Dietrich Fast Wins a WSOPE Bracelet; John Gale Denied His Third

Dietrich Fast has won the second event at the World Series of Poker Europe in Berlin. He beat the British pro-John Gale in a mammoth heads-up contest that took close to five hours to complete.

German player Dietrich Fast is the second player to win a gold bracelet at the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). Fast beat the veteran British pro, John Gale, in a heads-up match that took 4hrs 30mins to complete.

Event #2: The Oktoberfest No-Limit Hold’em event was a €550 buy-in that attracted 2,144 entrants and created a total prize pool of €1,039,000. It was a cracking final table. John Gale came in as the chip leader, and was chasing his third gold bracelet, and second of 2015. Adrian Appman was also searching for his second of the season, and the table also bore the weighty presence of Steve O’Dwyer.

Something seems to have clicked for Fast in 2015. He came away from the European Poker Tour (EPT) festival in Barcelona with some decent scores. That was after a summer that saw him take second in a Rio Deepstack event, on top of a score at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event this year.

Gale is a vastly experienced player. In the summer, he defeated a field of 1,791 players to capture the bracelet in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Turbo event for $298,290. That was his second WSOP bracelet after defeating 562 players to win a Pot Limit Hold’em (PLH) event in 2006 for $374,849. Gale is also a World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member after winning the PCA Main Event back in 2005 for $890,600.

As previously mentioned, Gale wasn’t the only player searching for his second bracelet of the year. Adrian Apmann won the $1,500 NLHE Extended Play event in the summer for a $478,102 first prize and was in fine form.

Rodrigo Capriolo was no stranger to major final tables. In 2012, he finished fifth in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo for $415,880. And Harry Lodge recently won the United Kingdom Poker Championships Six-Max event at Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) for £60,000.

But the man everyone had to fear was Steve O’Dwyer. With over $10m in the bank, a plethora of final tables and three seven-figure scores on his resume, the American once again reminded the poker world of his quality with another deep run.

So plenty of star names, but it seems the final table turned out to be a turgid affair. It took Fast over 12-hours to win the title, included 108 hands, and close to 4hrs 30-mins to dispose of the stubborn Gale.

Gale had a 2:1 chip lead at one point in proceedings. Bracelet number three was on order. Then Gale called a river shove by Fast on [4s] [4h] [2s] [As] [3d] only to be shown [Ah] [4c] for the boat. The bracelet went back into the box.

That hand gave Fast the 2:1 chip lead and the final hand saw Gale moving all-in holding [Kc] [6c] and Fast calling with [As] [Jc]. The flop and turn both saw jacks come out of the box, and Berlin was witnessing their second bracelet winner of the series.

Final Table Results

1st. Dietrich Fast – €157,749

2nd. John Gales – €97,804

3rd. Rodrigo Caprioli – €73,699

4th. Vojtech Cervinka – €56,278

5th. Steve O’Dwyer – €43,409

6th. Adrian Apmann – €33,808

7th. Sandro Wuest – €26,587

8th. Jorn Henrik Winter – €21,115

9th. Harry Lodge – €16,935

Other notables to cash were Shaun Deeb (20th), Niall Farrell (25th) and Asher Conniff (39th).