Ben Tollerene Defeats Viktor Blom to Win Powerfest $25K High Roller
On the tail end of the $35 million guarantee Powerfest series at partypoker, the Powerfest #254: Championship Event: $3M Gtd Super High Roller kicked off on Tuesday and wrapped up Wednesday evening. A total of 127 players paid the $25,500 buy-in to participate, which brought the prize pool just over the guarantee to $3,175,000. Only 16 players returned for Day 2, and Ben “CowEyed” Tollerene defeated Viktor “Isildur1” Blom heads up to capture the title and the $846,722 top prize.
After nearly eight hours of play on Day 1, Sam 'DeanMalenko' Greenwood finished with the chip lead with Fedor Holz not far behind in third, Tollerene in sixth, Jason Koon in ninth, and Blom in tenth. The remaining 16 returned four away from the money. Koon hit the rail before the final table of eight, but the other four stuck around.
8-Handed Final Table
Greenwood started the final table still in the lead with Blom and Tollerene in the middle of the pack very close in chips sitting in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Holz came in as the short stack and was the second elimination of the final table, going out in 7th place ($185,420).
Despite entering the final table as the big stack, Greenwood's run was cut short early. Down to three-handed, “shlongoperator” got the rest of his short stack in on the button with king-jack offsuit and lost to Tollerene’s ace-ten in the small blind to finish in third ($338,722). That left Tollerene and Blom to battle it out.
Two Legends Go Heads Up
Tollerene started the heads-up with a slight chip lead with both he and Blom sitting around 100 big blinds deep. Tollerene took the momentum of the match early on, winning several pots preflop and having the best hand in the majority of showdowns. After a little more than one level of play, Tollerene held a 5-1 chip lead over Blom.
It wasn’t over yet for Blom though, as he started making a comeback. With blinds at 35,000/70,000/7,000, the two played a big pot. With a final board of 5♥10♦3♥K♦A♣ and 724,000 in the middle, Tollerene checked in the big blind and Blom put out an overbet of 1,050,000. Tollerene tanked, using his time bank, and called. Blom’s 5♣5♦ for a set of fives was good and the pot got him back to a 2-1 deficit.
In the next level of 40,000/80,000/8,000, there was more three-betting preflop, mostly from Blom, but not many showdowns. The two continued to trade pots with Tollerene maintaining his lead. Then, another big pot developed. On a board of 9♦6♠J♣J♥5♠ they had already built a pot of 1,915,000. When Tollerene checked to Blom, Blom bet over a million and Tollerene called. Blom’s J♦6♦ for jacks full of sixes was good and the stacks were back to about even.
Tollerene Emerges Victorious
Shortly into the following level of 50,000/100,000/10,000, they played the final hand of the tournament. Blom min-raised on the button, Tollerene three-bet to 750,000 and Blom called. The flop came 8♥9♠8♦ and Tollerene checked. Blom bet 425,000 and Tollerene called.
The turn brought the A♣ and Tollerene checked again. Blom checked back and they saw the 9♦ on the river to double-pair the board. Tollerene checked for a third time and Blom moved all in for just over four million chips. Tollerene called pretty quickly with 10♦8♣ for eights full of nines and Blom’s bluff with Q♦J♦ proved unsuccessful.
Both high roller regulars with heaps of success, Tollerene got the Powerfest title and the $846,722 cash prize that came with it while Blom would have to settle for second place and $529,272.
