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The brick wall that is Chin Wei Lim continues to prove impassable as the Malaysian star continued to shine at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague.

Lim won the first €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Single-Day High Roller. The game attracted 50-entrants (14 re-entrants) like broken suitcase wheels to cobblestones, and Lim took out the in-form Jorryt van Hoof, heads-up, to claim his second title of the year.

Let’s see how Lim did it.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Scott Margereson – 120,000
Seat 2: Timothy Adams – 435,000
Seat 4: Yan Wang – 415,000
Seat 5: Matthias Eibinger – 675,000
Seat 6: Jorryt van Hoof – 1,250,000
Seat 7: Pavel Plesuv – 360,000
Seat 8: Jun Obara – 530,000
Seat 9: Chin Wei Lim – 990,000

Nine seats and one of them would feel like the loneliest place in the world with only eight getting paid. It turned out to be the #1 seat. With blinds at 20k/40k/40k, the action folded to the short-stacked, Scott Margereson, and he piled his final three big blinds in from the button holding AhTs. Timothy Adams looked down to see pocket fives from the small blind and moved all-in. The big blind folded. The pocket fives won the race. Margereson won nothing.

Yang Wang was the first to leave with a return on his investment. €63,020 ended up in Wang’s bank account after moving all-in for 340,000 from the button with blinds at 20k/40k/40k. Matthias Eibinger moved all-in from the small blind for 580,000, and the pair went at it like woodcutter and wood once Jorryt van Hoof folded the big blind – Eibinger’s Ah7c beating Kh7h over the five-card sprint.

Pavel Plesuv fell next.

With blinds at 25k/50k/50k, Plesuv opened to 125,000 from the hijack seat, and then moved all-in for 220,000 more, after Jun Obara had three-bet from position. Plesuv was ahead with pocket sixes facing As7s, but Obara flopped the world on KsQs7c, and the Romanian’s tournament ended when the Ah hit the turn.

Adams then doubled through Chin Wei Lim when AcTc beat Ts8c, and Eibinger doubled through Obara when pocket sevens beat AdQh. Then van Hoof doubled twice, once through Eibinger when KcJh beat the dominating AdJc, and then through Obara when Kh3h beat Jc4d in one of those blind on blind tussles you hear so much about.

Obara then doubled through Adams when KsQh beat Qs3h before Lim dealt with him like a father dealing with a couple of eggs after his daughter responds “scrambled eggs,” to the question, “what do you want for breakfast?” Obara moved all-in holding Ac6c, and Lim found a pair of queens for the call and win. \

Three-handed play broke through the mist after Eibinger removed Adams from the equation. Adams went for it holding 9d7h, and Eibinger took him out with QsJc. But the Austrian couldn’t turn that elimination into momentum. Lim threw a stick over the rail, moving all-in holding Ah8s, and the players last saw Eibinger bolting over the rail to fetch it holding Kc8c.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Chin Wei Lim – 2,820,000
Jorryt van Hoof – 2,180,000

It was always going to be a tight one with neither player having much experience in live tournament poker. Lim had only won one of his five heads-up encounters, and van Hoof had a two for two record.

Lim’s first win came, this year, at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), taking down the €100,000 NLHE Diamond High Roller for €2.17m. He also finished second in the €250,000 NLHE Super High Roller at the same series for €1.757m. Lim also finished second to Mikhail Rudoy in a €25,000 at EPT Barcelona in August.

Van Hoof also entered the arena with a win in tow after taking down the €10k High Roller at the Master Classic of Poker in Amsterdam at the end of November. It was his sixth final table of the year. Lim was appearing at a final table for the tenth time this season.

Van Hoof began the brightest, only for Lim to lurch ahead. Then Van Hoof doubled up when Ks2d flopped two pairs against Jh7d, only for Lim to send him to the sewage system shortly after when AdJh beat pocket nines in your standard ‘sunglasses off’ final flip.

Final Table Results

1. Chin Wei Lim – €378,160
2. Jorryt van Hoof – €273,120
3. Matthias Eibinger – €174,070
4. Timothy Adams – €132,055
5. Jun Obara – €102,040
6. Pavel Plesuv – €78,035
7. Yang Wang – €63,020

The Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1 threw his hand into the GPI Player of the Year (PoY) ring with an excellent victory in the €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague.

The event attracted 44 wizards of varying wickedness, including two men seeking their second titles of the series after Adrian Mateos won the opening €10k, and Jean-Noel Thorel took down the first €25k.

Ben Heath also made his second final table of the series (second in the €25k), as did Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (fifth in the €10k).

Let’s see how Chidwick took it down to the old Prague town.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Bertrand Grospellier – 1,200,000
Seat 2: Stephen Chidwick – 1,920,000
Seat 3: Ben Heath – 615,000
Seat 4: Steve O’Dwyer – 1,770,000
Seat 5: Adrian Mateos – 2,795,000
Seat 6: Jean-Noel Thorel – 2,705,000

Ben Heath came in with the short-stack, and Jean-Noel Thorel didn’t give the young British star enough time to get goosebumps. With blinds at 20k/40k/40k, Thorel opened to 100,000 from the first position, and then called when Heath moved all-in for 575,000 on the button. It was a flip with Thorel’s 77 defeating the AQ of Heath.

Thorel turned into a poker plague after that hand, picking up pot after pot, until Stephen Chidwick found the antidote. With blinds at 25k/50k/50k, Thorel check-called a 75,000 Chidwick bet on a 7s7d6d flop. The Th appeared on the turn, Thorel checked, Chidwick bet 500,000, Thorel raised to 1,000,000, and Chidwick called. The final card was the Qh, Thorel checked, Chidwick moved all-in for 1,555,000, and Thorel called. Chidwick showed pocket tens for the full house, and Thorel showed 8d9d for the straight.

Bile continued to rise in Thorel’s throat when Bertrand Grospellier doubled with KsQs>AsQd after flopping a second king, and Steve O’Dwyer finished the job when KdTs beat QhJd when all-in pre-flop.

O’Dwyer then doubled through Chidwick when pocket sevens beat Kc9c, but Chidwick exacted the ultimate revenge when his pocket aces thrashed O’Dwyer’s pocket eights to send him to the rail in the fourth place.

ElkY would take on Chidwick, heads-up after Adrian Mateos fell in the third spot. The most in-form player in the world, crossed the border of the rail when he got it in good AsTc v QcJc only for Chidwick to eliminate the Spaniard with a second jack on the turn.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Stephen Chidwick – 9,400,000
Bertrand Grospellier – 1,600,000

Heads-up was a case of the new school versus old school, with Chidwick holding all of the chips and most of the form. I use the word ‘most’ because ElkY did win a bracelet at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in October, his first tournament win since 2012.

Chidwick also began the most experience, in heads-up play, with a record of 20 wins and 13 seconds. This year, he lost to Timothy Adams in the $50,000 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January, and Jason Koon in an HKD 1,000,000 at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju in March.

ElkY has 12 wins, and seven losses, and started the heads-up action with most ring rust. ElkY’s most prominent heads-up defeats came against Magnus Petersson in the 2007 EPT Main Event in Copenhagen, and second to Doug Polk in the 2017 $111,111 One Drop High Roller at the WSOP collecting $2,278,657.

Grospellier began well, chipping away at the Chidwick’s stack before the Brit once again lengthened his lead. Then Grospellier doubled-up when his wheel rolled over the rivered two-pair hand of Chidwick, but the piles still tilted 8.3m>2.7m in Chidwick’s favour.

Then Grospellier brought parity to the situation.

With blinds at 40k/80k/80k, ElkY opened to 200,000 on the button, and then called when Chidwick three-bet to 575,000. The dealer placed the AhTs4c onto the flop, and ElkY called a 300,000 Chidwick bet. The 6h landed on the turn, and Chidwick bet 475,000. Once the call came, the dealer planted the Kh onto the river. Chidwick put ElkY all-in, and the Frenchman called. Chidwick showed 7c4h for a pair of fours turned into a bluff, and ElkY showed Ac9c for top pair.

Chidwick’s stack didn’t hover too close to ElkY’s for long. The former US Poker Open winner edged ahead, only for ElkY to double again after rivering a straight flush to beat Chidwick’s nut flush.

Yet, each time, ElkY got close, Chidwick pulled away until he was so far in the distance, not even ElkY’s eagle eyes could spot him. The pair eventually got it in with ElkY’s AdKh ahead of the QsTs of Chidwick, only for the Tc to give Chidwick the winning pair on the turn.

Final Table Results

1. Stephen Chidwick – €725,710
2. Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier – €501,590
3. Adrian Mateos – €320,170
4. Steve O’Dwyer – €245,460
5. Jean-Noel Thorel – €192,100
6. Ben Heath – €149,410

The win hands Chidwick 314.10 GPI PoY points and that puts him into contention in the tightest PoY race in history.

For Jean-Noel Thorel, it seems live tournament wins are like buses. You wait for ten-years for one to show up, and then another eases up to the exhaust when you’re least expecting it.

The Frenchman has been a fixture on the European Poker Tour (EPT) for other a decade, competing in the highest stakes, but it was the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) where all of his hard work, and substantial investment, finally paid off.

Thorel finished runner-up to Chin Wei Lim in the 72-entrant €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) WSOPE Diamond High Roller for a career-high €1.34m, before winning his first-ever title, at the same event – a €10,350 NLHE Turbo.

Thorel only had to beat four people to win his first title.

He had to blaze a beast of a trail to win his second.

The first €25,000 NLHE event of the annual pre-Christmas jaunt to the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague contained 28-entrants (8 re-entries), and Thorel collected the €248,740 first prize after beating a bucket full of players who typically excel in this series.

Sam Greenwood has won $8.1m in 2019, his best-ever year. In 2015, Greenwood lost to Steve O’Dwyer in the heads-up phase of a €50,000 NLHE, in Prague, before returning a year later to win a €25k event, ironically, after beating Jean-Noel Thorel.

Greenwood squeezed into the money in the fifth spot.

Danny Tang is also enjoying the best year of his career, winning $6.1m, including the $50,000 NLHE at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and Tang also likes the grunt and groan of the Hilton Prague Hotel.

In 2016, he won a 389-entrant €1,100 NLHE event for €54,425. He returned a year later to win the 256-entrant €10,300 NLHE for €381,000 and finished 4/195 in the same game, last year.

Tang’s run ended in the third place.

Thorel’s heads-up opponent drew strong parallels with Tang. Ben Heath’s $7.5m 2019 haul is a personal best, and he also won a $50,000 NLHE event at the WSOP for $1.5m for his first bracelet. Both Tang and Heath have also won seven-figure scores at Triton Super High Roller events, this year, with Heath finishing third in the £100,000 NLHE in London for $1.6m, and Tang picking up a massive payday in Montenegro.

Reputations mean nothing to Thorel, who jettisoned all of them to the moon without a helmet. The win takes Thorel’s career live tournament earnings to $7.2m. In 2015, the Frenchman finished second to Rainer Kempe in a €25k NLHE event at this series, and also collected that second-place finish to Sam Greenwood in the same game a year later.

Now he has a golden spade of his own.

ITM Results

1. Jean-Noel Thorel – €248,740
2. Ben Heath – €171,430
3. Danny Tang – €109,250
4. Yuan Li – €78,900
5. Sam Greenwood – €63,870

Fancy your luck at the poker tables, then rub the head of Adrian Mateos, and hope that his winning streak spreads by contagion.

The Spaniard star flew into Prague for the European Poker Tour (EPT) on the back of an incredible visit to the Bahamas for the partypoker MILLIONS World, and he’s taken down the first event.

Mateos banked $1.7m in the Bahamas after winning the $25,500 Super High Roller, followed by the $10,300 Main Event, and now he’s secured his fourth EPT side event win with victory in the €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller.

The event attracted 61-entrants (15 re-entries) like rats to a sewage system, and, as expected, it was a stellar cast including EPT final table reg, Orpen Kisacikoglu, high roller star, Matthias Eibinger, and the Triple Crown winner, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier.

Let’s see how Mateos took it down to Cesky Krumlov town.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Tsugunari Toma – 213,000
Seat 2: Orpen Kisacikoglu – 145,000
Seat 3: Adrian Mateos – 340,000
Seat 4: Arsenii Karmatckii – 100,000
Seat 5: Matthias Eibinger – 195,000
Seat 6: Bertrand Grospellier – 580,000
Seat 7: Vladimir Troyanovskiy – 267,000
Seat 8: Anton Yakuba – 910,000
Seat 9: Derek Ip – 275,000

Nine people began; the EPT would only pay eight, and it was the name of ‘Matthias Eibinger’ that felt the wrath of the delete key. With blinds at 6k/12k/12k, Tsugunari Toma moved all-in from the hijack for 227,000, and Eibinger made the call with the inferior stack from the big blind. It was the right call. It was a good call. But the A9 of Toma still managed to bury the AK of the Austrian after a second nine hit the turn.

Eibinger’s exit guaranteed everyone a €23,670 payday, and that’s precisely the amount Arsenii Karmatckii collected after his smile turned into a frown a few hands later. Anton Yakuba moved all-in for 240,000 from the first position, and Karmatckii called with less from the button. The rest of the table allowed the pair to party, and after pocket sixes beat AK, the form of Karmatckii seeped into the Prague cobblestones.

Orpen Kisacikoglu was the next to leave, and this time AK proved to be the winning hand when Adrian Mateos found it in the small blind after Kisacikoglu had moved all-in for 104,000, holding KsQc. The Turkish star did flop a second queen to take the lead, but Mateos picked up a diamond flush draw that got there on the river.

Mateos didn’t have a chance to stretch his wings and fly.

With blinds moving into Level 19, at 8k/16k/16k, Mateos opened to 24,000 from the cutoff, and then called after Troyanovskiy jammed the button for 182,000. Troyanovskiy was ahead with AhJc versus KhQs, and that’s the way it stayed after the flop, turn and river.

Like Mateos before him, a win followed a loss for Troyanovskiy when Derek Ip coolered him KK>QQ to double up, sending the Russian to the middle of the pack. Still, he bounced back immediately, eliminating the Day 1 chip leader Toma when KdQc beat Ad4h when all-in pre-flop.

Bertrand Grospellier then doubled through Troyanovskiy when As9s beat Ad8c, and then Deja Vu when As5h beat Ts7s. The Frenchman’s luck finally expired when he got it in with AhQc, and Ip looked down to see pocket jacks. ElkY got a tad excited when the saw two more queens hit the flop only for a third jack to join the fray to give Ip a boat.

The action then moved into Level 21, and Troyanovskiy doubled up in one of the first hands when Kc2s beat the Jd5s of Mateos in a blind bust-up. Then Troyanovskiy’s spin cycle of a final table ended when he lost a flip 77<AJ of Anton Yakuba.

Adrian Mateos – 1,320,000
Anton Yakuba – 1,030,000
Derek Ip – 705,000

We reached heads-up play during Level 22.

With blinds at 15k/30k/30k, Mateos opened to 60,000 on the button, and then called when Ip moved all-in for 205,000 from the big blind. Ip showed pocket jacks, and Mateos showed AQ and turned a second queen on the turn to take a 2:1 chip lead into the final phase of the tournament.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Adrian Mateos – 2,045,000
Anton Yakuba – 1,005,000

Mateos had all of the chips, the experience, and, arguably, the skill. The Spaniard had lost 19 of his 36 heads-up encounters but had won his last three. Yakuba had only made heads-up six times in his career and had won as many as he had lost.

Yakuba made a fist of things, almost pulling level at one point, but Mateos was always going to win this thing.

The final hand saw Yakuba limp on the button and Mateos check his option. The dealer placed 9s6d2s onto flop, Mateos checked, Yakuba bet 45,000, Mateos check-raised to 140,000, and Yakuba made the call. The dealer painted the 4d onto the felt like a smudge of lipstick, Mateos bet 265,000, and Yakuba called. The Ac ended the action. Mateos moved all-in, and Yakuba made the call. Mateos showed 4s2d for two-pair, and Yakuba showed KQ for king-high.

Final Table Results

1. Adrian Mateos – €177,500
2. Anton Yakuba – €128,400
3. Derek Ip – €82,840
4. Vladimir Troyanovskiy – €62,720
5. Bertrand Grospellier – €48,520
6. Tsugunari Toma – €37,870
7. Orpen Kisacikoglu – €30,180
8. Arsenii Karmatckii – €23,670

Don’t count Manig Loeser out of the race for the 2019 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (PoY) race. The German high roller picked up 299.77 GPI PoY points after winning a $5,000, $200k GTD No-Limit Hold’em at the back end of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Rock & Roll Poker Open in Florida.

Loeser, who is ranked #5 in the GPI World Rankings, now rests in that same position in the PoY rankings, 164.76 points behind the leader Kahle Burns. The world’s elite will now travel to either Prague (for the European Poker Tour (EPT)) or Las Vegas (for the WPT Five Diamond), as we reach our exciting conclusion to what’s been another bumper year of poker.

Last year, Loeser chose Vegas over Prague; a decision that turned out to be top dollar after he won the $25k No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller. If he repeats that feat within the fortnight, he could take the PoY title.

GPI PoY Rankings

1. Kahle Burns – 3,599.67
2. Sean Winter – 3,581.45
3. Bryn Kenney – 3,570.84
4. Stephen Chidwick – 3,499.40
5. Manig Loeser – 3,434.91

The event attracted 88-entrants, and Loeser defeated the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Joey Weissman, in heads-up action. The final table also housed the winner of the 2018 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, Scott Margereson, and the former WPT UK Champ, Matas Cimbolas. Cimbolas finished fourth in a $10,000 at this event in the summer, and also made the final table of a 114-entrant $2k during this series, so he was in good form. Ray Qartomy also made the final table, and he finished runner-up to Ryan Riess in a $10k at this event last year.

The win was Loeser’s eighth of his career, and the second of 2019 after winning the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Final Table Results

1. Manig Loeser – $86,581
2. Joey Weissman – $85,449
3. Scott Margereson – $75,120
4. Ray Qartomy – $53,780
5. Timothy Flank – $26,040
6. Craig Chait – $20,815
7. Paul Domb – $17,260
8. Matas Cimbolas – $14,545

Jack Salter Wins The $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo.

We haven’t seen Jack Salter in the high roller scene for a while, but the UK star is fine form, picking up the win in a $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo event, a few weeks after winning a 596-entrant WPTDeepStacks Main event in Montreal for $115,026.

It was Salter’s 13th win of his career.

The only player of note, joining Salter at the final table was Leonard Maue, who finished 4/272 in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Six-Handed during the WSOP, this summer.

Final Table Results

1. Jack Salter – $35,050
2. Marcus Araujo – $21,675
3. Leonard Maue – $12,930
4. Niel Mittelman – $8,290
5. Unknown Player – $6,265
6. Hiroaki Harada – $5,195
7. Tomas Soderstrom – $4,480
8. Greg Levine – $2,945

Two other stars who went deeper than a kamikaze pilot plunging into the Atlantic ocean was Joseph Cheong (10th) and Jeff Madsen (11th).

Milen Stefanov won the $3,500 No-Limit Hold’em WPT Seminole Rock & Roll Poker Main Event. It was a cracker with 988-entrants creating a $545,070 first prize, although none of the high roller fraternity featured in the money.

Final Table Results

1. Milen Stefanov – $545,070
2. Fabian Gumz – $353,380
3. David Novosel – $260,845
4. Roman Korenev – $194,605
5. Cesar Fuentes – $146,760
6. Francis Anderson – $111,895
7. Jeff Blenkarn – $86,255
8. Antonio Mallol – $67,240

Jonathan Karamilikis used all of his I.Q, E.Q and luck to scramble back from a seemingly impossible heads-up position to defeat Ryan Otto in the AUD 20,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) at The Star Sydney.

The event pulled in 53-entrants, and at the end of Day 1, nine signed media contracts without looking at them.

Four players stood out.

Karamalikis was the most experienced of the final table incumbents, with $4.3m in live tournament earnings, and 12 wins under his belt, including beating a 422-entrant field in an AUD 2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Victorian Poker Championships for AUD 198,970 in October.

Michael Egan won an 89-entrant WPT Cambodia High Roller for $64,870 at the end of November, and Roger Teska won the 373-entrant WPT Gardens Festival Main Event in July for $368,475. He also won the 394-entrant $25,500 MILLIONS World in 2018 for $2m.

Let’s check out the action.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Julien Sitbon – 110,000
Seat 2: Bernie Stang – 142,000
Seat 3: Qiang Fu – 366,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Karamalikis – 128,000
Seat 5: Mladen Vukovic – 360,000
Seat 6: Tom Rafferty – 258,000
Seat 7: Ryan Otto – 630,000
Seat 8: Michael Egan – 204,000
Seat 9: Roger Teska – 461,000

The Nutshell Action

If you remove the ’n’ from Bernie Stang’s name, you get Stag, but Bernie didn’t have the opportunity to stick his antlers into anyone before Ryan Otto had his head on his wall.

Otto opened to 12,000 from the hijack, and Stang made the call from the big blind. The dealer laid the Kh7h6s onto the flop, Stang led for 15,000, Otto raised to 40,000, and Stang moved all-in quicker than an electric chair convulsion. Stang showed Ah3h for the nut flush draw, and Otto was ahead with AcKs for top pair. The 3s and 2s concluded the action, and Stang hit the rail.

Then we lost Tom Rafferty.

Rafferty limped into the pot from the small blind, and Otto checked his option in the next seat. The dealer stuck the innocuous-looking 9h3s2d onto the flop, Rafferty bet 10,000, Otto re-raised to 30,000, Rafferty raised to 85,000, and Otto called. The dealer placed the 4d onto the turn, and Rafferty moved all-in holding pocket jacks, and Otto called with 3h2h for a flopped two-pair hand. The 5h hit the river, and Rafferty missed the money by two spots.

The final six players made a profit after Julien Sitbon visited the cemetery that is the bubble position. The Frenchman got it in holding KhQc, and Roger Teska called and beat him with As8c.

Michael Egan was the first to leave the blockbuster with a few Aussie bucks in his back pocket when he exited in the sixth position. Ryan Otto was once again the Dr Manhattan of this one when his KhQc beat the Kh9c of Egan in a blind on blind battle.

Otto continued to be a one-person wrecking crew by removing Mladen Vukovic from the picture. Vukovic made it 18,000 to play from the cutoff and called when Otto three-bet to 60,000 from the button. The dealer placed 3h3c2s onto the flop, and Vukovic check-called a 30,000 Otto c-bet. The Td fell on the turn, and the same action ensued for 90,000. The final card was the 4s, Vukovic checked, Otto moved all-in, and the call came. Otto showed Ac5c for the straight, and Vukovic showed AsTs for a pair of tens, and that’s the last act he made before leaving his seat.

Ryan Otto – 1,300,000
Roger Teska – 594,000
Jonathan Karamalikis – 415,000
Qiang Fu – 316,000

Qiang Fu finished third in this event last year, and he had to make do with fourth in this one. Fu got it in pre-flop holding pocket kings against the AcKc of Jonathan Karamalikis, and an ace on the turn turned into an FU for Fu.

We reached heads-up when Otto eliminated Teska. The pair got it in pre-flop with Otto’s pocket four racing against Teska’s AcQd, and the fours held.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Ryan Otto – 2,127,000
Jonathan Karamalikis – 537,000

Karamalikis began with a 4:1 chip deficit but clawed his way into the lead by the end of the first level. Karamalikis then looked the likelier to win until a cooler saw Otto retake the lead with pocket queens besting pocket jacks.

Karamalikis doubled back into the lead, and never let it go. The final hand saw his Qc8s beat the Ah5s of Otto when all-in pre-flop earning Karamalikis the first WSOPC gold ring of his career.

ITM Results

1. Jonathan Karamalikis – $257,640
2. Ryan Otto – $159,395
3. Roger Teska – $104,430
4. Qiang Fu – $72,140
5. Mladen Vukovic – $52,900
6. Michael Egan – $40,535

It’s interesting how most people dream about invading Amsterdam to smoke copious amounts of pot, before slipping and sliding through the folds of prostitute stained sheets.

It’s different for those who call the place home.

There were no drugs or prostitutes anywhere near Kevin Paqué’s REM cycle, and no stained sheets in his rinse cycle. After winning the €4,300 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event at the Master Classics of Poker (MCOP) at the Holland Casino, Amsterdam, the 23-year-old told the press that it was every Dutch poker player’s dream.

The reason that we’re creaking this particular floorboard is Paqué defeated high roller reg, Steve O’Dwyer, heads-up to win the title. O’Dwyer is a boss, but with this being his 17th heads-up defeat it seems if there is a way to get at him, it’s in the end zone.

The MCOP Main Event attracted 346-entrants, and Paqué became the eighth Dutchman to win the title, and second in successive years after Alberto Stegeman defeated Kilian Kramer. O’Dwyer was trying to become the first American to win the title since Robert Mizrachi proved there was more than one Mizrachi brother, by taking down the 2004 event.

It’s an old one, dating to 1992, and the roll of honour includes such luminaries as Surinder Sundar, Ram Vaswani, and Noah Boeken.

O’Dwyer wasn’t the only high roller hammer that pounded a pile of nails on his way to a final table appearance. Ole Schemion is as comfortable at the Master Classics as the words ‘sting like a bee’ are coming out of the mouth of Mohammed Ali.

Schemion topped a field of 212-entrants to win the 2012 Main Event for €286,200. Two years later, he finished second to Rachid Cherif in the €10,250 High Roller. In 2016, he won the €25k Super High Roller, and then in 2017, finished runner-up to Joris Ruijis in another €10,300 High Roller.

No stretch marks for Schemion in this one though. The German who typically delivers a top-quality poker sermon was the first ousted from battle when Pascal Vos flopped a two-outer when all-in with pocket queens versus Schemion’s kings.

The person responsible for live tournament reporting was a happy bunny after Shyngis Satubayev fell through a trapdoor with the number 8 written in dead maggots. Satuyabev got it in with pocket nines versus the AhTc of Paqué, and an ace on the flop did the damage.

O’Dwyer needed a little luck to get started when his As2s outdrew the AcTd of Johan Rensink, and the American star finished the job when his pocket aces poured hot tea over the head of As5s to send Rensink to the rail in 7th place.

Then we lost Jan Bednar, and it was another live reporter’s nightmare who waltzed him into the Grand Ballroom for a spot of dancing before dropping him unceremoniously on his head. Bednar moved in with Ac4h from the small blind, and Paraskevas Tsokaridis knocked him out with pocket kings.

It’s not been a bad year for Frederico Silva, after winning a juicy side-event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona – and he followed it up with a fifth in this one after his QhJd came up short against the AsTs of the runaway chip leader, Paqué.

Pascal Vos was the next to receive a kick in the groin. Vos moved all-in with Qd9s from the button, and after O’Dwyer folded in the teeny-weeny blind, Paqué called with 83cc in the big. He flopped a trey and rivered an eight to create a three-handed dynamic.

Paqué – 5,600,000
Tsokaridis – 2,700,000
O’Dwyer – 2,200,000

After holding the chip lead for the majority of the final table, Paqué lost it to the one man he didn’t want to lose it to.

With blinds at 40k/80k/80k, Paqué opened with a min-raise from the button, and O’Dwyer defended the big blind. The flop fell AsJh6s, and O’Dwyer check-called a 140k Paqué c-bet. The turn card was the 8d, and the same action ensued, this time for 800k. The final card was the 6c, both players checked, and O’Dwyer picked up the pot and the chip lead with Jc7h. Tsokaridis’s threw his hand into the muck like a leper.

Paqué retook the lead in the same level. The Dutchman min-raised from the button and O’Dwyer defended from the big blind. The dealer gave 9h7s3s a starring role, and O’Dwyer check-called a 300k Paqué bet. The Qc turned up on the fourth street, and O’Dwyer check-called a 675k Paqué bet. The 8h completed the board, and Paqué bet approx. 1.1m once checked too. O’Dwyer went into the tank before calling and mucking when Paqué showed QhTs for the pair of queens.

Paqué had killing in his veins, but O’Dwyer made sure the heads-up action would be more of a battle than a massacre after eliminating Tsokaridis in the third spot. With blinds at 50k/100k/100k, Tsokaridis moved all-in from the button for 11 bigs, and O’Dwyer also moved all-in from the small blind. Paqué took a bow and left the pair go at it, and O’Dwyer’s KdTd proved too hot to handle for the pocket sixes of the Grecian after a second ten appeared on the flop.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Kevin Paqué – 6,280,000
Steve O’Dwyer – 4,130,000

Paqué had the chips.

O’Dwyer had the experience.

Paqué had only reached the heads-up phase of a tournament once, and he lost that to Luuk Gieles at the end of the €3,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the 2018 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) in Rotterdam.

O’Dwyer had made the end zone of 40 live tournaments, winning 24 and losing 16.

But when did poker ever care about stats?

The first hand that Paqué lost saw O’Dwyer double up to a 3.2m v 7.2m deficit after flopping two pairs in a hand that saw Paqué bluff-shove the river. Paqué ground down O’Dwyer some more, before a second double up, saw Kh5d beat Jd9d when all-in pre-flop, but he could never catch the Dutchman.

The final hand saw O’Dwyer raise to 280k on the button, and Paqué make the call from the big blind. The dealer thrust QhJc5d onto the flop, and Paqué check-called a 160k O’Dwyer bet. The turn card was the 4c, and all the money went in. O’Dwyer bet 1.15m, Paqué put O’Dwyer all-in, and the call came. O’Dwyer tabled KsQs for top pair, and Paqué showed Kc3c for the flush draw. Yes, you’ve guessed it, the 2c arrived on the river to flush Paqué up, and the Main Event ended with Rocky beating Apollo Creed.

Paqué has had limited tournament success, cashing only nine times in his career. It was O’Dwyer’s third heads-up loss since winning the HKD 250,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo at the Triton Poker Series in Montenegro earlier in the year. Although, Amsterdam is a happy stomping ground for O’Dwyer, who won the €2,200 WPTDeepStacks High Roller for €72,905 in March. Last year he won the €25,500 Super High Roller at the Master Classics (albeit topping a field of 3-players).

Here are the final table results.

Final Table Results

1. Kevin Paqué – €260,878
2. Steve O’Dwyer – €174,421
3. Paraskevas Tsokaridis – €124,548
4. Pascal Vos – €95,911
5. Frederico Silva – €73,441
6. Jan Bednar – €56,177
7. Johan Rensink – €43,023
8. Shyngis Satubayev – €33,021
9. Ole Schemion – €25,485

Jorryt van Hoof Wins The High Roller.

It’s been a cracking year for Jorryt van Hoof on the tournament tables. The former WSOP Main Event final tablist has now earned $555,705 in 2019 after banking €164,508 for winning the €10,000 High Roller. It’s his best annual haul since that 2014 WSOP Main Event year.

Ruijs, who won this event in 2017, won the Patrick Antonius Poker Challenge Main Event earlier in the year for €57,200. Ryan Riess also made the final table, his first cash in this event. Riess finished in the fifth position.

Here are the ITM results.

ITM Results

1. Jorryt van Hoof – €164,508
2. Joris Ruijs – €109,658
3. Kees Alblas – €65,050
4. Mustafa Biz – €38,302
5. Ryan Riess – €24,928
6. Tommie Janssen – €20,780