According to PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker Ambassador and APPT Macau champion Dermot Blain won the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament for €200,900 on Wednesday after beating Russian player Aslan Daurov in heads-up play. The tournament attracted 187 entries and generated a prize pool of €906,950 that was distributed to the top 27 players.
Blain, ranked #5 in Ireland, is an EPT regular and now has more than $1.75 million in life tournament winnings. The $541,100 he earned in his Macau victory back in 2009 was the start of a sensational live poker career which includes a fifth-place finish in the 2011 WSOP Europe Cannes Main Event in for €275,000.
Marvin Rettenmaier's seat was empty and Dominik Nitsche informed us what had happened.
Rettenmaier, who started the hand with about 22,000, opened from early position with and had received two callers; Jeremey Ausmus on the button and Haralabos Voulgaris in the small blind.
The flop came with two diamonds and Voulgaris checked. Rettenmaier made a continuation bet and Ausmus raised. Voulgaris got out of the way but Rettenmaier and Ausmus got all the chips in the middle.
Ausmus had flopped the nuts with but wasn't entirely safe just yet. The on the turn gave Rettenmaier both flush and full house outs, but the river didn't materialize either and sent Rettenmaier packing.
Max Silver opened the betting and Artem Litvinov made the call. Viktor Blom then moved all in for a sub 30k stack. Silver was short too and mused it over but Bloms shove got through.
A short while later Blom opened for 2,400 and it was Silver who shoved and picked up the pot.
Next it was Ariel Celestino’s turn to open and then fold to a Blom shove.
Pascal Lefrancois had bet 11,500 on the river of a board showing and Adrian Mateos moved all in.
It looked like a bit of a puzzler for Lefrancois who looked like he was wishing for a different river card. It was Mateos who was the player at risk however and Lefrancois finally said, “Call.”
“Call?” asked Mateos plaintively and turned over . The of Lefrancois was good.
Anatoly Gurtovoy bet out 4,500 on and one player folded before action was on Ole Schemion. Schemion, who was knocked out earlier today but bought back in, made the call. The on the turn made Gurtovoy check. Schemion bet out 5,800 and Gurtovoy made the call. Gurtovoy checked again on the -river and Schemion bet 12,400 with 15,800 behind. Gurtovoy thought about it for a little bit before folding.
Pascal Lefrancois opened under the gun for 2,500 and next to him Antonio Esfandiari made the call. All other players folded and they were heads up to the flop: .
Lefrancois bet out 3,000 and Esfandiari made the call. The turn brought another jack to the table () and Lefrancois checked. Esfandiari made a 5,400 bet and Lefrancois called. The river came the and both players checked.