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The Frenchman booked his second biggest score ever, after outlasting a 69-entry strong field.
“As of twenty left, everything went my way, and the stack kept getting bigger.”
The quick opportunity to book a huge payday in the single-day event attracted many players, who generated a total of 69 entries, including 15 re-entries, creating a prize pool of €3,347,190, with €979,000 going for the winner.
The field was filled with high-profile names of the poker world. Amongst the early casualties were French businessman, Jean-Noel Thorel, Thomas Mühlöcker, Orpen Kisacikoglu, David Peters, Stefan Schillhabel, Dietrich Fast, Bill Perkins, and the winner of the €100K SHR [3], Mikita Badziakouski.
As mentioned, several players used the single re-entry to get another chance for a nice score. Badziakouski was one of the players to take another chance, but couldn't manage to get anything going this time either. Unlike him, founder of Bioderma, Thorel was able to show a profit, as he lost to his fellow Frenchman, Pollak heads-up.
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After the last three tables were set, Alex Foxen took the lead by eliminating Ramin Hajiyev and Sam Greenwood. Thorel pulled the same trick, he eliminated Adrian Mateos and Byron Kaverman.
The money bubble burst with a double knockout. It was Pollak, who snap-called from the big blind with aces, after online high-stakes end boss, Linus "LLinusLLove" Löliger and Stanley Choi moved in. The king-queen for Löliger and the Ace-king for Choi couldn't manage to outdraw the bullets.
German high-rollers, Matthias Eibinger and Jan-Eric Schwippert busted in ninth and eight places. They earned €97,090 and €127,200 respectively. The next two players to leave their seats were early chip leader, Jack Salter (7th; €164,000) and Seth Davies (6th; €207,500).
Fifth place went to satellite qualifier Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, who turned €5,200 into €267,800 for a pretty healthy ROI. 2013 WSOP Main Event champ, Ryan Riess got 4th for €344,700, while Alex Foxen exited in third place for €456,900, to leave the two Frenchmen alone.
The winner and the runner-up
Even though Thorel started with the lead, Benjamin managed to turn things around and closed out the tournament in an hour. In the last hand, Jean-Noel put his last 10 big blinds in the middle with Ace-three against the dominating Ace-nine of Pollak's.
Just like Benjamin, Jean-Noel also booked his second biggest score ever (€703,000) which increased his total live tournament earnings to $4,666,894, while Benjamin keeps closing the gap between him and French all-time money list leader, Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier. With this €979,000 win, he now has $11,029,100, while Grospellier's total earnings stand at $13,603,274.
Final results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benjamin Pollak | France | €979,000 | $1,143,334 |
| 2 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | €703,000 | $821,005 |
| 3 | Alex Foxen | United States | €456,900 | $533,574 |
| 4 | Ryan Riess | United States | €344,700 | $402,545 |
| 5 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | €267,800 | $312,740 |
| 6 | Seth Davies | United States | €207,500 | $242,321 |
| 7 | Jack Salter | United Kingdom | €164,000 | $191,521 |
| 8 | Jan-Eric Schwippert | Germany | €127,200 | $148,546 |
| 9 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | €97,090 | $113,389 |
The field has reduced to 531 for the - record-breaking -original 1931 by Day2 at the €5,300 Main Event. The current chip leader is Upeshka De Silva, with a 450,000 stack.
The €10,300 Pot-Limit Ohama event has also kicked off, with 35 entries so far, and the field is already down to 30. However, as the registration is still open, we can expect some more players to get into the mix. Dany Chidiac is the chip leader with 138,000 chips.
Stay tuned for the updates!