The Week in Poker: Pidun, Sbrissa, Linster Latest Champs

This week's champions: Daniel Pidun (left), Victor Sbrissa (center), and Michael Linster (right)

Three major professional poker tours have crowned new champions within the last four days. On Saturday, Daniel Pidun of Germany took down the European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event. Then today two more major events concluded, with Victor Sbrissa winning the Latin American Poker Tour Brazil Main Event and Mike Linster winning the World Poker Tour bestbet Open in Jacksonville, Florida.

Pidun Powers Through at EPT Berlin

The European Poker Tour completed its Season 9 EPT Berlin stop over the weekend with the conclusion of the €5,000 buy-in Main Event and €10,000 buy-in High Roller.
 
While the Canadian Griffin Benger triumphed over a 107-entry field in the High Roller, earning €429,000 for doing so, it was Germany's own Daniel Pidun claiming the trophy in the Main Event. Pidun topped a huge field of 912 to win the week-long tournament and take away a prize of €880,000 (worth more than $1.15 million USD).
 
An especially long final-table bubble on Friday made for a short day on Saturday, as the final nine played for almost six hours before Dashgyn Aliev was finally eliminated in ninth, earning €56,000 for the finish.  

It was Robert Haigh of Germany who held the chip lead to start the final eight-handed table, with Pidun not far behind in second-position. The Russian Roman Korenev had a healthy stack as well to start play on Saturday, but lost a lot to a Pascal Vos double-up, then was knocked out by Alexander Helbig to finish eighth.

It took a while after that, but then eliminations came quickly as three Germans were ousted -- Julian Thomas in seventh, Roman Herold in sixth, and Alexander Helbig in fifth.

The Dutchman Vos was the next to go in fourth after his Ad-7s failed to improve versus Pidun's Ah-Qs. Then Pidun took out Denmark's Lasse Frost in third in a hand that saw the latter all in before the flop against both opponents, then only Pidun was left by the river as the board showed 5s-8d-Kc-3c-Jc. Frost had but 10h-9h while Pidun had made a flush with Ac-7c, and they were down to two.

Pidun enjoyed an enormous lead to start heads-up play with Haigh with 24.5 million versus Haigh's 2.8 million. Haigh would double-up once, but finally fell with As-Kh versus Pidun's 9s-8s when the board brought an eight.

EPT Berlin (€5,000) Main Event final table results:
1st:  Daniel Pidun (Germany) -- €880,000
2nd:  Robert Haigh (Germany) -- €531,000
3rd:  Lasse Frost (Denmark) -- €325,000
4th:  Pascal Vos (Netherlands) -- €255,000
5th:  Alexander Helbig (Germany) -- €202,200
6th:  Roman Herold (Germany) -- €155,000
7th:  Julian Thomas (Germany) -- €110,000
8th:  Roman Korenev (Russia) -- €77,000 

The victory was by far the biggest in Pidun's career, with both of his previous best cashes coming in the previous two EPT Berlin Main Events when he finished ninth in 2011 (for €45,000) and 17th in 2012 (for €20,000).

Sbrissa Soars at LAPT Brazil

Early Tuesday evening it was Brazil's own Victor Sbrissa topping a field of 753 in So Paulo to win the Latin American Poker Tour Brazil Main Event, earning a cool first prize of R$512,000 (worth a little over $250,000 USD).

Leo Fernandez began the final table as chip leader, but following the early exit of short-stacked Thiago Grigoletti in eighth, Fernandez lost nearly all of his chips to Daniel Murta in a preflop all-in confrontation, then saw Murta finish him off shortly thereafter to end in seventh.

Murta would also cripple Marcos Paulo Ximenes, claiming most of the latter's chips in two separate hands, then Sbrissa eliminated Ximenes thereafter in sixth. Not long after that, Andre Akkari lost most of his stack to Rafael Pardo before getting knocked out by Murta in fifth.

Sbrissa had assumed the chip lead with four left, and soon was claiming more chips after taking pocket eights up against an all-in Leonardo Brescia who held Kc-Qc, then drawing out quads to eliminate Brescia in fourth.  

Next Pardo was all in following a Qc-Tc-8d flop with Ad-Td (a pair of tens) versus Murta's Kc-2c (flush draw), and when the turn brought the 6c to complete Murta's flush, Pardo was drawing dead.

Sbrissa still led to start heads-up play, however, and soon chipped away at Murta's stack until a hand developed that saw Murta all in after a Jh-Qc-6c flop with As-Jh (jacks) versus Sbrissa's Qs-4s (queens). The turn was the Kd and river the 3s, and Sbrissa had won.

LAPT Brazil (R$4,000) Main Event final table results:
1st:  Victor Sbrissa (Brazil) -- R$512,100
2nd:  Daniel Murta (Brazil) -- R$334,000
3rd:  Rafael Pardo (Colombia) -- R$231,400
4th:  Leonardo Brescia (Brazil) -- R$171,000
5th:  Andre Akkari (Brazil) -- R$128,900
6th:  Marcos Paulo Ximenes (Brazil) -- $R94,700
7th:  Leo Fernandez (Argentina) -- $R68,400
8th:  Thiago Grigoletti (Brazil) -- R$52,600

The win marks Sbrissa's largest tourney score by far, his previous best being for R$32,650 for winning preliminary event at the 2011 Brazilian Series of Poker.

Linster Leaves Jacksonville a WPT Champ

Finally it was Michael Linster winning the World Poker Tour bestbet Open in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday. There were a total of 351 entries for the event (with re-entries), with Linster earning a handsome payday of $321,521 for the win.

Danny Schechter took a big chip lead to the six-handed final table with over 3.8 million when Linster was the closest competitor with 2.15 million. Meanwhile the short stacks were knocked out in short order at the start of play on Tuesday.  

First David Diaz was knocked out in sixth after running Qs-10d into Danny Schechter's pocket kings. Pete Tinnesz was eliminated in fifth after getting it all in on the flop versus Bell with ace-queen-high versus the latter's flopped two pair and not improving. Then Pete Chwala went out in fourth after his Kh-Jd failed to improve versus Linster's Ac-Qh.

With three left a big hand developed between Schechter and Bell that saw Schechter all in with Kd-Ks against Bell's Ad-As. The board came queen-high, and heads-up play began with Bell in front with 6.245 million to Linster's 4.3 million.

Both players were especially deep, however, and in fact it would take another three-plus hours for things to be decided. Bell took a commanding lead at one point, but Linster managed to claw back and after more than a hundred hands between them finally had Bell all in with 8d-6d versus Linster's Ah-Qc. The board brought no help for Bell, and Linster had won.

WPT bestbet Open ($5,000) final table results:
1st:  Michael Linster -- $321,521
2nd:  David Bell -- $175,712
3rd:  Danny Schechter -- $115,311
4th:  Pete Chwala -- $79,619
5th:  Pete Tinnesz -- $58,754
6th:  David Diaz -- $46,673

Linster had amassed over $450,000 worth of tourney winnings during the last five years prior to the win, but like this week's other winners Tuesday's victory marks the largest cash by far for him as well.

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