2015 Master Classics of Poker Final Table Reached; Donald Rae Still Leading
The third and penultimate day of the €4,250 Main Event from the 2015 Master Classics of Poker saw 36 hopefuls out of a 291-entry field return to the tables. When it began, Donald Rae was in the lead at Holland Casino in Amsterdam, and after five and a half 90-minute levels, Rae maintained his position as chip leader. Only nine participants remained to battle for the €300,000 first-place payout, and Rae's stack of 2,265,000 in chips was the standard set.
Among those to fall in the first batch were 2012 MCOP High Roller champion Rens Feenstra, Martin Finger, and Wim Emo.
Anton Wigg reached the second payout, but missed out on the last three tables after getting his stack in short with pocket tens. The Swede was called by Makarios Avramidis and Tobias Peters, with the latter flopping a set of threes.
Ilan Boujenah lost a flip with queens versus ace-king, and then Joep van den Bijgaart busted Luuk Gieles and Sampo Ryynanen in the same hand when finding pocket aces after both opponents had moved all in before him.
Steven van Zadelhoff and defending champion Ruben Visser fell at the start of the second level, with the latter losing a flip with pocket sevens versus queen-jack.
Steve O'Dwyer lost almost all of his chips in a flip with ace-queen against the pocket jacks of Michiel Brummelhuis and joined the rail one hand later in 22nd place.
Johan Verhagen also sent his stack to the former November Niner, and then Pascal Vos could not get there with sevens against pocket tens.
The last two tables were reached after the elimination of Przemyslaw Piotrowski in 19th place, before Timothy Adams ran with ace-six into the pocket tens of Pieter de Korver.
Tobias Peters followed a few minutes later when his king-queen failed to improve against the ace-nine of Kees van Brugge.
By then, Rae had established a commanding lead and his enormous run-good was perfectly captured during the elimination of Niels van Alphen. The Dutchman got his stack in with ace-queen suited and Rae called with pocket jacks to not only find one, but both remaining jacks in the deck to make quads.
After, Per Munksgaard didn't get there with king-jack suited against the ace-queen of Jussi Nevanlinna, and the rise of the Finn had begun.
Chris Dowling lost most chips with ace-eight suited against the ace-nine suited of [Removed:172] and the remainder of the stack vanished soon after. Brummelhuis also fell against the German, Kramer, after he lost a flip with ace-jack versus pocket tens.
Georgios Zisimopoulos dominated the action on the secondary table, but it was again Nevanlinna who knocked out the next two players.
De Korver was short with ace-four and the Finn's jack-ten made a straight. Bryan Paris fell in 11th place after running king-deuce into the kings of Nevanlinna.
Last, but not least, it was Marco Guldenaar who bubbled the final table. With identical stacks he shoved ace-jack and Clyde Tjauw-Foe called with ace-queen. A jack on the river initially let Guldenaar celebrate, but the same card had also completed a straight for his opponent and the Dutchman was gone in 10th place.
Of those at the final table, Tjauw Foe and Nevanlinna made back-to-back final tables, and van Brugge won the initial €1,500 Side Event last year. Zisimopoulos is in second place with 1,611,000 in chips, and the remaining finalists include van den Bijgaart, Johnny Hansen, Kramer, and Avramidis.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clyde Tjauw Foe | Netherlands | 904,000 |
| 2 | Donald Rae | United Kingdom | 2,265,000 |
| 3 | [Removed:172] | Germany | 371,000 |
| 4 | Joep van den Bijgaart | Netherlands | 617,000 |
| 5 | Jussi Nevanlinna | Finland | 1,388,000 |
| 6 | Kees van Brugge | Netherlands | 1,003,000 |
| 7 | Johnny Hansen | Denmark | 393,000 |
| 8 | Georgios Zisimopoulos | Greece | 1,611,000 |
| 9 | Makarios Avramidis | Greece | 222,000 |
The remaining nine players will return Friday at 15:00 local time with 47:06 minutes left in Level 23 at blinds of 10,000/20,000 and a running ante of 3,000. A live stream with hole cards and Dutch commentary on a security delay of half an hour will be available, and the finalists have €23,047 locked up for their efforts.
The PokerNews Live Reporting team will bring you all key hands until the winner is crowned in Amsterdam, so stay tuned.