WPT Germany – Two Winners Decided
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Germany began last week at the King’s Resort Casino in Rozvadov and large sums have already been won in two of the events offered. Ricardas Vymeris took the top prize from the €500,000 guaranteed prize pool of the WPT’s ‘Opener’ event and Christopher Puetz won the Main Event of the series.
The WPT Germany is being held in King’s Resort in Rozvadov. The winners of two of the events, the ‘Opener’ and the Main Event have both been decided after several days of play. ©Javon Swaby/Pexels
The start of the WPT Germany event, that is being held in the Czech Republic, was marked by the beginning of the ‘Opener’ Event. This tournament had a buy-in of €550 and featured a guaranteed prize pool of €500,000.
The opening tournament was very popular with the players, as 1,158 punters chose to throw their hat in the ring in an attempt to win big.
Of the players who entered the tournament, just 24 made it through to the final day of play. All of these players were battling it out to reach the final table with a sizeable stack with which they could push for the win.
Going into the last day, the favorite to win was Henry Kilbane, who hails from Great Britain.
He came into the day with the largest stack and managed to maintain his lead right up until the final nine players had been decided. He held over 7 million chips when play on the final table began, which left him just ahead of Milan Simko in second place with 6.7 million.
The eventual winner, Ricardas Vymeris, was not in pole position to win but he did pose a threat to the top dogs with his stack of 5.1 million chips, as did the Dutch player Joeri Moerman who held 5.6 million.
As is often the case, the play on the final table was fast and aggressive. The first player sent to the rail was Damien Siewert, who comes from Poland. The €6,000 prize he took home with him would have helped to ease the disappointment he must have felt at coming so far without winning the tournament.
Siewert had started the final table with a relatively short stack, and as such must have felt the pressure to double-up or die when the play began. Unfortunately for him, the latter outcome was the case and he was eliminated.
Siewert was not alone in having a short stack on the final table and because of this, it looked as though there would be a succession of quick eliminations. It took some time to see another player bust, however. This player was Slobodan Lekic, who will be disappointed to have left the tournament in the way in which he did.
Lekic was in a great position, holding ace-king when he pushed his stack into the middle. He will have been overjoyed to see that the eventual winner, Vymeris, was holding ace seven; a hand which he comfortably dominated. In a sickening turn of events, Vymeris rivered a seven to win the hand and to send Lekic to the rail.
Vymeris seemed unstoppable on the final table and played with a very aggressive style to capitalize on the momentum he had. In a run in which he built his stack to over 17 million chips, he also managed to knock Ernst Huber out of the tournament.
Next to bust from the competition was Milan Simko, who had entered the final table with the second-largest amount of chips. He had failed to keep up with the growing stacks of his fellow players and eventually finished in 6th place to take home €12,000.
Simko’s departure left just five players to fight for the top prizes. The tournament was not five-handed for long though, with two eliminations in quick succession. Dominik Nissen, from Germany, would be the player who busted in 5th place for €17,000.
Nissen was eliminated by Joeri Moerman, who then went on to end Henry Kilbane’s tournament soon after. Kilbane cashed for €24,000 in 4th place.
The Final Three
Despite his good run, Moerman could not sustain his luck and eventually lost out on the river to the Russian Ashot Oganesian. It took two hands for Moerman to be eliminated. First, he lost a large proportion of his chips to Oganesian when his pocket threes were beaten by the Russian’s pocket tens and eventually he lost out on the river to take 3rd place and win €33,000.
This elimination took the tournament into its heads-up phase. Oganesian looked good to begin with, with a stack of 22 million compared to 13 million for the Lithuanian Vymeris. Vymeris played well to pull back into contention, however, and eventually took the chip lead from Oganesian.
The final hand of the tournament came when both players went all-in on a flop that read ten-six-three. Oganesian was ahead on the flop, holding ten three, but Vymeris held pocket kings so any pair on the board would win him the top prize.
The board was paired on the turn leaving the Lithuanian ahead. The river card was a brick and this left Vymeris as the final champion after an exhilarating final table. Vymeris won €79,000 and Oganesian took €45,250 in prize money.
WPT Germany Main Event
The WPT Germany Main Event also finished recently. The tournament had a buy-in of €3,300 and 510 players registered for the event.
The Main Event was eventually won by Christopher Puetz, who took home €270,000 after he knocked out Lazlo Papai in a thrilling final hand that would have left Papai feeling very hard done by.
With €1.5 million guaranteed in the prize pool for the tournament, the players on the final table must have been licking their lips in anticipation for the top prize.
One of the biggest players to drop out of the tournament on the final table was Hossein Ensan, the reigning Main Event champion, and the German WSOP world champion. Ensan busted in 7th place for €40,000.
Ensan’s departure cemented the final six players in the tournament as Farukh Tach, Gianluca Speranza, Josef Gulas, Joep van den Bijgaart, Laszlo Papai, and Chris Puetz.
The play continued to leave the tournament with just two players remaining, with Puetz and Papai facing off against one another heads-up.
The final hand began as Papai went all-in with a pair of fours in the hole. Papai was behind and was fighting for his life at the end of the tournament at this stage. Papai was called by Puetz who was holding queen nine. The flop that came brought good hands for both players, but Papai emerged as favorite from the flop.
The flop read queen-nine-four. This left Papai with three of a kind and Puetz with two-pair and the former looked in a good position to double his stack. A large part of poker is luck, however, and Puetz seemed to have this in abundance as a queen came on the turn to give him a full-house. This left Papai with one out – the case four. Unfortunately for him a seven fell on the river that won the tournament for Puetz.
This win meant that Puetz took home €270,000, nearly €100,000 more than the €174,500 that Papai won for his 2nd place finish.
