Sunday, October 18, 2015 9:09 PM Local Time
Georgios Sotiropoulos wins Third Bracelet for Greece at WSOPE Berlin (EUR 112,133)
The second and final day of the World Series of Poker Europe €1,100 Turbo (Event #8) saw 46 players return to the tables at the Spielbank Berlin and Byron Kaverman was leading the field. Kaverman made it to the final table, but ultimately it was Georgios Sotiropoulos who emerged victorious after a very brief heads up encounter with Frenchman Paul Tedeschi. Greece had no WSOP bracelet winners until eight days ago, and that number suddenly became three with the victory of Sotiropoulos.
The action started fast and furious with ten eliminations in the first 15 minutes. Among them was 2015 POY leader Mike Gorodinsky, who busted in the same hand as Jeff Gross after running with into the of Tedeschi - Gross had . Many further notables fell before the first break such as Mike Leah, Guillaume Darcourt, Mixed Event champion Alex Komaromi, Mohsin Charania, Faraz Jaka, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and 2015 WSOP bracelet winner Vasili Firsau.
John Racener started the last two tables with a bang by making quads aces and sending Knut Ekvardt and Balazs Somodi to the rail in the same hand. David "ODB" Baker, Jeff Madsen and Dominik Nitsche also missed out on the spotlight of the feature table. The official nine-handed final table was set with the elimination of Alexander Lakhov in tenth place and Asher Conniff as well as start-of-the-day leader Kaverman followed in quick succession.
Brian Hastings had to settle for seventh place after losing a big pot to Benjamin Zamani. He doubled up once and then busted with against the of Rafal Tomczak in a preflop all in, the board ran out . Hastings secured important points for the 2015 POY race though and moved into second place behind Gorodinsky.
John Racener fell in sixth place after putting his short stack at risk with . Tedeschi called with and paired up on the flop flop, neither the turn nor the river changed anything whatsoever. Down to five players, Tomczak was dominating the action at the table but then lost a massive pot to Tedeschi after defending his big blind. Tedeschi fired all streets of the board and received a full double up with for a set of fives. Tomczak called with jack-nine for top pair after the flop. The hopes of the first golden bracelet for Poland were all but destroyed and Tomczak departed soon after with against the of Sotiropoulos.
A failed bluff by Tedeschi at the start of level 28 gave Sotiropoulos more ammunition and he used it right away to put Andre Lommel and Benjamin Zamani at risk in a three-way all in. Lommel was the shortest stack and at risk with , Zamani showed the . Sotiropoulos' flopped a gutshot and flush draw on and got there as turn and river completed the board.
Sotiropoulos started heads-up with a 2-1 lead over Tedeschi and it lasted all but a few hands. The Greek three-bet shoved with and Tedeschi called off with . Sotiropoulos paired his queen on the flop and improved to two pair with the turn. The river was not a ten, but the and that officially ended Event #8 with yet another victory for Greece. Sotiropoulos takes home €112,133 for his efforts and already confirmed that he will be back at the tables tomorrow for Day 1b of the €10,450 Main Event.
Official Final Table Results - Turbo Event #8
1st place: Georgios Sotiropoulos (Greece) - €112,133
2nd place: Paul Tedeschi (France) - €69,361
3rd place: Benjamin Zamani (USA) - €50,719
4th place: Andre Lommel (Luxembourg) - €37,636
5th place: Rafal Tomczak (Poland) - €28,318
6th place: John Racener (USA) - €21,600
7th place: Brian Hastings (USA) - €16,703
8th place: Byron Kaverman (USA) - €13,094
9th place: Asher Conniff (USA) - €10,402