Antonius Samuel was the main benefactor of $275,000 worth of dead money after beating Stacy Coore, in heads-up action, to win the inaugural partypoker Grand Prix Million
Shitty barge poles at the ready?
Not if you are the Dusk till Dawn (DTD) owner Rob Yong. I have said on numerous occasions that this man has balls bigger than King Kong, and he is swinging them once again, after declaring his intention to host another $1m guaranteed event in Dec, days after his $1m guaranteed partypoker Grand Prix Million missed the mark by quarter of a milly.
One young man who was delighted about the $275,000 in dead money was Antonius Samuel.
“I’m ecstatic…I don’t know what else to say,” Samuel told DTD Tournament Director Simon Trumper moments after the [Ts] had smacked the river to give him all of the chips, and $100,000 in prize money.
Prior to his win Samuel had a combined live tournament earnings record of $18,138. All of those wins came in events held in his hometown of Nottingham, and nothing carrying a buy-in higher than $50.
Yong wanted a tournament that could hand out big prizes to the grassroots players, and Samuel is proof that it works. Another great example of the ‘grassroots to great’ concept came in the form of Lee Connett. The Fatdog Poker member qualified for the event for a penny, and finished in 17th place for a $5,500 score.
The most well known face on the final table was that of Kuljinder Sidhu. You may remember Sidhu made the final table of the last $1m guaranteed event held at DTD, when he finished sixth in the £1,100 United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), for $47,981. Sidhu’s tournament ended in seventh place after a series of losses saw jacks losing to ace-queen, fives running into kings, before his five-deuce hit the brick wall of Stacy Coore’s ace-queen.
The heads up action would fall between Samuel and Coore, and it was all over bar the shouting after the pocket aces of Samuel crushed the pocket sevens of Coore. Coore’s final three big blinds went in good A2<T7, but Samuel would river that beautiful [Ts] to hand him the championship and $100,000 in prize money.
Final Table Results
1st. Antonius Samuel – $100,000
2nd. Stacy Coore – $65,000
3rd. Tasos Grigoriou – $45,000
4th. Nadeem Ali – $35,000
5th. Vlad Alexandru Lazariciu – $26,350
6th. Daniel Harwood – $19,000
7th. Kuljinder Sidhu – $13,500
8th. Patrick Sunter – $10,000
9th. Bartosz Przewiezlikowski – $8,000
PokerNews scribe Matthew Pitt noted on his blog that Rob Yong plans to host another $1m guaranteed event in December. Keep your ears pinned open for news on that one.
