Jimmy Hu Triumphs at Norwegian Poker Challenge

This year’s Norwegian Poker Challenge was held onboard the Norwegian Epic cruise ship, with its $1,100 main event attracting 337 players to create a prize pool worth $337,000. By the end of the action, however, it was Canadian amateur player Jimmy Hu who finished a top of the field to collect a first place prize of $84,250. Commenting on his impressive score, the 25 year-old said:
“I came in feeling pretty confident about my chances, but I never anticipated winning. This is my first live tournament ever.”
By the time the final table of nine had been reached, James Clark led the pack on a 1.416m stack, while Peter Magarelli (1.408m) was in 3rd place, and Jimmy Hu in 4th (818k).
Peter Magarelli then sent a short-stacked Daniel Ballestero to the rail in 9th ($8,425), while Jimmy Hu (K-Q) took care of Jeff Montoya (5-3) in 7th ($13,480). James Clark (A-K) subsequently eliminated Robert Wamsley (9-8) in 6th for $16,850, before being dealt K-Q and doing likewise to Colin Guthrie (K-3) in 5th for $20,220. Clark continued his run by eliminating Candelaria Vaca in 4th ($26,960), but after Clark lost three consecutive all-ins he was left the short-stack of the three remaining players.
Clark then looked likely to double-up after shoving preflop with A-Q and being called by Hu holding K-Q, but the J-10-9-6-3 put an end to his deep run and so Clark collected $37,070 for his hard-fought efforts.
The heads-up battle which ensued then lasted just one hand, with Peter Magarelli raising all-in preflop with pocket nines and Hu making the call with A-4. The dealer laid out an A-8-2-10-K board to seal the deal, and so Magarelli collected $57,290 for his runner-up finish, while the title and $84,250 went to Jimmy Hu. Already looking forward to next year’s event, Hu commented:
“This is an amazing event. It’s getting bigger every year and I will definitely be back next year. I anticipate it will be over 500 players to make a prize pool of over half a million dollars. Hopefully I can do as well as I did this time!”