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