After coming into the day with the chip lead, Spain’s Adrian Mateos rode that stack to victory in the 2013 World Series of Poker Europe Championship Event.
Holding a 1.4 million chip lead over Dominik Nitsche, Mateos was on a roll as the table convened on Friday. Lurking behind Mateos and Nitsche was France’s hope to take the WSOP-E crown, Fabrice Soulier, who was closely followed by Benny Spindler. Ravi Raghavan and Jerome Huge rounded out the final table with under a million chips each.
Spindler was the most active player through the first ten hands of play, but whether that was a good thing or not was the question. He would drop under a million chips after Nitsche five-bet him early on and the German would spend much of the remainder of the level regaining his chip stack. After a break, however, Spindler would send a huge amount of his chips on a daring bluff.
In a blind versus blind battle, Huge and Spindler squared off on a 9-6-5 board. After Huge bet out, Spindler made the call and the twosome saw an Ace on the turn. Spindler called another bet out of Huge and they saw a five on the river. After Huge fired a third bullet, Spindler would move all in and Huge called for less. Spindler showed down only a 3-2 for a full-blown bluff while Huge had at least a piece of the board with his A-7 for Aces up. After the chips were pushed to Huge, he suddenly was sitting on 1.4 million and Spindler was left with only 157K in chips and would be knocked out in sixth place on the next hand by Mateos.
It would be another 27 hands before the next elimination was made. Raghavan had fought off of his short stack for much of the 60 hands of play, but he couldn’t find the double through the chip leader when he needed it. On a K-10-8 flop, Raghavan and Mateos would bet at each other until Raghavan’s chips were in the center. He was in a tough spot, his A-Q behind Mateos’ K-8 off suit, but an Ace on the turn brought some hop. A river trey wasn’t enough to bring Raghavan back as he departed the festivities in fifth place.
Mateos, the youngest player at the final table (all of 19 years old), continued to put the pressure on the table with his rapidly growing stack. After Soulier eliminated Huge in fourth place, Mateos held 5.7 million in chips while Soulier (three million) and Nitsche (2.4) added together couldn’t top him. As Mateos kept the pedal to the floor, he would expand that advantage as the trio went to a dinner break.
Within fifteen hands after the dinner break, Mateos had increased his stack to more than eight million chips while Nitsche (approximately a million) and Soulier (2.2 million) looked to be playing for second. When Mateos eliminated Nitsche in third place, his A-7 standing to Nitsche’s 9-8 on a J-3-5-3-6 board, Mateos had nearly a 5:1 lead over Soulier going to heads up play.
Soulier would not go quietly into the French night, however. He gradually chipped away at Mateos’ advantage and, after 20 hands of play, was able to work into a slim chip lead of a million markers. Another five hands of play would see Soulier stretch that lead out to over 2:1, but it just set the stage for a stunning comeback.
Over the span of almost sixty hands, Mateos slowly worked his way back into the heads up match, retaking the lead on Hand 201. Six hands after that, Mateos had ratcheted up his stack to seven million against Soulier’s 4.2 million It would take nearly eighty hands for the end to come and it came dramatically.
Soulier called a three bet pre-flop from Mateos and, on a 4-J-9 flop, moved all in over a Mateos’ bet. After agonizing over the decision, Mateos made the call and tabled his A-K, which was trailing Soulier’s 9-8. A King on the turn changed that, however, putting Mateos in the lead and, after an innocent five fell on the river, Adrian Mateos became the champion of the WSOP-E.
1. Adrian Mateos (Madrid, Spain), €1,000,000
2. Fabrice Soulier (Paris, France), €610,000
3. Dominik Nitsche (Minden, Germany), €400,000
4. Jerome Huge (Montpellier, France), €251,000
5. Ravi Raghavan (Northbrook, IL), €176,000
6. Benny Spindler (Weiterstadt, Germany), €126,000
7. Andrei Konopelko (Burundi), €101,000*
8. Shannon Shorr (Homewood, AL), €77,500*
* – eliminated prior to Friday’s action
Mateos’ win is, not surprisingly, his first major tournament championship. Although Mateos had a victory earlier this year on the Estrellas Poker Tour for a six figure score, none of his other cashes since his debut last October cracked the five figure barrier. Mateos also made history in becoming the second-youngest ever WSOP bracelet winner (behind only Annette Obrestad), meaning it will be a couple of years before the 2013 WSOP-E champion can come to the main stage in Las Vegas.
