Phil Ivey was one of a number of top names competing in the recent Coin Rivet Invitational in Cyprus for a top prize of $5.5 million and while the American was eventually eliminated from the tournament, he left his indelible mark on it with a remarkable equity hero call.
Heads up against Christoph Vogelsang, a player who has nurtured an image for himself of being a very tight, safe plater, Vogelsang held the 7♣6♣, while Ivey had the 10♦6♦.
At the flop, both players trailed Ben Heath who had 5♠5♦ but a flop of 10♣8♣3♦ saw Ivey land top pair, while Vogelsang had a potential flush draw.
Heath remained in the hand until the turn revealed 8♥ at which point the British player folded after Vogelsang raised, still hoping to land the club card on the river to complete his flush.
Ivey called and the river card revealed the K♥ which left Ivey ahead, but with a weak hand, especially with the king landing on the river.
Rather than check, Volgelsang raised 250,000, putting Ivey in a difficult position and his place in the tournament in jeopardy.
The American thought long and hard about what to do next and you could see the concentration etched on his face as his mind worked through how the hand had played out and what that meant in terms of the strength of Vogelsang’s hand.
With his place in the tournament on the line, Ivey eventually moved all his remaining chips into the middle to call, revealing Vogelsang’s King-high hand and doubling up the American ace in what was a superb hero call.
However, fans of the American poker superstar would not be surprised. Ivey has made a career out of making the right call at the right time, whether that is knowing when to lay down his cards, or whether to make the hero call.
Despite that, Ivey didn’t last too much longer in the tournament when the poker gods were not on his side as his K♦J♦ ran into Linus Loelinger who held A♦10♦.
A 3♣A♣Q♦ flop gave Loelinger the advantage but opened up a potential flush or straight draw for Ivey, though Loelinger also had that nuts flush draw with the ace.
That would prove to be the key card as the turn and river delivered two more diamonds, 4♦ and 6♦ which meant that both players had made the flush, Ivey with the King, but Loelinger with the ace.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, holding a king flush, Ivey couldn’t put that down, perhaps putting his opponent on three Aces or two pairs of aces and queens, and so his all-in call was completely understandable, but was the reason he left the tournament a little earlier than many expected.
That brutal takedown of Ivey inspired Loelinger in the tournament and he was one of the players to reach the final table.
Other players to do so included poker professionals Fedor Holz, Ebony Kenney, Seth Davies, Aleksejs Ponakovs and Sam Grafton, along with two non-professionals Elias Talvitie and Karl-Chappe Gatien.
Ebony Kenney almost made history when finishing 5th for a $1.7m prize, she was just one place off earning the biggest payday by a female poker star as the $2.1m prize available for fourth would have eclipsed Annette Obrestad’s $2.013,733 cash out at the 2007 WSOPE Main Event.
In the end it was popular German player Fedor Holz that finished fourth, with the highest placed non-poker professional Karl-Chappe Gatien taking home $2,600,000 for his third-place finish.
Going heads up was Ivey’s eliminator Linus Loelinger and UK pro Sam Grafton and in the end it was Sam Grafton who landed the $5,500,000 top prize, leaving Loelinger to pocket $3,900,000.
The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series continues with a series of Short-Deck tournaments including the Short Deck main event, which is scheduled to take place from Saturday through to Monday, the final day of action in this popular high-stakes event.
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Of the nine players at the final table, seven of them were poker professionals, however in terms of total cashes, there were an equal number of amateur players (called VIPs in the tournament) and poker pros that landed a cash return from the tournament out of a total field of 131 players.
The three-day tournament saw the amateur players compete against each other on day one, with the poker professionals playing each other on day two.
The end of day two saw the two groups combined until the final table was decided.
Thanks to plays such as the one by Phil Ivey mentioned above, the tournament proved to be a huge success with both professional and amateur players.
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