Face the Ace Episode 2 – Gavin Smith defeats brave Topel

Face the Ace Episode 2 – Gavin Smith defeats brave Topel

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Despite a lot of hype for episode two of Face the Ace, owing to the fact that it could potentially deliver a million-dollar win for amateur player Don Topel, the series continued to find itself at the bottom of the rating for its timeslot.

Topel, a truck driver who beat both Erick Lindgren and Howard Lederer, showed he had some gamble by deciding to risk it all ($200,000) for a big million dollar win. Host and Sopranos star Steve Schrippa gave Topel the choice of cards and he selected the Ace of clubs, drawing WPT champion Gavin Smith.


Obviously Smith is a formidable poker player but when you consider that Full Tilt pros Phil Ivey and NLHE tournament expert Gus Hansen were options, it seems that playing Gavin for $1m is getting off lightly. “I was hoping for Jennifer Harman,” said Topel.


Of course, Topel’s decision to limp-call every hand pre-flop and then give up after one bet post-flop may have been quite a large factor in his ultimate defeat. The last hand followed suit, with Topel limp-calling for all his stack holding K5o to Smith’s A6s, which held.


In the next match, Marsha Owens put up a better performance against Gus Hansen but ran her top pair into a full house.



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