‘Rhino’ Dreyer Stampedes to Number 1 Poker Ranking
Ryan ‘Rhino’ Dreyer continued his amazing run of form on Sunday when he captured the two-day Poker Ace Tournament held at Gold Reef City. The win now ranks him as the Number 1 poker player in South Africa.
With his first place cheque of R175k and a seat to the All Africa Poker Tournament, Dreyer now moves into the top spot in the Bluff SA Poker Player Rankings, powered by Emperors Palace. Contributing to his points are a host of good finishes, which include a win and a 6th at the Sun City Million Dollar, a win and a 2nd at Poker Ace and a 3rd at the SA Poker Open. He managed to sneak past both South African poker legends Ray Rahme and the very solid Eugene Duplessis, to take top spot for the moment.
“It was fantastic to win after coming third at the SA Poker Open at Monte Casino earlier this month,” Dreyer said. “I felt like I played really well this weekend and fortunately wasn’t plagued with many bad beats, which always helps if you want to have a chance to win.”
Dreyer competed against 91 other entrants in the Poker Ace Tournament. In typical Dreyer- style, he cleaned up the table with a winning hand of 78 suited hearts against Benny Lingenfelder, Warren Zackey and a number of other poker heavyweights.
After being short stacked for hours on end during day two, Dreyer’s grinding finally paid off when he made it to the final table. Even though he was the second shortest stack at the final table, his experience and tenacity saw him grow his stack to above average with very some very bold pre-flop play.
In the next period, seasoned campaigner, Bennie Lingenfelder had an incredible rush of cards, picking up Kings three times and knocking player out relentlessly while opening a massive chip lead. When there were just four players left, Bennie had 1.6 million of the 2.4 million chips in play and the other 3 including Rhino were sharing just 800,000 in chips.
Lingenfelder then eliminated Edgar Antezana in 4th and Dreyer eliminated Warren Zackey in 3rd before facing Lingenfelder in the heads up. At this point the stacks were pretty even. Rhino got the early advantage in the heads after calling Benni’s all in raise with a pair of 8’s. Bennie showed A2 off Suit and Dreyer found an 8 on the turn to lock the hand. That hand left Lingenfelder short stacked and moved all in with K7 off suit and Dreyer called with K10 of diamond. A K77 flop miraculously kept Lingenfelder alive. Dreyer stole the next 2 pots and then Lingenfelder moved all in and due to the small amount of chips, Dreyer called with the same hand that he won Sun City with – 78 suited. This time it was hearts and not diamonds though. The flop and the turn brought a 7 to lock the hand, the title and the Number 1 ranking spot for ‘Rhino’ Dreyer.
Dreyer’s talents don’t stop at the poker table; they extend to the golf course too. He is the Number 1 ranked player in the Amateur Golf Stroke Averages and winner of the 2009 SA Amateur Golf Championship.
Dreyer is well known in the poker industry as lead commentator for DStv’s All Africa Poker Channel. He was also recently appointed as SA editor of the world’s largest poker title, Bluff Magazine.
Dreyer said that he won’t be playing on the next two events, the Big Bluff in Bloemfontein or the Emerald Tournament in May, as he has work and golf commitments.
