EPT Barcelona: Ruthenberg adds EPT title to WSOP bracelet.
Monday, 15 September 2008
Sebastian Ruthenberg is fast making a big name for himself. Having won his first WSOP bracelet in Vegas this summer, the German has now taken down €1,361,000 for his win at the PokerStars.net EPT Barcelona.
At the start of the day Ruthenberg was well poised to pose a challenge to chip leader Martin Nielsen. Here are the chip counts at the beginning of play:
Seat 1: Martin Nielsen - 1,229,000
Seat 2: Davidi Kitai - 600,000
Seat 3: Dren Ukella - 734,000
Seat 4: Jason Mercier - 526,000
Seat 5: Samuel Chartier - 879,000
Seat 6: Daniele Mazzia - 359,000
Seat 7: Fintan Gavin - 701,000
Seat 8: Sebastian Ruthenberg - 1,204,000
Play proceeded at a tortoise-like pace, but the first elimination proved to be both most surprising and a real catalyst for the tournament to open up. Overnight chip leader Nielsen had got off to a bad start and ended up losing the rest of his chips when pulling off a big move with Ad-2d against the pocket tens of Mercier. While there was plenty of fold equity to the move, the tens were too big a hand for the EPT San Remo champion to fold, and when they duly held up, Nielsen was left heading for the exit signs.
Just moments later, Canadian Samuel Chartier was also packing his bags after Irishman Fintan Gavin made a good call with Ac-9h against Chartier’s Kh-Th. Next to fall was Jason Mercier, who ran his pocket sevens into the wired Queens of Fintan Gavin, who was fast gaining momentum. The board didn’t offer any help to Mercier, who failed in his quest to become the first multi-winner on the European Poker Tour.
With Ukella, Mazzia and Davidi Kitai all eliminated, it was left to the Pokerstars online qualifier and figurative ‘David’ Fintan Gavin to take on the WSOP bracelet owner and Goliath for the day, Sebastien Ruthenburg. The chip counts didn’t help the Irishman either, behind five-to-one on the chip count. In these situations, you sometimes need to pull a move or two, but sadly for Gavin his first one got caught out. Moving in with seven-high is noble, but he was well behind the German’s K-9 suited. The flop did provide a seven, but when the turn came a King, the hopes of an upset were scuppered. Still, the €792,000 for second place should buy him and his countrymen a few drinks at the bar.
So that’s it for the EPT Barcelona - Ruthenberg adds an EPT title to his WSOP bracelet, earning himself €1,361,000 in the process.