Three barrels of pure live tournament value including a round-up of the action towards the end of the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, news of a fourth Finnish victory at a Unibet Open, and Julian Sacks wins the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Foxwoods.
Professional poker players do such a great job at hiding emotion at the table that we often have to wait for the inexperienced amateur to win the lot before we see any signs of a tear, and that’s what happened in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Barcelona.
Two years ago, a 19-year old Polish kid, Sebastian Malec, was studying at the University of Warwick, England when he decided to take a train to London to experience the EPT and meet the players who had become his heroes through TV and live updates. Fast forward to today and he has beaten them all in the largest EPT Main Event field in history.
Malec topped a field of 1,785 entrants to walk away with the €1,122,800 first prize. After his victory, the Pole couldn’t stem the flow of tears, and who can blame him, after he qualified for the event for €27 playing online at PokerStars.
The heads-up encounter between Malec and the German Uri Reichenstein was a battle of experience v inexperience. The German has won the lot playing online including the Sunday Million, Super Tuesday, and Sunday SuperSonic. Malec is still learning the ropes.
That doesn’t mean Malec doesn’t have experience playing complicated games. The Polish wizard was a competitive chess player between the ages of 6-15 and got into poker after his chess coach visited Las Vegas and experienced the WSOP for the first time. The stories must have had an indelible effect on the young man.
The final table comprised of eight different nationalities.
The epic final hand can be found at 47:20 in the below clip.
Final Table Results
1. Sebastian Malec – €1,22,800
2. Uri Reichenstein – €807,100
3. Adam Owen – €646,250
4. Thomas DeRooij – €535,100
5. Zorlucan Er – €431,550
6. Andreas Chalkiadakis – €330,920
7. Harcharan Dogra – €230,950
8. Pavel Plesuv – €165,950
Other notables to run deep run included Morten Mortensen (10th), Konstantin Puchkov (13th) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Niner Vojtech Ruzicka (24th).
EPT Barcelona Side Event News
Here is a round-up of the side events that took place at the back-end of the festival.
Argentina’s number one player, Ivan Luca, had an impressive EPT Barcelona finishing 46th in the €10,300 High Roller for €11,410; runner-up to Rabi Hachen in a €2,150 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event for €41,620; 297th in the Main Event for a min cash; 27th in the €10,300 High Roller for #32,680, and won a €5,200 NLHE event for €90,670.
The American, Connor Drinan, surpassed the $10m live tournament cash ceiling after an equally impressive EPT Barcelona experience. Drinan finished 13th in the €50,000 Super High Roller for €98,000; 190th in the Main Event for €8,920, and then won the €10,300 High Roller for €849,200.
Jenna Mills topped a final table that featured the two-time WSOP bracelet winner, Kristen Bicknell, to win the record-breaking Ladies Event; the Barcelona and Spain centre-back Gerard Pique finished third in a €2k NLHE event for €31,700, and Juha Helppi rolled back the years to win a €2k NLHE event for a smidgen under €100k.
Alex Manzano beat Steve O’Dwyer to capture the first prize of €237,500 in the first-ever €10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha Single Re-Entry event; Vicente Delgado beat Chance Kornuth to win the €97,630 first prize in a €5k NLHE event, and former Nov Niner Felix Stephensen won a €5k PLO event for €76,920.
Unibet Open Copenhagen News
Joni Liimatta has defeated 376 entrants to become the Unibet Open Champion, Copenhagen.
Liimatta is the fourth Finnish player to win a Unibet Open title and picked up DKr525,000 ($79,572) for the win. It was the biggest score of his career by some distance with a $5.3k cash in a €300 buy-in event at the Grand Live in Prague his previous best score.
Final Table Results
1. Joni Liimatta – €70,514
2. Daniel Wittikko – €44,995
3. Evgueny Levkov – €31,129
4. Robin Sevastik – €23,129
5. Lasse Haagensen – €17,783
6. Srdan Andric – €13,673
7. Patrick Coughlin – €10,946
8. Alexandru Dan Nistor – €8,757
9. Rune Thomsen – €7,011
The next stop for the Unibet Open promises to be a record-breaker when the convoy stops in Bucharest. The Swedish online operator will be offering a €500,000 Guaranteed Main Event for the first time.
If you have never been to a Unibet Open, then feast your eyes on this.
Julian Sacks Wins the WSOPC Foxwoods Main Event
Julian Sacks has picked up his first live tournament victory after winning the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event at Foxwoods.
Sacks, who has finished second and third in WSOPC events before his victory, picked up $148,350 after beating Travis Stams in heads-up action. Sacks topped a field of 460 entrants, and it’s his largest score by some considerable margin.
The victory comes with a seat at the end of season Global Casino Championships, where Andrew Heckman will join him. Heckman finished on top of the Casino Championships Leaderboard after featuring on four final tables including one gold ring victory.
Final Table Results
1. Julian Sacks – $148,350
2. Travis Stams – $91,770
3. Jeremy Meacham – $66,930
4. Joseph Johanssy – $49,680
5. Muhammad Abdel-Rahim – $37,260
6. Sean Carlson – $28,428
7. Long Tran – $22,080
8. Vinh Dang – $17,250
9. Ronald Baker – $13,800
