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October 30th 2006
Roll on the Wolf: Roland wins the Dublin EPT
What a year and a half it’s been for Roland De Wolfe. Back in July of 2005 Roland stormed on to the poker radar by winning the WPT Grand Prix De Paris. Then in April of this year Roland thundered onto the final table of the $25,000 WPT Championship, ending up in third place for $1 million. And now, in the last EPT event of 2006, Roland has picked up another win, in the Irish Masters, pocketing $696,970.
The Dublin EPT main-event kicked off on Friday at the Regency Hotel, with around 200 runners pitching up for Day One A. That day saw Englishman Marc Goodwin enjoying the luck of the Irish, escaping from a three way pot with 6-6 against Q-Q and 3h-4h when a six fell on the river, delivering to him a $47,000 pot which he proceeded to use to bludgeon his opponents and end the day second in chips with $98,000.
Day One B saw the majority of the well known pros kick-start their tournament, although most struggled to get out of first gear. London winner Vicky Coren, 2004 WSOP champ Greg Raymer, Dave “DevilFish” Ulliot, and Ram Vaswani all hit the rail early on, most of them heading straight over to the cash games for revenge.
Not all the big name players were put to the sword however. Ending the day in second position overall was William Thorsson, a player who finished 13th in this years WSOP main-event for more than $900,000. In sixth position overall was Roy “The Boy” Brindley, with Roland De Wolfe one behind in seventh, and in tenth place was 2005 WSOP fifth place finisher Andy Black. The leader at the end of Day One was Jonas Helness.
Day Two got off to a belting start, with 21 eliminations inside 35 minutes and it proved a bad day for most of the household hopes. Roy Brindley, Marc Goodwin, and Andy Black all crashed out before the day was done, as did Day One chip leader Jonas Helness. It proved an excellent day for Roland De Wolfe however, who moved into a big chip lead when he clashed with crowd favourite Willie Tan. “The Dice Man” moved all-in with A-J when Roland woke up with A-K. A king on the flop sealed Tan’s fate, and Roland ended the day with $1.35 million in chips, over $580,000 more than his closest opponent, William Thorsson.
The final table was an exciting event, dominated in large part by an interesting battle between the two young tournament stars Roland De Wolfe and William Thorsson. It appeared that Roland had the upper hand, with Thorsson at one point resorting to calling Roland a “fish” after another frustrating loss. Despite this Thorsson played well, and his aggressive style kept him ahead of the rest of the table.
Thorsson in fact should have reached the heads-up stage for what would have been a fascinating duel with his nemesis Roland De Wolfe. Unfortunately for him his tournament was cut short by a horror river card against David Tavernier. The two players got their chips in on the turn with the board showing Q-8-T-7; Thorsson had flopped the straight while Tavernier had Q-8 for two pair. An eight on the river crippled Thorsson, who bowed out shortly afterwards when he lost a race with A-T against De Wolfe’s 6-6.
De Wolfe took a $2.5 million to $1.5 million chip lead into his heads-up battle with Tavernier, and although the lead was easily reversible Tavernier could never quite get to grips with his tricky opponent. He lasted half-an-hour before De Wolfe cleverly induced Tavernier into making an all in bluff. With the board showing 3-5-A-5 Roland bet $70k and was raised to $250k; he called. The river was a nine and Roland led out with a $250k bet, which Tavernier must have read for weakness because he moved all-in. Roland called showing 5-4 for trip fives. Tavernier had Q-J, a total bluff.
So for Roland De Wolfe it was a second big title within 18 months and a 3rd $500,000+ tournament payday in the same period. For David Tavernier the $394,970 second place prize was the biggest of his career.
Final Table payouts:
1st Roland De Wolfe (UK) €554,300
2nd David Tavernier (Fra) €314,120
3rd William Thorsson (Swe) €184,720
4th Gavin Simms (UK) €138,580
5th George McKeever (Ire) €112,710
6th Rob Yong (UK) €88,690
7th Nick Slade (UK) €70,210
8th Patrick Bueno (Fra) €51,740
Submitted: 30/10/2006 12:01:06
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