Akenhead and Full Flush chipped up for the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII final - 10/10/2009

November-Niner James Akenhead has another final table to look forward to after qualifying for the final of the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII final - but Luke "Full Flush" Schwartz will be the chip leader when the players sit down in December's live final on Sky Sports.
Schwartz was the big winner in the first semi-final held at Sky Sports studios on Friday October 9 and will take 397,000 chips into the final, while Akenhead came through the second semi-final with 338,000 chips. Third and fourth place in chips belong to Card Runners co-founder Taylor Caby (202,000) and Norwegian pro Dag Martin Mikkelsen (160,000) finished behind Akenhead in the second semi-final. Online qualifier Peter Vasiliou takes 154,000 through from the first semi-final and is joined by Premier League Poker winner Juha Helppi with 149,000.
Full Flush has become famous for his outrageous outbursts but the Londoner showed fantastic skills to come back from having just 40k early in the semi-final to get past some huge names with a chip lead he could do some real damage with.
Schwartz came out on top of a 144k pot with Annette Obrestad to move up the leaderboard and it was the Norwegian who was the first to perish, short-stacked as the blinds reached 3/6k, she raised under the gun with 74-off and looked to have got it though until Tony Bloom - bidding to reach his third Poker Million final - woke up with pocket eights in the big blind and they held up to send the super-aggressive 21 year-old home.
Moments later, Bloom was at it again - and it was the pocket eights that spelt the end for Nam Le. The Poker Pack man had been crippled early on when Vasiliou made one of very few raises in the game with pocket queens and Le called with AK, Peter turned trips to leave Nam with just 13k. Le doubled up and then tripled up but just two hands after Obrestad left the table he had to join her, moving all-in with K10 and getting called by Bloom with the eights which held up again.
Paul Zimbler's stock in the poker world has been on the up and up and he came into the semi-final having just broken the record for playing heads-up for 75 hours straight - and raising over £30,000 for charity into the bargain - but he was the third player to fall, and again it was the online qualifier who sent him packing. Zimbler raised with A8 and Peter found a call with A10 - dodging an eight to take the chip lead.
Four-handed was the bubble and Vasiliou was determined to make it through to the final and he managed to do so when Bloom moved all-in with KQ, Peter folded A8 and Schwartz called with pocket jacks - the board was full of numbers and Full Flush was through as chip leader, and 36 year-old travel agent Vasiliou was on his way to a dream pay day.
"It's just unbelievable," said Vasiliou. "I started pretty slowly and just waited for some big hands really, I got lucky in some spots and now I'm in the final - it's amazing."
"I really want to do well in this tournament," said Schwartz. "I was so card-dead for the rest of the day that I reckon I was due to pick up some big hands so the jacks came at the right time."
The second semi-final took place straight away and unfortunately for online qualifier Daniel Bowden, he would not get the sort of run that Vasiliou received. The players had barely got settled in their seats before he picked up kings and Antonio Esfandiari held aces and neither player hit the board as the money went in and Bowden was left with just 4k. He managed to scrape a few more chips together but eventually lost out to Akenhead's A6 holding A4.
Four-time WSOP bracelet winner David Chiu had been impressive in reaching the semis but his Poker Million was over when he raised pre-flop with A6 and got a call from Antonio with QJ - the flop came down Q4A and Antonio called when David moved all-in and hit a jack on the river to knock Chiu out and take a commanding chip lead.
Five handed and the green room was getting excited as having seen Full Flush reach the final, the whole of the poker community were praying that Tom "Durrrr" Dwan would make it through so we could see them face-off on the felt.
It was not to be though as Akenhead showed why he is heading back to Las Vegas to go for the main event title by knocking out Durrrr and decimating Esfandiari in the same hand. Antonio raised with pocket sixes and James just called with pocket kings - with Dwan picking up pocket queens right behind him and moving all-in. Antonio also moved all-in and Akenhead insta-called to have the pair dominated and the kings held to end Dwan's tournament and leave Esfandiari with just 65k.
Having been in such a strong position, Esfandiari found himself in shove mode and although he survived to all-ins - one with a split pot - he eventually met his maker moving all-in with K10 and getting a call from Caby with A6. Taylor had been down to around 60k in chips but fought back with great skill to take a decisive swipe at the "The Magician" and Caby's ace-high was good enough to end the second semi-final.
"Dwan woke up with queens which is a gift for me with kings and Antonio though my hand was weak so it turned out perfectly for me," said Akenhead of his call with kings. "It's the biggest tournament of this structure that I've ever played in. I've watched previous Poker Million's on television so to get to the final table in my first appearance is something I've proud of."
"I didn't know whether I should call but I figured I was ahead and could eliminate Antonio so I'm glad I did," said Caby. "It feels good to make my first significant final table and I can't wait to come back in December."
The eighth edition of Poker Million is the first under Full Tilt's sponsorship and it can be argued that it has provided the strongest line-up ever. The heats closed with Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham and Chris Ferguson in action, while the likes of Patrik Antonius, JC Tran, John Juanda, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Roland De Wolfe, Chino Rheem, Andy Bloch, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Huck Seed, Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Erik Cajelais, Marty Smyth, Tony G, John Duthie, Ross and Barny Boatman, Liam Flood, Joe Beevers, Neil Channing, Ram Vaswani, Andrew Feldman and Sammy "Any Two" George have all fallen in the race to get to the final.
There is still one spot in the final up for grabs though in Full Tilt's parachute promotion - full details can be found at FullTiltPoker.com/poker-million.

Fine Start To Event Three By Welshman Laskey

To view the results and action from the heats and semi-finals, visit the forum where each table was blogged live.