Gareth Duncan was the big winner at the Melkbos Grand on Sunday.
He took gold in a field of 55 players, which created an exciting prize pool of R68500!
Gareth accepted a depreciated first prize of R16500 (down from R20 000) as a split was agreed among the Top 3, while R1500 was also taken off to beef up the bottom cash prizes when final table started.
Gareth took the biggest piece of the remaining prize pool as the notable chip leader, while local duo Shane Phillips and Mark McGillewie were happy to accept R12500 apiece for second and third place respectively.
Tariro Vanderlinden ended in 4th place to cash R7000. As a satellite winner, she will be very happy with this return. She was boxing with the short stack for most of the final table, and lost most of her chips to Gareth, who showed a flopped top pair of Kings with KQ. Mark took the last of the chips in the next hand with a pair of 7s.
John Litten enjoyed a great tournament run, but struggled to find the momentum on final table. He eventually shoved AJ into Mark’s pocket Queens to be eliminated in 5th place.
Sean Botes had bad timing making a button move with QJ. He raised into Gareth’s big blind, who defended with K6 ♥️. The flop came A♥️K♦️Q♥️. Gareth checked, which received a massive shove from Sean. Gareth made the good call to see himself ahead, and he held up for a big pot.
Reza Slamang was running very well as one of the earlier chip leaders, but suffers a bad beat when he shoved all in with KQ against Tariro’s pocket 9s. The Queen flopped for Reza, but the board ran out Q102J8 to give Tariro a straight on the River.
Bentley Louw suffered a cooler in 8th place. On a low flop of 234, he shoved with pocket 9s, and got snapped off by Mark, who tabled pocket Queens and held up.
Kyle Schreuder was out in 9th place as he shoved with pocket 6s. He got called by Gareth, who held AQ and flopped the Ace.
Overall, it was a fantastic tournament in Melkbos. The big blind ante structure (international standard) created an enjoyable grind, which ended at a good time of 8:40PM, while the host venue provided lunch and a cash bar.
Jaak Erasmus from West Coast Poker passed on thanks to the visiting Concept squad: “This was a very well organised event. I have to give big credit to Concept, who set a beautiful blind structure, and assisted with cards and tables. Their staff (dealers and admin) ran the show very well. Thank you for contributing to an amazing event, which was a great experience for all our players and surely the first of many.”
Gareth added: “We were all very welcomed to Melkbos, which made our visit a positive one. It was _nogals_ nice to play at the beach! 😅 Everyone enjoyed the fresh challenge of playing against new faces and personalities. And the tournament was enjoyable on and off the tables. Thanks to the West Coast poker community for setting the stage for a great game – to pull in 55 players with one week notice was a great effort from both sides. And to take the tournament down and represent Concept in first place was just the cherry on top.”
*WELL DONE WINNERS!*
We now look forward to the regular R600 Turbo live event at Concept on Thursday!
Results:
1) Gareth Duncan
R16500 split
2) Shane Phillips
R12500 split
3) Mark McGillewie
R12500 split
4) Tariro Vanderlinden
R7000
5) John Litten
R5000
6) Sean Botes
R4000
7) Reza Slamang
R4000
8) Bentley Louw
R3000
9) Kyle Schreuder
R3000
Total: R68500
Original prize pool:
1) R20000
2) R14000
3) R9000
4) R7000
5) R6000
6) R4000
7) R3500
8) R2500
9) R2500
Total: R68500