PokerNews Cup, Event 5: Kenneth Damm Claims Celebrity Shootout Title
Day 2 of the 2008 PokerNews Cup Event #5, the $550 Tony G Celebrity Shootout with Bounties, kicked off with eight players remaining at the final table. Two of the bounty players were still in the hunt for the trophy, PokerNews CFO Tony Bromham and chip leader Sam Khouiss. The chip counts at the final table looked like this as play kicked off:
Seat 1: Eoghan Lyons - 160,500
Seat 2: Reza Vakili - 205,000
Seat 3: Gursel Ali - 115,000
Seat 4: Vito Montalto - 180,000
Seat 5: Tony Bromham - 80,000
Seat 6: Kenneth Damm - 140,000
Seat 7: Sam Khouiss - 220,000
Seat 8: Andre Andrade - 58,000
The short stacks hit the rail first, as Andre Andrade and Tony Bromham busted in eighth and seventh place, respectively. Andrade moved all in from the small blind with A?J?, and ran into a big-blind special in the form of Eoghan Lyons, who tabled A?Q?. Nothing out of the ordinary happened on the 5?2?7?9?4? board, and Andrade exited in eighth place ($3,255).
Bromham busted in a three-way pot with Eoghan Lyons and Sam Khouiss. Lyons raised preflop, and Bromham moved all in for a little more than a min-raise. Khouiss and Lyons both called, then checked down the board of 5?A?4?8?K?. Lyons tabled pocket sixes, Bromham showed 10?9?, and Khouiss scooped the pot with K?Q? for a pair of kings. Bromham was eliminated in seventh place for $4,340.
Reza Vakili was a late arrival to the final table, and his big stack wasn't enough to keep him from being an early departure, as he finished in sixth ($5,425). In his final hand, Vakili moved all in over the top of Eoghan Lyons from the small blind with A?7?. Lyons called, once again dominating his opponent, this time with A?Q?. Lyons was ahead preflop and pulled further ahead when the flop came 10?Q?8?. The Q? turn left Vakili drawing dead, and the meaningless 5? came on the river.
Gursel Ali became the fifth-place finisher ($7,053) when he ran into eventual champion Kenneth Damm in a big hand. Ali moved all in on the flop of 9?8?Q?, and Damm thought for a long moment before calling with A?9?. Ali tabled K?Q?, and Damm was behind. The 3? turn was no help, but the A? river was enough to vault Damm into the lead and send Ali to the rail.
After sending several opponents to the rail early, Eoghan Lyons found himself on the short stack midway through the final table. He moved in from the button with A?Q?, and Kenneth Damm made the call from the big blind with 3?6?. Lyons was ahead preflop, but that all changed when the flop came down 3?6?9?. Dead to running cards after the flop, Lyons was drawing completely dead on the 6? turn. Damm's full house made the 7? on the river irrelevant, and Lyons headed to the cage in fourth place ($9,765).
Vito Montalto moved all in over the top of Damm's preflop raise with 5?5? and ran right into Damm's K?K?. The flop kept things interesting as it came down 8?7?6?, but Montalto couldn't catch his straight as the turn and river came down 7?2?. Montalto earned $13,563 for his third-place finish. Damm took a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play, but it was a back and forth battle with several lead changes before he finally put away the tough Sam Khouiss for the trophy.
After almost an hour of heads-up play, Damm moved all in preflop and Khouiss made a stand with K?Q?. Damm tabled 5?5? for a coin flip, and when the board ran out 6?2?6?2?8?, he claimed the top prize, the PokerNews Cup trophy, and Sam Khouiss' bounty as well. Khouiss picked up $18,988 for second place, while Damm collected the winner's share of $26,583.
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