Race to the Top: Ben Farrell Turns Turbo Flight into Zynga Poker WPT500 Win

The old motto that effort pays off was absolutely on screen this week at ARIA. For Ben Farrell, putting in the hours working on his online tournament abilities brought about a championship in the Zynga poker WPT500 Las Vegas on Thursday. After winning the title, the Englishman was surrounded by good friends who railed him throughout the day and aided commemorate the triumph.

Farrell covered a field that consisted of 1,932 entries to assert not only his very first WPT title, however his very first major tournament win. He takes home the Zynga poker WPT500 trophy as well as $155,000 in cash, his biggest real-time event rating.

“There were a lot of people to get through,” he says. “It feels really good.”

The win appeared unlikely when he entered the last starting flight on Tuesday. The turbo flight permitted just 15-minute degrees as well as he went into the field prior to the re-entry period finished– as well as would be at a distinctive chip negative aspect.

“I only played the last turbo flight and registered at the last second,” he said before the final table. “At one point I only had 10,000 chips, only 12 big blinds, and was texting my girlfriend that I’d be done soon.”

Locating some energy winning a couple of pots, Farrell went on to lead his trip with practically 800,000 chips. He additionally led the last table when play obtained underway on Thursday.

A native of Birmingham, England, Farrell currently adds substantially to his $286,221 in online tournament winnings. Typically a player at the on the internet tables, over the last year he’s attempted to shift to even more of a real-time competition player. That consists of occasions in Europe as well as playing routinely Las Vegas.

Before his Zynga poker WPT500 win, his largest score came in the EUR10,300 partypoker MANY MILLIONS Grand Final in Barcelona for $49,346..

Now in Vegas with friends to play the World Series of Poker and some other tournaments, Farrell already took sixth in the $3,000 Shootout last week for $37,342 and has four other cashes at the series. His win at ARIA only makes it a sweeter summer.

After entering the final table as chip leader, Farrell locked horns often with third-place finisher Sung Joo Hyun after play reached three-handed. He then faced a tough heads-up opponent in adda52.com sponsored pro Nikita Luther. The two battled about a half-hour with Luther as chip leader for much of that.

A key hand late in the matchup, however, turned the tide in Farrell’s favor. Both got all the chips in the middle before the flop with Luther holding Ace-King to Farrell’s Ace-Queen. A Queen on the turn gave Farrell a massive pot and the tournament was over soon afterward.

“I’m happy it went that well at the end,” he says. “I wasn’t super happy about calling it off, but I had to. I guess I’m kind of numb to it. I’ve played so many tournaments and so many hands, I try not to let emotions get in the way.”

For her finish, Luther takes home $109,300. Farrell has played with her before in the U.K. and complimented her play on the table.

“We only played a couple hands,” he says of their previous encounter. “I bluffed off all my chips to her. She’s super solid from what I’ve seen and she got unlucky.”

While luck is involved with any tournament, Farrell played well throughout and was pleased to see his efforts at improving in live tournaments pay some big dividends.

“It feels really good,” he says. “I’ve been working on my game mainly by talking with friends. I’m mainly an online player, so I haven’t had many results live. But I’ve had a lot of close runs, so I always knew that I’d eventually win a tournament. I just had to put in the volume and keep studying.”

 

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