One of the great things about poker tournaments is that you don’t have to be some sort of seasoned pro to win. You just have to be a good poker player. Sure, experience helps, but if you can play poker well and catch a little luck here and there, you can take down a title (it’s JUST THAT EASY). Such was the case for the 21-year old Swede Henrik Johansson, who, with little experience in live tournaments, won the 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry Event, banking €129,700 in the process.
Prior to this win, Johansson had only a few live tournament cashes scattered over the last few years. He has been a high stakes online player for a while now, though, so he has had plenty of poker experience.
Johansson was the chip leader going into the nine-handed final table, beginning Day 3 of the event with 587,000 chips. Daniel Weinman and Daniel Laidlaw followed with 408,000 and 357,000, respectively; nobody else had more than 155,000 chips. It turned out to be a very fast table, only taking 91 hands to determine the champion.
The most important hand of the day was arguably the one that took the tournament to heads-up. In the hand, Johansson raised pre-flop to 27,000and Yaniv Botbol called. Botbol checked the flop of 2♦-6♦-Q♥ and then called after Johansson bet 31,000. Botbol checked again when the 4♠ was dealt on the turn and again, Johansson bet, this time 78,000. Botbol had a different plan in mind on this street, though, as he immediately moved all-in for almost 400,000. Johansson called and was in trouble; Botbol had turned a set of Fours while Johansson held pocket Kings. The poker gods were calling, though, as one of the two remaining Kings was put down on the river, giving Johannson the pot and sending Botbol home in third place.
Not only did the hand put Johansson one step closer to the title, but it also afforded him a healthy lead going into heads-up play against Adriano Torre-Grossa: 1,229,000 to 752,000.
Torre-Grossa hung in for a while, but it was a short heads-up match, lasting only 22 hands. On the final hand, Johannson bet 35,000 pre-flop, Torre-Grossa called, and the two saw a flop of 9♦-T♠-7♥. That was apparently all Torre-Grossa needed to see, as he check-raised all-in for 380,000. Johannson called without hesitation, and rightfully so; with T♥-9♠, he was in great shape against Torre-Grossa’s 7♣-6♠. A pair of Aces were dealt on the turn and river, clinching the hand and the gold bracelet for Henrik Johansson.
2013 World Series of Poker Europe Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry Event – Final Table Results
1. Henrik Johansson – €129,700
2. Adriano Torre-Grossa – €80,250
3. Yaniv Botbol – €58,860
4. Daniel Weinman – €43,772
5. Serge Ekert – €32,992
6. Daniel Laidlaw – €25,190
7. Jose Obadia – €19,498
8. Jean-Philippe Tuffery – €15,285
9. Andrei Konopelko – €12,134
