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Report by: Matthew Beckett, Ace High Poker
The past weekend's Royal Swazi Rumble was a watershed moment in African poker, which will hopefully be described as the South African equivalent of the “Moneymaker Effect”. The largest field in Africa for 2010 descended on the ensconced country of Swaziland to take part in the fourth edition of the Royal Swazi Rumble, proudly hosted by Ace High Poker, to tough it out for a prize pool of R1 million. Described by many players as the premier tournament in Southern Africa, the weekend produced some of the most memorable moments in African poker history. On a warm Friday afternoon, 112 Players excitedly poured into the Royal Swazi Spa and Hotel, eager to get down to the business end of the weekend. A couple of the early birds were sitting outside by the pool and hot tub, sipping on the Royal Swazi's speciality cocktails, and all around, laughter and joking could be heard as players and old acquaintances regaled past poker battles between each other. As the dust settled and the sun went down, a palpable silence fell over the hotel as the players became more and more anxious about the forthcoming tournament. At precisely 8:00 after the welcome from hotel management and Ace High Poker, the words “shuffle up and deal” were uttered, and the players knuckled down to the felt and started playing some serious poker. The first evening’s play could only be described as a slaughter, with 21 of the starting 112 players knocked out before the end of the evening's play. Among those 21 were some of South Africa’s most notable tournament players. Saturday's pace was steadier, with players falling out at regular intervals throughout the day. This also included some of the big names in South African poker, who lost out to a few of the tournament big stacks. A final break for a delicious dinner was the last stop before the field was whittled down to the final table of nine players. On Sunday morning, when play started up again, there were only two people who were ever really competing for first place. Herman van Staaden, and seasoned WSOP player Warren Zackey. Many players tried to stand up to the two chip leaders, but were brushed aside mercilessly, with Zackey and van Staaden regularly adding chips to their already gigantic stacks. Among the players at the final table were a number of new faces, such as Robbie Sham, Agostino Gaglio, Brian McLean, Herman van Staaden, Paul van der Westhuizen, Hugh van der Westhuizen and Francis Moodley. The seasoned pros at the table were past winner Gareth Kalil – who had fought his way back from as little as 10,000 chips at one point (when the blinds were 10000/20000) and Warren Zackey, who started the final table as second chip leader. As mentioned earlier, it seemed like a surefire battle between Warren Zackey and Herman van Staaden for who would take the honours. But for a brief moment, Paul van der Westhuizen came within a whisker of being up there after a notable hand, where Paul had J 10 and Francis had 10 5. The flop came 3 4 6 all spades, and the turn brought a 10 to pair both players up. Francis moved all in and was instantly called by Paul. The river brought no help to either player and Paul briefly moved to within 50,000 chips of Warren. However this boost was short lived as, with three players remaining, Paul moved all in with A J for 700,000 chips, with blinds at 10000/20000. He was instantly called by Warren who flipped over pocket Aces. The flop brought a Jack, but unfortunately the turn and river didn't bring any reprieve for Paul, who left R150,000 richer but a bit disappointed nonetheless. For his first tournament of over 20 players, this was quite a showing, so you can be sure he’ll be back next time to try and better this result! This left Warren Zackey and Herman fighting it out for the R300,000 first prize and the and the trophy, generously sponsored by local firm Ngwenya Glass. After about 10-15 hands Warren managed to get Herman to push all his chips in the middle with 5 5. Warren turned over his pocket jacks, and a flop of J 10 A all but sealed the victory for Warren. With nothing falling for Herman, What will hopefully make this weekend the tipping point in South African poker is the success of Herman van Staaden who, back in January won on a promotional freeroll tournament in Pretoria, hosted by TUKS FM and Pokerpros, to secure a seat into the Royal Swazi Rumble tournament. One week before the tournament Herman phoned the offices of Ace High and said that due to circumstances beyond his control he may not be able to make it to Swaziland, but he dutifully shuffled a couple of things around and managed to make it, after borrowing money just to get down to Swaziland. For large parts of the weekend he went unnoticed, quietly sitting at his table playing his cards and feeling slightly intimidated in his first major live tournament. In fact he’s only been playing poker for 4 months. But by the end of the second day when there were nine people remaining, Herman was at the front of the pack – sitting pretty with 1 million chips, or almost 1/3 of the chips in play. After the hard fought final table, when Herman was presented with his winner’s cheque, he walked outside, phoned his mother and when he got off of the phone broke down in the middle of the hotel reception. This is the story of someone who went from being an unheard of student, to an inspiration to many new and aspiring poker players out there. He beat out some of the best local players, like Jay Sookoo, Ryan Dreyer, Dave Rosenthal, Bennie Lingenfelder, in the largest tournament in Southern Africa this year. The Second Chance tournament attracted 100 players, and with a prize pool of R200,000 offered up a lifeline to those players who had been eliminated from the main event. The final two brought a Swazi local up against one of the better known South African players – Zlatko Dobronic. After a tense heads up battle, the players agreed to split the remaining prize money, and play one hand for the title and trophy. Neil Butler the local Swazi player took the 2nd Chance tournament and a nice payout for first place! All-in-all it was an excellent tournament, organised by Ace High Poker and hosted by the Royal Swazi Spa. The casino staff were friendly and excellent and the pool was always a welcome blessing after a long hard day on the poker floor. This is truly a tournament that sets the bar for poker in South Africa.
Royal Swazi Rumble results
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