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Pieter De Korver Wins European Poker Tour Grand Final Title

On May 6th, 2009, the final day of the 2009 PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final welcomed back 8 poker pros who all had their eyes on the first place cash prize of 2.3 million euros. They had survived 4 days of stiff poker competition to make it to the final table and edge out a field of 935 poker players.

The final table of the PokerStars EPT are: PokerStars qualifier Peter Traply of Hungary with 4,365,000; Mikhail Tulchinskiy of Russia with 322,000; Eric Qu of France with 2,880,000; PokerStars player Pieter De Korver of the Netherlands with 2,500,000; PokerStars qualifier Alem Shah of Germany with 1,490,000; Daniel Zink of Germany with 1,865,000; Pokerstars qualifier Matt Woodward from the US with 4,560,000 and Dag Martin Mikkelsen of Norway with 7,315,000.

The first part of the EPT final table was highlighted with conservative game play and all-in calls that went unchallenged. That was until just before the 30th card hand, when one of the most vital hands of the event changed the condition of the final table. Traply decided to move all in and Dag Martin Mikkelsen hangs in the balance on the large stack. Mikkelsen eventually called and turned up pocket queens. Traply revealed an A-K but no challenge came.

Traply finished in 8th place with 170,000 euros and Mikkelsen held a substantial chip lead with twelve million. Mikkelsen improved that chip lead even further when he edged out Daniel Zink in 7th place with 250,000 euros. He held fifteen million after that particular hand. The participants took their first break of the day and after they returned, two poker players fell into two succeeding hands. Mikhail Tulchinksiy acquired a pair of the short stacks when he edged out Alem Shah in 6th place with 350,000 euros and Eric Qu in 5th place with 470,000 euros.

Tulchinksiy held seven million in total chips after edging out the 2 stacks. But everything changed during the 4 handed play as short stack Pieter De Korver of the Netherlands doubled up several times to grab the lead with 14,640,000 chips. De Korver's rise came at the expense of Mikkelsen, who eventually finished in 4th place with 600,000 euros.

Matt Woodward edged out Tulchinskiy in 3rd place with 800,000 euros to set up a heads-up showdown between him and De Korver. Woodward grab the lead for a short time but De Korver recovered the lead and never let go of it with aggressive reraises. Woodward finished in 2nd place with 1,300,000 euros after his six-four fell to the nine-six of De Korver. De Korver took home the European Poker Tour Grand Final title and a total 2,300,000 euros in prize money (or more than $3 million). De Korver is the 2nd Dutchman to capture the EPT Grand Final title after season one winner Rob Hollink.

 

May 18, 2009
Michael Orwell

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