took the lead.
Then we played for another 10 minutes with varying success.
Check – check the flop and turn, Foxen's bluff on the river doesn't work. The decisive hand took place immediately after the blinds increased, when Foxen's stack was reduced to 12 bb. When faced with an opponent's pot bet in a limped pot, Alex decided to play for the stack with one of the worst possible top pairs. Apparently, he overestimated the weight of his opponent's unready hands in such a sizing. And here, in his place, some tournament regulars could look for a rebound. However, the finalists had some time to hurry.
"I'll be there in about ten minutes for photos and everything else," Eelis said in a businesslike tone and rushed off to register for the main tournament, grabbing a bag of lobster brought for him from the restaurant. This was his second win in a week, so the emotions may have been a little dull. And although he didn't win any laurels in the EEE27 main event, he definitely became one of the main heroes of the series. And the main favorite of photographers.
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