Laak makes it two from two in Vegas - 14/02/2010
Phil Laak claimed back to back heat wins in heat two of the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker IV at the M Resort Spa Casino to take a dominant position at the top of the league. 
Another Course Record Bites The Dust
After seeing off defending champion JC Tran heads-up in Friday’s opening heat, Laak saw off Roland De Wolfe to take maximum points from the opening two matches to open up a commanding 15 point lead with 36 points, and already looking like a force to be reckoned with when those points are converted to final table chips.
The Unabomber’s blessed run of cards continued and he was the first to admit it after hitting some sick cards at crucial points, and the World Open V champion was the first to admit he was profiting from some good fortune.
“We should really check these decks because some of these things just should not happen,” said Laak. “You cannot make this stuff up but I’m not complaining, I’m in a great position already and I’m determined to make this strong start count.”
Laak held the same chip advantage over De Wolfe going heads-up as he did in the opening encounter with Tran – 1,880k to De Wolfe’s 520k – and it looked like curtains straight away for Roland as Laak checked a full-house with AQ with Roland holding 32, before the Brit bet 50k when a deuce came on the turn and then 110k when another deuce gave him trips. Laak reraised the minimum and De Wolfe called, knocking him down to 230k.
But Roland doubled up twice to level matters and gave the game a new slant – until Lady Luck visited Laak once again. Laak limped with the ducks and De Wolfe raised with pocket eights, Phil quickly moved all-in and Roland called, with Laak having 360k more than his opponent. A deuce came on the flop to the dismay of Roland and he couldn’t hit an eight, taking second spot and 11 points to move into third spot in the league behind JC Tran.
“I just tried to hang in there and get heads-up but it’s not a good day all-in all with that deuce – points and prize money considered,” said Roland.
Tran is the player closest to Laak and will be gunning for revenge when they meet in heat four on Monday after a couple of killer blows saw chip leader JC knocked out in fourth spot. First, Laak raised with KQ and Tran moved all-in with AJ – Laak tanking for a while before calling off his stack of 399k. The flop came AJ5 giving Tran two-pair and the six on the turn was no help. But the ten of hearts on the river was a sucker punch to Tran – and Laak finished him off soon after. He raised with AdK and Tran reraised him with pocket jacks and the money all went in. Tran was still in front with the Q74 flop but with two diamonds Phil was still very interested and JC’s nightmare came when the King of diamonds arrived on the turn to kill off the Jack of diamonds as an out and the river didn’t come to the rescue.
Third spot belonged to David Benyamine who was making his debut in the Premier League – and again it was Laak who did the damage. Benyamine moved all-in with A9 and Phil called with over one million in front of him in chips with KJ – his good fortune continued as he hit a jack on the flop and David had to settle for eight points in his opening salvo.
Timoshenko made three fantastic lay downs early in the heat as he looked to build on his third place finish in the opening heat – folding two-pair with KQ with Tony G holding trip fours, then folding pocket Queens with Phil Laak moving all-in with aces and then binning AJ as the short-stack with an ace on the board as Safina held a set of threes. Jovial Gent was down to 82k from his 300k starting stack as the blinds moved to 2/4k and his final hand was a pretty special one. Tony G picked up pocket fives and raised to 10k, David Benyamine held pocket tens and called. De Wolfe did the same behind him with pocket nines in the small blind and Timoshenko put his 82k in with a pair of sevens. Tony re-shipped all-in for 422k and Benyamine made the call for 300k, while De Wolfe folded his pair. The board ran A8310K to give the Frenchman a big pot and send Timoshenko out without a point.
Tony G was left with 120k after Timoshenko’s exit hand and the Australian soon followed out of the action. Online qualifier Giovanni Safina had been opening lots of hands and did so again to 14k with pocket Kings, and Tony G was next to act and moved all-in for 101k with A7 – the Kings held up and Tony hit the rail with two points.
The big personalities at the table provided plenty of banter and Phil Hellmuth was often at the centre of it, but as the blinds hit 5/10k he had to go. Just before the fourth level hit, Phil raised with AK and was called by Safina’s A7 and Tran’s A5. JC hit on the J52 flop and called Hellmuth’s 30k bet, with Safina ducking out of the way. The turn was an eight, Tran had checked in the dark and then called another bet. The river was a five and Tran fired 80k – Hellmuth called and the Poker Brat was seething when Tran showed trip fives to take the pot. Soon after, Benyamine raised to 25k with pocket fives and Hellmuth moved all-in with AK and Benyamine called – the fives held and Hellmuth was out in sixth with three points. It wasn’t long before Hellmuth jumped onto Twitter and wrote: “JC Tran outplayed me today, well done sir. But I am going to mess JC up big time next match!! JC wants war, I'll give him war...” – a new Premier League rivalry is born!
Italian lawyer Safina was holding his own amongst the big boys but defending champion Tran saw him off in fifth spot. Giovanni raised to 45k with A9 and Tran called in position with A6 – the flop came down AQ10 and Safina checked, Tran fired 60k and Safina check-raised all-in for 129k and JC called, hitting a six on the turn to leave Safina with four points.
Sunday’s third heat sees Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu clash for the first time, joined by Vanessa Rousso, Ian Frazer, Benyamine, Timoshenko, De Wolfe and Safina – the action begins at noon local time, with live reporting at PokerNews.com.
Heat Two result
1 Phil Laak – 16 points
2 Roland De Wolfe– 11 points
3 David Benyamine – 8 points
4 JC Tran – 6 points
5 Giovanni Safina – 4 points
6 Phil Hellmuth – 3 points
7 Tony G – 2 points
8 Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 0 points
League Table after Heat Two
Phil Laak Pld 2 Pts 32
JC Tran Pld 2 Pts 17
Roland De Wolfe Pld 2 Pts 14
David Benyamine Pld 1 Pts 8
Yevgeniy Timoshenko Pld 2 Pts 8
Vanessa Rousso Pld 1 Pts 6
Giovanni Safina Pld 1 Pts 4
Luke Schwartz Pld 1 Pts 4
Phil Hellmuth Pld 1 Pts 3
Ian Frazer Pld 1 Pts 2
Tony G Pld 1 Pts 2
Daniel Negreanu Pld 1 Pts 0
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