Home / Poker News February 2010 / PartyPoker Premier League playoffs kick off
PartyPoker Premier League playoffs kick off
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2010-02-10 04:11
The M-Resort, just off the famous Las Vegas Strip hosted the first flight of the long-awaited PartyPoker Premier League playoffs. 6 players bellied up to the tables to begin their 3-heat run to determine the final table qualifiers. Mike Sexton, Dragan Galic, Felipe Ramos, Remy Biechel, Bodo Sbrzesny and Ian Frazer took to the tables on Tuesday, looking to score as many points as possible in the first heat of the playoff series. In each of the three heats, points would be given to all players. First place would be worth 17 points, and the last one 5. The players with the most points at the end of the three heats would advance to the final table. The point totals would determine the amount of chips the qualifiers would take with them to the final table.
Team
PartyPoker member Remy Biechel was obviously one of the favorites, but
poker tournament specialist Dragan Galic was likely to have a strong word to say in the outcome as well. The biggest favorite though was Sexton, the hall of famer whose name has pretty much become synonymous with poker itself over the last few years.
As luck would have it though, Sexton was the first one to be bounced in the first heat, pocketing a measly 5 points for his 6th place finish, within 10 minutes of the start of the action.
Ramos was responsible for crippling Sexton. Galic then moved in to finish the dirty work. Sbrzesny followed Sexton to the rail, after he lost a race to Galic. Remy Biechel was the only surviving member of team PartyPoker at that point, and soon he followed his teammates to the sidelines in 4th place. Galic himself was eliminated in 3rd place by Ramos, whose stack became a deadly weapon following this move. Frazer didn’t stand a chance against the mountains of chips brought to bear against him, and the first heat was over in a flash.
In the second heat, it was Galic turn to pick up the unsightly 5 points for the last place. He was followed to the rail by Frazer, Sbrzesny and Ramos. Sexton and Biechel battled it out heads-up for first place, and Biechel managed to hammer his chip advantage home, picking up the 17 points.
