After much anticipation, ten weeks of furious leaderboard competition and ten weekly finals, the Beat Victor Live Final proved to be a weekend full of both excitement and surprises. Hosted at La Duquesa Golf Hotel on the Costa Del Sol, the ten finalists and their guests were treated to a superlative experience with no expense spared and plenty of sunshine to boot. Evidently only one person would walk away with the Grand Prize but all players and guests considered themselves to be winners simply by being there and enjoying the very best of what Victor Chandler has to offer in VIP hospitality, organisation and atmosphere.

The ten Beat Victor finalists finally came together for the Live Final with each participant eager to secure a victory and the first shot at playing Victor heads-up for the chance of winning the $50,000 Grand Prize, not to mention the coveted title of “Beat Victor Champion”.

After five hours of intense play and even more intense stares across the table however, it was BoKiTo1957 from Holland who emerged triumphant after settling down to heads-up play against Sunderland’s finest, lees0409. With fairly even chip stacks it was anyone’s guess as to who would be playing Victor first on the following day as both players had played a solid game up until that point with neither giving any quarter. After several all-ins and comebacks however it was BoKiTo1957 who finally won the day when he called an all-in from lees0409 with his Ac Jh against lees0409’s Qc 10h and paired his Ace on the flop to take both the pot and the game.

Live Final Finish Positions (Order of Heads-up play)

Victor versus BoKiTo1957

By his own admission, BoKiTo1957 considered himself a 1/2 favourite to beat Victor heads-up and was feeling fairly confident when the crunch time came. His confidence however was soon to be questioned as Victor, adopting an aggressive pre-flop strategy, slowly chiselled away at his opponent’s chip stack with raises and re-raises in abundance. Finally it came to a point where BoKiTo1957 had to make a stand and pushed all-in pre-flop only to find himself up against Victor’s pocket rockets and with no help on the board, BoKiTo1957’s chance of taking the $50,000 Grand Prize was over, for this year at least.

Victor versus lees0409

Following the adage “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”, Victor maintained his aggressive style in this second heads up match against lees0409 which once again left his opponent wondering as to where he stood. Dazed when he came to the table by the fact that this chance had unexpectedly arisen, lees0409 was just as dazed just 22 hands later when he left the table with his chances all shattered and Victor triumphant once again.

Victor versus ImAFishPleaseEat

By far the most intense, not to mention the longest of the heads-up encounters, this third test of Victor’s skill saw ImAFishPleaseEat go all the way down to 800 in chips from a 10,000 starting stack before pulling back to almost even-stevens by adopting a post break aggressive style of his own and piling the pressure back onto Victor. After one double up, all-in after all-in by ImAFishPleaseEat saw Victor fold time and again, allowing ImAFishPleaseEat back into the game and what looked like a real chance of winning. Alas however it was not to be and one all-in too many by ImAFishPleaseEat with A6 saw Victor call with AJ suited and with no help for either player on the board other than an ace, Victor’s third successive success was secured.

Victor versus KirkSaintMoritz

Whether fatigue had set in or he had simply met his match, Victor’s days were numbered when he sat down to take on KirkSaintMoritz in what was certainly the most “mental” game of the day and a truly tremendous battle of skill and wits. Not allowing himself to be lured into calling Victor’s pre-flop raises, KirkSaintMoritz patiently played a waiting game which, together with his friendly yet edgy banter managed to put Victor off his stride and to lose the psychological edge he had maintained throughout the day thus far. In a reversal of fortunes therefore it was Victor that found his chip stack being slowly chiselled away and Victor that was finally forced to push, getting his money in good with A2 against K7, only to lose out when a 7 came on the flop giving KirkSaintMoritz both the winning hand and the game, and making him the Beat Victor Champion and recipient of the $50,000 Grand Prize.