After coming into the final table as one of the four “short stacks,” veteran poker professional Jan Bendik was able to come back to defeat a difficult final table to capture the European Poker Tour’s Grand Final Main Event at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino in Monaco on Saturday.
The six men who returned for battle in theory all had a chance at the EPT Grand Final title, but to be realistic only two of them were considered serious contenders. Both Adrien Allain (11.815 million chips) and Jimmy Guerrero (11.48 million) had battled back and forth on Day 5, swapping the lead between them, while the other four men all struggled along in the two million chip frame. Bendik (2.625 million), Oren Rosen (2.315 million), Pierre Calamusa and Asan Umarov (both 2.235 million) needed something big to start the tournament to get in contention and one of them would get just what the doctor ordered.
Only 15 hands into play, it was a short stack showdown that brought the first elimination. Bendik had gotten off to a nice start to climb over three million chips so, after Rosen shoved all in from the cutoff with A♦ J♦, it made it a bit easier to call him with an off suit A-K. The duo watched as a ten-high board rolled out, bringing absolutely no help for Rosen and sending him to the rail in sixth place as Bendik began to climb with his 5.1 million chips.
Despite the early elimination of Rosen, the players were a bit tentative about too much infighting. Allain was able to extend his lead as he climbed over 13 million just before a level-up and, after he crushed Calamusa on Hand 50 (using an A-J to eclipse Calamusa’s A-4) to send his countryman home in fifth, Allain climbed over the 16 million chip mark. It was becoming a battle of who would emerge to take on Allain and Bendik seemed up for the challenge.
Guerrero, who was very quiet in the early going, would eliminate Umarov in fourth place and seemed to want to get something going. He became very involved in the action three-handed, playing pretty much every hand, which normally leads to either being caught with a marginal showing or having a monster crushed. That is what happened on Hand 61 when, after Guerrero upped the betting with pocket Aces off the button, Bendik defended his big blind with only a K♥ 7♥. The 4-K-7 hit Bendik squarely to give him two pair and, after a flurry of betting, Bendik’s final chips were in the center against Guerrero’s pocket Aces. A deuce gave Guerrero eight outs (two Aces, three fours and three deuces) to winning on the river, but the Q♠ wasn’t one of them, earning Bendik the double and putting Guerrero on the short stack.
Bendik continued to rise during three-handed play, but it was Allain who administered the final blow to Guerrero. On Hand 69, Guerrero would raise with pocket deuces and, after Allain three-bet him with A-J off suit, pushed his remaining stack in. Allain made that call and the flop was a fortuitous one, A-J-3, that immediately pushed Allain into a dominant lead. A six on the turn didn’t help Guerrero and, after the 10♣ came on the river, Guerrero was out in third place.
Going to heads up play, Allain held more than a 2:1 lead over Bendik (21.87 million to 10.835 million) as the duo settled in for a fight. 25 hands of play saw Allain stretch his lead a bit but, on Hand 100, Bendik would hit a four-flush to save him with his chips on the line. That double nearly evened up the stacks, but Allain soon would push back out to a nice lead. Bendik, however, was just as resilient, earning another double on Hand 120 to bring the stacks close to even again.
The twosome would battle like this until the dinner break as, on that last hand, Bendik eked out an 800K lead to head away from the table. Upon their return, the men would exchange the lead back and forth, working over 45 hands before Bendik pushed out to a five million chip lead. Although Allain would come back to make the difference about a million chips on Hand 205, the end was nigh.
On Hand 206, Allain found pocket eights in his squeeze and raised to 525K. Bendik looked down to see pocket tens in his hole cards and popped the betting up to 1.65 million, which Allain called. An A-8-4 flop gave Allain a set and, after Bendik bet out, Allain just called to set the trap. The trap sprung – albeit on Allain – when a ten came on the turn.
Bendik now got tricky, checking his option, and Allain fired out a bet. Bendik pushed out a raise to 4.25 million and, still thinking he was the best, Allain called again. A trey on the river saw Bendik end the charades by pushing all in with the best set of tens, Allain calling with what he thought was the best set (really second set) of eights and shipping his chips to Bendik.
1. Jan Bendik, €961,800
2. Adrien Allain, €577,800
3. Jimmy Guerrero, €406,850
4. Asan Umarov, €305,660
5. Pierre Calamusa, €233,800
6. Oren Rosen, €170,950
7. Antoine Saout, €128,340*
8. Dario Sammartino, €91,860*
(* – eliminated on Friday, officially part of the EPT final table)
Although he has a long history of tournament poker success dating back to 2005, this marks Bendik’s first major tournament poker championship. He has won on the EPT before in preliminary events, which helped him to win the Season 9 EPT Player of the Year, but nothing of the magnitude of winning the EPT Grand Final. In fact, Bendik’s previous high score in his tournament poker career was €170,000 for his fifth place finish at the 2011 EPT San Remo. The nearly one million Euros pocketed for the Grand Final championship also pushes Bendik’s over the $3 million mark in career tournament poker earnings.
With the finish of the Grand Final, the book has closed on Season 12 of the EPT. It won’t be that long, however – about three months – before Season 13 of the EPT will kick off in Barcelona, Spain. Congratulations to the EPT Grand Final champion, Jan Bendik, and to the EPT for another fantastic season.
