In what turned out to be a rather quick and dominant final table, PokerStars qualifier Raffaele Sorrentino crushed the opposition to face Andreas Klatt heads up, with the duo brokering a deal for nearly all the money, and Sorrentino continuing his dominant play to take down the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo Main Event trophy.
Sorrentino was in good shape at the start of the six-handed final table with his 4.16 million in chips. Only Michael Kolkowicz (4.6 million) and Andrey Bondar (4.35 million) were in front of him, while Andreas Klatt (3.58 million), Maxim Panyak (3.345 million) and the short stack of Diego Zeiter (1.78 million) rounded out the roster on the felt. With such deep stacks – even Zeiter had more than 20 big blinds left to work with – it was thought that the players would gradually work up to speed. That, however, wasn’t the case.
Zeiter was quiet for the first 16 hands of the tournament, but he thought he’d found an opportunity to move when he picked up A-J off suit one seat beyond being under the gun. He pushed his stack and found a dance partner in Kolkowicz, who turned out to have the goods when he tabled his A-Q for a dominant lead. That lead became all but decisive when the 3-Q-A flop hit the table to give Kolkowicz two pair and, after the turn failed to bring a Jack, left Zeiter drawing dead. Once the meaningless river card was dealt, Zeiter was gone in sixth place as Kolkowicz extended his lead.
Kolkowicz tried to maintain his momentum from that hand, but it only saw him lose chips when his opponents had the goods. After Kolkowicz saw a turned two pair counterfeited by Sorrentino’s better two pair on the river on Hand 33, his once dominant lead (almost five million chips) had been reduced to only 400K. Twelve hands later, Sorrentino would snatch the lead away from Kolkowicz and never look back.
Sorrentino blasted past the ten million chip mark on Hand 84 and, on the very next hand, would eliminate his nemesis Kolkowicz. After Sorrentino opened the betting, Kolkowicz pushed all in for about two million chips. After Sorrentino called, the cards came up and at least one participant surprised the audience with what they were holding. Sorrentino’s A♣ 5♣ wasn’t out of line at a five-handed table, but Kolkowicz’s 6-2 off suit surprised many, especially since he pushed all in. Two fives came on the 5-4-5 flop, but a seven on the turn brought a tinge of drama to the proceedings. Those disappeared once the river brought another seven to give Sorrentino a boat, eliminate Kolkowicz in fifth place and push Sorrentino over 12 million chips.
Keeping the pressure on the table, Sorrentino would continue to indiscriminately wipe out his opposition. Panyak was the next to go in fourth place on Hand 102, Sorrentino’s K♠ J♠ flopping the world on a K♦ 4♠ 2♠ flop against Panyak’s A♥ 10♥ that never improved. Six hands later, Sorrentino would bring the action to heads up after knocking out Bondar in third place, his 6-5 off suit catching against Bondar’s J-8 on a 4-5-8-6-9 board.
Starting heads up, Sorrentino held nearly a 2.5:1 lead over Klatt, sparking discussions of a deal between the two remaining players for the rest of the prize pool. Sorrentino gave his opponent Klatt a very nice deal, taking a guaranteed €451,714 while giving Klatt €402,786. The twosome left €15K in the center, along with the PSC Monte Carlo Main Event trophy, to play it out, but it didn’t make much of a difference as Sorrentino continued to ride the steamroller.
On the final hand, Klatt woke up with pocket Queens and made a raise to 450K. Unfortunately for Klatt, Sorrentino was getting hit with the deck as he looked down on pocket Aces and popped the action up to two million chips. Thinking he had his opponent trapped, Klatt pushed all in and found a welcome call in Sorrentino. With his 81/19 edge, the 8-2-2-K-2 board never came close to pairing Klatt, giving the remaining 15K Euros in the prize pool and the PSC Monte Carlo Main Event trophy to Raffaele Sorrentino.
1. Raffaele Sorrentino, €466,714*
2. Andreas Klatt, €402,786*
3. Andrey Bondar, €271,500
4. Maxim Panyak, €199,900
5. Michael Kolkowicz, €147,120
6. Diego Zeiter, €108,300
* – heads up deal struck
