14 Oct 2009

LONDON, England—(PRESS RELEASE)—The action at the Party Poker World Open V continues! The Matchroom Sport organised event takes place from Sunday 11 October - Thursday 15 October 2009 in London. For the very first time, the action takes place in the prestigious Palm Beach Casino in the heart of Mayfair and spectators are welcome to rail and the crowds are growing every day. The action starts at 11am.

Hollywood actress Jennifer Tilly won heat three at the PartyPoker.com World Open V to join her partner Phil Laak at the final table, while ex-England football star Teddy Sheringham lost to internet qualifier Jan Veit heads-up in heat four. They join Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz in the final.

Tilly, a WSOP bracelet winner, had to overcome both a tough field and a tricky overnight break in play to reach make it to last seven, where she’ll face a battle for the $250,000 first prize with her American pro boyfriend Laak, who took down heat two.

“I told Jennifer this is war!“ said Laak.

“We’re really competitive so we better spend some time together now because we might not be speaking on Friday!“ said Tilly.

It was as tough a heat as you could find with online star and pre-tournament favourite Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, triple-crown holder Roland De Wolfe, big cash game player Sammy “any two” George and Neil Channing - Tilly’s eventual heads-up opponent. Online qualifier Gustav Ekerot was the first player to perish and it was Durrrr who followed next, kicking-off Tilly’s run to the final when she picked up aces against jacks for the second time and the bullets held to leave the table six-handed minus Dwan. No sooner had the aces been put back in the deck, they were out the very next hand and Channing used them to full effect, with Josh Gould the unlucky man to have kings in that spot.

Channing was at it again when he knocked out fellow Londoner De Wolfe, with the short-stacked Roland pushing with 105 suited and Neil calling with pocket threes and hitting quads on the river for good measure. It was not long after that when Channing hit quad kings - but George did well to get away with A10. Sammy’s reward for that escape was to knock out online qualifier Robert Sherwood and take the chip lead. George raised with AK, Tilly called with A6 and Sherwood moved all-in with A7 behind her - Sammy snap called and Tilly got out of the way - the king ruled the board and Any Two was up to 1,218k, Tilly held 980k and Channing just 202k.

He pushed those chips over the line with Q4 and was called by Sammy with pocket nines - hitting a queen to double up. Channing then performed the same magic with AK against Tilly’s Q7 and doubled up again to hold over 800k.

With Channing the chip leader - he took an early crack at Tilly with his K8 against her A8 - Channing hitting a king on the flop but Tilly’s prayers for an ace on the river coming true and moving her to 1,000,000 in chips. Had Channing won the hand, Tilly would have gone and Sammy would have had at least a runners-up spot but George was the bubble boy in this heat, moving all-in with AK and getting called by Tilly’s pocket threes - the board coming K3Q2J to get us heads-up.

Tilly held the chip lead and it is one that she converted into victory, steadily building her stack before getting the best of an action board when the duo held seemingly innocuous cards. It read 23 with short-stack Neil holding 42 when Tilly moved in with 54 - Channing made the call that sees Jennifer progress through and Neil have another go in the runners-up heat.

Before they finished their tussle, online qualifier Jan Veit won through to the final after seeing off former England and Manchester United striker Teddy Sheringham heads-up in heat four. Sheringham made the first moves of a cagey heat when the blinds hit 5/10k - first knocking out Simon Craig, then seeing off PartyPoker.com in the Sky winner Johannes Nord Jorgensen, beating his pocket queens when his AK hit an ace on the flop. Sam Trickett was the third player to fall, getting it in good with a pair of sevens again Veit’s AQ and staying in-front on the flop before Jan rivered two pair to end Trickett’s tournament. Double WSOP bracelet winner Scott Fischman completed Teddy’s hat-trick, shoving with pocket sixes and running into Sheringham’s kings and Fischman was gone when both men missed the board.The heat was suddenly moving along at great pace and we were three-handed going into the 20/40k level with Alec Torelli the unfortunate victim. He took a shot at Veit with J9 when Jan moved all-in, only for Veit to turn over the red aces. That left Torelli with just over 100k and moments later that was down to nought, Alec pushing with K2 and Sheringham picking up a pair of eights to go three-handed with over one million in chips.

But the 20/40k level was not kind to the striker and as the blinds edged towards 30/60k, he bled off a portion of his stack to Veit in two hands with nothing against two pair and top pair and it was Jan who now moved over the one million mark. He remained dominant going heads-up with Sheringham after WSOP November-Niner Antoine Saout, who ran into trip nines to be out on the bubble. So Veit had the chip lead and it wasn’t long until he had them all - Teddy pushing his in with 102 and running into AJ, with Jan hitting a jack for good measure to move into the final with Teddy joining Channing in the runners-up heat.