Kalidou Sow has won back-to-back PokerStars Live events after taking down the PokerStars Championship Prague, and PokerStars Festival London Main Events. Giuseppe Caridi joins him in Platinum Pass heaven with a victory in the London Cup.
Kalidou Sow is a Roman chariot with blades around the wheels carving through the heels of every poker player daring to step into his orbit.
The last time I carved his name into my work he had just beaten 855 entrants, including Jason Wheeler in heads-up action, to take down the PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event in December. Sow earned €675,000 for that win. A career high. But he didn’t receive a Platinum Pass. He would be the final winner of an event of that magnitude not to obtain one.
You can cast a profound eye on that decision and think that Sow was unlucky. You can. Sow had other ideas. Instead of being concerned with the surrounding triviality of missed opportunities, he thought up a new gameplan – to win the next tournament he enters.
The £990 buy-in PokerStars Festival London Main Event.
852 entrants created a £743,796 prize pool. Worries of lost life insurance policies petered away with each sight of the £140,000 first prize glowing excitedly on the scoreboard.
By the time we had reached the final table, Sow was in the mix, third from bottom, as innocuous as a tree within the wood. Paul Dando had the chip lead. The night before the final day, as Sow slept, he dreamt that he would defeat Dando in heads-up action.
Dreams, it seems, do come true.
The pair did clash in heads-up action but not until I get to tell you another lovely story in this luminous world of ours. David Mander, who finished third, qualified for this event through an $11 Spin & Go, and parlayed it into £60,000.
“It’s a surreal experience,” Mander told the PokerStars blog. “I can’t explain it. I have played well and been lucky. It’s quite shocking when you’re up against someone in the flesh.”
Especially, if that ‘someone’ is the red-hot Sow.
After Mander became one of the happiest people to hit the rail, you will ever meet. Sow and Dando shook hands on a deal that suited both parties, and they went to work.
The blade of Sow had one more Achilles heel to slice.
After 30-minutes, Dando fell.
Sow, who has now won back-to-back major live events had earned a $30,000 Platinum Pass. Maybe he shouldn’t play another game until the $25,000 Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship in the Bahamas. Maybe? I doubt it. Once you get used to the family photograph feel of these final tables, you’re hooked.
Final Table Results
1. Kalidou Sow – £121,803*
2. Paul Dando – £103,197*
3. David Mander – £60,000
4. Thomas Winstone – £45,000
5. Waheed Ashraf – £35,500
6. Attila Farkas – £26,600
7. Thomas Harbrecht-Parker – £18,500
8. Tsz Chung Ho – £13,000
* Indicates a heads-up deal.
Other names you may recognise who went deeper than a dentist’s drill included professional footballer Jimmy Kebe (15th), WPT Champions Club member Adrien Allain (16th) and the former EUREKA Poker Tour High Roller winner Sergi Reixach (35th).
Giuseppe Caridi Wins the PokerStars Festival London Cup
Sow wasn’t the only person who won a Platinum Pass during the PokerStars Festival in London. There will be an Italian joining the Frenc
hman in the Bahamas next January.
Giuseppe Caridi has been competing on the PokerStars live circuit for the past ten years. He is a rare breed; one of those chaps who prefers the glory of the title to the money. He has twice come close, finishing runner-up in the 2015 Italian Poker Tour (IPT) Main Event, and a side event in Monte Carlo the following year. At last, he has his trophy.
Proving the concept works, Caridi was in London chasing the Platinum Pass. He had failed to win one in the Italian Poker Open and the PokerStars Festival London Main Event. He did not fail a third time.
The £330 buy-in PokerStars Festival London Cup attracted 329 entrants, and Caridi defeated Alex Bounsall in heads-up action to win the trophy, £18,000 in cash and a $30,000 Platinum Pass.
Here are the final table payouts:
1. Giuseppe Caridi – £18,000
2. Alex Bounsall – £11,630
3. Elias Christodoulou – £8,909
4. Marc Jeffreys – £7,200
5. Glenn Kiddle – £5,600
6. Gabrielius Butkus – £4,300
7. Scott Kateian – £3,200
8. James Edwards – £2,400
