Poker Web Watch / Dave Allan / 26 October 2009 / Leave a comment

The 2009 EPT Warsaw attracted 203 players, all of who were prepared to part with 25,000 Polish Zloty (PLN), creating a prize pool of 4,770,500 PLN or $1,683,509 in "real money!"

By the start of the third day only 55 players had chips left to do battle with and within the first few hands Thierry Van Den Berg was eliminated and he was quickly followed by Peter Eastgate and Betfair's Sorel Mizzi.

The talented Canadian re-raised Jeff Sarwer's 7,000 raise from the hijack to 18,500. Sarwer then came over the top and made it 42,000 and Mizzi went into the tank before shoving his entire stack into the middle of the table, a bet that was instantly called by his opponent. "Aces?" asked a dejected Mizzi, "Yep" was the reply as Sarwer tabled AsAs to be well in front of Mizzi's KdQs. The KcTh2d flop brought a glimmer of hope but a 9d turn followed by a Ts river saw him head home empty handed.

Busting out before the money is always painful but not as painful as finishing just one place before the payout structure begins, that dubious honour went Domantas Klimciauskas. After raising to 40,000 from his stack of 62,000, Oleksandr Vaserfirer strangely just called on the button, both players saw a flop of Jc9h8c. Klimciaukas lead out for 12,000, leaving himself just 10,000 behind and his opponent put him all-in, which he called. His AsJs was well behind the 8h8s of his opponent and he was eliminated when the turn and river paired the board to give Vaserfirer a full-house.

Twenty-four players returned for Day 4 and just 10 hours later only eight of them remained. Shaun Deeb, Vitaly Lunkin and Antony Lellouche were all relieved of their chips within the first levels of the day and when Alexander Debus's As6s could not outflop Italian Luca Pagano's pocket Queens, the final table of eight was set.

You would expect the final table to be a cagey affair with the players being quite deep-stacked but Antaly Gurtovoy headed to the rail after just two hands when his Ace-Queen offsuit could not win the race against Oleksandr Vaserfirer's pair of Jacks. He was quickly followed by Alexander Klimanshin and then Clayton Mozdzen an hour later.

Ruslan Prydryk was eliminated in fifth place after what could only be described as an "online hand" A three-way all-in hand saw AA vs QQ vs JJ with the third best hand prevailing on a Th4cJd7dKc board. Who says crazy hands do not happen at the felt?

Popular Italian Luca Pagano was next to go after suffering some horrendous luck. He was initially crippled when his Ace-King lost all-in preflop against Alfio Battisti's Ace-Queen and then he called an all-in bet from Christophe Benzimra with Ad5s to find himself in front of his opponent's QhTc but a Qc6c5h4h4d board saw him heading for the rail and probably the bar.

Battisti's hot streak continued and he eliminated Olekandr Vaserfirer when his AhKs stayed in front of the dominated Ac8h to bust the Ukranian in third position.

The heads-up battle was a tense affair but it did not take long for all the chips to end up in the middle and a new EPT Champion crowned. Christophe Benzimra raised to 120,000 and then called a raise to 250,000 from Battisti. Both players saw the Ac7c5c and after a flurry of activity it appeared Battisti was all-in for his tournament life. The Frenchman's Ad7s was in front of the KcTh of the Italian but he would need to avoid a club on the turn and the river to take the title. The dealer dealt the 8h on the turn, followed by the 5h on the river and Battisti was eliminated in second place.

Christophe Benzimra took the title of Champion, a coveted trophy, a seat to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo and 1,493,170 PLN ($526,939) for his efforts. Congratulations!