Colin Lovelock Secures PokerListings Championship & Malta Festival Seat
When Day 2 kicked off with 57 remaining players, it was truly there for anyone to claim the PokerListings Championship trophy.
One of the most notable names left in the field was Georgina ‘GJReggie’ Reggie, a PokerStars Twitch ambassador who has amassed a massive following for her calm nature playing poker and her remarkable ability to break down the game for beginners in an easy-to-understand way.
Reggie is no tournament slouch, however, and came into Day 2 just a few weeks removed from her winning run at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where she won the Women’s Event for $6,539.
Reggie would find herself battling familiar faces from the Festival Series, including PLO expert Jeraint ‘JJ’ Hazan, who has notched almost $750,000 in live tournament earnings since starting his career nearly 20 years ago.
The final table bubble would burst on Reggie’s behalf, as her J 10 could not get there versus Alexandru Grigorie’s K Q , and there would be just nine remaining. Colin Lovelock came in as chip leader and has shown a litany of results that proved he could be the one to close out the PokerListings Championship.
With a resume of almost $500,000 in earnings playing a host of live poker tournaments, Lovelock would be in pole position to win the silverware. He has experience playing in Vegas during the World Series of Poker, featuring in partypoker LIVE’s circuit across Europe, and even played at Dusk Till Dawn recently at the GGPoker UK Poker Championships.
Arguably the most significant shift came at the expense of JJ Hazan, as his A K would not be able to hold against Nane Corrado’s A Q , as the flop was great for JJ, showing K J 6 and a safe 6 turn. A gut-wrenching 10 river saw Hazan go from a potential 25 million in chips and instead left him down to just 5 million.
Hazan showed his poker experience, skill, and heart, however, laddering up past Corrado and Nicholas Burrett as he navigated his chip stack from 5 million to almost 40 million in a three-handed battle for the Championship a seat in the Festival Series in Malta.
After Russell Bowman, Colin Lovelock, and JJ Hazan all made a deal to chop up the prize money, the question of who would win the PokerListings Championship and the Malta Festival seat remained.
JJ was aiming to finish off an unbelievable comeback, but that dream was cut short when he jammed his 2 2 and ran into the Q Q of Colin Lovelock. A runout of 7 6 6 3 8 would be of no help, and the Festival legend JJ Hazan was sent to the rail.
With Russel Bowman and Lovelock left to battle heads-up, the latter faced adversity as he doubled up Bowman when his K J was behind K Q preflop, and a board of 2 3 3 4 5 saw the chips swing in Bowman’s favor.
A lengthy heads-up battle ensued until Bowman had no choice but to put his few remaining big blinds in with 6 5 and ran into Lovelock’s K 7 - the cards were clean on the runout, and we crowned Colin Lovelock our PokerListings Champion. He will have his seat ready and waiting in Malta for the Festival’s next series stop.
However, the fun is far from done at Dusk Till Dawn, with massive numbers turning out for the Festival Series Main Event, a £100,000 GTD event that will almost certainly blow past this figure after all the Day 1 flights have passed.
Winner Interview with Colin Lovelock
