Report by Gary Clarke of Bluff Magazine

Final Day
So the final day was upon us and 13 hopefuls arrived back to the Casino Hohensyburg knowing that whatever happened they would be walking away with a fabulous cash prize of at least €20,000. The sunniest day of the week would spell a bright day for one of the remaining players, just who that player would be, nobody knew.

EPT founder John Duthie was quick to point out that although Jacob Rasmussen was chip leader going into the day, the chips were quite evenly dispersed and he was by no means a sure thing.  A chip lead as we know can create problems for themselves, especially when so many excellent players are breathing down your back. Jacob’s competitors were only at an arms length and his task was as tough as anyone’s today and he knew it.

Leading into today there had been much talk, as usual, about Johnny Lodden. The Norwegian superstar has become one of the most successful players in the online revolution and many of the purists had him tipped for top honours. Going into the day just off the leaders, Lodden was eager to use his undoubted talent to get back to the fore and go gung-ho for victory.  

The dangers of this approach were evident however as Lodden became the first player eliminated. He came to play and he was off to the races early with his 66 in a confrontation against AK, it wasn’t to be however and Lodden was a surprising 13th place finisher, collecting €20,000 for his troubles.

Vincent Sokalski may well have agreed to share a taxi with Johnny as he wasted little time in running A10 into AQ. The Queen kicker held up and Vincent and Johnny were reunited in no time!

The bubble burst just before the dinner break when Philip Yeh pushed with K10 only to be called quite unusually by Andres Hoivold holding A6. Both push and call could be deemed bizarre but these boys know what they are doing and Andrea’s kicker – he hit a 6 – paid huge dividends and left us with our final 9.

Hoivold, who had been progressing rather sweetly from two tables out, made what could be argued to be either a very skilful or reckless call with the A6 but his instincts were spot on and it was calls like these which were putting him in position to go all the way in this tournament.

Christoph Stiehler was the first off the final table. With blinds at an excruciatingly high 20,000/40,000 and a running ante of 4,000, it was time to move before your stack was wiped away from under your eyes. Stiehler tried to gamble with 86 off-suite in a very creative play indeed but this poor hand was no match for pocket Jacks and Christoph collected just over €37,000.

With eight players left a decision was made that the blinds would be cut. Christoph will surely look back at that decision with much disgust as this move brought a serious amount of play back to the game. With the previous blind level well over doubled, Stiehler will have massive grounds for complaint. He played according to increasingly higher blind levels. But the end result was blind levels cut significantly giving short-stacks much more hope. The arguments will no doubt run and run.

Frenchman Thomas Fourgeron collected €60,000 for eighth place when an ill-timed bluff on an Ace-high flop sent him packing. Manager of a computer services company; Thomas plays a lot of these events and has become a regular on the scene in recent years. He will look to go a few spots better next time out.

Nicolas Levi was next out when his KQ was dominated by AK. The board did bring a Queen but the Ace sealed the deal and Nicolas collected €85,700. He can surely buy many a new pair of jeans with this nice win.

Next out would break the €100,000 mark in prize money and that man was Erik Lindberg. As so often we see in poker tournaments it was a race for the chips, Erik was behind in chips and he was behind on the river too. No king or Jack arriving meant his opponent’s pocket 6’s held up and made him our sixth placed finisher for €109,000 exactly.

At this stage, with five players left, tempers and emotions ran high.  There was one notable exception however in Andreas Hoivold. Despite being an underdog in chips he was the only one communicating, joking with the crowd and making unusual raises. On one such occasion he declared: “Six is my lucky number” whilst making it 106k to play.  Jacob Rasmussen had heard enough of the jokes and tried a move with JQ; Hoivold had the goods this time and KK.  It left us with four and left Jacob with €139,000.

It was two hours later before our next elimination. Gunnar Rabe had been pushing a lot and Andreas had seen enough and called having only seen one card (he claimed) we’ll assume it was the ace. Gunnar Rabe’s pocket 2’s didn’t hold up against Hoivold’s A9 and Rabe was out in fourth for €169,000.

With three left it was clear that Sebastian Guntherberg needed something of a miracle to last in anything other than third. He needed to get chips and wasted little time in pushing all-in to double-up. Both Andreas and Christiano called giving them a better chance to knock out Guntherberg. And knock him out they did when Andreas three-of-a-kind was all too powerful for Ace-high. Guntherberg received the princely sum of €220,000 for third.

In what would prove the shortest heads-up in EPT history and pretty much any other major tournament and only two minutes after Guntherberg was eliminated in third we had a winner.

Christiano moved his chips in with 9-10 and Andreas made quick call with the ‘ladies’. The Queens held up knocking Christiano out in second and therefore making Andreas Hoivold the winner.

Christiano received €380,000 for second but the star of the day was the new EPT Dortmund Champion Andreas Hoivold. The worthy champ received a whopping €672,000 and the coveted EPT trophy. A popular victory it was too.