Dermot Dinan gives you his Festival thoughts

Dermot Dinan gives you his thoughts about Liverpool Winter Festival:

So the curtain has come down on the Liverpool Winter Festival of Poker 2009, and it was an unforgettable time for all those who are able to say "I was there!"
At the business end of things, three Scandies 'made the money' in the Main Event, which I am told, was the strongest poker field ever assembled in Liverpool.

Here is the result of the Main Event:-

PRIZE BREAKDOWN

Prizepool.....£57,500

Entries 115
Buy-in £500 + £50

1st...£13,900 .....Rayeez Mulla

2nd... £10,000.....Theo Droulias
3rd... £10,000.....Andy Bradshaw
4th... £5,200.....Jimmy Morgan
5th... £3,150.....Terry Nelson
6th... £2,600.....Ky Hutchinson
7th...£2,300.....Steve Helmsley
8th... £2,000.....Thomas Sande
9th... £1,700.....Zach Ford

10th...£1,450.....Ole Johan Steinvik
11th... £1,450.....Jonathan McCann
12th... £1,450.....Oyvind Efraimsen
13th... £1,150.....Tony Wooley
14th... £1,150.....Charlie Nelson

All in all, a tremendous showing from the Norwegian contingent and all of us here in Liverpool would welcome them back in a heartbeat.
Oyvind Efraimsen can consider himself a little unlucky, going out to the eventual winner Rayeez Mulla, after taking his time before calling Mulla's all-in from the SB. With his tournament life at stake, Oyvind was about a 4/6 favourite preflop showing A 9 to Mulla's J 8. The flop was bad news however with 8 6 5 and 3 then 4 on the river signalled the end for him.

Ole Johan Steinvik had been in great shape for a long time until this key hand came along.

Ky Hutchinson has A Q and is about an 11/4 chance vs. Ole's K K. The flop comes A J Q and only a 2-outer can stop the Hutch from winning this.It wasn't to be as a 4 -2 completes the board and Ole's stack is halved to about 140 k. Soon after the break he makes a move all-in and this time Andy Bradshaw's call has the best of it preflop, but Ole's only 7/4 against.

AB : A 10
OS : 8 9 flop is bittersweet with 5 9 10 ... the turn offers a little hope as a 7 gives Ole an up + down straight draw but the river Q is not kind and Ole is gone.

Thomas Sande was the only remaining Norwegian in the Main Event as Ole's exit meant that the prized Final Table of 9 players was upon us. It was around this time that messages appeared on the A World Of Poker Forum site with one from Thomas's sister which I thought particularly heart-warming, telling him how proud his family were of him, and how much they were enjoying watching the action back in Norway. Well done to CCTV and PeeKay of AWOP for passing that one on ! Those two lads worked their socks off to bring the event to life for those unable to be there ... a really great job, fellas !

Andy B 349 k
Zach F 319 k
Jimmy M 300 k
Steve H 253 k
Rayeez M 236 k
Ky Hutch 221 k
Thomas S 216 k
Terry N 159 k
Theo D 141 k

This is how the Final Table set up and as you can see, although Thomas was 7th in chips, he was not far off the pace. Naturally it was getting a bit tense out there and the blinds were beginning to bite. I suspect that Thomas had become a bit 'card dead' because he was uncharacteristically quiet. That was all about to change though as Zach Ford (who had been as low as 700 chips mid-way through Saturday), crippled by Mulla a few hands earlier,went out in 9th as he tried to double up.

The blinds went up again.

6 k / 12 k now with a 2 k ante meant that there was a minimum of 34 k in the middle for the remaining 8 players before a card was dealt !

Jimmy M made a raise from the button making it 32 k to go ... Thomas from the big blind moved all-in over the top for 140 k ... Jimmy called double-quick and they were 'On their Backs'

TS : A J
JM : A A Ouch ! Miracles need only apply ... Thomas is 12/1 against and the flop comes 7 6 4 Turn Q River 6

An eighth place finish in this particular field was nothing short of remarkable in my humble opinion.I got to know Thomas a little from earlier in the week and a very personable young man he is too.His appetite for poker is voracious, for example,during the 45 minute break on Day 2 of the Main Event, he nipped downstairs to play a few hands in a cash game, winning a few hundred pounds for himself while the rest of us were mostly feeding our faces! He looks like he shouldn't even be allowed to know all the moves he's got in his game, but those who under-estimate him will pay a heavy price. I hope this experience will have given Thomas's poker career a boost and I expect to hear bigger and bolder things from him in the future. The way this lad plays he probably doesn't need the money but £ 2000 is a nice reward for 3 days work.

Before the Festival started, Allan Aasterud asked me what I thought about the challenge from Scandinavia, particularly the 'online' generation,(my full answer is on a previous blog from the 3rd of Feb) and I don't think I stated the case strongly enough. In general,these guys seem to think deeply about the game,and displayed some real 'guts' in difficult spots, not just in the Main Event but in the side events too. The set up in Norway appears to be bringing players on in a different style to here and long may it continue.I'm just glad I stayed away from their cash games where I could have been eaten alive !

Theo Droulias merits a special mention too, as this was genuinely only his second live event, the first being a 10Kings Poker satellite in the Circus Casino!

I was a bag of nerves for ages in live games because my only experience of tournament poker came from the internet,w here the only thing I could get wrong was pressing the 'call'/raise' button instead of the 'fold' (which of course I have done).Pot sizes are calculated for me, I don't have to physically distinguish the different chip values, I can't make a string bet on the 'net (I didn't know what one was until I did it by accident in my first live game),and my opponents stack sizes are conveniently displayed for me. The machine makes very loud and irritating noises when it's 'my turn to act' so I was often day-dreaming in my first live tournies wondering what everybody was waiting for (oops)

Theo even survived a bit of a clash with Andy Bradshaw when it was 4-handed and came through it apparently unscathed.

I have only the slightest reservation about the deal Theo agreed to when there were 3 left. The original prize for 2nd was £ 9'800 with £ 6900 for 3rd place. Without knowing the chip stacks exactly, I can't say for sure whether or not the extra £200 Theo got for sharing 2nd and 3rd (ie £10 k each) was worth what he gave up for the chance to knock someone else out. My gut feeling is that Andy Bradshaw got the best of it but hey! ... that's poker.

Considering all of this though, many congratulations to Theo on his bumper pay day of £ 10'000.

I'd just like to say a few words about the English representatives. The Liverpool lads were great, the Nelson twins,Charlie (14th) and Terry (5th) both cashed, and they have another brother Ian who I got talking to on Saturday, who was brutally outdrawn on Day 2. These guys are very experienced players and regularly compete on the EPT with some success I might add.

Big Jimmy Morgan has been a regular player on the local scene for a while now and is clearly going the right way. The winner Rayeez Mulla is no stranger to the winner's enclosure and is well established on the national scene as are Andy Bradshaw,Steve Helmsley and Ty Hutchinson.

The team at Stanley Circus Casino have surpassed all expectations and their tireless efforts have made this Festival a complete success. Kevin Proctor,Paul Fox and Ged have developed a card room to be proud of without doubt. What a pleasure it was to play in this great venue where the standard of dealing was impeccable! I can't recall a single dispute over the five days as any contentions were dealt with swiftly and decisively.

Now they have shown they can handle events of this size and stature with such a level of professionalism I think they can look forward to accomodating many more satisfied poker fans and sponsors.

Having virtually lived in the Circus Casino since Wednesday afternoon I was able to enjoy the events unfold today at home,thanks to the technology provided by The Nutz.TV.The quality of the pictures from the live feed provided by Chris 'The Cub' were astonishingly good and with excellent commentary from Phil 'The Tower' (clearly these two are just poker nuts) I feel I saw more action today than I had seen when I was actually there. The two lads on the laptops giving live updates for the AWOP forum were just as dedicated, so many thanks to 'PeeKay' and 'cctv'.

'The Malmaison' where 10KingsPoker had put me up,was simply the best hotel I have stayed in. It's been a while since I've enjoyed that kind of luxury and would recommend a stay there to anyone coming to this rejuvenated City of Liverpool for a break.

I really have tried to think of something about the last 5 days that I didn't like but apart from not making it into the Main Event,there just wasn't anything. So in conclusion,thanks to Allan, Jostein, LK, Henning and all the Norwegians that I met that helped to make this event what it was.