After an excellent turnout in the 2017 PokerStars Festival London £2,200 High Roller, an extra day had to be scheduled to determine a winner. Local player Joe Johnson led the five survivors out of a 178-entry strong field back into Day 3 and lifted the trophy after just under six hours at the iconic Hippodrome Casino, along with a payday of £59,912.
Johnson was labelled as "Magic Johnson" by fourth-place finisher Yuriy Boyko and the victory is made even sweeter after the Brit basically freerolled the tournament after winning the latest PokerStars LIVE at The Hippodrome Casino Loyalty Race, which saw him take the top prize of £4,000 in buy-ins. After an intense heads-up battle, Johnson cut a deal with Enzo Del Piero when both got even-stacked and the duo left £3,000 as well as the trophy aside.
Final result of the £2,200 High Roller
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (GBP)
Prize (USD)
1
Joe Johnson
UK
59,912
75,489
2
Enzo Del Piero
UK
56,678
71,414
3
Harry Lodge
UK
36,150
45,549
4
Yuriy Boyko
Ireland
26,500
33,390
5
Nicolas Beker
Switzerland
19,410
24,456
6
Nicolas Cardyn
France
14,240
17,942
7
Jonathan Clark
UK
10,440
13,154
8
Nathan Manuel
USA
7,650
9,639
The last five players bagged up at around 2 a.m. the previous night and returned at 1.30 p.m. local time. After more than two and a half hours and several double ups, it was Nicolas Beker who bowed out in 5th place. The Swiss was second in chips at the time and three-bet against chip leader Johnson before the latter four-bet shoved. Beker snap-called with pocket eights and found himself up against pocket queens. The board ran out ten-high and Beker was gone.
Boyko led the event after Day 1 and was the shortest stack coming back for Day 3 before doubling up right away. The Irishman eventually fell short again and called the shove of Johnson blind-on-blind with ace-four off suit. Johnson only had nine-six suited but flopped an unbeatable flush.
This left three Brits to battle for the title and Harry Lodge was the short stack, but managed to spin it up and get everyone almost even before falling back to the bottom of the counts. Lodge then shoved the small blind for his last nine big blinds with king-three off suit. Del Piero called in the big blind with queen-ten suited and flopped middle pair as well as the flush draw. The river was the king of spades and that gave Del Piero the flush.
In heads-up, Johnson started with a two-to-one lead and quickly doubled that. Del Piero struck back and doubled twice before the deal was cut, the levels were also shortened to half an hour. Del Piero doubled again before getting short again. In the last hand, he raised and called the three-bet shove of Johnson for 18 big blinds with ace-nine. Johnson had ace-jack and the superior kicker held up to crown the champion.
With the High Roller now done and dusted, the full focus for the remainder of the festival switches over to the £990 Main Event. With 169 and 164 entries respectively on the first two starting days, the flagship tournament is set to eclipse the £400,000 guarantee and the PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates until the winner is crowned on Sunday January 29th.
A few minutes into the new level saw Enzo Del Piero drop to around 1,800,000 and he opened to 250,000. Joe Johnson moved all in and Del Piero called, the crowd jumped up to get closer to the table.
Enzo Del Piero:
Joe Johnson:
"This is it," the rail started cheering and the flop fell . After the turn, Del Piero picked up some outs and Johnson's rail fell silent for a second after a loud "ohhh." However, the on the river was a blank and that eliminated Del Piero in second place. He receives £56,678 according to the deal and Johnson is crowned champion.
A recap of today's action will be available shortly.
Harry Lodge eventually got chipped down all the way to 550,000 and open-shoved the small blind. Enzo Del Piero peeked at his cards and called to put Lodge at risk in a battle of the two shorter stacks.
Harry Lodge:
Enzo Del Piero:
The flop was almost as bad as it could get for Lodge, but he picked up some outs on the turn. The river initially let Joe Johnson's rail gasp, but then they saw the flush for Del Piero as well. Lodge was eliminated in 3rd place for £36,150 and the event is now heads up with a 2-1 lead for Johnson.
The action folded to Joe Johnson in the small blind and he simply shoved into the big blind of short stack Yuriy Boyko. The latter only had around 12 big blinds left and called it off.
Yuriy Boyko:
Joe Johnson:
"Off to the races," Johnson said to his rail as they came closer to have a look. The flop fell and Boyko said "Magic Johnson" with a smile on the face, knowing that his fate was sealed. Both the turn and the river didn't matter, as Johnson had an unbeatable flush, and Boyko was eliminated in 4th place for £26,500.
After a raise by Joe Johnson in the cutoff, Nicolas Beker three-bet big to 255,000 in one seat over and Johnson then moved all in for 1,400,000 effectively. Beker called and let out a few words in French when he spotted the bad news.
Nicolas Beker:
Joe Johnson:
The board came and Beker was eliminated in 5th place for £19,410, leaving the table with a "good game guys" and shook hands with all opponents before heading to the payout desk.
In two hours from now as of 1.30 p.m. local time, the last five hopefuls out of a 178-entry strong field in the 2017 PokerStars Festival London £2,200 High Roller will return once again to the iconic Hippodrome London in the English capital. Due to the big field, an extra day was added to the schedule in order to avoid a finish time when most people would head for breakfast, and the final five bagged up at around 2 in the morning last night.
Leading the survivors is Joe Johnson with 2,200,000, and the Brit was running pretty hot yesterday to establish a 2-1 lead over his nearest rivals Nicolas Beker (1,123,000) and Enzo Del Piero (1,100,000). The other two finalists are Harry Lodge (626,000) and Day 1 chip leader Yuriy Boyko (484,000). Johnson is playing this event courtesy of his triumph in the latest PokerStars LIVE at The Hippodrome Casino Loyalty Race, which saw him take top prize of £4,000 in buy-ins for this week’s Festival.
With 20 big blinds left at blinds of 12,000-24,000 and a running ante of 4,000, there is plenty of room left and all trophy hunters have £19,410 locked up for their efforts already. However, all eyes are set on the first-place payout of £67,290 and the chance to become the first ever PokerStars Festival High Roller champion on European soil.
Seat Assignments for the Final Day
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Yuriy Boyko
Ireland
484,000
20
2
Harry Lodge
UK
626,000
26
3
Enzo Del Piero
UK
1,100,000
45
4
Joe Johnson
UK
2,200,000
91
5
Nicolas Beker
Switzerland
1,123,000
46
The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to cover all the action until a winner is crowned, and you can also check out the updates of the £990 Main Event Day 1b that kicks off in half an hour as well.