Ole Schemion Ends His Seven-Year Wait for EPT Glory
Seven years on from winning the €100,000 Super High Roller in Monte Carlo, Ole Schemion has finally ended his wait for another EPT title.
The 31-year-old, who now has over $19.5 million in live tournament earnings, topped the 27-entry field in the second €25,000 NL Hold'em tournament of the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague for €246,370.
He defeated Diego Zeiter in heads-up play to end his EPT trophy drought. Despite being the runner-up, Zeiter secured his best-ever payout in live poker and banked €158,800 for his efforts.
Teun Mulder narrowly missed out on back-to-back €25K victories after he exited in third place for €105,300. This now sees the Dutchman take the top spot on the Netherlands All-Time Money List, dethroning Jorryt van Hoof.
The ever-entertaining and jovial Nozomu Shimizu (€76,200) took fourth while Norway's Kayhan Mokri secured the €61,600 min-cash.
2023 EPT Prague €25,000 NL Hold'em II Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ole Schemion | Germany | €246,370 |
| 2 | Diego Zeiter | Switzerland | €158,800 |
| 3 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | €105,300 |
| 4 | Nozomu Shimizu | Japan | €76,200 |
| 5 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | €61,600 |
Schemion Gets It Done
The session began with six players, and by the end of the late registration, 16 were in attendance. There had been several reentries, and the only players who had not returned to the table once eliminated were Tsugunari Toma and Motoyoshi Okamura.
It took another three levels to reach the final table, with Laszlo Bujtas, Andras Nemeth and Niklas Astedt being the first three to leave after the entry period closed. They were soon joined by Dimitar Danchev, Juan Pardo and Tamas Adamszki on the wrong side of the rail.
Ognyan Dimov was left short by Paulius Plausinaitis. The former bluffed into aces, and the Bulgarian was finished off by Mulder a few hands later. Dimov's elimination confirmed the start of the nine-handed final table, with Mulder holding the chip lead.
A fantastic hero call by Mokri saw him shoot up the counts as he picked off Plausinaitis' bluff. The runner-up in the series' first €25,000 NL Hold'em was ejected by Mulder, who had coincidentally beat the Lithuanian in heads-up play less than 24 hours before.
Going into the dinner break, Mokri was atop of the counts and was just a few big blinds ahead of Schemion and Hirokazu Kobayashi. Mulder had tumbled into the bottom half of the chip leaderboard, trailing the above names along with Shimizu and Zeiter. Only Andrii Derzhypilskyi and Steve O'Dwyer had less than the Dutchman.
When play resumed, O'Dwyer was stacked by Shimizu as the "card whisperer" outflopped his opponent's pocket queens to bring on the soft bubble. The stone bubble arrived when Shimizu rivered a flush and downed his compatriot Kobayashi.
Shimizu then found himself as the short stack after jamming into Zeiter's queens from the blinds, but in a miraculous turn of events, he became the chip leader following a wave of premium hands. The deck continued to be kind to Shimizu as he picked up ace-king when Derzhypilskyi jammed with ace-queen, and held to burst the bubble.
Shimizu undid all his hard work in a matter of seconds as he four-bet jammed ten-nine into Schemion's aces. The runout was drama-free, and Schemion took the overwhelming chip lead. He promptly pulled further away from the rest of the pack after felting Mokri to bring the tournament to its final four players.
Mulder took out Shimizu and then obtained the chip lead from Schemion. Mulder rivered Broadway to crack the German's aces and was in pole position.
Chips went back and forth between the trio for an hour, with neither yielding until Schemion ousted Mulder in third place with pocket queens in one of the more interesting pots of the day and went into heads-up with a commanding chip lead.
The final two battled briefly, with Schemion coming out on top as he booked his first win at an EPT stop since 2016.
This marks the end of €25,000 NL Hold'em II, but be sure to return to PokerNews, with action from the €50,000 EPT Super High Roller set to begin at 12:30 p.m. CET on Sunday, December 10.