"Face The Ace" Contestant Fails to Win Million Dollars

Poker News - August 9th, 2009 - Written by Bruce

In the second episode of NBC's new prime time poker show "Face The Ace", a truck driver from Illinois was one heads up poker victory away from winning $1 million dollars. Don Topel had to find a way to beat Full Tilt Poker pro Gavin Smith in a heads up poker match. If he could manage to do so he would walk with the million dollars, but if he lost he would leave with nothing. When it was all over Topel found the poker pro to be too much to handle and came up short of winning the million dollars. It was a great run for Topel, but even though he played well in his matches, he ended up leaving the show without winning any money.

The "Face The Ace" show pits online qualifiers against some of Full Tilt Poker's top poker professionals. In the first episode, Topel took on the tough poker pro Erick Lindgren in his first match. The two went back and forth for some time before Topel ended up besting the pro and winning the match. He then had the option of quitting the game and taking home $40,000 for his efforts, or continuing on choosing to play another poker pro. This time the match would be worth $200,000, but if Topel lost he would go home with nothing. The $200,000 match, saw Topel take on the experienced poker pro Howard Lederer. Amazingly the truck driver won his second straight heads up poker match over two tough professionals. After the win Topel decided to once again pass on the money. The third and final round would either send him home as a millionaire, or have him leave $200,000 on the table and go home with nothing. This is where the first episode ended, setting up an exciting finish in the in the show's second episode.

For the million dollar match, both the contestant and poker pro would start out with more chips to play with than in the contestant's first two matches. The deeper structure would likely give an edge to the poker pro Gavin Smith. As the match wore on, Smith was able to win some chips by bluffing and also picked up some big hands. Topel made a few good reads against his opponent which kept him alive in the match for quite a while. In the end Gavin Smith was in control throughout the poker match, and he eliminated Don Topel when the pro's ace high held up before the flop. Don Topel won his way on television by qualifying online and ended up beating two world class poker player's. He was one win away from winning a million dollars, but he came up short in his third and final poker match. Topel will have to return home to his normal life knowing he was so close to winning some big money.

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