Event #2 of the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe made history over the past several days, as it became the largest tournament – in terms of player numbers – ever seen at the WSOP Europe. It obliterated the previous record, too, fielding 2,144 entries, almost three times as many as the 771 who played in the 2011 €1,090 No-Limit Hold’em event. Coming out of the horde victorious was Dietrich Fast, who won €157,749 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.
It should be noted, of course, that there was a specific reason this tournament was so well attended. It’s not like poker suddenly experienced a gigantic surge in popularity. Simply put, the tourney was cheap. At just €550 (I say “just” as if I could easily shell out that much money to play poker), it was very affordable compared to other WSOP events. Nicknamed “The Oktoberfest” in honor of the WSOP Europe’s new home in Berlin, Germany, it very much resembled “The Colossus” from this summer. The tournament featured four starting flights, two on Friday and two on Saturday, and players who were eliminated in any of them could re-enter in one or all subsequent flights.
The victory was by far the most lucrative cash of Fast’s career, as he had never had a cash for more than $37,000, let alone one well into the six-figure range. He has now earned $441,393 in live tournaments.
In the heads-up portion of the tournament, Fast matched up against the venerable “Gentelman” John Gale. The Brit has won nearly $3.8 million live tournaments, highlighted by a World Poker Tour victory in 2005 in what was actually his first recorded live cash. He was extremely gracious in a runner-up finish at the WSOP that year (this writer was present at the final table), but he came through the following summer, winning his first bracelet. He took a few years off recently because of health issues, but has come back in a big way, capturing his second WSOP bracelet this summer.
Fast began heads-up with a sizable chip lead, but after about an hour and a half, Gale had reversed the table and then some, taking an 8.395 million to 2.305 million chip lead. Two hours later, Fast had regained the lead, once again flipping things severely in his direction, 7.6 million to 3.1 million. This heads-up battle was taking so long that, combined with the several hours the rest of the final table took, tournament organizers were coming up with a plan to possibly stop the tournament and resume it the next day.
Fortunately, that wasn’t need. Just a few hands after Gale doubled-up, it was all over. Fast raised pre-flop to 420,000 and Gale moved all-in with K-6 of clubs. Fast made the call with A-J, hit two Jacks on the board for good measure, and was crowned champ.
2015 World Series of Poker Europe Event #2: €550 The Oktoberfest No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Dietrich Fast – €157,749
2. John Gale – €97,804
3. Rodrigo Caprioli – €73,699
4. Vojtech Cervinka – €56,278
5. Steve O’Dwyer – €43,409
6. Adrian Apmann – €33,808
7. Sandro Wüest – €26,587
8. Joern Winter – €21,115
9. Harry Lodge – €16,935
