/ Matthew Pitt / 29 February 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Dollars, lovely dollars all heading to Team Betfair players!
Team Betfair have been fast out of the blocks and have been tearing up the first couple of events. The running total so far is 590 entrants, 99 cashes and a massive $148,461.68 in prize money being won
The eighth edition of the Grand Series of Poker (GSOP) kicked off on Sunday 26 February and already Betfair Poker players are absolutely destroying the series and winning ridiculous sums of cash! Even this humble scribbler is in profit, what on Earth is happening?!
GSOP Event #1: $190+$10 No Limit Hold'em Deepstack $500,000 Guaranteed
The first GSOP VIII event started at 2000 CET on Feb. 26 with the $190+$10 No Limit Hold'em Deepstack event that carried a massive $500,000 guarantee on it. I almost missed the start as I was travelling back from EPT Copenhagen but managed to get back home with mere minutes to spare. Even if I had missed the start it would not have been too bad because the structure was so amazing; 5,000 chips and 20-minute blinds.
The slow structure must have appealed to my donkish ways and I somehow managed to make it into the money places, eventually crashing in 370/2,419 for a more than welcome $282.20. The run could have possibly been even deeper but I made a bad push in the last hand where I three-bet jammed over an UTG raise for 15bb whilst holding AhJh and ran into AxKx but it was fun, if a little tiring!
It was not only little old me representing Team Betfair who made it to the money, there were 75 of my fellow Betfair Poker players who cashed so a massive congratulations to you all! Special mentions have to go to fellow Brit harwell2 and Romania's FIREZUCU who both finished in the top 20 places (19 and 15 respectively) but an even bigger shoutout has to go to richard5174 who eventually busted out in fifth place for a score of $18,510.20.
But he was not the best placed Betfair Poker player, no, that honour went to mar1ach1 who almost took down the first event but fell just short in second place. The German lost heads-up to pasikko but I'm sure the $49,049.64 he picked up for second place will help numb the pain a little! It has been quite the couple of months for mar1ach1 as he also finsihed second in the Jan. 23 Champion Chip $200,000 guaranteed for $24,462! Congratulations!
Event # 1 in numbers
Total entrants: 2,419
Total prize pool: $500,000
Total Team Betfair entrants: 417 (17.24% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 76
Total Team Betfair prize money: $112,457.23 (22.49% of prize pool)
GSOP Event #2: $50+$4 No Limit Hold'em Turbo Unlimited Rebuys $75,000 Guaranteed
If it was up to me I would not speak about my performance in Event #2 because the tournament went terribly. As my Betfair account balance was looking extremely sorry for itself I was forced to play in a rebuy tournament with just a single bullet, a far from ideal scenario.
I had managed to build my stack up to 2,985 and was laughing in the face of those who had rebought but they were to have the last laugh. The blinds were 25/50 and I was under the gun with a beautiful pair of black aces, the best kind I'll have you know. I raise four times the big blind hoping for some nutcase to come over the top of my donkey raise and the ploy worked as Linbeo three-bet to 1,000. Mission accomplished; or so I thought. The big blind, Betfair player Slayerpl then moved all in for 3,000 in total and I obviously shipped in the rest of my stack and the cards were flipped over.
Me: AcAs
Slayerpl: QdJd
Linbeo: KdKc
I had around 67% which is all fine and dandy until the bloody flop came down 8s-7c-Ks. Yeah thanks for that. The turn and river were the 2c and 4c respectively and the 9,010 chip pot was shipped to Linbeo. It would not have hurt as much if he had put them to good use but he didn't even cash.
So my "Pud won a GSOP" brag attempt ended in me finishing a very disappointing 815/895 but it could have been so much better. God bless tournament poker.
But these articles aren't just about me they are about my fellow Team Betfair players too and 23 of you did me proud by making it into the money places. Giro_413 was the first to pick up some moolah, $229.20 to be exact and this amount started to gradually increase right up until j_sideris of Greece's 18th place finish that saw him scoop $898.72 for his efforts.
But again his performance was not the best of Team Betfair because we had two players on the final table! The player who sounds like the seagulls from Finding Nemo, MYMMYMMYM, almost took down Event #2 but he busted out in third place for a bankroll boosting $11,399.92.
Usually this would be enough to get the non-existant but still lucrative title of Team Betfair Player of the Tournament that I have just this second made up but not in this event because jumpjump99 of Denmark finished in second place for a cool $15,923.69. He narrowly missed out on glory when he was defeated by the_pean heads-up. Can Team Betfair Players please stop finishing second! A massive congratulations to everyone who made it into the money places, especially our final table members.
Event #2 in numbers
Total entrants: 895
Total prize pool: $134,000
Total Team Betfair entrants: 173 (19.33% of field)
Total Team Betfair ITM finishes: 23
Total Team Betfair prize money: $36,004.45 (26.87% of prize pool)
As you can see Team Betfair have been fast out of the blocks and have been tearing up the first couple of events. The running total so far is 590 entrants, 99 cashes and a massive $148,461.68 in prize money being won; that is 23.42% of the prize pools so far!
Keep up the good work boys and girls and hopefully we can write about more Team Betfair exploits in the coming days!
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