The second World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) tournament ended on Friday with American John Juanda being victorious in the main event No Limit Hold’em Championship.  The Americans seemed to fair much better than in last year’s inaugural event which was won by Norwegian newcomer Annette Obrestad.

The main event featured several WSOP bracelet winning poker stars from the states such as the veteran Doyle Brunson, Allen Cunningham, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Tily as well as eventual champion Juanda.

These players were competing against the cream of Europe’s top poker talent with the likes of Gus Hansen, Juha Helppi, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, and Roland de Wolfe amongst others.  Also making appearances were Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate and David “Chino” Rheem, who will be contesting the final table of the main 2008 WSOP event in Las Vegas in November.  This all made for an extremely impressive field.

Of the players mentioned it was only Juanda, Demidov and Negreanu who managed to progress all the way to the final table.  They were joined by the Russian Stanislav Alekhin, Chris Elliott, Scott Fischman, Toni Hiltunen, Londoner Robin Keston and Bengt Sonnert in the final nine.  Chris Elliot and Robin Keston flew the flag for the UK as our only remaining competitors left in the competition.

Unfortunately, Elliot didn’t last long and was the first player to exit from the final table, after seven hands of play.  His two pair lost out to Alekhin’s flush but Elliot had a good run to reach the final table and was rewarded with £81,450 for finishing in ninth place.

Finish player Toni Hiltunen, one of two Scandinavians to make the final table was the next player to be eliminated, again by Alekhin.  His eighth place finish earned Hiltunen £108,600.

Britain’s last remaining hope of getting a WSOPE winner on home soil rested with 44 year-old Robin Keston.  However, he was another player who came unstuck to Alekhin, who eliminated him with pocket nines.  Keston was rewarded with £135,750 for finishing seventh.

Alekhin was again the assassin as he dealt the knockout blow to Scott Fischman – who got a payday of £171,950 for his sixth place finish.

The play slowed down a bit after this and it would be a further six hours of play before the next player was eliminated.  Again, Alekhin was the instigator as he claimed his most prestigious victim in popular crowd favourite and WSOP bracelet holder Daniel Negreanu.  For finshing fifth though, Negreanu added a further £217,200 to the fortune he has already won throughout his poker career.

Sweden’s Bengt Sonnert was the next player to go, predictably losing out to Alekhin.  Sonnert was rewarded with £271,500 for his good showing.

Demidov played skilfully to reach the final three although overshadowed by his fellow country man Alekhin, his run should, however, give him some confidence when he takes part in the final table of the original WSOP main event in November.  This time it was John Juanda who delivered the knockout punch to send Demidov to the rails.  Demidov earned £334,850 for coming third.

So, the heads-up was to be a battle between the superpowers of USA and Russia as Juanda took on Alekhin.  Even though Alekhin had been chip leader for most of the final table as the two players began the heads-up action, Juanda had about 4,420,000 chips compared with Alekhin’s 2,850,000.

The heads-up went on for seven and a half hours with the chip lead changing hands a number of times.  Eventually though Juanda had a 10:1 chip advantage just before the final hand was played.  Juanda defeated Alekhin with trip sixes. 

Alekhin was rewarded with £533,950 for finshing as runner-up.

By becoming champion, Juanda joined the elite club of poker players who hold four or more WSOP bracelets.  He also received £868,800 as reward for his victory.

                   

Print version