Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008

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Ryan Dreyer crushes 2008 Sun City Millions

By Arthur Crowson

Move over Raymond Rahme, there's a new South African poker superstar in town.

Former professional golfer Ryan Dreyer outlasted 272 players at the 2008 Sun City Millions in South Africa to take down a first-place prize that equaled $350,000 after a final-table deal.

Dreyer, who is sometimes known by the nickname "Rhino" Ryan, couldn't have been happier to win the prestigious event as he currently works as a commentator on the All Africa poker channel and mentioned that as a local, he was proud to take part in the event.

"The field was very strong by South African standards," he said. "There were a host of international players including numerous Scandinavians and also some world renowned players like Patrik Antonius, Ray Rahme, Shannon Elizabeth and Shane Warne as well as all the top South African players."

This isn't the first time Dreyer has had success at the Sun City Millions - just last year he made it all the way to sixth place before he busted, taking home $33,000 in the process.

Dreyer had been running bad most of the year but decided to try a couple online satellites for the 2008 Sun City Millions and ended up qualifying for the $3,000 buy-in tournament for just $200.

Dreyer's strategy had been merely to stay alive during the early stages of the tournament and then turn on the aggression as the final table approached. One player standing in his way was noted poker pro Michael Binger.

"Not only is [Binger] one of the top players in the world, he's also a tough competitor," said Dreyer. "He has a very solid table image and can play hands brilliantly. I was very impressed and fortunate to be able to play at the same table as him. I was also pleased to see him eliminated in 12th place. I felt his elimination increased my chances to win the tournament."

Although he started playing tournament poker only two years ago, Dreyer has had a considerable amount of success in the South African poker scene, and with this victory, he has to be considered one of the country's elite poker exports.

With his big victory Dreyer rockets to second on the South African All-Time cash leaderboard, although he'll have a long way to go if he wants to catch Raymond Rahme, who has over $3 million from his WSOP Main Event score.

Here are the final-table results from the tournament (deal not taken into account):

1. Ryan Dreyer	$650,000
2. Dermott Sweeney	$300,000
3. Durand Botha	$175,000
4. Jon Stephenson	$100,000
5. Shabir Omar	$75,000
6. Ivo Strovski	$50,000
7. Stan Topal	$25,000
8. Christian Oman	$20,000
9. Damien Cornelli	$15,000

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