The €8,500 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event of the Partouche Poker Tour concluded Saturday after a two-month break and just as he entered the final table with the chip lead, Nottingham, England’s Sam Trickett finished the tournament on top. For his win in the 579-player event at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France, Trickett won a cool €1,000,000.
Though Trickett began the final table with the chip lead and started the final day atop the standings as well, the tide had turned a bit and he began heads-up play against Salman Behbehani facing a 2-to-1 chip deficit. As those who watched the World Series of Poker Main Event final table well know, the chip lead can flip in an instant, and it was no different this time. Trickett persevered and made his comeback to win the million Euro first prize. Behbehani had to “settle” for a mere 600,000 Euros. The rest of the members of the final table all cashed in the six-figures.
Trickett has had a fantastic 2011. It was actually all downhill since January until now, but that’s just because Trickett started out the year almost impossibly hot. First, he won the A$100,000 No-Limit Hold’em (yes, that’s $100,000) event at the Aussie Millions for A$1,525,000. He followed that up less than a week later with a runner-up finish in the A$250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event, scoring A$1,400,000. He had a few five-figure cashes the rest of the year through the summer, including an 11th place finish in the first event of the Epic Poker League and then picked it up another notch this fall. After qualifying for the Patrouche Poker Tour Main Event in September, Trickett final tabled the £20,000 High Roller Event of the European Poker Tour London stop (£68,800/$107,534) and placed fourth in the €5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event of the World Series of Poker Europe (€77,642/$103,719).
Trickett’s recent dual final table runs contributed in large part to his cracking ESPN.com’s “The Nuts” power rankings of the best poker players of the moment. He entered the latest poll at number ten, though many still don’t think he is getting the credit he deserves.
For the year, Trickett has now won over $4.2 million (monetary figures converted to U.S. Dollars from Euros and British Pounds) on the live tournament circuit, bringing his lifetime earnings to just about $6 million. He ranks fifth on the overall 2011 money list, behind World Series of Poker Player of the Year Ben Lamb ($5,352,970), WSOP Main Event runner-up Martin Staszko ($5,462,876), Erik Seidel, who beat Trickett heads-up in the Aussie Millions Super High Roller event ($6,530,154), and WSOP Main Event champion Pius Heinz ($8,823,794).
2011 Partouche Poker Tour Final Table Results
1. Sam Trickett — €1,000,000
2. Salman Behbehani — €600,000
3. Oleksii Kovalchuk — €379,760
4. Ilan Boujenah — €300,000
5. Roger Hairabedian — €230,000
6. Alexander Dovzhenko — €190,000
7. Mustapha Kanit — €160,000
8. Alexandre Coussy — €130,000
9. Mads Wissing — €100,000
