Andy Bloch Wins Poker Pro-Am Equalizer

He's Now $500,000 Richer

Andy Bloch outlasted a table of superstars Thursday to win the Pro-Am Equalizer tournament and its $500,000 top prize. He had to beat Allen Cunningham, Phil Laak, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed and actor and the amateur of the group, Nick Gonzalez.

The match went well over six hours, and the blinds — which started at $1,500-$3,000 — hit $15,000-$30,000 before it was all over.

The Pro-Am Equalizer featured 12 famous amateurs and 24 professional poker players. Six heats of six players each took place Monday through Thursday, and the winners played for the $500,000 prize today. The series will be aired on weekends on ABC. The broadcast schedule is listed below.

Bloch got up fairly early in the match by knocking out Gonzalez, who started with $300,000 in chips. The rest of the pros started with $200,000. Gonzalez, who show host Phil Gordon predicted would win his qualifying match because of the extra chips and solid play, held his own during the brief while he was there. Whenever the pros tried to bully him, he fired right back.

And that’s what got him in trouble.

With blinds at $3,000-$6,000, Bloch raised to $24,000. Gonzalez moved all in for about $277,000. Bloch instantly called with pocket tens. Gonzalez held pocket sevens, and with no help on the flop, the table was soon reduced to nothing but professionals.

That win gave Bloch $693,000 in chips. The table started with $1.3 million.

The players spent the next few hours playing tight poker. Action was slow and steady as the blinds began to increase. It wasn’t until blinds were $8,000-$16,000 that the table lost a player.

Ivey, who didn’t play many hands at all during the session, moved all in with A-7. Bloch made the call with A-Q. The sevens stayed in the deck and that was it for Ivey.

Once blinds got to $12,000-$24,000, it nearly became an all-in fest. Laak didn’t have many chips to play with the whole match, but he got to $440,000 after Bloch doubled him up with Q-4. Laak held A-T.

Laak then increased his chip lead when he called Seed’s all-in raise with K-3. Seed held 7-7, but Laak hit a straight on the river when the board read A-4-5-8-2. The river card knocked Laak to the floor and he said of the beat, “That was completely unethical.”

The next player out at this point would only win $25,000. Second place would receive $150,000.

As it turned out, Cunningham would be next to go, courtesy of Bloch. Cunningham moved all in with 4-4 and Bloch called with 7-7. No sets were made up to this point (although Block did flop quad jacks earlier in the match), and one didn’t hit this time.

courtesy of cardplayer.com

News Added: 29 September, 2006

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