In the largest poker tournament in the history of Estonian poker, Norwegian poker pro Kevin “KevBoyStar” Stani outlasted a talented final table early Monday morning to capture the first event of the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) seventh season in Tallinn, Estonia.
420 players stepped up with the €4,250 necessary for the buy-in, easily becoming the largest poker tournament in the history of Estonia. As the first event on the EPT Season Seven calendar, the Tallinn event replaced last year’s kickoff event in Kiev as the focal point for European poker. Top professionals turned out in droves for the tournament, while only a few had significant success.
56 total players were able to walk away from the Swissôtel Tallinn with a little extra cash in their pockets from the experience. Most notably, Italian Team PokerStars pro Luca Pagano made EPT history by finishing in 26th place for €8,000. The cash was Pagano’s 15th career EPT in the money finish, the most by any player over the seven years of play.
Other top pros made deep runs in the tournament before being eliminated from the fun in Tallinn. Two players who were in the top 10 throughout the early going, 2008 November Niner Ivan Demidov and 2007 Swedish Open Poker Championships Main Event victor Johan Storakers, battled valiantly through the field before coming up short of the final table. Demidov was eliminated in 22nd place and Storakers dropped from the event in 15th place. Once the United Kingdom’s Jonathan Weekes was dispatched in ninth place, the final table was set for play on Sunday.
Coming into the final table, several of the 40 nations that comprised the field for the EPT Tallinn were represented. Only one country – Russia – featured two players, with Lebanon, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, France, and Norway making up the rest of final table. Former EPT champion Arnaud Mattern was the chip leader at the final table with 3.7 million, but Stani lurked in the second slot with a stack of 2.5 million.
Play started at 1:00pm on Sunday and the players wasted little time in getting to business. One of the two Russians in the tournament, Konstantin Bilyauer, cut almost 700,000 chips from the stack of Mattern before the Frenchman replenished his stack by eliminating Lebanon’s Bassam Elnajjar in eighth place. Mattern continued to press his advantage through the early going, maintaining his chip lead before Bilyauer began to assert himself four hours into the final table.
Bilyauer, Stani, and Mattern proceeded to fight it out for the next two hours before heads-up action was determined. In what turned out to be the hand that determined heads-up action, Mattern suffered a cruel beat at the hands of Stani after the duo pushed their chips into the center pre-flop. Dominating Stani’s pocket threes, Mattern faded the flop with his pocket queens. A decisive three on the turn, however, put the Frenchman behind and left him looking for a queen or another heart to complete a flush. The river blanked for Mattern, though, eliminating him in third place and denying the EPT of its first two-time champion.
Down to heads-up play, Stani held slightly more than a 2-1 lead over Bilyauer, but it still took more than two hours to determine a champion. Stani extended his lead in the early going only to double up Bilyauer after he caught a king against Stani’s pocket sevens to continue the battle. Bilyauer continued to chip away at Stani before the twosome reached the penultimate hand.
On the final hand, play started innocently enough with a 3-9-2 rainbow flop that both players checked. When a four appeared on the turn, Stani check raised Bilyauer’s 375,000 bet to 875,000, only to see him call. Another seemingly innocuous card, an eight, popped up on the river and Bilyauer opened the action with a strong 1.2 million chip bet. Stani then moved all-in, leaving the Russian with a decision for his tournament life. He made the call, only to muck his hand after Stani turned up a dominating 6-5 offsuit for the straight and the championship.
1. Kevin Stani (Norway) €400,000
2. Konstantin Bilyauer (Russia) €250,000
3. Arnaud Mattern (France) €160,000
4. Dmitry Vitkind (Russia) €120,000
5. Mikko Jaatinen (Finland) €80,000
6. Steven van Zadelhoff (Netherlands) €63,000
7. Nicolo Calia (Italy) €47,000
8. Bassam Inaja (Lebanon) €32,000
Europe will be the center of the poker world’s attention in the next couple of weeks with two tournaments that should draw stellar fields. With the completion of Tallinn, the EPT will move onto its next stop in Vilamoura, Portugal, for a €5,300 event running from August 28th to September 2nd. In addition to this tournament, the World Poker Tour will be making its first ever stop in London for a €5,300 tournament from August 30th to September 5th.
