C’mon Ireland! There were tears in his eyes as Andy Black won the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker II in London. “I’ve waited 20 years for this,” said the Irishman as he lifted the trophy and pocketed the $250,000 winner’s cheque.

Black beat Roland De Wolfe heads-up in a thrilling final, befitting the high quality and drama that was the Premier League. After seven days of action, Andy Black, Roland De Wolfe, Tony G, Alex Kravchenko, Marcel Luske and Annie Duke sat at the final table. Earlier on the final day, Duke took out Dave Ulliott in a tense heads-up best of five, winning 3-2. De Wolfe had already booked his seat with a 3-0 heads-up win over Eddy Scharf.

Tony G was chip leader going into the final with 380,000, Black had 330,000, Kravchenko third on 260,000, Luske 210,000 and the two heads-up winners bringing up the rear – De Wolfe with 200,000 and Duke on 190,000.

Annie perished first, all-in with A J and called by Kravchenko with 7 8. The board ran Q 5 Q 10 with the 7 on the river sealing her fate and sending her home with $20,000. Marcel ($30,000) followed after 91 hands, running into De Wolfe’s 7s with Q 8 and getting no help on the board.

Alex Kravchenko ($40,000) was almost the story of the tournament, with his dry table talk and gutsy play almost taking him all the way, but Black got lucky against him with King-rag when Alex had Queens. The King on the turn was a killer for Kravchenko but the Russian took his defeat well and will be back next year.

Three-handed and the blinds up to 20,000/40,000, hand 151 saw the end of Tony G ($60,000) – although the 150th hand was the real turning point. Black raised with A J and Tony announced a call with 6s but turned over his hand and it turned out that Black’s bet didn’t cover him as he thought and it was taken as a call – so G is not allowed to bet. De Wolfe and Black could not suppress their laughter as the board ran 7 10 5 6 and Black mucks his hand drawing dead. G was sick and with his eye off the ball De Wolfe slow paid Kings against Tony’s 9 7 hearts. The board ran 5 heart Q spades and 6 hearts and G went all-in with his straight flush draw after De Wolfe bet. Roland called and the turn and river did nothing for G and he was out with De Wolfe holding a 3-2 chip lead heads-up.

His 960,000 played Black’s 610,000 but Andy chipped away in the first dozen hands to take the chip lead and never looked back. He kept his cool with pocket Kings, limping in against De Wolfe’s Q 6, with Roland check-raising all-in on the 4 8 6 flop. The 8 on the turn gave De Wolfe ($120,000) only a 6 to survive and the 2 on the river gave Black the title.

FINAL RESULTS

The Final
1) Andy Black, 2) Roland De Wolfe, 3) Tony G, 4) Alex Kravchenko, 5) Marcel Luske,6) Annie Duke

Heads-Up match 1
Roland De Wolfe 3-0 Eddy Scharf

Heads-Up match 2
Annie Duke 3-2 Dave Ulliott

FINAL STANDINGS
Tony G 38
Andy Black 33
Alex Kravchenko 26
Marcel Luske 21
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Roland De Wolfe 20
Annie Duke 19
Eddy Scharf 19
Dave Ulliott 19
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Vicky Coren 17
Juha Helppi 11
Ian Frazer 9
Phil Hellmuth 8

RESULTS SO FAR

Points structure – 1st = 9, 2nd = 5, 3rd = 3, 4th = 2, 5th = 1, 6th = 0

Match 1:
1) Tony G, 2) Annie Duke, 3) Marcel Luske, 4) Phil Hellmuth, 5) Dave Ulliott, 6) Juha Helppi

Match 2:
1) Roland De Wolfe, 2) Alex Kravchenko, 3) Eddy Scharf, 4) Ian Frazer, 5) Vicky Coren, 6) Andy Black

Match 3:
1) Andy Black, 2) Vicky Coren, 3) Marcel Luske, 4) Juha Helppi, 5) Ian Frazer, 6) Roland De Wolfe

Match 4:
1) Tony G, 2) Eddy Scharf, 3) Alex Kravchenko, 4) Phil Hellmuth, 5) Annie Duke, 6) Dave Ulliott

Match 5:
1) Andy Black, 2) Eddy Scharf, 3) Ian Frazer, 4) Roland De Wolfe, 5) Phil Hellmuth, 6) Juha Helppi

Match 6:
1) Annie Duke, 2) Alex Kravchenko, 3) Dave Ulliott, 4) Vicky Coren, 5) Tony G, 6) Marcel Luske

Match 7:
1) Roland De Wolfe, 2) Dave Ulliott, 3) Eddy Scharf, 4) Alex Kravchenko, 5) Ian Frazer, 6) Annie Duke

Match 8:
1) Tony G, 2) Andy Black, 3) Vicky Coren, 4) Juha Helppi, 5) Marcel Luske, 6) Phil Hellmuth

Match 9:
1) Marcel Luske, 2) Juha Helppi, 3) Vicky Coren, 4) Ian Frazer, 5) Eddy Scharf, 6) Phil Hellmuth

Match 10:
1) Andy Black, 2) Tony G, 3) Annie Duke, 4) Alex Kravchenko, 5) Dave Ulliott, 6) Roland De Wolfe

Match 11:
1) Alex Kravchenko, 2) Marcel Luske, 3) Vicky Coren, 4) Eddy Scharf, 5) Annie Duke, 6) Ian Frazer

Match 12:
1) Dave Ulliott, 2) Tony G, 3) Phil Hellmuth, 4) Juha Helppi, 5) Andy Black, 6) Roland De Wolfe