The eighth season of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) has its first champion. Switzerland’s Ronnie Kaiser became the country’s first EPT winner by running over the field at Tallinn this week to earn a first-place prize of €275,000.
Kaiser claimed the chip lead on Day 3 and maintained the pole position nearly the rest of the way. His dominance was capped by a swift four-and-a-half hour final table in which he eliminated five of his seven opponents, including high-stakes online cash legend Sami “LrsLzk” Kelopuro, who bowed out in seventh place when his river bluff was picked off by Kaiser’s straight.
The 21-year-old Kaiser’s next victim was Stuart Fox, but not before a short-stacked Erlend Melsom was eliminated by Jani Sointula in sixth place. Fox was crippled when his Ah-Qd ran into the pocket kings of Sointula, and then his eights were no match for the trip kings of Kaiser to send him out in fifth.
Kaiser increased his stack even more by way of Sointula, whose As-Kd couldn’t improve against the pocket sevens of Kaiser after all the chips went in preflop. That left three players vying for the title, but it wouldn’t last long. Estonia’s last hope for an EPT champion was destroyed on the very next hand when Raigo Aasmaa three-bet shoved from the big blind with Kh-10h and found himself up against the pocket aces of Grzegorz Cichock. The board gave Cichock a diamond flush on the turn, setting up a heads-up battle between the two big stacks at the start of the day.
Kaiser widened his lead early on in the match and dealt a final blow by calling a mistimed four-bet by Cichock to end the tournament. With the blinds at 15,000/30,000 and a 4,000 ante, Cichocki min-raised to 60,000 and Ronny Kaiser three-bet to 165,000. Cichocki then moved all-in for around 1.4 million. Kaiser took a moment before calling with Ac-9s, which was in front of Cichocki’s 8d-6d.
Kaiser flopped an ace and Cichocki was left dead on the turn. The Swiss rail erupted as Kaiser had successfully dismantled the final to claim the largest win of his young career.
Kaiser’s biggest cash entering the week came at European Poker Championship in 2009, where he finished fifth for $73,146. He also placed 20th at last year’s EPT stop in San Remo for $43,035.
“It’s very nice to win,” Kaiser told the PokerStars Blog Sunday. “I’ve been the chip leader for three days but I’ve got deep before and always finished 20th. This time I thought, ‘I should win this.'”
Here’s a look at the final table results of the 2011 EPT Tallinn Main Event:
1. Ronny Kaiser — €275,000
2. Grzegorz Cichocki — €180,000
3. Raigo Aasmaa — €110,000
4. Jani Sointula — €80,000
5. Stuart Fox — €55,000
6. Erlend Melson — €45,000
7. Sami Kelopuro — €35,000
8. Arvi Vainionkulma — €25,000
The EPT’s next stop is in Barcelona later this month. The Main Event kicks off on August 27 as Sweden’s Kent Lundmark attempts to defend his title.
