Jeff 'Jaffacake' Kimber (below right) triumphed over 127 other particpants in the sunny surroundings of Barcelona in the 888.com World Heads Up Poker Championship. His prize, a hefty €125,000 as well as the prestigious title and all he had to do was win seven heads up matches in a row, which of course is much harder than it sounds. The cream of Europe, including El Blondie, Devilfish and reigning champion Isaac Mayolas de Vega descended into Barcelona for the popular €2,500 event which was, as ever, sold out in advance. However, the event was marred for one blondeite, James 'Royal Flush' Dempsey, the victim of a mugging for €4,000. This sort of thing has happened around the casino twice before in recent years and is something that needs to be addressed for protection of all the players.
The event itself has a fair amount of play with a 20k starting stack and 100/200 blinds with 30 minute levels, enough, early on at least, to give a chance of coming back from a mistake or outdraw. The event is also capped at level 6 (500/1000), meaning there'd still be forty big blinds in play after 3 hours, despite this some matches would last longer, including Isaac Mayolas de Vega's first round match against Francis Mahiout which managed to get to nearly 4 and a half hours before the Spaniard got the win.
The event itself has a fair amount of play with a 20k starting stack and 100/200 blinds with 30 minute levels, enough, early on at least, to give a chance of coming back from a mistake or outdraw. The event is also capped at level 6 (500/1000), meaning there'd still be forty big blinds in play after 3 hours, despite this some matches would last longer, including Isaac Mayolas de Vega's first round match against Francis Mahiout which managed to get to nearly 4 and a half hours before the Spaniard got the win.
The final itself would be held between two Brits, and two Blondeites no less as Jeff 'Jaffacake' Kimber would take on the youngster Dan 'lucky scrote' Carter (left). Both had eventful routes to the final with Carter knocking out the Devilfish in the quarter finals before suffering a topsy-turvy semi-final against Carlos Ilado Fabregas which he would eventually win. Jeff, on the other hand, managed a good comeback in his quarter final against Spannish opposition before quickly dispatching his Finnish opponent in the semis.Jeff would ultimately triumph against Dan, a rivered flush with 7s 2s gave the senior player a big pot and crucial momentum. With a short stack, the youngster was unable to come back from an almost 7:1 deficit and succumbed after the break when Jeff's K-8 held against Dan's J-T on a Q-4-4-K-J board.
Congratulations to both players, but seven heads up in a row, I bet it's easy-peasy.
[Edit - Five hours later I can't even manage three in row, this is tough]