Ivan Freitez Wins European Poker Tour Grand Final

With the doors of major online-poker sites closing to players in the United States on Black Friday, the season-seven European Poker Tour Grand Final stood as a test to see just how far the European poker boom has come. The Grand Final found itself outside the confines of cozy and glamorous Monte Carlo, having moved to the industrious and sprawling capital city of Spain, Madrid.

The crown jewel of tournament poker in Europe saw its attendance dip a bit from last year, from 848 players to 686, while the number of PokerStars qualifiers declined slightly, from 394 to 303. Yet, U.S. players constituted 18 percent of the tournament field, more than any other country, with host country Spain contributing 9 percent of the players and neighboring France supplying 8 percent, to round out the top three.

The large buy-in of €10,600 still ensured that there was a huge prize pool of €6,860,000 up for grabs, and many of the top names in poker were in attendance to make a run at it. The money bubble burst to end day 2, when 104 players remained. Notables who cashed included Dan Heimiller, Jani Sointula, Fatima de Melo, James Bord, Ivan Demidov, Tobias Reinkemeier, Ted Forrest, EPT Player of the Year Fernando Brito, William Reynolds, Surinder Sunar, Eugene Katchalov, and Victor Ramdin.

The final table was reached by the end of day 4, and the final eight players included two members of Team PokerStars and a bevy of new hopefuls vying for the tournament title. Here is a look at the chip counts when final-table play began:

Ivan Freitez 5,995,000
Juan Maceiras 3,150,000
Andrey Danilyuk 2,645,000
Eugene Yanayt 2,420,000
Torsten Brinkmann 1,875,000
Alexandre Gomes 1,670,000
Tamas Lendvai 1,655,000
Andrew Li 1,210,000

Andrew Li was the short stack heading into the final day, and he eventually finished eighth (€130,000). His pocket threes were counterfeited when top triple-draw cash-game player Eugene Yanayt held A-Q on a 9-9-4-7-4 board.

The biggest name left at the table fell after that when Alexandre Gomes’ hopes of becoming poker’s next Triple Crown winner came up short in seventh place (€185,000). The World Series of Poker gold bracelet holder and World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup champion was all in preflop with the 8♠ 7♠, and Yanayt’s pocket tens held up to win the pot.
It took a few hours after that for Yanayt to fall in fifth place, which was good for €250,000. He moved all in preflop with pocket fives, but they ran into the pocket nines of chip leader Ivan Freitez.

The next elimination came quickly when the final Team PokerStars pro remaining, Juan Maceiras, was knocked out. He had the J♥ 10♥ against the A♠ K♦ of Torsten Brinkmann, but the Q-4-2-4-6 board brought no help, and he was eliminated in fifth place (€315,000). However, he did record the highest finish by any player from the host country of Spain as a small consolation.

The EPT provided a live broadcast of the final-table proceedings on a two-hour tape delay once the final four players were set. The broadcast was featured on PokerStars.tv in addition to national television in eight European countries and Canada, and it marked another step in the evolution of poker on television.

Freitez had increased his chip lead to more than 10 million to kick off the action, and after he eliminated Andrey Danilyuk in fourth place (€400,000) and Tamas Lendvai (€550,000) in third place, he had a dominating chip stack leading into heads-up play.

Heads-Up Chip Counts:

Ivan Freitez: 16,115,000
Torsten Brinkmann: 4,505,000

Brinkmann was able to double up once against Freitez, but later saw himself facing a 4-1 chip deficit once again. On the final hand, Freitez raised to 320,000 preflop and Brinkmann reraised all in for 3 million. Freitez quickly made the call and they revealed their cards:

Freitez: 10♦ 9♦
Brinkmann: A♥ K♣

Board: 9♠ 5♥ 2♠ 6♦ 8♣

Brinkmann was eliminated as the runner-up in the tournament, but he did take home a handsome prize of €900,000. It was an impressive run for him, as he went to the final table in fifth chip position. Freitez, the 46-year-old father of three from Caracas, Venezuela, took home the top prize of €1.5 million after a dominating performance that saw him enter and leave as the chip leader on the final day in Madrid. ♠