NPL UK Open Main Event, Day 2
With his son also part of the final table, Peter Gould held on to take down the National Poker League's UK Open Main Event Championship at the Loose Cannon Club in London on Saturday. Gould started the final table with a slight chip lead, and over several hours, managed to recapture the lead and outlast the competition in the £2,600 buy-in Main Event. Online qualifier Lee Watts started the day second in chips, followed by Jason Ho, Josh Gould, Jeff Buffenbarger, Patrik Selin, Darren Woods and Dieter Dijkstra.
Darren Woods found himself all-in roughly an hour into the day's play, tossing his last 5,000 chip into a three-way pot with the father-and-son Gould tandem, and Peter Gould's top pair was enough to send Woods home on a board of 10?8?5?A?J?.
Jason Ho was very active in the early part of the day, building a big stack and wielding it with abandon against the shorter-stacked or less experienced players. The first to fall to Ho's aggressive play was Lee Watts, who won his entry into the Main Event via an online freeroll. Watts' A-K was no good against Ho's powerhouse 7-5 when Ho made a straight to send the amateur Watts home in seventh place, on the money bubble.
Ho's stack took a hit just before the dinner break when Peter Gould re-raised all-in from the small blind. Ho called with A?2?, and Gould the elder tabled his K?K? happily. A flop of 9?K?10? improved Gould's lead, and the 2?A? on the turn and river were irrelevant as Gould doubled through Ho before going on dinner break.
Ho returned from dinner with a solid lead, as the final six players were in the money with the following chip counts:
Seat 1: Jason Ho �� 124,000
Seat 2: Peter Gould �� 50,000
Seat 3: Patrik Selin �� 65,200
Seat 4: Josh Gould �� 53,300
Seat 5: Dieter Dijkstra �� 23,900
Seat 6: Jeff Buffenbarger �� 21,400
Dieter Djikstra's short stack survived into the money, but busted shortly after dinner when he pushed all-in over the top of a button raise from Patrik Selin. Selin called with A?Q?, and Djikstra's K?J? was way behind on a board of 3?6?10?6?A?, giving Selin two pair and the pot. Djikstra collected £3,400 in prize money for his sixth-place finish.
The aggressive and active Jason Ho went from top floor to basement in the span of two hands, and finished in fifth place for £5,100. After losing a large pot to Peter Gould, Ho found himself well behind with two pair, holding J?9? on a board of J?3?3?, when Selin pushed all-in on the turn with his big-blind special 7?3?, for flopped trips. No help for Ho on the river, and the one-time chip magnet was sent to the rail.
Josh Gould was crippled in a big hand against Jeff Buffenbarger when Buffenbarger caught a 9? on the river after getting all-in dominated with 9?9? against the younger Gould's J?J?. Just a few hands later, Gould was re-raised all-in by none other than his father Peter, who held 9?9? versus Josh's A?6?. The younger Gould picked up an inside straight draw on the turn, but couldn't catch a five to crack his father's flopped set on a final board of 4?3?9?2?10?. Josh Gould finished in fourth place for £8,500.
After Peter Gould sent his son to the rail, he wasted no time in eliminating his remaining opponents, sending Jeff Buffenbarger to the rail in third shortly after sending son Josh home in fourth. On Buffenbarger's knockout, the final board was K?4?5?J?10?, and Buffenbarger check-called an all-in from Gould for all his chips.
"I had K-6," reported a disheartened Buffenbarger. "I tried to represent the flush on the turn by betting out 20k, but found I was betting into a made hand with Peter holding A?7?. He had the hand I was trying to represent. By the river, my stack was pretty small and I had top pair, so thought I had to call." Buffenbarger collected £12,750 for his third-place finish.
After a short break, Gould and Patrik Selin returned for an even shorter heads-up match, as Gould dispatched Selin in two key hands. In the first, Gould called Selin's flop on the 9?10?5? flop, and led out when the 3? hit the turn. Selin called the turn bet, and called again when the river showed the 8?. Gould tabled 9?8? for two pair, and Selin mucked, claiming A-10. The final hand saw Selin all-in preflop with 10?5?, and Gould quickly called with A?Q?. The board improved neither hand, and Selin was eliminated in second place for £21,250. Gould ran the table on his last three opponents, including his son Josh, to claim the title, the trophy and £34,000 for first place.
