Party Poker Premier League IV, Heat 4: A Hat Trick For Phil Laak
Phil Laak has done it again. The fourth heat of the PartyPoker Premier League IV went to the man they call the Unabomber, as did Heats 1 and 2. Of the four heats, Laak has played three, meaning he has won every heat he has played. Each heat has given him 16 points, so he's sitting atop the leaderboard with 48 points with David Benyamine being his closest competitor with 35. Laak also has most of his buy-in back winning $32,000 for each first place finish. Will anyone be able to stop this one-man wrecking machine?
"I feel like Isildur did before the down swing," he said to Kara Scott, PPL's presenter, after the win.
JC Tran was the first to exit Heat 4, earning no points. He was followed by Ian Frazer, Tony G, and Vanessa Rousso. There was a battle between Luke Schwartz and Giovanni Safina before the dinner break, with Schwartz bluffing Safina and then doubling up, and Safina doubling back through Schwartz.
Shortly after the dinner break, however, Safina would be eliminated by Benyamine who, holding ace-king, flopped a pair of kings against Safina who was all-in with pocket fours. Benyamine didn't stop there. Schwartz was next on his list. Benyamine raised to 35,000 holding aces and after Laak got out of the way, Schwartz tossed in about 70 percent of his chips for a reraise. Benyamine moved all-in and Schwartz called, but when he saw the aces of Benyamine, he tossed his cards on the table and walked away. The dealer turned them over revealing ace-six. The board was no help for Schwartz, who shook Laak's and Benyamine's hands before exiting the stage.
That put Laak and Benyamine heads up. Laak with two wins and Benyamine with one up to that point. Benyamine went into heads-up play with 1,880,000 in chips to Laak's 520,000. Laak evened things up when he moved all-in holding K♣Q♦, was called by Benyamine holding A♣9♦ and the board ran out K♠6♦4♣6♠4♥.
Laak slowly added to his chip stack from there and never looked back. He sealed the deal when he called Benyamine's all-in holding K♦10♠ to Benyamine's A♠K♣. The flop brought the A♦10♦10♥ giving Laak trips. The turn and river brought the Q♥ and 7♦ respectively, giving Benyamine the second-place finish along with 11 points and $22,000.
PartyPoker Premier League Leaderboard:
1. Phil Laak – 48 points
2. David Benyamine - 35 points
3. Giovanni Safina - 21 points
4. JC Tran – 17 points
5. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 16 points
6. Roland De Wolfe – 14 points
T-7. Luke Schwartz – 12 points
T-7. Vanessa Rousso – 12 points
9. Ian Frazer – 10 points
10. Phil Hellmuth - 6 points
11. Tony G - 5 points
12. Daniel Negreanu – 4 points
Another heat is set for today at 12:00 p.m. local time, and PokerNews will be covering all the action from the M Resort & Casino.
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*Photo Credit - Mickey May, Matchroom Sports
