Bloom reaches third Poker Million final - 28/07/2010

The Lizard overcomes legend Seidel to get hat-trick final

Tony Bloom reached his third Poker Million final after a stunning performance saw him overcome WSOP legend Erik Seidel heads-up in heat three to reach December’s live Sky Sports final.

Bloom’s name is already etched in Poker Million history having made the first two finals and the Brighton and Hove Albion chairman will take part in his third final having sat down at the opening two tournaments.

The man affectionately named “The Lizard” never held a chip lead in the star-studded heat but showed incredible grit and no little skill in grinding down eight-time WSOP bracelet holder and Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel – the class act at the table.

Tony Bloom is in the final - photo by Mickey May

Seidel held a huge chip advantage heads up and at one point Bloom was close to his starting stack with Erik holding over two million in chips. But Tony all but restored parity when he shoved with Q 10 after hitting a queen on the flop and Erik took a shot at reaching the final with J 10, Tony hitting one million in chips as the Queen held.

But with plenty of determination and no little amount of patience, Bloom took the chip lead in the 180th hand and began to sense a dramatic victory and so it proved when Seidel hit his lowest stack of 600k and shoved with JD 9H and Bloom called with A 6. It looked like we might be even-steven as a Queen came on the flop but an Ace on the turn saw Bloom through to December’s final table.

“It was a real quality field and Erik is a world class act so I’m delighted,” said Bloom. “I hope its third time lucky though – it's bound to be a tough heat because of the quality players in the line up but I hope to do well and I don’t think it can be as strong as this field though.”

Eight time WSOP bracelet holder Seidel never dropped below his starting stack in a performance that commentary duo Jesse May and Neil Channing called “masterful” but he was magnanimous in defeat and looking forward to returning in October’s runners-up heat: “Losing a chip lead heads-up can happen pretty quickly so it's not a massive chip lead in that sense, he played well though,” said Seidel.

An under the weather Mike Matusow was the first to leave the action, getting low after his aces were cracked by Steven’s jack-ten of clubs making a straight on the turn. It was another pair that spelt the end, with Romanello’s pocket queens holding as he called Mike’s all-in with pocket nines.

Tony G was the second player to go, and like Mike he never really got going. Steven did the damage, raising with A 10 and getting reraised to 40k by G’s pocket nines, Bloom folded his pocket eights, Steven shoved and Tony called – an Ace on the flop was the end of G’s challenge for the million dollar cheque.

Roberto Romanello has been dogged by bad luck in previous Poker Million tournaments and the ninth edition was no exception – he raised with five-six of hearts and Seidel called with ten-Jack offsuit. The flop was a monster 7D 9H 8C and the money went in, Romanello taking the cooler gracefully as he left in fifth.

Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot was back in Poker Million action after missing last year’s action and he was at his ebullient best at the table, with his tongue as sharp as his suit. Unfortunately though he was unable to reach his third final of the competition, finding himself short and shoving with A J and getting a call from Merrifield with pocket Jacks, no ace for Devilfish who had to go.

Merrifield qualified online but is certainly no novice – an online pro with a number of WSOP cashes to his name and he will consider himself unfortunate to run into Obrestad and Seidel in such good form – his exit hand was case in point as he shoved on the button with pocket sevens and ran into Annette’s nines, getting no joy from the deck.

It seemed that taking a player out was becoming a bad omen as it was Obrestad who departed next. The Norwegian star played some superb poker, winning six hands in a row at one point and often tormenting the rest of the table with her foot seemingly permanently on the accelerator and playing her hands with the same as her premium hands, but when Bloom’s ace-queen beat her ace-king – with Obrestad a big heads-up chip leader should she win – Annette found herself the short stack and she shoved with Q J on Erik’s button raise and ran into his pocket aces, a jack popped first on the flop but there was an ace there too and Obrestad was gone after the blank turn.

Each heat is split into two two-hour shows on Tuesday nights on Sky Sports, with the first heat shown on September 7 and 14, the second on 21 and 28 and the third on October 5 and 12. The second trio of heats take place in October along with the runners-up heat and the live final takes place on Friday December 10.

HEAT THREE
1 TONY BLOOM, 2 Erik Seidel, 3 Annette Obrestad, 4 Steven Merrifield, 5 Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, 6 Roberto Romanello, 7 Tony G, 8 Mike Matusow.