The final major tournament of the year, the European Poker Tour’s stop in Prague, the Czech Republic, has reached its penultimate day with two final table events going on that will crown champions.
In the Main Event, 21 men returned to the felt to quickly work their way down to the final eight competitors. Ben Warrington was at the top of the table when the day started, with last year’s runner up in this same event, David Boyaciyan, poised to make another run to the Elite Eight. Ramzi Jelassi, Johnny Lodden, Jeff Sarwer and Mark Herm also were primed to take their shot at the final table when the cards hit the air.
The first elimination for the day came moments into the action. EPT champion Roberto Romanello (who won this tournament in 2010), and his pocket tens was bumped off by Mads Amot’s pocket Jacks within minutes of the opening bell. Amot couldn’t keep the momentum up from the Romanello elimination, however, as he would clash against Mariusz Klosinski in a dramatic hand.
The duo saw a 8-10-9 flop and, after Klosinski opened the action, Amot raised it up to 210K. Klosinski simply called and, on the deuce turn, the fireworks ignited. Klosinski check-raised Amot’s 275K bet all in, forcing Amot to a decision for his tournament existence. After several minutes, he made the call. Klosinski had pocket Kings, but Amot had hit his pocket eights for a set (you have to wonder what the decision was about). The river brought the surprise when a King fell, giving Klosinski a better set to eliminate Amot in 19th place.
Sarwer and Sergio Espina would soon follow Amot out the door to bring the action to two tables and the players continued to fall. Lodden would be eliminated in 13th place, running his pocket tens into Boyaciyan’s pocket Aces and push Boyaciyan to the pole position. Herm would take out Mikhail Petrov’s pocket Kings with only an A-5 to join Boyaciyan on the march up the leaderboard and Boyaciyan would bring the day down to one table by eliminating Jorma Nuutinen in the 10th place slot.
The final nine men came together to drop one more player before calling it a night. Boyaciyan was in the lead by 1.6 million chips over Sergey Kuzminskiy, but Jelassi was the story of the unofficial final table. He squeezed out Boyaciyan and Kuzminskiy on one hand before waking up with pocket Kings against Klosinski’s pocket Queens to officially end the Day Five action sitting in the lead:
1. Ramzi Jelassi, 5.675 million
2. Aleh Plauski, 4.705 million
3. David Boyaciyan, 4.635 million
4. Sotirios Koutoupas, 3.775 million
5. Ben Warrington, 2.2 million
6. Sergey Kuzminskiy, 1.85 million
7. Mark Herm, 1.7 million
8. Diego Gomez, 1.38 million
At stake for these players are a €835,000 payday and the final championship of 2012 on the European Poker Tour.
In the €10,000 High Roller, 41 men came back to work their way down to a final table with Jason Mercier at the helm of the ship. As expected for a High Roller event, there were a host of notable names chasing him that included Marvin Rettenmaier, looking for a few more points for the various Player of the Year races and the €365,000 that will go to the champion.
With only twelve men getting paid, the action was tense as the money bubble approached. After doubling up Aubin Cazals, Olivier Busquet would eventually be eliminated by Rettenmaier to send the players to the cash. Eugene Katchalov ran his pocket Queens into Sorel Mizzi’s pocket Kings to finish in 12th place and was soon followed by Gurgen Melkonyan and Morten Klein.
Down to nine players, the unofficial final table tried to get to the eight player mark, but was unable to. That means that nine men will step back to the felt today to determine the champion of the event, with Mizzi atop the stack:
1. Sorel Mizzi, 1.192 million
2. Philippe Ktorza, 1.094 million
3. Fabian Quoss, 781,000
4. Marvin Rettenmaier, 738,000
5. Juha Helppi, 546,000
6. Jason Mercier, 444,000
7. Marcin Wydrowski, 420,000
8. Andrey Gulyy, 229,000
9. Aubin Cazals, 225,000
By this evening (in the United States), both of these final tables will have come to a conclusion, closing the door on the “major” tournament poker schedule for 2012 in crowning two champions.