Eurosport - Fri, 19 Sep 12:05:00 2008
Germany's Sebastian Ruthenberg was the winner of the latest leg on the European Tour, the Barcelona Open.
The 24-year-old from Hamburg collected &euro1,360,100 after prevailing at the end of the five-day tournament that featured over 600 players.
Ruthenberg's victory comes just two months after he collected the World Series of Poker Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo World Championship Eight or Better title.
The likes of Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen had fallen by the wayside before the final day with seven countries represented in the eight-man final table.
Sebastian Ruthenberg (1.2 million) was just behind Dane Martin Nielsen (1.22 million) on chip count with Canada's Samuel Chartier (879,000), another German Dren Ukella (734,000) and Fintan Gavin of Ireland (701,000) following.
Belgian Davidi Kitai (600,000), Jason Mercier of USA (526,000) and Italian Daniele Mazzia (359,000) made up the rear.
Incredibly Nielsen was the first to depart after seeing Mercier double up on him in quick succession and he was followed out of the door by Montreal's Chartier who saw Gavin's Ace high eliminate him.
Mercier, who won the European Poker Tour's San Remo event during season four, saw his chances of a EPT repeat end when he went All-In for a little over 500,000 with a pocket pair of sevens only to met by an instant call from Gavin who had pocket queens which held up.
That gave Gavin the chip lead and the man from Galway extended that advantage when he busted Cologne's Ukella for fifth place with a winning pair of nines.
Mazzia was gone in fourth, shortly after going All-in for over 1 milion only for Kitai to usurp his pocket nines with a pair of tens leaving Gavin (3.2 million), Kitai (2 million) and Ruthenberg (870,000) to contest the title.
Kitai, who won the $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold'em event at the 2008 World Series of Poker to become the first ever WSOP bracelet winner from Belgium, called Ruthenberg for his last 1,920,000 but couldn't find one of several outs to outgun the German's pair of fours.
That left the heads up between Ruthenberg and online qualifer Gavin who had lost his chip lead in two big hands to the German shortly before Kitai's exit.
The heads-up lasted only three hands before the Irishman went All-In only for a king on the turn and a nine on the river give his opponent two pair.
Ruthenberg said: "My year, really amazing I don't know what to say except I am a huge luckbox.
"There was actually no moment when I thought I might win it. I was card-dead for a long time and just waiting to make a play. But I know I am running good at the moment. This win is worth more money than the WSOP and I have to say - the money is important."
Results:
1 Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) 1,361,000 EURO
2 Fintan Gavin (Ireland) 792,000 EURO
3 David Kitai (Belgium) 455,000 EURO
4 Daniele Mazzia (Italy) 351,000 EURO
5 Dren Ukella (Germany) 292,000 EURO
6 Jason Mercier (USA) 227,000 EURO
7 Samuel Chartier (Canada) 178,000 EURO
8 Martin Nielsen (Denmark) 119,000 EURO
9 Mikael Lundell (Sweden) 74,400 EURO
10 Salvatore Pengue (Italy) 74,400 EURO
11 Jonas Klausen (Denmark) 49,600 EURO
12 Beniamino Speroni (Italy) 49,600 EURO
13 Mark Flowers (USA) 37,200 EURO
14 Jonas Molander (Sweden) 37,200 EURO
15 Stephen Chidwick (England) 29,700 EURO
16 Claudio Cecchi (Italy) 29,700 EURO
17 Voitto Rintala (Finland) 24,700 EURO
18 Steven Weusten (Netherlands) 24,700 EURO
19 Ronny Johansen (Norway) 24,700 EURO
20 Ramzi Jelassi (Sweden) 24,700 EURO
21 Malte Strothmann (Germany) 24,700 EURO
22 Cornelis Alblas (Netherlands) 24,700 EURO
23 Alessandro Longobardi (Italy) 24,700 EURO
24 Jose Vazquez Ortega (Spain) 24,700 EURO
25 Michael Keiner (Germany) 19,800 EURO
26 Henri JK Koivisto (Finland) 19,800 EURO
27 Joe Pelton (USA) 19,800 EURO
28 Joel Nordkvist (Sweden) 19,800 EURO
29 Alessandro Lusso (Italy) 19,800 EURO
30 Pier Paolo Ruscalla (Italy) 19,800 EURO
31 Mauro Corsetti (Italy) 19,800 EURO
32 Helfrid Bernhardt (Germany) 19,800 EURO
33 Alexander Grishchuk (Russia) 17,300 EURO
34 Chad Brown (USA) 17,300 EURO
35 Marko Tapio Vainio (Sweden) 17,300 EURO
36 Andrey Chesnokov (Russia) 17,300 EURO
37 Benjamin Mirsaidi (Germany) 17,300 EURO
38 Maz Nawab (England) 17,300 EURO
39 Nichlas Mattsson (Sweden) 17,300 EURO
40 Maria Maceiras (Spain) 17,300 EURO
41 Albert Sapiano (England) 14,900 EURO
42 Hafiz Khan (USA) 14,900 EURO
43 Stavros Kalfas (Greece) 14,900 EURO
44 Fowzi Baroukh (England) 14,900 EURO
45 Jean Paul Pasqualini (France) 14,900 EURO
46 Dennis Bejedal (Sweden) 14,900 EURO
47 Kevin MacPhee (USA) 14,900 EURO
48 Joao Vide Barboa (Portugal) 14,900 EURO
49 Michael Greco (UK) 12,400 EURO
50 Casey Kastle (USA) 12,400 EURO
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