While most of the poker world’s attention is on the action in London, the European Masters of Poker (EMOP) Circuit crowned its latest champion at its stop in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday.
The €1,000 (plus €100 juice) tournament took place over the weekend at the Gran Casino Barcelona, drawing the largest field in the history of the EMOP circuit. 431 runners showed up between the two Day Ones of the tournament, building an impressive prize pool that hit €431,000, or slightly more than USD $580,000.
Through the EMOP’s partnership with the Entraction Network, many in the field had made their way to Barcelona for less than the €1,000 buy-in. For every event of the EMOP, such rooms as 24hPoker.com, C4A.com, NoIQPoker.com, Pokerihuone.com, and Pokerdassi.com offer opportunities for their players to enter the championship tournaments. These online qualifiers start for as low as €2 or 200 VIP points. Unfortunately, no American action is allowed on the Entraction Network.
Sunday evening saw the 431 player field whittled down to the final table, which held the traditional nine players. Holding the chip lead was Denmark’s Damir Horozic, with both the Ukraine’s Oleksandr Sharov and Finland’s Matias Knaapinen in close pursuit. The players didn’t waste any time in getting to the game on Sunday night, with a competitor eliminated on the very first hand of play.
On that first hand, Sharov opened the action, only to see Horozic move his stack to the center of the table. Sharov called of the remainder of his stack and tabled pocket Jacks, which were racing against Horozic’s A-Q. Sharov faded the flop (K-10-5) and turn (7), but was cruelly beaten by a river Queen. After coming to the Gran Casino Barcelona at the start of play on Sunday as the chip leader, Sharov had to settle for a ninth place finish in the tournament.
With his newfound chips, Horozic kept the pressure on his opponents. On the very next hand after beating Sharov, Horozic made another bet that allowed the Dane to show his pocket tens. He bumped Sweden’s Viktor Olsson from the table in seventh to maintain his presence as the chip leader, but Horozic would soon face a challenge from Holland’s Lennart Konst.
Over a span of a couple of hours, Konst was able to wrench the chip lead from Horozic, leading to an inevitable clash between the two. With five players remaining, Konst made a move from the big blind, moving his leading stack to the center of the table. Horozic made an immediate call, tabling Big Slick. Konst somewhat sheepishly showed only a 10-8 to go to war with. The 9-8-6 rainbow flop brought salvation to Konst and, once the remainder of the board ran dry, eliminated Horozic in fifth place via the bad beat.
After five hours of play, Konst still held a healthy lead. Even after doubling up Knaapinen on the 71st hand of play, he still held a 1.5 million chip lead over Knaapinen and Ireland’s Sean Prendiville. When Prendiville found himself sitting with pocket eights three-handed, he moved all-in and was looked up by Knaapinen, who held the higher pair with pocket tens. Since no eight came, Prendiville was out in the third slot.
When heads-up play commenced, Konst and Knaapinen were nearly even in chips. After 20 minutes of play, Knaapinen was able to establish some space in a key hand that saw Konst put a great deal of his chips in on the flop and turn. Konst originally re-raised Knaapinen’s pre-flop bet of 160,000 to 480,000 and, after checking the Q-7-2 flop, fired a 1.88 million chip bet. Instead of just calling, Knaapinen moved all-in and put Konst to a decision. After agonizing over the call, Konst released his hand and, with only 1.11 million left, was now at a nearly 7-1 disadvantage to Knaapinen.
The duo danced around for the next 30 hands as Knaapinen looked for the right moment to vanquish his worthy foe. On Hand 109, Knaapinen moved all-in with pocket threes, with Konst making the call with a hearts-suited Q-J. Two hearts came on the flop, leaving Konst drawing twice to 15 outs to get back in the tournament. Once Konst fanned on both the turn and the river, Mattias Knaapinen became the latest champion of the EMOP.
1st – Matias Knaapinen (Finland) €93,000
2nd – Lennart Konst (Holland) €56,200
3rd – Sean Prendiville (Ireland) €37,150
4th – Matti Konttinen (Finland) €23,320
5th – Damir Horozic (Denmark) €18,570
6th – Carlos Egea (Spain) €14,250
7th – Viktor Olsson (Sweden) €12,520
8th – Dermot Blain (Ireland) €10,800
9th – Oleksandr Sharov (Ukraine) €9,070
Knaapinen joins Vladimir Mefodichev, Maciej Lipny, Timothy Timotheuo, Giovanni Suetra, and Manig Loser as the champions during the second season of the EMOP. The tour will be moving on to its seventh and final stop, the €1,500 (plus €150) buy-in EMOP Main Event at the Casino de Venezia, Malta, which will take place from November 17th to 20th. Online qualifications though the Entraction Network are currently running for the Malta tournament.
