Ben Wilinofsky is an accomplished online poker tournament player with over one million dollars in cashes in his career so far but like many online poker pros, he had struggled to make an impact on the live tournament circuit. Notice how I wrote “had” this is because he has now knocked the proverbial monkey off his shoulder by winning EPT Berlin for a cool €825,000, not bad at all for a first-ever live cash!
Wilinofsky, known as “NeverScaredB” online, started the day as the chip leader and never relinquished that advantage once throughout the final table. Straight from the off he was busy accumulating even more chips and won a 6,000,000 pot within half hour of the final table starting! He raised to 125,000 from the button and found a caller in the shape of Max “HotKarlMC” Heinzelmann in the big blind. The flop came down 7h-5c-6d, Heinzelmann checked, Wilinofsky continuation bet to 200,000 and Heinzelmann check-raised to 560,000. Wilinofsky called and the pair saw the Ad make an appearance on the turn.
Heinzelmann kept his foot on the gas and bet 725,000, which Wilinofsky smooth-called. The river saw the Jh peel off and this time Heinzelmann slowed down and checked. Wilinofsky then bet 1,700,000, half of his opponent's stack, which prompted a fold from the German. Wilinofsky showed him a pair of fives for bottom set and saw his stack boosted to more than 9,000,000 with only 23,000,000 chips in play!
It took just over an hour for the final table of eight to lose its first player, that honour going to Jonas Gutteck. Finding himself short-stacked with just 670,000 chips and blinds of 30,000/60,000/5,000a he decided to move all in with Js9s when the action folded to him in the small blind. However, he did not bank on Heinzelmann waking up with a pair of black kings in the big blind. Gutteck's misery was soon increased as Heinzelmann first flopped a set then turned quads on a board reading Kh-Th-2d-Kd-6c.
Four-of-a-kind is a very rare hand in Texas Hold'em but amazingly they made an appearance again on this final table. By this stage play was down to five players and the blinds were 60,000/120,000 with a 15,000 running ante. Martin Jacobson, making his fourth EPT final table of the season, min-raised to 240,000 which prompted Armin Mette to move all in for 2,175,000 from the small blind. Wilinofsky asked how many chips Jacobson had and when he was told “three point two” he announced he was all in. Jacobson folded and the two active players revealed their hands, Mette held 2s2c and was flipping against the AsKc of Wilinofsky. The race did not last long as the board ran out 5d-4s-Ah-Ac-Ad to send Mette to the rail and give the on-fire Wilinofsky more than half of the chips in play!
Jacobson and Vadzim Kursevich both busted out with the next hour, leaving Heinzelmann and Wilinofsky to do battle heads up, the former trailing by 6,895,000 to 16,235,000 chips. Despite the huge chip advantage it still took Wilinofsky more than an hour to dispatch of his opponents though to be fair Heinzelmann is a very accomplished player and would not have laid down easily. The final hand saw the poker mantra of “never go broke in a limped pot” be broken. Wilinofsky limped on the button and his opponent checked his option. The flop came down 8s-5c-3d, Heinzelmann bet 225,000 and Wilinofsky made it 500,000 to play only to see his opponent move all in for 4,025,000. “This is sick,” exclaimed Wilinofsky, “because I'm ahead of some of the hands you do this with,” he continued to explain. After a brief pause for thought he said, “I still call though,” before turning over 7h6d for an open-ended straight draw, which needed to improve against the 9h8h of Heinzelmann who had made top pair. And improve he did as the turn saw the 9s show its face and when the Jh fell on the river it was all over and not only had Wilinofsky made his first live cash he also had his first major live tournament victory! An amazing result!
Season 7 of the European Poker Tour is almost complete with only two stops remaining. The penultimate event takes place between April 27-May 3 in San Remo, Italy before the Grand Final in Madrid.
Final table payouts
1.) Ben Wilinofsky: €825,000
2.) Max heinzelmann: €500,000
3.) Vadzim Kursevich: €300,000
4.) Martin Jacobson: €230,000
5.) Armin Mette: €180,000
6.) Darren Kramer: €140,000
7.) Joep van den Bijgaart: €100,000
8.) Jonas Gutteck: €66,000
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