Olivier Busquet Claims King of the Hill 2 Title and $200,000

6 years ago
Olivier Busquet Claims King of the Hill 2 Title and $200,000
08:37
09 Oct

It was Olivier Busquet all the way in the King of the Hill 2 winner-takes-all event this weekend as the 36-year old New Yorker downed Shaun Deeb and then Parker ‘TonkaaaaP’ Talbot to secure a $200,000 payday and the title at Rivers casino in Pittsburgh.

The 4-man heads-up slugfest had seen Busquet pitted against Deeb in the first semi-final, while online king Talbot had to face the reigning champion, Phil ‘Poker Brat’ Hellmuth in the other.

Busquet had an easy time of things in reaching the final, explaining afterwards that the cards ran his way throughout:

“I hit every single hand. It would have been hard to lose the match.”

Talbot, on the other hand, had a brutal time of it against Hellmuth, losing  a huge flip to settle the first rubber when his pocket jacks vs Hellmuth’s big slick ended in a flush over flush, and then getting very lucky in the second match, hitting a five-outer to send Hellmuth into ‘Poker Brat mode’.

“Come on. Fuck. Call 8,800 with a fuckin’ three,” with Talbot retorting: “This is my lifelong dream right here boys! To play Phil Hellmuth heads up and get him fucking steamed up, walking around, talking to himself. This is it right here.”

Eventually losing out and going to a decider, Hellmuth’s luck in the King of the Hill finally ran out, losing a flush over flush to send him packing, Talbot proceeding to the final to meet Busquet.

Doug Polk, who was joined in the commentary booth by Pete Manzinelli, had given his thoughts on things before play got started, calling it right:

"I'm going to ahead and call it... Olivier Busquet will be the winner of KOTH 2! He will have his hands full between Deeb and the winner of the other match though, and I'd never completely count out potential for some white magic."


The Final

Again it was set for a best of three showdown, and again Busquet didn’t need to go the distance – the first ending abruptly when ‘tonkaaaap’ triple-barrel semi-bluffed his way to oblivion against a flopped set, Busquet explaining later:

“I had said before the last hand that I hadn’t called a single three-bet, so that was the first three-bet I called, and I just flopped trips. And then I get a turn card for him to barrel, so I mean that’s really fortunate.”

The second rubber was closer, but Busquet was managing to dodge bullets and also get paid – a deadly combination of good play and good luck which he described later:

"It was four matches. I played two good players; especially Parker played well. I just got the better end of the deck in every single game", adding: “You can get lucky to make good folds at the same time as making good hands."

The hugely successful KOTH format looks set to run and run, the third version already announced for the end of October, Busquet putting his new title on the line against Dan Colman, Brandon Adams and this year’s WSOP Main Event winner Scott Blumstein, this weekend’s champ already starting the Twitter build-up…


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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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