CPC 2008 first prize goes to David Lloyd

The Caribbean Poker Classic may not be the highest prize-pool tournament out there and as such, it is probably not something you’ll read a whole lot about on different high profile news portals. The reason I decided to feature it in this blog is the following: most of our readers are and will be online poker players. At the Caribbean Poker Classic, the cream of the crop is formed by online qualifiers, in a word: players like you and I.
Now then, given the skill level of some of these players, the difference between a middle stakes grinder and a live poker headliner can be very little these days. The CPC represents one of the main staging areas for tomorrow’s poker headliners, an event where the potentially huge names of tomorrow’s live poker scene are taking their first baby-steps in live tournament poker. A prime example in this sense is Danish player Peter Jepsen who got his live tournament start at the CPC last year. About 6 months after he took first place (it was a chop actually) at the CPC he won an EPT title.

Enough small-talk though and let’s see who did what n the 2008 CPC. The first day of the event was an endurance grind, and the second one an all-in frenzy. Towards the end of the tournament the blinds were so big compared to layers’ stack sizes that they didn’t really get a chance to put their hard-earned skills to work. They just shoved and the luckier one survived. This is probably why Canadian Sol Bergren, who appeared to be superior in skills to just about everyone else failed to actually take down the big one. He did make it to heads-up play though, and he did eventually walk away with the substantial share of the prize-pool, but he didn’t win and you know what they say: the runner up is the first among the losers.

Bergren was unfortunate enough to run into Eventual winner David Lloyd in the heads-up stage of the final table, a player who did an excellent job of adapting his style to the above described circumstances. He kind of snuck into the heads up stage undetected, and once there he threw the tightish play that got him that far out the window, and kept pouring on the pressure. While Lady Luck certainly had her hand in the outcome of this tournament too, one must admit that Lloyd played his chances exceptionally well.

He and Bergren started the heads-up battle about evenly stacked, but that would soon change as Lloyd’s preflop raises and three-bets soon had Bergren on the ropes. While these sort of abilities are usually a mark of greatness in poker, the lack of hole-card cameras made it quite impossible to accurately assess the finesse behind Lloyd’s calls.
The fact that when the game tightened up on the final table bubble he kept focused on building his stack was not only of great help for him later, it was also something that screamed he was a skilled player.
Anyway, congrats on the first place finish and on the $91,200 prize. Time will tell whether we have a true talent on our hands here or not.