The field of 336 may have been on the small side compared to other Main Events on major live poker tours, but the week long competition at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Loutraki stop was fierce. Sunday’s eight-handed final table lasted 13 hours; the three-handed portion alone spanned five hours. Emerging victorious from the grueling match was the UK’s Zimnan Ziyard, winner of €347,000.
Ziyard entered the final table with a fairly comfortable chip lead, sitting behind a chip stack of 2.771 million, compared to 1.755 million for Greece’s John Tamaras, owner of the next largest stack. He was cruising for quite a while, but when play got to three-handed, he had less than half the chip stack of Hauke Heseding (2.775 million versus 5.85 million). Tamaras was also in the mix with 1.52 million. An our into play, however, after Ziyard and Tamaras had both expanded their stacks a bit, Ziyard doubled through the Greek to jump up to 4.6 million, while Tamaras fell to just 345,000.
After giving some of those chips back to Tamaras, Ziyard started to control the table with his now big stack. In an interesting bit of strategy, rather than taking any opportunity he could to bust one of his opponents and get to heads-up quickly, he decided to bully them, chipping away at their stacks while simultaneously keeping them in the game. For instance, with pocket Aces, he never raised Heseding all the way through the river on an unthreatening board, even though Heseding was the aggressor the entire time. Ziyard likely would have knocked out Heseding, as he had pocket Queens, but instead, Ziyard ended the hand with 6.3 million chips. Right after that, Ziyard declined to call a 470,000 chip all-in by Tamaras, to the surprise of many and frustration of Heseding.
As Ziyard told the PokerStars blog, “There was a big pay jump from third to second. So I thought that when I got the chip lead it was important to press and choke the players as much as possible as it was a big advantage to do so.”
Essentially, what Ziyard was doing was taking a small risk that he would hit the rail in third place in exchange for the possibility of going into heads-up with a huge chip lead. He was counting on his opponents to back down to his aggression for fear of missing out on the pay jump.
The strategy worked great for about a level, but once Ziyard had to start making the all-in calls, he couldn’t put anyone away. Heseding kept doubling-up and winning big hands, eventually taking a gigantic lead into heads-up play against Ziyard after Tamaras was eliminated, 7.23 million to 2.85 million.
Ten minutes into heads-up, the tables turned. Heseding put the pressure on Ziyard, moving all-in pre-flop with A-7, but it was an easy call for the Brit, who had A-K. Ziyard flopped a King and Heseding couldn’t hit two running cards, making it a 6.22 million to 3.86 million lead for Ziyard.
Not long thereafter, Heseding pulled back to even and while Ziyard took another big lead after that, Heseding actually grabbed the chip advantage after doubling-up with A-9 versus 4-4, hitting an Ace on the turn. About two hours into the one-on-one, it was 5.7 million for Heseding and 4.1 million for Ziyard.
But Ziyard quickly grabbed the lead back and in a few more minutes, it was all over. Now trailing in chips, Heseding led out for 325,000 pre-flop and was called by Ziyard. The betting was the same after the 6c-3c-2c flop and after the As fell on the turn, Ziyard again check-called a 575,000 chip bet from Heseding. With the 7s on the river, Ziyard decided to lead out for 1.075 million, upon which Heseding moved all-in. Ziyard thought for a while before finally making the call with Ac-7d for top two pair. When Heseding turned his cards over, he revealed a pure bluff, as he had just Jh-5c. Ziyard had made a fantastic call and was now the champion of EPT Loutraki.
The win is far and away Ziyard’s most significant cash on the live tournament circuit. The €347,000 ($469,040) is more than triple his previous total career winnings of $131,015. That’s not to say that he’s never had a high finish – he has made several final tables – it’s just that his strong performances have come mostly in low buy-in, low entrant events. He had picked up the pace a bit this year, though, placing 20th in the EPT Deauville Main Event for $31,304 in January and placing 6th in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event at this summer’s World Series of Poker for $71,548.
European Poker Tour Loutraki – Final Table Results
1. Zimnan Ziyard – €347,000
2. Hauke Heseding – €221,800
3. Ioannis “John” Taramas – €134,400
4. Florian Schleps – €100,800
5. Pierre Mothes – €67,200
6. Andras Kovacs – €53,700
7. Charalampos Kapernopoulos – €40,300
8. Mario Puccini, Germany – €27,000
