Durrrr and qualifier take down Poker Million heats - 07/10/2009

High stakes sensation Tom "Durrrr" Dwan took down the eighth heat of the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII after online qualifier Daniel Bowden had earlier stunned a high class field in heat seven.

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Bowden beat 107 players online to qualify for the Sky Sports event and saw off in-form American pro Yevgeniy Timoshenko heads-up to take the first seat in the second semi-final, which takes place on Friday October 9.

Timoshenko came into the event off the back of scooping over $1.7million in the World Championship of Online Poker but his Welsh opponent got the better of him heads-up, calling with 69 of spades when Yevgeniy raised with AK of spades, with Bowden hitting a nine on the flop and avoiding the flush and aces and kings to take a five to one chip lead. A few hands later it was all over, with Bowden raising with K10 and Timoshenko moving all-in with K5 - Bowden hitting a ten on the flop to progress.

"I didn't fancy my chances when I saw the line-up but I guess today was my day," said the Swansea man. "I knew them boys could bully me so I just waited until I got some good hands and it worked. I was very nervous at the start but I got it straight at the end and I can't wait for the semi-finals."

We had to wait until the 57th hand to lose our first player, Justin Smith suffering when his A10 ran into Brandon Adams' AQ, then he shoved with just 26k in chips with 87 and Yevgeniy Timoshenko called with 107 and his ten high was enough.

Timoshenko was at it again the very next hand as Andrew Feldman moved all-in with A7 and hit an ace on the flop - but the American is in hot form at the moment and he hit a King on the river holding pocket cowboys to send Feldman packing.

David Pham was the next man to go after failing to pick up any hands all day. The two-time WSOP bracelet winner had to get the rest of his stack in with J9 and Bowden found the call with A2 and knocked Pham out.
Next hand we were heads up as Bowden matched Timoshenko's earlier two-in-two when he saw off Brandon Adams. The Full Tilt pro was short-stacked and moved all-in with pocket sixes and ran into Bowden's pocket eights and the snowmen held for Bowden.

In the eighth heat, Paul Hackett was the first man had Patrik Antonius on the rack with an audacious bluff in the first level as he fired four bullets at the Finnish superstar but Antonius made the call and his bottom pair was good. Paul took a huge chunk out of Tom "Durrrr" Dwan with Kings versus Durrrr's AQ - the online sensation hit an ace on the flop but a king on the river saved Hackett. Unfortunately he was unable to follow the lead of Daniel Bowden, who qualified online to win heat seven, and Antonio Esfandiari saw him off when he flopped a pair of nines against Hackett's KQ and dodged the royalty to knock the Manchester man out.

Mike Matusow was the second player to perish as the blinds reached 3/6k and Mike moved all-in with KJ of clubs and Antonio called with pocket eights and they held to leave us four handed. Esfandiari was at it again when he hit a jack on the river to hit a straight holding A10 on the 2Q3KJ board against Antonius with Q8 and "The Magician" had made two of his opponents disappear to hold over half the chips in play.

Ben Roberts was the short-stack three-handed and had to bow out of the tournament when they moved into the 5/10k level when he moved all-in with Q10 and Durrrr called with A8 and hit an ace on the flop to go into the heads-up battle with Esfandiari with the slenderest chip lead.

It was no surprise that Durrrr and Esfandiari's one-on-one contest was an enthralling affair with the chip lead switching between the pair before they finally got to the vital hand, with Durrrr holding KQ and Antonio with K4 not able to hit a four and having to settle for a second shot in the turbo alongside Timoshenko.

REMAINING HEATS:
Heat 9 - Wednesday October 7, am
Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Huck Seed, Matt Hawrilenko, JC Tran, Marty Smyth, Christian Harder
Heat 10 - Wednesday October 7, pm
Michael Tureniec, David Chiu, Scott Fischman, Sammy George, Christian Iacobellis, TBA
Heat 11 - Thursday October 8, am
Barny Boatman, Erik Cajelais, James Akenhead, Eric Liu, Phil Laak, Bradley "BJ" Craig
Heat 12 - Thursday October 8, pm
Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, Taylor Caby, Jennifer Tilly, Bobby Firestone
Turbo 2 - Thursday October 8, pm
Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Antonio Esfandiari
Semi-final 1 - Friday October 9, am
Annette Obrestad, Luke Schwartz, Tony Bloom, Paul Zimbler, Nam Le, Juha Helppi, Peter Vasiliou
Semi-final 2 - Friday October 9, pm
Daniel Bowden, Tom "Durrrr" Dwan
Final - Friday December 4