Season 8 of the European Poker Tour is about to come to a close as the EPT Grand Final Main Event is ready to crown a champion in Monaco. The final table was determined Sunday and taking a substantial chip lead into the final day is Bernard Guigon with 4.9 million chips, 2 million more than his closest competitor, Rodrigo Caprioli.
Guigon made hay in the last few hours of the day, starting when play got down to the final nine. Entering final table bubble play with just over 2 million chips, he picked up about 200,000 pre-flop against Lucille Cailly. Shortly thereafter, he got into a hand with Clayton Mozdzen. Mozdzen raised to 125,000 pre-flop and Guigon called from the big blind. After the flop of Tc-8s-4d, Guigon led out for 100,000 and was called by Mozdzen. It was another bet and call on the turn Ac, this time for 150,000. Same pattern when the Ks was dealt on the river, but this bet was big: 450,000. After Mozdzen called, Guigon showed A-K for top two-pair and all Mozdzen could do was muck, increasing Guigon’s stack by about 900,000 from where it was when the hand started.
Our chip leader also eliminated the final player before the final table, knocking out Alex Mostafavi in 9th place and taking around another 900,000 chips in the process. Mostafavi, possibly running some sort of stop-and-go-like move in-position, raised to 250,000 pre-flop and Bernard Guigon called from the big blind. Guigon checked the flop of Th-Td-5d, prompting Mostafavi to shove. Guigon tanked for a couple minutes before quietly calling and flipping over pocket Jacks. Mostafavi had just A-7 for Ace-high. His help never came, as the turn and river didn’t produce an Ace. He didn’t make the official final table, but he did go home with €95,000.
For the remaining eight players, here are the payouts for the final table:
The EPT Grand Final final table is a lesson on persistence. Half of the players still alive were in the bottom half of the chip counts entering Day 4. One of them – Daniel Gomez – had fewer than 20 big blinds to start the day and was third to last in chips. And while Bernard Guigon has a very large chip lead, two of the aforementioned bottom four – Gomez and Caprioli – are now in the top half of the final table chip counts.
The final table will commence at 1:30pm local time as the eight finalists vie for the €1,500,000 first prize.
European Poker Tour Grand Final – End of Day 4 Chip Counts
1. Bernard Guigon – 4,900,000
2. Rodrigo Caprioli – 2,945,000
3. Lucille Cailly – 2,865,000
4. Daniel Gomez – 2,665,000
5. Mohsin Charania – 2,215,000
6. Michael Dietrich – 1,550,000
7. Clayton Mozdzen – 1,430,000
8. Sergio Castelluccio – 1,410,000
After an intense two days of battle, the final table is set for the inaugural European Poker Tour stop in Campione, Italy, with two prominent names heading the field of eight who will vie for the title.
99 players returned on Thursday and quickly were able to work their way down to the 88 players who would walk away with a minimum payday of €7500 from the tournament. After those players were determined, however, the survivors were in for a long haul to work their way down to the 24 players who came back on Friday to determine the final table. Notable names who were eliminated during the action on Thursday included former EPT champions Rupert Elder (88th, €7500), Martin Finger (67th, €7500), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (61st, €9000), Liv Boeree (51st, €9000) and Roberto Romanello (49th, €9000), while other top pros such as Ivo Donev, Todd Terry and Per Linde also dropped from the field.
Coming back to the tables on Friday, PokerStars qualifier Jannick Wrang led the field with a nice 1.74 million in chips, but Fabrice Soulier was in pursuit with his 1.23 million stack. Lurking further back in the Top Ten was noted cash game player Olivier Busquet (hovering just under a million chips), David Vamplew and Day Two chip leader Balazs Botond.
It took only slightly more than five hours for the remaining 24 men to work their way down to the eight handed EPT final table. Within a half hour of the starting gun, three men had been bounced from the tournament, including former EPT champion Ronnie Kaiser. Vamplew bolstered his stack with the elimination of Andrea Benelli, while Soulier would push his stack upward by knocking out Adrian Veghinas. By the time the players reached the first break, there were only sixteen men remaining, with Koen De Visscher holding onto the lead.
Soulier continued his march to the top of the leaderboard by dropping Alessandro Minasi from the tournament in sixteenth place, putting him at just under two million in chips. When he eliminated Giuseppe Biancouiso in fourteenth, the popular French pro moved into the chip lead. While Soulier was assaulting the other players at the table, Busquet was riding a rollercoaster with his chip stack.
Busquet would put his name into the mix for the EPT Campione title by knocking out the final EPT champion in the field, Vamplew. After the duo (Vamplew in the small blind, Busquet in the big) saw an 8-5-Q flop after a Vamplew raise, Busquet called a continuation bet from Vamplew to see a King on the turn. After Vamplew put another bullet in the chamber for 115K, Busquet moved his remaining chips to the center. As the shorter stack, Vamplew agonized over the decision but eventually made the call, tabling his K-J for a turned top pair. That wasn’t good enough, however, as Busquet showed his Q-8 for a flopped two pair. Once the river blanked, Vamplew was out in tenth place.
The players redrew for the nine handed final table, with Soulier slightly ahead of Wrang, and set about the task of eliminating one more player. While everyone in the Casino di Campione expected a drawn out fight – due to the deep stacks of the players remaining – it took less than an hour for the final elimination of Friday’s action.
After taking some chips off of Botond, Busquet would use that final elimination to cast himself to the top of this particular mountain. After a raise from Wrang, Busquet three bet him, only to see Simeon Naydenov four bet the action. After Wrang dropped from the fight, Busquet moved all in over his shorter stacked foe. Naydenov made a quick call, tabling his pocket Jacks against Busquet’s A-K. The drama was over immediately as Busquet caught on the K-7-4 flop and, once the turn and river brought no Jack, Naydenov was out in ninth place and Busquet soared up the leaderboard.
1. Fabrice Soulier, 3.48 million
2. Olivier Busquet, 3.011 million
3. Jannick Wrang, 2.882 million
4. Balazs Botond, 2.08 million
5. Koen De Visscher, 1.856 million
6. Stefano Puccilli, 1.45 million
7. Mario Nagel, 1.21 million
8. Robin Ylitalo, 1.153 million
The final table for the EPT Campione promises to be one of the more intriguing events of Season Eight. Soulier and Busquet have the pedigrees and the background to storm to the title, but De Visscher also have a wealth of experience. Wrang and Botond has demonstrated some excellent skills during the run of the tournament and – although they are on the bottom of the chip counts – Puccilli, Nagel and Ylitalo are a double up away from putting themselves in the mix.
The final table of the EPT Campione begins at 2PM in the Casino di Campione (8AM Eastern Time) and the champion will take home a hefty €640,000 payday for their efforts.
While today was Election Day in the US, a field of 403 players from around the world elected to put up $1,000 in the first Super Tuesday of November. The field created a prize pool of $403,000 with the winning candidate expected to earn over $77,000. Unfortunately for the Team PokerStars ticket, none of the registered players finished in the money.
The final table was established after raveman210 finished in tenth place. The blinds were at 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante when raveman210 shoved from UTG +1 for 61,686 with [as][tc]. Little Kraut was next to act and shoved all-in with [ad][kd] as the rest of the table folded. Five cards later: [5h] [2c] [6c] [8d] [Qs] and raveman210 earned $6,045 while the rest of the surviving players formed the final table which looked like this:
Seat 1: jornxx (102,867 in chips)
Seat 2: Greg “DuckU” Hobson (576,104 in chips)
Seat 3: Benyfox (21,128 in chips)
Seat 4: Little Kraut (284,139 in chips)
Seat 5: JUMPJC (71,895 in chips)
Seat 6: ringosnuff (369,756 in chips)
Seat 7: Elliot “EeeTee2008″ Nichols (239,538 in chips)
Seat 8: Pessagno (158,500 in chips)
Seat 9: Drew843 (191,073 in chips)
The first hand at the final table saw Benyfox dispatched to the rail in ninth place for $7,052.50. Action folded to jornxx on the button, min-raising to 8,000 with [kh][2s], as Benyfox moved in from the big blind for 12,628 more with [ad][jh]. Both players hit the flop, but jornxx held the lead: [Ks] [4c] [Jc], and the [3c] turn and [7h] river left Benyfox having a short stay at the table.
JUMPJC was the next player ejected from the final table, pocketing $9,672.00 for eight place. With the blinds increases to 2,400/4,800 with a 600 ante. Action folded around to DuckU, raising to 11,111 in the cutoff with [ks][8s]. JUMPJC put their remaining 42,095 chips in the middle with [as][3h] as DuckU made the call. The board ran out [Tc] [Kc] [9c] [6c] [3d] as the final table was down to seven.
DuckU started the final table with the chip lead, but this hand moved EeeTee2008 into the lead when a fortunate card came on the river:
Jornxx took seventh place money of $13,702 with EeeTee2008 taking the rest of jornxx’s chips. The blinds were now 2,800/5,600 with a 700 ante when jornxx open-shoved for 73,392 with [ks][qd]. EeeTee2008 made the call from the big blind with [ah][kd]. The flop came down [4s] [Td] [Jh], the turn card was the [qh], leaving jornxx drawing dead to a chop with one of the three remaining aces. The [9c] gave jornxx the wrong end of the straight as EeeTee2008 phoned home with some additional chips at their disposal., building on their increasing chip lead.
Little Kraut tried to double up their little stack of 61,154 with the blinds now at 3,200/6,400 with an ante of 800, shoving from UTG with [9h][5h] with Pessagno calling from the small blind with [kd][td]. The flop was [Kc] [2h] [Qc] leaving Little Kraut drawing to running hearts. While the [3h] on the turn brightened their hopes, the [3s] river meant $17,732.00 was coming Little Kraut’s way for a sixth place finish.
Once again, the blinds were now up to 3,600/7,200 with an ante of 900 when drew843 picked up fifth place earnings of $22,971.00. Drew843 opened from UTG to 21,600, then DuckU re-raised to 65,555. Drew843 then moved in for 120,648 total with [8d][8c] as DuckU called with [as][kd] and the race was on. The flop was [Tc] [2s] [Ks] to put DuckU into the lead while Drew843 was drawing to the two remaining eights. The [5d] turn and [ac] river left drew843 with zero chips and an empty seat where they once were located.
An attempt was made to make a deal with four players remaining, but the numbers weren’t good enough for some an play resumed. EeeTee2008′s chips started to dwindle as the other three players closed the gap. With the blinds at 5,000/10,000 with an ante of 1,000, DuckU would regain the lead as Pessagno would finish in fourth place for $33,247.50:
Ringosnuff, who had turned down a deal when four-handed, wound up in third place for $44,330.00. Ringosnuff opened the action with a raise to 23,000 as DuckU made the call. On a flop of [5c] [Qd] [3h], DuckU check-raised Ringosnuff’s bet of 24,445 to 54,444. The [4c] on the turn had DuckU check and Ringosnuff move all in for their remaining 150,529 in chips as DuckU called. When their cards were revealed, DuckU had [qh][td] for top pair, while Ringosnuff showed [9d][6d] for a straight draw. The [4d] on the river was no good, as DuckU started heads-up play with a nearly 2-1 chip lead over EeeTee2008.
Heads-up play was nearly over shortly after it began when DuckU and EeeTee2008 got all their chips in on a flop of [9h] [8h] [5c]. Both players had flush draws, but DuckU’s [ah][7h] was well ahead of EeeTee2008′s [qh][jh]. The [3s] turn didn’t change things, but the checkmark went to EeeTee2008 when the [jd] hit on the river, retaking the chip lead by a small margin. The duo would battle for several hours with both players holding the chip lead as they tried to wear their opponent out. Throw in a lengthy server restart in the 11th hour of the tournament, and a lack of a deal being discussed, and it appeared the tournament would never end. Fortunately, since you’re reading this recap, the tournament finally came to a conclusion. DuckU had built up a 4-1 chip lead when the final hand was played out. The blinds were now at 12,500/25,000 with an ante of 3,125 when EeeTee2008 limped from the small blind with [qs][4d] while DuckU checked with [3c][2c]. After the flop of [Tc] [Jc] [8d], DuckU check-called the 25,000 bet of EeeTee2008. The [9c] on the turn gave EeeTee2008 a straight, but DuckU had made a flush and the tournament if he didn’t fold. DuckU checked, EeeTee2008 bet 50,000, as DuckU re-raised to 133,333 then EeeTee2008 moved in for 417,005. However, when the cards were turned over, EeeTee2008 was drawing dead as the [5s] on the river would be the final card dealt in the tournament. EeeTee2008 earned $58,435.00 for the runner-up finish, while DuckU picked up $77,980.50 for the Super Tuesday triumph.
At first glance, it was a Sunday like so many other Sundays that have come before. Thousands of players launched the PokerStars client. They then registered for a $215 no-limit hold’em tournament that featured a guaranteed prize pool of seven figures. But this was no ordinary Sunday tournament on PokerStars. This was the first event of the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a three-week festival of online poker that, in its nine years of existence, has kick-started the careers of several promising young players. On this Sunday, it would be AlexKP who would best 9,001 players after 18.5 hours to collect the first WCOOP title of 2010.
Any of the 9,001 players that registered for WCOOP Event #1, $215 six-handed no-limit hold’em, could have been forgiven if they had proverbial visions of sugar plums as the tournament began. The $1.8 million prize pool crushed the $1.25 million guarantee that PokerStars made for the tournament and ensured that the account of the eventual winner would be credited with more than a quarter million dollars.
Randy “nanonoko” Lew was the pace-setter for the 56 members of Team PokerStars that played Event #1. Lew finished a very respectable 33rd-place finish and collected $5,400.60 in prize money. He was joined on his deep run by Noah “Exclusive” Boeken (87th) and venerated poker icon Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein (110th). Eight other Team Pros also made the money.
But even Boeken’s impressive deep run came up well short of the final table. That honor went to these six players:
Seat 1: AlexKP (27904440 in chips)
Seat 2: inhidonks (7378980 in chips)
Seat 3: Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick (10804952 in chips)
Seat 4: Tutanhamon1 (20274472 in chips)
Seat 5: Drateks (5440084 in chips)
Seat 6: ROOJAR_M (18207072 in chips)
Chidwick was perhaps the most well-known player at the table. Over the last several years, he has won more than 200 seats in the WSOP Main Event and has collected a slew of other seats for live events on the EPT and other poker tours. But his laurels alone wouldn’t be enough to collect a WCOOP title. Stacked 4th of the final six players, he’d need to move up the counts.
The final table started off with a bang. On the second hand of play, chip leader AlexKP opened pre-flop to 550,000. When the action came around, Drateks re-raised all in for approximately 5.1 million. AlexKP quickly called with a pair of nines. That left the two sevens that Drateks held drawing very thin. Neither player improved from that point, allowing AlexKP to knock Drateks out in 6th place.
From there AlexKP started relentlessly attacked the blinds of the short-stacked players to his left, inhidonks and Chidwick. Chidwick eventually fired back in a pot that AlexKP opened to 550,000 pre-flop, his standard open. Chidwick re-raised to 1.475 million, then bet just more than 1 million on a flop of [6h][jc][js]. AlexKP called to see the [ac] fall on the turn. That’s where AlexKP tried a raise, raising Chidwick from 1.75 million to 3.75 million. Chidwick responded by shoving for 6.5 million total. AlexKP snap-folded, allowing Chidwick to add 6 million chips to his stack without a showdown.
At the 5:55am break, with five players still remaining Tutanhamon1 proposed a “friendly deal”. AlexKP, who had 35 million of the 90 million chips in play, quickly quashed that idea.
inhidonks was the next player out, and the only player at the final table not eliminated by AlexKP. Inhidonks opened all in for 4.5 million with [ah][9d]. ROOJAR_M made an easy call with [kd][kc], then flopped a matching king to remove almost all doubt from the outcome of the hand. ROOJAR_M then suggested looking at chop numbers. Chidwick, the new short stack, declined. “I’m too short,” he said of his 30-big blind stack. “Let’s gamble.”
AlexKP’s lead continued to widen. Tutanhamon1 fired two bullets against AlexKP on a board of [2s][th][3h][4c][kh], leading the flop for 1.1 million and the turn for 2.0 million. AlexKP check-called each time, leading Tutanhamon1 to shut down on the river and check behind. AlexKP dragged the pot with an unimproved pair of sevens to climb to 47.6 million in chips. But Tutanhamon1 returned the favor three hands later by turning a club flush and inducing AlexKP to pay off a 5.2 million-chip river bet.
The very next hand, the short-stacked Chidwick found the spot he was looking for. ROOJAR_M opened pre-flop to 822,799, then shoved over the top of Chidwick’s re-raise to 2,041,394. Chidwick instantly called with pocket queens, which held up against ROOJAR_M’s pair of sixes. The hand doubled Chidwick to 24.4 million and left ROOJAR_M with just 5 million in chips. It all ended for ROOJAR_M in 4th place about ten minutes later, when AlexKP’s flopped a set of jacks against ROOJAR_M’s [kc][qc], who had flopped top pair. ROOJAR_M did turn a flush draw, but it failed to fill on the river.
Chidwick didn’t have long to enjoy his newfound chips. Just a few hands after his double up, he found himself on the rail. He opened the button with a minimum raise to about 1 million. AlexKP, in the big blind, re-raised to 3 million. Chidwick four-bet shoved for 24.8 million and was immediately called by AlexKP, creating a pot worth 50 million chips.
Chidwick showed [ac][th]. He was a big underdog to AlexKP’s [ah][kh] but found a great flop of [ad][5d][ts], to make two pair, aces and tens. The turn [4c] left Chidwick needing to fade only the remaining three kings in the deck to take over the chip lead. He couldn’t do it; the river fell the [kd], giving AlexKP an improbable two pair and the winning hand. Instead of becoming the chip leader, Chidwick was retired to the rail in third place.
Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick
As heads-up play began, Tutanhamon1 was down to about 18.5 million in chips against AlexKP’s 71.5 million and tried again for some sort of chop. AlexKP’s reply was blunt. “If you get to 30 million we can talk.” With a total of 180 big blinds between the two players, Tutanhamon1 had plenty of time to reach that point.
The two players made incremental gains back and forth for about 20 to 30 minutes. The moment that Tutanhamon1′s count crested the 30-million chip mark, he again proposed a chop. Good to his word, AlexKP agreed to take a look. “I’m not taking an even chip [chop] though,” AlexKP warned Tutanhamon1. “I’m a HU cash player and you’re obviously not – no offense.”
The chip-chop numbers came in at $225,370.42 for AlexKP and $204,904.06 for Tutanhamon1. AlexKP countered with $232,000 for himself, a number to which Tutanhamon1 immediately agreed. The deal was in place; all that was left was to play for the $25,000 set-aside.
Five hands after the deal, Tutanhamon1 took down a 15 million pot without showdown to further narrow the gap between the two stacks. When Tutanhamon1 subsequently took down another large pot without showdown, AlexKP’s lead was narrowed to just 10 million chips, 50 million to 40 million. It seemed most of the pressure was being applied by Tutanhamon1.
But that momentum came crashing down around Tutanhamon1′s ears just a few hands later. AlexKP opened with a minimum raise to 1.2 million that Tutanhamon1 called. On a flop of [qh][tc][3h], Tutanhaon1 checked and called another 1.2 million. On the [4h] turn, Tutanhamon1 checked, then made a huge over-raise shove of 33 million after AlexKP bet 3.8 million. It was the over-aggression that AlexKP had been waiting to pounce on. He quickly called with a set of treys, [3s][3d]. Tutanhamon1 showed top pair with no draw, [qc][7s]. That left the river [2d] as a mere formality in front of AlexKP’s win.
AlexKP is the first winner of the 2010 WCOOP, but there are 61 more events to come. You can find the schedule of all of those events, along with all types of other statistics, at the WCOOP homepage.
Just 18 players are left in the PokerStars Baltic Festival out of the 222 who started the €1,400 tournament on Wednesday – and it’s still Lithuanian pro Dominykas Karmazinas in the lead, writes Mad Harper.
All those remaining are guaranteed at least 48,618 EEK (approx. €3,109) as they go into the final day, which kicks off at 2pm tomorrow (June 19).
The money bubble burst just before 9pm today when local player and Day 1a chip leader Andry Purk, 22, knocked out 34-year-old Finnish twin Pasi Heinänen with A-9 v K-K. Only minutes later, out went the first player in the money – Finnish pro Matias Knaapinen who came tenth last year but managed only 26th place this year for 38,894 EEK (approx. €2,487).
Lithuanian pro Dominykas Karmazinas, 22, who came third at the recent PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final in April for €700,000, kept up the volume AND table domination during Day 2 and goes into Day 3 with 286,900. Estonian PokerStars qualifier and Day 1a chip leader Andry Purk, 22, is currently in second place with 243,700.
Also still a contender for the €80,000 first prize is Swedish Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson, 27, with 96,800. Late in the day, he was rivered out of a pot which could have made him chip leader but is still in good shape.
William Thorson
Fellow Swede Mathias Hoog, 39, one of 80+ players who won their seat on PokerStars, is also still in the running with 104,000. Hoog has triumphed repeatedly in PokerStars’ recent Nordic promotions. Among the prizes he’s snagged, in addition to his seat here in Tallinn, was a trip to Monte Carlo during the EPT Grand Final and a five-day trip to the Vancouver Olympics with Team PokerStars SportStar and NHL legend Mats Sundin.
The last surviving female player is internal comms manager Kristiina Illak, 25, from Tallinn, who won her seat into the event after competing in a special tournament organized by Swissôtel for clients. She has 98,400.
Here’s the final day seat draw:
1 Mindaugas Šatkauskas Lithuania 55 400
2 Dominykas Karmazinas Lithuania 286 900
3 Bent Christensen Denmark PokerStars qualifier 59 000
4 Kaido Koorits Estonia PokerStars qualifier 84 400
5 Marius Maciukas Lithuania 197 400
6 Tomas Naulickas Lithuania 76 400
7 Robert Borzyszkowski Poland PokerStars qualifier 199 700
8 William Thorson Sweden Team PokerStars Pro 96 800
9 Tarmo Tael Estonia 144 400
1 Mikael Jonsson Sweden 63 300
2 Aleksandr Arutjunov Estonia 72 300
3 Janne Johansson Finland PokerStars qualifier 103 800
4 Andry Purk Estonia PokerStars qualifier 243 700
5 Steven Moreau France PokerStars qualifier 72 000
6 Tommy Hjornerud Norway 90 300
7 Miikka Anttonen Finland 200 500
8 Kristiina Illak Estonia 98 400
9 Mathias Hoog Sweden PokerStars qualifier 104 000
The four-day Festival has been taking place at the luxurious Swissôtel in the heart of the Estonian capital. This is also the venue for the first event of Season 7 of the European Poker Tour. The €4,250 EPT Tallinn runs August 11-16 and players can win their seat to this prestigious tournament in a €950 + 50 live super-satellite taking place tomorrow (June 19) at noon.
The second PokerStars Baltic Festival has generated a record-breaking total prize pool of EEK 4,861,800 (approx €310,857). Nearly 20% of the field – 43 players – came from Estonia, with a further 17% – 37 players – from Finland. Last year’s Main Event attracted 307 players and was won by British pro Thomas Partridge for some €75,000.
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