Strini Govender played his way to first place and the R12 000 cash prize at the Vickey Moodley Memorial tournament on Thursday.
With 60 players on the tables, the tournament was our biggest midweek attendance of 2022 (our previous was 54 players in June) – a great way to commemorate a Cape Town poker legend.
Strini was last man standing as he built a chip lead late in the game and used this momentum to record victory, earning an incredible 20x return on his R600 buy-in.
He beat Danie Hougaard in the heads-up battle, who made a miraculous turnaround on final table to earn R8000 for silver.
Danie didn’t have enough for a big blind early on, but enjoyed 3 double-ups to play his way to second place.
In the tournament-deciding hand, he was all in with A7 ♥️ suited against Strini’s AQ ♦️ suited. The Queen flopped to end the game.
Lyle Julien couldn’t find the cards when it mattered most as he finished in 3rd place. He was eventually all in on the big blind, and lost against Strini’s Ace high on a dry board.
Allan Ranzani was out in 4th place, having lost most of his chips with A3 against Danie’s pocket 3s.
Gareth Duncan was out in 5th place as he was knocked out by Strini’s Kings.
Cas du Toit suffered a bad beat to finish in 6th place. Strini shoved all in from the small blind with J9, and Cas made a good call with A10. However, a Jack fell on the River to give Strini the big stack.
Jacque van Brakel and Reza Slamang both had bad timing with their all-ins to finish in 7th and 8th respectively. Both players ran their hands into Kings (against Danie and Gareth).
WELL DONE WINNERS!
On a sentimental note, we managed to raise R5800 through the R100 lucky dip on Thursday (not R6800 as posted last night).
This will be added to R7000 collected at Tokai last weekend.
We have also received a flurry of personal donations, which will formalised and added as well.
A big thank you to massive support for the Moodley family during this time of bereavement.
The family is overwhelmed by the support received from the local and national poker community over the past week.
Concept Social Poker Club has been invited to carry the Vickey’s casket into the church at his funeral on Saturday.
Results:
1) Strini Govender
R12000
2) Danie Hougaard
R8000
3) Lyle Julien
R5000
4) Allan Ranzani
R4000
5) Gareth Duncan
R3600
6) Cas du Toit
R2400
7) Jacque van Brakel
R1800
8) Reza Slamang
R1800
Total: R38800 (incl R200 for Player of the Year campaign)