The £5,993 buy-in Pokerstars World Poker Tour German Open has been contested at the Casino Hohensyburg in Dortmund.
The event was made up of 411 players all hoping to scoop the first prize of £699,360.
Amongst some other top names competing for the German Open title were Daniel Negreanu, Marcel Luske and Annette Obrestad.
The title however, went to an 18 year-old Canadian called Michael “Timex McDonald. The teenager displayed some skilful and disciplined poker to beat the field that included some of the biggest names in professional poker.
As well as the prize money, McDonald earned himself his first EPT title and a seat at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final. He has also made history by becoming the youngest ever winner of an EPT event.
McDonald has burst on to the scene in 2008, as only a couple of weeks ago he claimed a $34,000 in the Pokerpro No Limit Hold’Em championship at the Aussie Millions. Now with the German Open title to his name at only 18 years of age and with only 6 months experience of professional poker, he looks set for a bright future in the game.
The Waterloo, Ontario based player has already established himself on major online poker forums such as PocketFives and 2+2.
The players that made it to the final table of the German Open and their chip counts heading into the eight-way action were: Johannes Strassman (827,000), Diego Perez (744,000), Andreas Gulunay (556,000), Torsten Haase (369,000), Christian Harder (339,000), Claudio Rinaldi (276,000), Thibaut Durand (148,000) and of course Michael McDonald who was chip leader on 862,000 chips.
Christian Harder was the first player to be eliminated, a victim of McDonald’s skilful play. For finishing eighth Harder earned £64,048. Next to fall was Thibaud Durand who lost a battle with Torsten Haase. His seventh place gave him a prize of £90,078.
In sixth place was Strassman who lost a tussle with McDonald. The German won £113,863 in prize money for his sixth place. Rinaldi was next to go and he took home £144,634 for his efforts. McDonald then struck again this time eliminating Diego Perez, whose fourth place earned him £175,509. McDonald claimed another victim, Torsten Haase who was eliminated into third place, but will console himself with a £229,943 prize.
So the last two remaining players were McDonald and Gulunay. McDonald had a three-to-one chip advantage over Gulunay at the start of the heads-up action and wasn’t going to let it slip. Despite the crowd cheering on the German, Gulunay play was over after 20 minutes and McDonald became German Open Champion 2008. For his runners-up spot Andreas Gulunay took home a consolation prize of £395,847.
Michael “Timex” McDonald should be able to travel and enter more poker tournaments now he is nearly £700,000 richer.
