Akenhead, Caby and Esfandiari complete Poker Million VIII semis line-up - 09/10/2009

WSOP final tableist James Akenhead, online Taylor Caby and WSOP bracelet holder Antonio Esfandiari won the final two heats and the turbo to complete the semi-final line-up of Full Tilt Poker Million VIII.

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"November-niner" Akenhead continued his scintillating form in 2009 by winning heat 11 and was followed by Caby beating Gus Hansen heads-up in heat 12. Hansen had another crack in the turbo heat, but it was Esfandiari who took that down and filled the final seat in the two seven-handed semi-finals which take place on Friday October 9.

Akenhead's heat sprung into life in the very first hand, with Eric Liu picking up sevens and raising and getting a call from Bradley "BJ" Craig with pocket deuces. BJ flopped trips and reraised Liu's bet on the flop and when Craig fired again on the turn, Liu laid it down and was left short. Liu failed to get out of the first level as he raised with AQ and ran into Akenhead's kings - a queen came on the flop and the money went in, the turn and river were blanks and Liu had to leave.

BJ found himself pretty short stacked but hung in well and stuck his chips in when necessary to avoid hitting the wall. That misfortune fell to Phil Laak, who reraised Erik Cajelais all-in with 910 only for Akenhead to pick up kings again and call - dodging anything crazy on the flop to move to holding over 200k in chips.
Cajelais and Barny Boatman were the two short stacks as the blinds approached 5/10k, Erik raised with A3 and Barny moved all-in with 95 and Erik called - his ace high good to send the Hendon Mobster home.

Erik's joy was short-lived though as BJ and Akenhead were in charge of proceedings and it was Craig who sent him out, moving all-in with A4 and Cajelais called with K9 and again, ace high did the trick.

Craig held the chip lead heads up with a shade under 400k but Akenhead managed to win the crucial hands - moving all-in with J10 when Craig raised with A3 and James turned two pair to wrestle the chip lead away from BJ. Moments later it was all over when Akenhead raised with A6, Craig moved all-in with AK and James called - Akenhead spiking a six on the flop to progress.

The 12th and final heat saw arguably the most exciting line-up of the dozen heats with ten WSOP bracelets evenly shared between Allen Cunningham in seat one and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in seat two, Gus Hansen in seat three as the only player with three WPT wins, WSOP bracelet holder and Oscar nominated actress Jennifer Tilly in seat four, CardRunners founder member Taylor Caby and WSOP casher and online qualifier Bobby Firestone.

It's no surprise that it was a thoroughly entertaining heat but it couldn't go on forever - and it was Tilly who was the first to fall. There was no getting away from her exit hand, raising with AK and getting a call from Hansen with J10 - the flop came 3A10 and the money went in. A ten on the turn and a jack on the river gave Gus the full house for good measure and we had to say goodbye to Tilly.
Hansen had over 200k now but stepped out of the way as the two early short-stacks clashed and it was Cunningham who came off worse when he tangled with Firestone. Cunningham held A6 and was dominate by Bobby's AQ - the queen on the turn meant the exit door was opened for Allen.

As we moved into the 3/6k level, we lost the last bracelet holder as Ferguson had to get his chips in as the short stack. He reraised all-in with QcJc after Firestone raised with pocket fives - but it was Caby behind him with the pocket tens that did the damage as he called and hit trips on the flop, a jack on the turn gave "Jesus" hope, but the runner-runner was not forthcoming and Ferguson's Poker Million was over.

The bubble three-handed saw Hansen with the chip lead and he continued to reraise Firestone - eventually Bobby had enough and called, but he had little chance holding Q9 against Gus' jacks and the hooks held to give Gus the chip lead with 388k against Caby's 212k and end Firestone's tournament.

By the time the blinds reached 5/10k, Hansen's chip lead was a smidgen under 5 to 1, and Caby put all his chips in with K10 and Hansen took a shot to reach the semis with K6. Taylor's ten was good though and he doubled up and another double up was on the way when Gus picked up Kc10d and Taylor reraised all-in with A7 and got a call. Hansen looked like he'd cracked it when the king came on the flop but the ace on the turn gave Caby the 488k pot and with it the initiative. It was Caby's turn to take a shot and like Hansen he was behind as Gus held K10 to his K8 but the eight-ball arrived on the flop and sent Taylor into the semis and Hansen had to settle with a place in the turbo.

Unfortunately for the Dane it was a case of last-in first-out in the turbo heat, getting it in good with AK against Bradley Craig's A10 but BJ spiked a ten to knock Hansen out. Christian Harder followed in a similar fashion when his K10 was bettered by Esfandiari's KQ, who then knocked out Michael Tureniec and Yevgeniy Timoshenko out to get heads-up with Craig - knocking him with a pair of sevens that held against his K2.

The semi-finals take place at Sky Sports studios on Friday October 9 and live reporting on both is available on our forum.

SEMI-FINAL LINE-UPS

FIRST SEMI-FINAL:
Annette Obrestad, Luke Schwartz, Tony Bloom, Paul Zimbler, Nam Le, Juha Helppi and Peter Vasiliou

SECOND SEMI-FINAL:
Daniel Bowden, Tom Dwan, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, David Chiu, James Akenhead, Taylor Caby and Antonio Esfandiari

THE FINAL: Friday December 4, LIVE on Sky Sports