Nick Petrangelo raised to 55,000 in the hijack and Orpen Kisacikoglu as the shortest stack by a small margin then announced all-in out of the small blind. Petrangelo instantly called and announced pocket kings before gently rolling the over on the felt.
"I can't beat that," Kisacikoglu replied and tossed his towards the middle of the table.
The flop instantly left Kisacikoglu drawing dead as Petrangelo hit quads, which made the turn and river runout a formality. He takes home €72,400 for the efforts and the final five are one step closer to a six-figure payday.
Chris Brewer opened to 60,000 and Ren Lin called from one seat over on the button. Daniel Dvoress then pushed all-in for 435,000 out of the big blind, which forced out Brewer.
Some 15 seconds later, Ren Lin glanced at his sticker and exclaimed "no gamble, no future" before planking in a stack of T-25,000 chips for the call.
Dvoress showed the and Lin declared "I dominated you" before exposing his .
"One, two, three ..." Lin announced and the flop brought laughter around the table including by Lin, who now asked for a four. The turn locked up the double for Dvoress, which made the river for an inferior set of Lin all the worse.
Right after coming back from the break, Chris Brewer raised to 110,000 out of the small blind. Ren Lin was in the big blind with around 20 blinds and moved all-in to get snapped off by Brewer.
Ren Lin:
Chris Brewer:
The board sent Lin to the payout desk in fifth place while Brewer extended his lead significantly.
The two shorter stacks among the final four went to war in a preflop contest with Nick Petrangelo on the button and Felipe Ketzer out of the big blind getting their near even stacks into the middle for the following coin flip.
Nick Petrangelo:
Felipe Ketzer:
"Flip, ace jack against sixes," Ketzer told his rail in Brazilian and several of them came closer to the final table in order to witness the showdown.
The flop was a "good start" for Ketzer, who picked up the nut flush draw on top of his two overcards. Another gutshot was added with the turn and he then got there with the river, as the rail erupted in several "vamooouuuu".
Both stacks were counted and Ketzer's 855,000 covered by two blinds, eliminating Petrangelo in fourth place for €119,000.
Felipe Ketzer verified the stack sizes of both Daniel Dvoress in the small blind and Chris Brewer in the big blind, the latter of which was not far behind the Brazilian. He then moved all-in and Dvoress folded while Brewer called all-in for 1,610,000.
Chris Brewer:
Felipe Ketzer:
The flop vaulted Brewer into a commanding lead and Ketzer asked for the eight of hearts. He narrowly missed with that request but the turn gave him a lot of outs. However, the river was a brick and Ketzer joked "almost" after which Brewer couldn't help but laugh.
Brewer jammed in the next hand into Ketzer's tiny remainder and the Brazilian called.
Felipe Ketzer:
Chris Brewer:
The runout kept ten-high ahead and Ketzer doubled.
In the first hand back from the break, Chris Brewer raised to 160,000 on the button and Felipe Ketzer called out of the small blind.
Daniel Dvoress was forced all-in from the big blind and joked "wait, where is the backbag" before he grabbed Ketzer's bag and made the same standing motion with it while awaiting the fate.
The flop was checked by Ketzer, who then folded to a bet of 80,000 by Brewer.
Daniel Dvoress:
Chris Brewer:
"Fair fight" Brewer exclaimed but the turn instantly gave Brewer the straight, sending Dvoress to the rail in third place after the river.
"This strategy sucks!" Dvoress told Ketzer, who replied "it only works for me".
One hand after the previous all-in clash, there wasn't a big pot by any means as they were on the turn. Felipe Ketzer had bet 250,000 in the big blind and then called the all-in of Chris Brewer before telling his rail he had slow-played a big hand.
Felipe Ketzer:
Chris Brewer:
The river was a blank and that finally wrapped up the tournament with a victory for Brewer, while Ketzer's valiant comeback efforts came up one spot close. He has to settle for a payday of €232,800 while Brewer has earned the top prize of €357,180.
Both are likely back the following day for another edition of the €25,000 Single-Day High Roller. A recap of today's action is to follow.
A winner has been crowned nearly 15 hours after the start of the second big buy-in contest during the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris festival. American poker pro Chris Brewer came out on top of 44-entry strong field at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile after defeating Brazil's Felipe Ketzer in heads-up.
Both shared the biggest slice of the €1,034,880 prize pool with Brewer earning a payday of €357,180, while Ketzer had to settle for a consolation prize of €232,800. Also among those to finish in the money were Daniel Dvoress, Nick Petrangelo, Ren Lin, and Orpen Kisacikoglu. The runner-up of the opening €10,200 Mystery Bounty High Roller Event, Kayhan Mokri, ended up as the bubble boy.
Final Result €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (in EUR)
1
Chris Brewer
United States
€357,180
2
Felipe Ketzer
Brazil
€232,800
3
Daniel Dvoress
Canada
€160,400
4
Nick Petrangelo
United States
€119,000
5
Ren Lin
United States
€93,100
6
Orpen Kisacikoglu
Turkey
€72,400
Brewer held the lead on several occasions during the late stages of the tournament and wasn't faced by a subtle joke of Conor Beresford on the rail either when the tournament was approaching the money bubble, as the Brit subtly pointed out the run-bad of the former track runner in expensive high-equity situations. On top of that, he had already avoided an agonizing setback just before the end of the late registration period to defeat his curse.
Brewer got three-outered on the flop only to river a one-outer himself and knock out €10,200 Mystery Bounty Event winner Andre Marques in a key situation that set the pace for the remainder of the night. From there on, it wasn't an easy ride either as especially eventual runner-up Ketzer pulled several rabbits out of a hat by hitting multiple runner-runner full houses.
Among the usual suspects in the high-stakes competitions were Stephen Chidwick, Steve O'Dwyer, Alex Kulev, Pedro Garagnani, and Kannapong Thanarattrakul. All of them bowed out early on and played no role during the frantic race towards the money bubble. Seth Davies went from one of the bigger stacks in the field to the rail within two hands and Jean-Noel Thorel also suffered a very similar fate as well once the final two tables were set.
PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton was his usual jovial and bubbly self, providing plenty of entertainment for everyone involved. The self-described "best player with a stack of six big blinds and fewer" escaped from elimination with a short stack on multiple occasions but eventually bowed out against Brewer in a duel of small pocket pairs. Tauan Naves and Rui Neves Ferreira lost most of their chips to Ketzer, who entered the final table with the lead.
Tom Orpaz experienced a roller coaster ride throughout the day before he bluffed off most of his chips and then jammed at the wrong time with a suited king. Brazil's Bruno Volkmann was flipped out by Brewer, who continued to gain momentum. What followed was a tense bubble period dominated by highly-sophisticated ICM and GTO implications, after which successful bounty hunter Mokri came up short.
Once the money was reached, the chip lead changed numerous times soon after Orpen Kisacikoglu became the first player to collect a cash prize. Ren Lin took over the top spot only to see his "no gamble, no future" approach backfire with a double-up for Dvoress. He was then eliminated by Brewer when ace-four were no match to pocket kings and the victory of Brewer with more than half of the chips in play seemed inevitable.
However, it took several hours for that to eventually happen as part of a topsy-turvy conclusion in which Ketzer battled bravely until the very end. A slow-played pair of kings would eventually be his downfall, as Brewer kept a cool head despite numerous setbacks and turned the best of it.
The second edition of the €25,000 No-Limit Hold'ems follows one day later and many of today's participants will very likely be back in action. Stay tuned for more high-stakes poker from the French capital, as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide updates of several marquee events.