Rainer Kempe crowned as $1,100 Caribbean Poker Party Festival MILLIONS Open champion

German high roller proved that small field tournaments are not the only form of poker he's competent in.

No stranger to winning tournaments

The $1,100 event of the Caribbean Poker Party Festival generated 812 entries with $200,000 awarded for eventual the winner. The relatively small buy-in attracted players with less experience as well as seasoned pros. Partypoker sponsored pro Anatoly Filatov, chairman Mike Sexton, high roller specialist Mustapha Kanit, WSOPE €25,000 High Roller champion Niall Farrell were all amongst the players entered the tournament.

26 of them made it to Day 4 locking up at least $6,000 including players like Spain's Sergio Aido, 2016 November Niner Vojtech Ruzicka or online veteran Philippe Dauteuil. Ioannis Angelou-Konstas had the chiplead with a stack of 71,800,000 while Rainer Kempe was in 3rd place with 66,500,000 chips. The day kicked off with the blinds of 400,000/800,000 with an 800,000 button ante.

9 players reached the final table, lead by Claudio Di Giacomo with a commanding chiplead. The Italian oversaw 228,000,000 while the next player behind him only had 98,000,000.

Paul Michaelis was the first player to bust when he shoved all-in from the small blind against an early position raise of Claudio Di Giacomo.

Di Giacomo:
Michaelis:

Board:

Paul earned $10,000 for finishing 9th.

The next player to follow Paul on his way to the cage was Vincent Tremblay after losing a coinflip with pocket nines against the suited Ace-queen of Paul Hockin's. His 8th place finish was good for $15,000. William Blais (7th; $22,500) and Michael Sklenicka (6th; $30,000) also lost their chips shortly after, followed by Andrei-Lucian Boghean (5th; $40,000) and Paul Hockin (4th; $54,000). Manuel Martinez left the table in third place (3rd; $80,000) so Kempe and Italy's Claudio Di Giacomo were the last two players battling for the trophy.

Runner-up Claudio Di Giacomo

Rainer managed to take the chiplead after winning some sizeable pots. In the final hand of the tournament Claudio shoved for his remaining 198,000,000 and Kempe quickly called.

Kempe:
Di Giacomo:

Board:

Although Claudio turned a gutshot straight draw, he couldn't manage to hit any of his 4 outs to overcome Reiner's top pair. The German took down the trophy and the $200,000 prize, increasing his live tournament earnings to $11,245,463, while second place finisher Di Giacomo got $121,500.

Final results