Yorky Pud

Most poker players share a common dream, a dream to fly out to Las Vegas, sit down at a World Series of Poker event at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and play poker with their heroes for a chance of winning a life-changing sum of money.

Unfortunately, for the vast majority of them due to the sheer cost of realising their dream it remains just that. But that need not be the case as Betfair Poker are running dozens of satellites for the 2011 WSOP, meaning you could win a package to a side event worth $3,600 or a Main Event package worth $14,500 for as little as $2.20!

Until June 5th there will be twelve daily satellites, each awarding at least one $320 ticket that can be used to enter either the $7,200 WSOP Side Event Qualifier or the $14,500 WSOP Main Event Qualifier. During this time there will be no fewer than nine Main Event packages up for grabs and an astonishing 18 side event packages available to win.

The $14,500 Main Event package consists of the $10,000 entry fee to the Main Event, travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, 10 nights accommodation (complete with breakfast), entry to the famous Betfair Poker welcome party and some spending money! The Side Event package contains a seat to a $1,000 buy-in tournament, travel and spending money, seven nights accommodation (again with breakfast thrown in), entry to the Betfair Poker welcome party. Imagine winning all of this for just $2.20!

These amazing value satellite tournaments to the 2011 WSOP, coupled with the fact you can choose your own sign-up bonus of between $50 and $2,500 and earn up to 40% Valueback just for playing on the site mean that there is no better time to join Betfair Poker, the number one site for WSOP satellites.

Continue to check the excellent Betfair Poker blog for all the latest in World Series of Poker promotions including the Six-Shooter, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" promotions and some of the best free strategy articles available on the internet!

Doyle Brunson is a living legend. The 77-year old Texan is synonymous with the game of no limit Hold'em and has played at the very highest level for more than 50 years, but could he be ready to make a fold for the last time. A recent conversation with Daniel Negreanu seems to suggest that he is going to, at the very least, quit playing tournament poker.

It has been quite a few months for Bruson, the winner of 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, as he has suffered from numerous personal health problems and deaths within his family and circle of friends leading to some to question Brunson's ability to keep playing with the best in the business as he approaches eight decades of life. The biggest problem Brunson has faced recently was his cancer scare at the end of February where his dermatologist found a tumour in his left arm which resulted in surgery to remove it. Thankfully for Brunson the tumour was not malignant and required no further treatment, though he did develop another lump in the same arm but another incision leading Brunson to write on his popular Twitter account, “I've been carved on more than a Thanksgiving turkey in my life. Ouch.”

Indeed it was on Twitter where Brunson hinted at his poker retirement after exchanging a number of Tweets with Canadian pro Daniel Negreanu, after he had told his 90,000 fans that he had “Busted #napt AQ vs 10-10. I rarely bust day 1. If you regularly bust day 1 of these events you need to quit poker asap. Had no shot today” Brunson replied by telling Negreanu to “Go back and play the way you used to. I know you don't think so, but you were much better...IMO”

Negreanu disagreed and also went all defensive when Brunson said he could not believe how many tournaments he has played this year, even prompting a bet from Negreanu that both Erik Seidel and Barry Greenstein would have played more than him. He also put a thinly-veiled brag Tweet up saying he has had 11 consecutive winning years on the tournament front before telling Brunson, “you must be really bored btw, needling a guy right after he busts from a tourney! I'll remember to get you next time you bust :-)” Brunson responded by saying to Negreanu, “In your wildest imagination you can't believe how bored and useless I feel. I may never go bust in another tourny, guess why?” but when the Canadian pressed Brunson for the reasoning behind his last Tweet he swerved the question and started talking about golf and Jennifer Harman instead.

Brunson pulled out of the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe citing the fact the travelling was taking its toll on him, along with the long days of having to sit playing poker. Whilst recovering from his recent surgery he withdrew from the NBC Heads Up Poker Championship and the PokerStars BigGame and he even wrote in his blog, “Winning bracelets and poker tournaments aren't as important to me as they were a few weeks ago.” Could it be that Doyle Brunson is going to step aside and hang up his trademark Stetson once and for all? Only time will tell.

There is a saying in poker that goes along the lines of “it's better to be lucky than good,” though it is usually used in a negative tone against someone who has just sucked out on you, in my case anyway. So what happens when a poker player is 1.) Good and 2.) Getting very lucky? A complete demolition that is what occurs!

Sunday 3 April saw Viktor “Isildur1” Blom take on fellow high stakes pro Scott “urnotindangr” Palmer in the latest instalment of the SuperStar Challenge. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past couple of months the SuperStar Challenge sees a player take on Blom over 2,500 hands of no limit Hold'em or pot limit Omaha over four heads-up tables with blinds of $50/$100. In the 2,500 hands played on April 3, Palmer found himself in front to the tune of $5,425, a lead he took in this latest battle.

Within the first five minutes there was an all in encounter and it showed just how this particular match was going to go. A raise to $300 from Palmer was met with a three-bet to $1,000 from Blom and a call from Palmer. The flop came down Ks-Ac-Kh and Blom fired a bet of $1,200, a bet that Palmer opted to call. The Tc on the turn did not slow Blom down and he bet again, this time $2,650 and again Palmer called. The river brought the Qs into play and Blom moved all in for his remaining $5,950 and Palmer snap-called with his QdJs as he had turned the nut straight but Blom tabled AsKd for a flopped full house. First blood to Blom.

From this point on Blom continued to run hotter than the sun, including winning another stack from Palmer when he held Ad9h against Kc9s on a cooler board reading Ah-Kh-9c-5c then winning an all in preflop match-up with AhKh against Palmer's pocket nines before a disgusting hand that saw Blom all in preflop with Ad9s against the ThTd of Palmer, only to see the Swede go runner-runner on a 7s-2d-8s-6d-5d board! Ouch.

By the time they had played 700 hands Blom was in the lead by almost $45,000 though Palmer still fought back valiantly and was doing everything in his power to keep the enigmatic Blom in his sights but sometimes you just have to accept it is not your day, put it down to experience and try again some other time. Palmer had seemed destined to lose all evening and the biggest pot of the night, coming just a couple of hundred hands away from the allocated 2,500, emphasised this.

Palmer opened with a $300 bet whilst holding QdJc and then called when Blom three-bet to $1,100. The flop came down 8d-Qh-Ad and Blom kept up his trademark aggression with a $1,300 bet. Palmer elected to call and the online poker Goliath's saw the Qc fall on the turn. Blom bet larger this time, $3,150 was the total and this time Palmer sprung into action and made it $8,000 to play. Blom then made a strange re-raise to $12,850 and Palmer called. The river was the 2h and Blom bet the $8,250 that he had left in his stack and Palmer called with his trip queens only to see the $47,000 pot slide towards Blom as he held AhhQs and had turned another full house!

By the time the 2,500 hands had been played, Blom had profit of $66,607 in front of him, meaning he had won Palmer by $61,182 overall. He has so far beating the likes of Daniel Cates, Eugene Katchalov, Isaac Haxton, Tony G and Daniel Negreanu. Surely it can't all be down to simply running good.

For many years there have been thousands of arguments over which players are better at poker, those who play cash games or those who participate in various tournament formats. No firm conclusion has ever been drawn, nor is it ever likely to as each format of poker requires a different skill-set, but the Swedish Supreme Court have thrown a real spanner in the works by saying that cash games are “pure random chance” but tournament poker needs skills to win!

This all came about because back in 2007 in the town of Grebbestad , Sweden, a €250 buy-in tournament called The European Poker Challenge was due to be held. It had attracted 670 players and would have seen €50,000 being awarded to the eventual winner. However, the tournament was raided by police soon after the Main Event started and four people were subsequently charged and convicted of breaking Swedish gaming laws. In Sweden the results of a game must have a high dependence of player skill when compared to random chance otherwise the game is deemed gambling and therefore illegal, punishable with a maximum of a four year jail term!

At the time of the men's arrest the Main Event was running along with a number of side events and a number of cash games. Two of the four men managed to be acquitted and the other two had their punishment reduced after they were able to convince an appeal court that tournament poker was in fact a game of skill. The Swedish Supreme Court agrees with this and Swedish Justice Göran Lamberth said, “We have found that the main tournament and its side tournaments were not random chance games but that skill does come into it.” Despite this he went on to reveal that the cash games that were taking place were in violation of Swedish gaming laws as there was no skill involved!

Due to the fact a player in a cash game can apparently play when they like, bet when and how much they like and leave the table at will makes the game one of “pure random chance.” It is believed this decision was reached because in cash games a player can win his first hand then leave the table and because luck has so much bearing on winning a single hand they have decided to say cash games are games of chance, a bizarre decision at best.

Whilst the decision has been met by mainly negative comments across various forums there are some that are happy with the fact skill in poker has been officially recognised at such a high level. Swedish nationals are glad they have realised skill has a part to play in poker but also happy that it has not been classified as a pure-skill game as it would become taxable!

This is also not the first time poker in Sweden has been a court case. The European Union was looking into the case of the Swedish government run poker site Svenska Spel as they believed it was in breach of monopoly laws but nothing has yet been settled and since then a number of countries have attempted to “ring fence” their poker players such as France and Italy.

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

It has been quite a while since I wrote one of these poker blog round-ups, mainly because I do not travel amongst the blogosphere as emphatically as I once did. Having just spent a short while having a gander at some of the blog I used to check in with on a regular basis I was shocked to discover that many of them haven't been updated in months and others have simply vanished. Has blogging started to die? I hope not or I am buggered!

Anyway, I found four blogs that I thought I would give a mention to here on my little piece of the internet starting with the excellent NoahSD. Now I am a big fan of people who write well and make what they have to say interesting and compelling to read, who speak the truth and who do a lot of work to produce geeky little stats for my sad brain to absorb. NoahSD's blog ticks all those boxes and I implore all of you to check out his blog at the earliest convenience, especially his statistical posts as they should really open your eyes to the variance we are exposed to in this crazy game called poker. To save you time faffing about I have linked here to his research into full ring cash games, short-handed cash games, single table tournaments, multi-table tournaments and HUSNG. They make a very interesting read even if they did depress me a little!

A little bit more is the new poker double act that seems to model itself on The Krankies, though I'm not sure which one of them is which character. Amatay and Daleroxxu are both UK based poker pros, though Amatay manages to make a living playing 25 hands a week and Daleroxxu spends most of his time pruning himself to look like his hero, Justin Bieber. Anyhow, Daleroxxu set off on a Tour of Cards at the start of the year and his number one fanboy, Amatay, joine dup with him in the Far East. Both of them seemed to have a right laugh and their exploits are definitely worth a read, though Amatay's obsession with “jubblays” and other female appendages may make his blog slightly NSFW for the majority of you.

Last but not least is the blog of Rubbish, who is actually really called Andrew if my memory serves me correctly. This guy is the biggest beer monster you will ever meet but at the same time is an absolute gem. He's been having quite a rough time of life of late but has managed to keep his trademark humour about him and he managed to put it across on his blog. Also, despite entitling his blog “Rubbish@Poker” he is far from it and has had some decent results, especially in smaller tournaments so keep your eye on him as a substantial score is just around the corner.

Well, that is all I have time for this week, as always thank you ever so much for reading and best of luck at the tables. Until next time, thank you and good day!

In all forms of sport there have been some rather impressive rematches that really captured the public's imagination. IN boxing we have seen Mohammed Ali clash with “Smokin'” Joe Frazier and the infamous Mike Tyson versus Evander Holyfield bouts but poker rarely throws up these rematches due to the very nature of the game and the massive number of variables in any given tournament.

However, it appears that at this year's World Series of Poker is going to attempt to recreate three famous heads-up battles from WSOP history. Harrah's Entertainment, owners of the World Series of Poker brand, have announced that there will be three best-of-three heads-up matches held at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, two chosen by them and the third by a public vote. In a slight twist, the players will begin the first match with the same number of chips as their original encounter  then the second battle will see the chip stacks reversed and if a third match is required then the chip stacks will start out even.

The first match will see a rematch of the 2003 Main Event when Chris Moneymaker defeated Sammy Farha to scoop the $2,500,000 and spark “the poker boom” due to the fact he won his seat in “The Big Dance” for a mere $33. During this particular heads up battle the commentary team described a play by Moneymaker as “the best bluff of the century” due to the fact Farha was a big named pro whilst Moneymaker was still an accountant. In the hand both players checked the 9s-2d-6s flop, Farha holding Qs9h and Moneymaker Ks7h. The turn brought the 8s into play and Farha lead out for 300,000, Moneymaker then raised it up to 800,000, a bet that Farha just called. The river was the 3h and when Farha checked Moneymaker wasted no time in moving all in, sending Farha into the tank. “You must have missed your flush huh?” Farha correctly pointed out before adding, “I could make a crazy call. It could be the best hand,” but he eventually folded leaving a relieved Moneymaker to pick up the sizeable pot.

The second match up will see Johnny Chan take on Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth in a best-of-three match that should be one of the most watched matches in recent time. Chan and Hellmuth's game will be a rematch of the 1989 Main Event where Hellmuth famously became the then youngest-ever Main Event winner aged just 24-years old. Hellmuth's victory, which earned him the first of his record 11-WSOP bracelets, denied Chan the opportunity to become the first player in poker history to win three consecutive Main Events, having won the 1987 and 1988 titles. This encounter should be rather interesting due to the fact they are two old school pros and they have 21 bracelets between them.

As mentioned, the public will have the chance to vote for who they want to see in the third and final heads-up match. They can choose between Chan versus Erik Seidel in a rematch of the 1988 Main Event, the 2004 remake of Greg Raymer against David Williams, the rematch of the 2006 battle of Jamie Gold versus Paul Wasicka or a rematch of the rather one sided heads up match from last year's WSOP Main Event between Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener.

Personally I would love to see Chan versus Seidel not only because the final hand was immortalised by the film Rounders but also because Seidel recently admitted that he was a “donkey in the goofy red visor” when he initially played Chan 23 years ago. You can cast your own vote via the WSOP's official Facebook page.

In 54 days time the 42nd annual World Series of Poker will kick off in Las Vegas, Nevada and more than 72,000 poker players will descend on “Sin City” with one common goal, to win a coveted WSOP bracelet. But are they really that sought after any more and does winning one still hold as much prestige as say 20 years ago?

Although the inaugural WSOP event was held in 1970 the first-ever bracelet was not awarded until 1976, though all WSOP event winners before this date were awarded them retrospectively. Winning a bracelet back then meant you were the best player in the world for that particular poker variant as the fields were very small and the number of bracelets on offer were minimal.

However, in recent times the number of bracelets on offer has continued to increase at an alarming rate. In 2006, thirty years after the first bracelet was awarded, the number of events that gave the winner a gold bracelet had increased from eight to a staggering 45 and this year's World Series of Poker will see no fewer than 58 poker players leave The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino with a diamond encrusted gold bracelet on their wrist or stowed safely away in their luggage. Add to this the fact you now win a bracelet in World Series of Poker Europe events, meaning players have the chance to win a total of 65 bracelets in 2011 alone, which is ridiculous.

In recent years the organisers of the WSOP have had the bright idea to have two tournaments running every day, which means some people are playing 50 or more tournaments over the course of the series. We had instances last year where players such as Daniel Negreanu had bought into two tournaments on the same day and he was darting back and forth between the two games, again completely ridiculous and disrespectful of other players and the history of the WSOP itself.

Even Erik Seidel thinks the value of a WSOP bracelet is on the decline. In a recent interview the eight-time WSOP bracelet winner said, “I think the value of a WSOP bracelet is diminishing. I loved it when there was a tournament every two days. This two-events-a-day stuff gets silly with people playing 50+ events.” He went on to add that the size of the fields is also actually a concern because the best players will hardly ever have a chance to win a bracelet in no limit event. “Let's sat Isaac Haxton is the best No Limit Hold'em player in the world. He has almost no chance to win a No Limit title on the world's biggest stage.” Though that is a separate issue.

Winning a WSOP is still a major achievement in my opinion but because of the sheer number of them available to win and the fact the field sizes are now so huge there is more luck than skill involved in many cases. I would prefer bracelets to be only awarded in the World Championship events but then others will argue this would mean Joe Bloggs from the street would be priced out of his dream to win a bracelet, but does Joe Bloggs really dream about winning one anymore? I don't think he does.

In an attempt to save some precious beer tokens I bought a new car last week. When I say new I actually mean a ten-year old car but it's new to me. My old motor was a 1.8 petrol Vauxhall Vectra and although I liked the beast it was far too costly on fuel and needed to go find a new home.

Step forward the 1.5 diesel powered Citroen Saxo, a car that was once known as the clitoris Saxo because “every c**t” had one” The words of the chavviest magazine on the planet “Max Power” not mine may I add. So far I'm quite impressed with my purchase mainly because it handles like a go-cart and is really easy to drive. It is also a bonus that it seems to have some sort of reserve tank which is powered by uranium and plutonium rods as it simply doesn't use any diesel! I've done almost 300 miles so far and it's not even down to half a tank!

Of course there are some negatives, the first being the reason it handles like a go-cart. It's size. It's bloody tiny compared to my old car but at least I get to keep check that I still have both of my knees because they are directly under my chin whenever I am driving! Also, it is slow and I mean slow. The official 0-60mph time just says “it's possible” so there will be no racing on my part for the foreseeable future. One thing that I think was a great idea by Citroen though is how they spiced up the driving experience for their customers. The complete lack of acceleration and speed is counter balanced by the fact the brakes are made from wood, they are absolutely terrible, terrible to the point where I am going to have to put my foot in the back wheel if I need to do an emergency stop!

All said and done though it appears to be in decent enough condition and if it keeps sipping fuel like it is doing then I am not going to moan about the other faults as it will be serving its purpose as a cheap to run motor and there aren't too many of those knocking around at the moment.

Although it is the sixth of the month today I am still to play a single hand of poker, I just haven't had the urge to do so. That said I will probably be hitting the tables with increased enthusiasm in the next few weeks as I have just entered a bonus code on Betfair Poker which means that I will essentially be getting 83.5% valueback by playing tournament poker on there. The plan is to grind a ton of the double or nothing sit and go tournaments and hope to simply breakeven at worst and clear this bonus. The need for funds is even greater now but more on that in another blog post. So keep your eyes peeled for this fish on your tables, I go by the name of Y0rk51r3Pud on Betfair Poker so feel free to say hi if you bump into me at any point!

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Roberto Romanello has been crowned the World Poker Tour Bratislava Champion after defeating Mayu Roca heads-up after a three-hour long battle. This victory means that Romanello has now fulfilled two-thirds of the requirements for a coveted live poker Triple Crown, something he will be trying to complete when the World Series of Poker kicks off on May 31.

The so-called Triple Crown, in the live poker sense, is awarded to anyone who manages to win a European Poker Tour (EPT), World Poker Tour (WPT) and World Series of Poker (WSOP) title in their career. So far only two players have managed to win the Triple Crown, Gavin Griffin was the first and he is joined in the extremely elite group by Britain's Roland de Wolfe. Now Romanello, a Welshman of Italian descent, is aiming to become the third player to have all three major gongs.

Romanello started the nine-handed final table as the chip leader but he could not afford to rest on his laurels especially as he seemed to have rubbed up the majority of his table mates the wrong way and really got under their skin. A big part of Romanello's game is being able to wind up his opponents so they start to play back at him with less than premium holdings and so he can extract valuable information out of them at crucial times of the tournament. The problem with this constant needling is that some people take it the wrong way and see Romanello as cocky and arrogant instead of the down to Earth person that he is, though if he continues to pick up titles I am sure he will not be bothered.

Almost three hours into play and Romanello's usually chatty demeanour completely changed and he fell silent as he clashed with Chris Williamson when the table was down to six players. Williamson raised to 32,000 from the hijack seat, Romanello re-raised to 69,000 from the cutoff and when the action folded back to Williamson he put in another raise, this one to 127,000. Romanello stared him down before making it 227,000 to play and Williamson responded by moving all in, a bet that Romanello quickly called. It turned out the Welshman's pocket queens were up against the Big Slick of Williamson and they ultimately held when no ace or king hit the board. This would be the first of three times Romanello would be all in against ace-king and come out the victor.

The second would come 90 minutes later when a preflop raising battle with Alexander Jager resulted in Mr Jager being all in and at risk of elimination holding AhKd against Romanello's 4d4c and when the five community cards ran out 8c-3h-5c-8d-7d, rather drama-less, Romanello had won another coinflip and was now heads-up against Roca of Columbia.

Going into heads-up Romanello held a 3,500,000 to 2,800,000 lead but he simply could not press home his chip advantage, in fact it took him three hours of solid, aggressive one-on-one poker before Roca was all in and at risk of elimination. Roca raised to 90,000, Romanello made it 225,000 to play and Roca re-raised to 590,000. The crowd started to move towards the table in anticipation and when Romanello shoved and Roca called the players were swamped with their fans! Romanello tabled a pair of fives whilst Roca held ace-king. Romanello was flanked by James Akenhead and Andrew Feldman who were willing there to be no ace or king on the board and their prayers were answered as the final community cards read Jc-6c-8h-3d-Qs to send Roca to the rail and the crowd into raptures.

Just as he had done when he won EPT Prague back in December, Romanello was overcome with emotion and broke down into tears before composing himself to lift the trophy and the winner's cheque for €140,685, taking his lifetime live tournament winnings to almost $2,000,000.

Final table payouts

1.) Roberto Romanello: €140,685
2.) Mayu Roca: €71,000
3.) Alexander Jager: €42,000
4.) Frank Dollinger: €33,000
5.) Jesper Hoog: €26,000
6.) Chris Williamson: €21,000
7.) Bodo Sbrzesny: €17,000
8.) Marek Tatar: €14,000
9.) Lubomir Kudlicka: €11,000