HELLMUTH IS BACK IN THE RACE! EASTGATE WINS!
London – 27th November 2008 – Day three at the Party Poker Premier League III saw a reverse of the results on day two as both Peter Eastgate and Phil Hellmuth picked up the maximum 10 points from their heats. Eastgate completely dominated his heat while Hellmuth finally found some form to bring him back into contention for Sunday’s final table.
Heat five at the start of day three was hugely eventful. All the previous heats had seen very few eliminations in early levels but this game was different and it very quickly become a heads-up battle between JC Tran and Peter Eastgate. The 2008 WSOP Main Event champion completely run over the field and looked to be home and dry but the blinds were only at 2,000 – 4,000. Eastgate sat with 541,000 to Tran’s 59,000, a very different scenario to when the pair met on day one when the chip counts going into the heads-up stage were more level. Remarkably, as a 9-1 underdog, Tran fought back to hold the chip lead. Eastgate, however, eventually got his revenge for his defeat at the hands of Tran on day one to pick up 10 points. Eastgate pushed all-in with K3 and was called by Tran with A7. A king on the flop was enough to seal the deal for the $9 million Dane.
With 6 points from the heat, however, JC is the man to beat and holds a very comfortable lead at the top of the league table and he looks set to qualify for the deep-stacked final table on Sunday. In this heat, Obrestad got the bagel, Helppi 2 points, Medic 3 points and Coren 4 points.
Heat six was the noisiest yet boasting a great line-up of Hellmuth, Tony G, Devilfish, Roland de Wolfe, Tom Dwan and Andy Black. By the time shuffle and deal was called the players were at each others throat with there seeming to be a competition on who could turn up the latest and hold-up the production. The Devilfish’s dreadful luck in the Premier League continued as he busted with 0 points. Unsurprisingly, the instigator of his downfall was Dwan, whose bet frequency throughout the whole of the Premier League so far has been way above that of any other player. Dwan raised to 10k with Q7 off-suit, Devilfish called with KQ off-suit. The flop came 77K with a Q on the river and all the money went in. The chances of the Fish finally getting a run together in the Premier League now look slim as he only has 3 points.
‘Durrr’ busted Tony G next for 2 points and Andy Black for 3 points but then went himself in third place for 4 points at the expense of Hellmuth after pushing it just a little too much. This left Hellmuth and De Wolfe heads-up with Roland leading 319,000 to 281,000. After days where it seemed that the ‘Poker Brat’ was getting outgunned by the newcomers he showed great form with some majestic calls and laydowns. Hellmuth chipped away at De Wolfe but was the subject of good fortune in the hand that gave him his eventual victory. Roland re-raised all-in with AQ off-suit and Phil called with Kc10c. It was looking great for Roland until a king came on the river to secure Hellmuth 10 points.
PARTYPOKER.COM PREMIER LEAGUE III – 24th – 30th November
LEAGUE TABLE AT THE END OF DAY THREE
26 pts JC TRAN
16 pts PETER EASTGATE
14 pts JUHA HELPPI
14 pts TONY G
14 pts VICKY COREN
13 pts PHIL HELLMUTH
12 pts TOM DWAN
12 pts ROLAND DE WOLFE
10 pts ANNETTE OBRESTAD
10 pts ANDY BLACK
6pts NENAD MEDIC
3 pts DEVILFISH
November 27, 2008