Rodrigo Strong hangs tough, leads UKIPT Marbella final table
A strong performance from Rodrigo today
Fifty-five players returned today and while shall we only guess at which eight would make the general table, from some distance out it seemed a near certainty that Rodrigo Strong can be amongst them.
The overnight chip leader went from strength to strength today and not lost top spot at the leaderboard as he powered his option to the general table. A cooler of a hand against Janina Burger, by which they both flopped trips, meant he had almost 1 / 4 of the chips in play with 22 players left and he further increased his stack to finish the day on 7,2350,000. Good for 34% of the chips in play. The LAPT9 Chile champion is having an unbelievable year and just as in March, when he won his LAPT title, he'll start the general day as chip leader.
Final table chip counts:
Seat
Name
Country
Status
Chips
| 1 |
Bob Janssens |
Netherlands |
PokerStars Player |
2,810,000 |
| 2 |
Armin Zoike |
Germany |
PokerStars Qualifier |
1,655,000 |
| 3 |
Milos Skrbic |
Serbia |
PokerStars Qualifier |
2,090,000 |
| 4 |
Rodrigo Strong |
Brazil |
|
7,235,000 |
| 5 |
Michael Ozimek |
Poland |
|
2,610,000 |
| 6 |
Alexander Voytko |
Israel |
|
1,370,000 |
| 7 |
Nikola Ristivojevic |
Serbia |
PokerStars Qualifier |
850,000 |
| 8 |
Jonathan Schuman |
United Kingdom |
|
2,325,000 |
The following is set Strong from our LAPT blog in March: "he scored knockout after knockout, winning nearly every all-in encounter he found himself all in favour of en path to ending the night with the eight-handed chip lead."
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That quote is equally apt today as Strong barely put a chip wrong and to focus on only one hand, he made quads to eliminate Alejandro Vazquez in 12th place. He nearly always had double the chips of whichever player occupied second place. In short, he crushed it.
A hi there for Janssens
It's a worldly final table with out a not up to seven nationalities represented and in contrast to Strong, who knows what it's love to win an immense poker tournament, nearly all of people who line up behind him are still looking ahead to their breakout result.
While Strong's route to the general table was serene and untroubled the similar cannot be said of Bob Janssens. Over nine hours of play he scrapped his strategy to the general table. What's more his day should've been done at the first hand of play. He got his 20 big blind stack in with A♣J♣ and rivered a jack to overcome Nick De Groot's pocket nines.
He never looked back and a very important hold with jacks against ace-king with 14 players left means the Dutchman goes into tomorrow's final table as Strong's nearest challenger.
Feriolo finished ninth
The Dutchman secured that spot by scoring the overall knockout of the day when he eliminated Romain Feriolo in ninth. He's so old skool he final tabled the primary ever EPT Grand Final. He finished fourth in that event earning €139,000. That is not his only EPT final table though as he six months later he finished eighth at EPT2 Barcelona. The Spaniard was second in chips for enormous swathes of today but a mistimed bluff and an ace-king v kings cooler meant he started the unofficial final table of nine because the shortstack. He took his final stand with A♦J♦ but couldn't beat the A♣K♠ of Janssens.
Nikola Ristivojevic
Milos Skrbic
That exit means there are now no Spaniard's on the final table. Not just that, but there are more Serbians than Brits on the final table, with Milos Skrbic and Nikola Ristivojevic both a number of the final eight. They both started Day 3 some of the top five stacks so it is not a tremendous shock that both are still in contention. They're room mates here in Marbella and travel the circuit together.
Ristivojevic doubled up Alexander Voytko during nine handed play so will start the day because the shortest stack while Skrbic enters the overall table in fifth place.
Armin Zoike
Germany's representative on the final table is Armin Zoike. He had an eventful day, a few of which occurred before he'd even played a hand. He was conspicuous by his absence when play got underway. On his method to the tournament he cut his head and it needed slightly patching up before he could play. He turned his start of day 752,000 into 1,655,000 by play's end.
Despite cashes within the Aussie Millions main event and at EPT Campione irrespective of where Zoike finishes tomorrow it will be his largest live tournament cash to date
Voytko - needed some luck
I think we will be able to all agree you wish to have a healthy slice of luck (in addition to skill) to capture a poker tournament and if Alexander Voytko is victorious tomorrow he'll likely look back on a hand against Nikola Ristivojevic as a large momentum swinger. With nine players left the 2012 Israeli poker champion was all-in and in peril with Q♥9♣ and needed help against Ristivojevic's A♠8♥. A queen at the flop kept his interest on this tournament alive and he'll start tomorrow in seventh place.
Voytko might argue he's due some luck as though you cast your mind back to Day 1A he lost a 120,000 chip pot on the death when a dealer erroneously mucked his cards.
Ozimek's the only Pole left in
Schuman is flying the British flag
Tomorrow may be a large day within the poker lives of Mikhal Ozimek and Jonathan Schuman. The Pole will score his biggest ever live cash should he manage seventh of higher. And if Schuman follows suit he'll, on the very least, double his lifetime live poker earnings. The pair will start third and fourth respectively.
Sapiano lit up the tournament
To make the overall table of eight we would have liked to lose 47 players today and it was with some sadness that the general table won't be enlivened by the presence of Albert Sapiano. He exited in 15th place and his final hand was a microcosm of his personality. He'd complained of being card dead and at last found a hand with which to boost - the mighty 3♠2♣ because it happened - on a K♠3♦6♦ flop he open shoved and bumped into Armin Zoike's slowplayed aces. A COUPLE OF f-bombs followed as he made his exit stage left. He'll be missed but not forgotten.
Other players who needed to hop into side events today in the event that they desired to play more poker were: June Jenkins (53rd), Yannis Liperis (48th), Gareth De Groot (44th), Kevin Monroe (29th), Janina Burger (23rd) and Kjell Lindqvist (16th).
You can see the excellent list of within the money finishers by clicking here, whilst you make amends for all today's action should you click here. We'll be back at noon to bring you final table coverage. There's the small matter of € 151,350 and the trophy to play for.
PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May and Rene Velli. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog
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[Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: UKIPT]
