Online Poker > News Archive
Poker News
October 11th 2006
German chef wins EPT Baden
With all the furore surrounding the scurrilous Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act you could be forgiven for thinking that poker has been wiped off the face of the earth. Armageddon has been and gone, leaving a bloody hole where poker once stood, and the game we know and love will never again be played on our fair planet.
Well it’s time to shake yourself out of that morbid stupor. Poker, while not as healthy as it was two weeks ago, is not fatally wounded. It sustained a blow, sure, maybe a slight maiming, but there’s still plenty of life in the old girl yet.
No more was this evident than in the latest instalment of a thriving third season of the European Poker Tour, coming to you from Austria’s Casino Baden. As expected this leg drew a slightly smaller crowd than the more glamorous recent stops in London and Barcelona. Nevertheless nearly 330 players turned out, nearly twice the number of entrants from 2005, when Finnish star Patrik Antonius won the €218,990 first prize.
Among those 330 were a host of former winners and poker stars. Patrik Antonius was back to defend his crown, while London’s popular winner Vicky Coren was back to see if she could produce a historic double. More former winners were present in the form of Mats Iremark and Noah Boeken, while European poker stars Rob Hollink, Marcel Luske, Jeff Lisandro, Andy Black, Dave Colclough, Juha Hellpi, Julian Thew, Ben Grundy and the Hendon Mob were also on display.
While the household names have performed admirably in recent EPT events, with at least one well known player making the final table of the last two main-events, Baden saw a host of less familiar names make the final table.
None of these players were novices however, and PokerStars players will have been familiar with a number of players, such as Italian Dario Minieri (who has played so much on PokerStars he accumulated enough player points to get a Porsche), and American Ben Johnson (who regularly crushes the cash games on PokerStars.com)
Both players lived up to their reputation, making it into the top three, but both fell at the hands of German chef Thang Doc Nguyen, who also eliminated Daniel Dodet in fourth place, as he began his march to the title.
By all accounts Nguyen passed under the radar during this tournament, studiously avoiding the rollercoaster ride that so many other players climbed onto. He played steady, almost faultless tournament poker, and even upon reaching the final table, he bided his time before making his serious moves.
Down to four Nguyen finally struck for home. His first victim was Daniel Dodet, who got all his chips in on the flop with a nut flush draw, but Nguyen already had the nut straight, and there was no help for Dodet on the turn or river.
Next to fall was the hyper aggressive Dario Minieri, who had fallen from chip leader to shortstack when a number of his aggressive manoeuvres failed to come off. He pushed all-in with AJ only to be called by Nguyen with AQ.
That left Nguyen heads up with Ben Johnson and enjoying a 2:1 chip lead. After a bit of jostling the end came when Johnson re-raised Nguyen all-in with K3. It was a case of bad timing, as Nguyen had 44 and after some deliberation, he called. A four on the turn gave him trips and though Johnson had a backdoor flush draw the river was a harmless 9c. Nguyen leaped in the air and shrieked with delight at the biggest moment in all his time playing poker. Speaking to the cameras after he had clamed down Nguyen offered some perspective on his won when he said he would not be giving up his day job. He might, however, treat himself to a nice holiday.
1st Thang Doc Nguyen (Ger) €487,397
2nd Ben Johnson (USA) €251,560
3rd Dario Minieri (Ita) €125,780
4th Daniel Dodet (Bel) €110,057
5th Sasa Biorac (Ger) €94,335
6th Rodion Cherednichenko (Rus) €78,612
7th Jonas Molander (Swe) €62,890
8th Peter Eichhardt (Swe) €47,167
9th Andrea Balla (Ita) €31,445
Submitted: 11/10/2006 12:06:11
Page 1 of 1
Monthly Archive