The inaugural European Poker Tour event at the Alpine Palace Casino in Austria has drawn to a close, with the Danish online poker professional Allan Baekke emerging victorious. Baekke, better known at the virtual poker tables as “Sifosis”, came through a field of 546 players to land the first prize of €445,000.
The 27 year old from Copenhagen had a two to one chip lead over his nearest rival with just three tables remaining, but Team PokerStars Pro Johannes Strassman fought back and seemed certain to take down the €3,500 + €250 tournament being dubbed “Snowfest”. The balance of power swung back in Baekke’s favour though, as he caught a flush on the river against the German, who held top two pair. This hand eliminated Strassman in third place, for €166,000 in prize money.
“Sifosis” then came through a heads up battle against unknown Canadian player Russell Carson, who had a large body of extremely vocal support present at the first EPT event ever held in Austria. Carson’s runner-up finish earned him €296,000, while the best performance by a local player was that of Lukas Baumann, who delighted the Austrian crowd with a seventh place finish, winning €46,000 in the process.
Baekke described his EPT Snowfest victory as “awesome”, telling reporters that winning an EPT event is “every poker player’s dream”.
With the recent robbery at the EPT event in Berlin still fresh in the mind, there was a heightened security presence at EPT Snowfest, which offered a total prize pool of €1,853,680 – surely an attractive prospect for any would-be thief. This tournament, attended by the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Sorel Mizzi, was completed without incident and will be remembered for all the right reasons.
The next stop on the European Poker Tour circuit is Sanremo, in north-western Italy, for a €5,000 + €300 event at Casino Sanremo. The penultimate EPT event is scheduled to begin on April 15th, with the tournament’s climax coming on April 21st.
EPT Sanremo will be immediately followed by the Grand Final in Monte Carlo, the prestigious €10,000 + €600 event at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort which begins a matter of days later, on April 25th. Last year’s EPT Grand Final drew 935 participants and was won by Pieter De Korver, for the princely first prize of €2,300,000.
The sponsors of the European Poker Tour are currently running satellites for EPT events – qualify today at PokerStars.com.
Betsson Poker is a great poker room and offers 40% cash back Note that US players can not play here | |
| Advert | Read more » |
Poker News
| Related Articles
|
Submit a Comment