Mikkelsen and Chiu through to Poker Million semis - 08/10/2009

Dag Martin Mikkelsen and David Chiu won heats nine and ten of the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII as the semi-final line-ups neared completion in London - and there will be a new name on the trophy after defending champion Marty Smyth was knocked out.

Maddy Makes Tour Cut For First Time As A Pro

Mikkelsen saw off WSOP main event champion Huck Seed, Premier League Poker winner JC Tran and current champion and three-time Poker Million finalist Smyth to reach Friday's second semi-final.

"I doubled up right before the heads up and that gave me control of the match," said Mikkelsen, from Norway. "I played well with no major mistakes so I'm looking forward to the semi-final now."

American pro Matt Hawrilenko was the first man to fall in heat nine, finding himself with less than half his starting stack as the blinds moved to 2/4k and moving all-in with AQ - getting a call from WSOP 2009 main event casher Christian Harder with A5 and the man who qualified online hit a five to knock Hawrilenko out.

Tran was the next to fall in the third level, with the Q3A flop spelling danger for him holding A8 with Harder picking up A10 - all the money went in and neither player hit the turn or river so JC had to go.

Harder had big chips now and as the blinds moved up to 5/10k, we had to say goodbye the defending champion Smyth. Harder raised with AK and the Irish champ had a simple decision to move all-in with pocket nines - Harder hit an ace on the flop and a king on the river for good measure and Smyth's crusade for a fourth Poker Million final was over.

Christian now had 395k of the chips but he lost a massive pot with Mikkelsen to see the pair with almost level chips - and Huck Seed was left with next to nothing after running card dead all day. The 1996 WSOP main event champion played fantastically well to get three-handed, and had to put his 35k in with 97 and both Harder and Mikkelsen called - all three players missed the board to give the pot to Harder's ace-high and send Seed home.
Harder held 360k to Mikkelsen's 240k heads-up, but Mikkelsen was the more aggressive and turned the tables on his opponent before Harder moved all-in with KJ and Mikkelsen called with pocket fives and his pair held up to send him through to the semi-final, with Harder getting another crack in Thursday's turbo heat.

The tenth heat roared into action with Scott Fischman laying down a straight after David Chiu flopped a full-house. Fischman survived two all-ins, and as a result, Sammy "any two" George was the first man to fall, cutting a frustrated figure after surrendering half his stack to John Juanda on a bluff and it was Juanda who made Sammy the first to fall, flopping a pair of tens with 108 in his hand and running into Juanda's pocket queens which held up.

Twenty-two hands in and we lost our second player as Fischman called Tureniec's pocket nine raise with 72, flopped a deuce and raised only for Scott to move all-in and his nines held-up. As quick as a flash, Tureniec did more damage to go into a heads-up battle with David Chiu, although Juanda will wonder how he didn't win the heat. The four-time WSOP bracelet winner was running over the table when he got into a massive pot with Tureniec, The Swede raised with AJ and Juanda picked up the red jacks behind him - the money was all in on the flop and the hooks looked good for the American to hold over 400k of the chip in play until an ace on the river left him with 16k. He was gone the next hand as he had to move all-in with 56 of clubs and Tureniec called with J7 of diamonds and made a flush to rub salt into Juanda's exit wound.

We edged into the 3/6k level and Tureniec saw off another opponent to get heads-up. He raised with J10 and Christian Iacobellis - who qualified online but finished ninth in the 2009 WSOP $5,000 NLH event - performed very well to get to third place but he moved all-in with A6 and Tureniec called and made a full house.

We were heads-up in less than 50 hands and Tureniec held a healthy chip lead - but Chiu plugged away and won a key pot when his jacks held against the Swede's pocket fives as we entered the 5/10k level, and he soon took the chip lead. Chiu continued to be the aggressor and it paid off when Tureniec raised with J10 and Chiu called with 69 - he made trips on the 998 flop and check-raised Tureniec who moved all-in and Chiu called to win heat ten.

"I got really lucky early on - John Juanda got really unlucky and Michael played really well to get heads-up," said Chiu. "I played pretty well heads-up with a short-stack though and I opened up much more so I'm confident ahead of Friday."

The final two heats take place on Thursday and live reporting is available at www.matchroompoker.com.

REMAINING HEATS:

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, Christian Harder, Michael Tureniec

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, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, David Chiu

Final - Friday December 4