Mats Gavatin, a 29-year-old former baker from Sweden, won 317,000 euros by taking first place in the European Poker Tour's 4,000 euro no-limit event that concluded early Halloween morning. Henric Olander, also from Sweden, took home 174,500 euros by finishing second.
The tournament, which started Saturday, Oct. 29, took place at the Merrion Casino Club in Dublin, Ireland.
Gavatin came to the final table third in chips, but when he faced Olander head-to-head, he was out-chipped 672,000 to 1,790,000. But only five minutes into the heads-up match, Gavatin pulled close to even when his two pair held against Olander's top pair. But as the contest wore on, Olander got all of his chips back and more by playing aggressively.
The tournament turned around when Gavatin's pocket nines held against Olander's pocket threes. It was over a few hands later after Gavatin's A-K held against Olander's K-9.
PokerStars.com is the sponsor of the EPT. The results of the event were provided by PokerStars.com's blog.
