Poker Tournament » Live Poker Tournaments » European Poker Tour (EPT) »
2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009 | Francis Lee
The penultimate leg in the 2009 European Poker Tour (EPT) was held in San Remo, Italy. 1,178 players bought into the €5,300 buy in main event creating a prize pool of €5,713,300. The first place prize on offer was €1.5 million and a seat to the EPT grand final to be held in Monte Carlo in a few weeks time.
The winner of this event would have to get through four days play to get to the top prize and the difficulty of the task was largely increased with the number of well known pro’s in the field.
Dragan Galic had the best of the running through out the first few days play right up to the final table where he upheld his chip lead. He ended up amassing over 3 million in chips which was 400,000 more than Gustav Sundell in second place. Kalle Niemi who qualified for this tournament through a satellite on Poker Stars had also made the final table but was one place off short stacked Ovi Balaj. Here’s how the rest of the final table looked.
Final Table Chip Rankings
- 1st Dragan Galic 3,098,000
- 2nd Gustav Sundell 2,625,000
- 3rd William Reynolds 2,531,000
- 4th Constant Rijkenberg 932,000
- 5th Alexander Fitzgerald 721,000
- 6th Danilo D’Ettoris 686,000
- 7th Kalle Niemi 641,000
- 8th Ovidiu Mihai Balaj 625,000
Constant Rijkenberg made the best start in the opening exchanges, first by doubling up against the chip leader Dragan Galic beating 
with 
Then just three hands later he eliminated Danilo D’Ettoris into eighth place with 
against 
D’Ettoris had a chance of hitting a flush draw when the board was showing 
but the 
ended his tournament.
Alexander Fitzgerald was next to fall when he was crippled down to just 135,000 in chips when doubling up William Reynolds. On the next hand Fitzgerald’s all in raise was called by both Ovi Balaj and Galic. Galic lead out with a 150,000 bet after the flop came down 
to which Balaj folded. Galic tabled 
having top pair ahead of Fitzgerald with 
Fitzgerald was handed a glimmer of hope as the 
came down on the turn but the on the river left him to collect €171,000 finishing in seventh place.
Just three hands later Ovi Balaj was looking favourite to double up all in with 
against Reynolds 
This quickly changed as the flop gave Reynolds a set showing 
No nine came for Balaj on the final two cards sending him out in sixth place winning €229,000.
It was the early chip leader Dragan Galic who was next to fall on the 60th hand of play on this final table. He was all in with 
against the current chip leader Rijkenberg who had It was the perfect flop for Rijkenberg as it came down 
giving him a straight and the on the turn left Galic drawing dead with one card to come.
There were more hands played during four handed play than what had been played from the start of the final table. The long wait for the next elimination was ended when Reynolds and Rijkenberg clashed with Rijkenberg ahead pre flop having against Rijkenberg then went onto pair an Ace on the flop to which Reynolds could not recover.
Three hands later Gustav Sundell was all in having against Kalle Niemi ahead with 
The final board blanked out for both players as it came down 
leaving Sundell to head for the rail to collect €480,000 for finishing third.
Heads up lasted just five hands as all the chips went into the middle after the flop had come down 
Niemi had hit top pair with 
but he had run into Rijkenberg with 
Only a ten would save Niemi but the and confirmed Rijkenberg as the 2009 EPT San Remo champion. As well as the €1.5 million Rijkenberg also won a seat to the EPT grand final in Monte Carlo to be held at the end of the month.
Final Standings
- 1st Constant Rijkenberg €1,508,000
- 2nd Kalle Nieme €862,000
- 3rd Gustav Sundell €480,000
- 4th William Reynolds €377,000
- 5th Dragan Galic €314,000
- 6th Ovi Balaj €229,000
- 7th Alexander Fitzgerald €171,000
- 8th Danilo D’Ettoris €114,000
YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE
-
danny boy »
May 20th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
1 of the best EPT games i av seen Rijkenberg deserved to win
-
danny boy »
May 20th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
he played good poker
LEAVE A COMMENT
