April 17 2012, Marc Convey

Day 1a was just the warm up to the carnage that ensued on Day 1b at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Berlin. The Grand Hyatt hotel was not big enough to contain the Day 1b crowd, and nine tables had to be opened next door in the Spielbank Berlin. The field ballooned to 502 players, more than twice the size of yesterday’s field. The top 112 players will earn a minimum of “7,500, and an appearance at this prestigious final table will guarantee you at least “72,000.

Cengiz Ulusu’s finished the day as chip leader, amassing 242,800 in chips. The stack he bagged also makes him the overall Day 1 leader, Vladimir Geshkenbein’s stack of 201,600 from Day 1a.

Whereas Monday was a superior day for Team PokerStars Pro, Tuesday was more difficult. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (40,900) will be back for Day 2 along with Viktor Blom (109,900), George Danzer (54,100), Alex Kravchenko (49,000), Nuno Coelho (8,500), Matthias De Meulder (14,500), and Friend Of PokersStars Charlotte Van Brabander (37,300).

The same can not be said for the following Team PokerStars Pros, because all of them were eliminated on Day 1b: Arnaud Mattern, Max Lykov, Lex Veldhuis, Johnny Lodden, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Jude Ainsworth, Andre Akkari, Rino Mathis, Ville Wahlbeck, Liv Boeree, Sadra Naujoks, Mickey Petersen, Marcin Horecki, Lex Veldhuis, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Eugene Katchalov, Toni Judet, Pius Heinz, Jonathan Duhamel, Christophe De Meulder, and Victor Ramdin.

Ramdin was particularly unlucky because he was up to 122,000 at his high point, but a series of hands went very badly for him. He flopped top set in one hand but lost out to an opponent who made a straight. Then he got his last 30,000 in with pocket queens only to run into pocket kings.

Pius Heinz was eliminated when he ran his queens into Bahadir Kilickeser’s and Ali Azabdaftar’s . Kilickeser was the happiest at the end though, because he found the other two kings in the deck to make quads.

Other players who excelled during Day 1b, include Kevin MacPhee, who cracked sets and flopped sets on his way to finishing with 139,100. Davidi Kitai won races, dropped back a little by losing races, and recovered to end with 197,700. Then there’s Calvin Anderson (205,100), Mario Puccini (198,900), Marc Wright (182,600), Dan Smith (173,600), Michiel Brummelhuis (173,500), and Konstantinos Tsirakidis (168,000) who have all moved into contention.

End of Day 1b Chip Counts

The remaining 329 players from both starting flights will all be in the same room on Wednesday. Play will resume at 1200 CET (0300 PDT), and as always, the PokerNews Team will be bringing you all the action live from the felt.

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April 10 2011, Dana Immanuel

It was an extremely high-quality lineup that graced the hallowed European Poker Tour final table at the Spielbank Berlin today. Chip leader Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky was making his first live cash while EPT fixture Martin Jacobson was making his unprecedented third final table in one season — his fourth EPT final overall. Also in the mix was Team PokerStars Pro Joep van den Bijgaart and PokerNews Cup winner Darren Kramer. Ten hours later, Wilinofsky was raising the trophy as the latest member of the exclusive club of EPT winners.

At the start of play, Wilinofsky was only 200,000 ahead of Max Heinzelmann, but just a few minutes into play, Wilinofsky took possession of most of Heinzelmann’s chips with bottom set on a board to give him a massive lead with almost half the chips in play. He held onto that lead for the rest of the day.

First to hit the deck was Jonas Gutteck. The German economics student shoved from the small blind with but smacked into big-blind Heinzelmann’s . Heinzelmann flopped a set and turned quads to make it game-over for Gutteck. He finished in 21st place here last year, but his eighth place for €66,000 this time around is his best ever EPT cash.

It was the start of a big comeback for Heinzelmann. A little later in the day, with seven players still in, he doubled up with through Martin Jacobson’s on a flop. Heinzelmann turned the flush and was back in the game.

Joep van den Bijgaart was the second shortest stack coming back on Day 5 and was the second player to bust out. Down to just five and a half big blinds, he went all-in from the small blind with and was called by big-blind Wilinofsky holding . When a king dropped on the turn, the last Team PokerStars Pro standing took seventh place for €100,000 — his best-ever live cash.

Just a few minutes after the demise of van den Bijgaart, 2008 PokerNews Cup winner Darren Kramer went down. Kramer moved in with from the small blind over a button raise from Vadzim Kursevich holding . Kursevich flopped a set and turned a full house to send Kramer home with €140,000 in sixth place.

The fifth-place spot was soon claimed by 25-year-old Armin Mette from Heidelberg. The economics student was playing his first EPT and met his end shoving with from the small blind to a raise from Martin Jacobson. Ben Wilinofsky re-shoved from the big blind with to isolate, and after the board ran out to give Wilinofsky quads, Mette had to settle for a not-too-shabby €180,000.

Martin Jacobson is something of an EPT legend — he came second in the main events at both Vilamoura and Deauville this season and took third place at Budapest in Season 5. That precious first place continues to elude him, though, as his in the small blind failed to out-flip Max Heinzelmann’s on the button, and he had to settle for fourth this time, picking up €230,000. He didn’t seem too troubled by once again being a bridesmaid and not the bride — “It would have been worse to lose heads-up!” he laughed afterward. He’s made around a €1 million at the EPT this season, and one can’t help but think that it’s just a matter of time before the young Swede gets to lift an EPT trophy of his own.

Vadzim Kursevich was the shortest stack as players went three-way, and he soon exited in third place. The flop read when the chips went in and Kursevich was holding a pretty premium for top pair, top kicker. But Ben Wilinofsky turned over for the flopped straight, and following the absence of any miracles on the turn and river, the Belarusian pro busted out, taking €300,000 with him.

It was a very friendly affair as the last two players began their heads-up match. Wilinofsky and Heinzelmann went for dinner together, and when they returned to the feature table to decide the tournament, shook hands and hugged. This love-in was only slightly undermined by Wilinofsky who smilingly told Heinzelmann, “You are so dead!” Just for fun, they agreed to show one card every time a pot was won that had gone to a flop or further, so it was occasionally possible to catch a glimpse of the face-up cards on the live feed.

Wilinofsky started with a 70/30 chip lead, and although Heinzelmann clawed a few chips back early in the match, Wilinofsky was much more aggressive than the German and never lost the chip lead. Eventually, in the first limped pot of the heads-up match, they saw an flop. Heinzelmann led out and then shoved to a raise from Wilinofsky, who called. Heinzelmann needed his top pair to hold against Wilinofsky’s straight draw, but the on the turn sealed the deal. He took home a cool €500,000 for second place.

“This is ridiculous. How does this happen to anyone?” pondered Wilinofsky as he was presented with the trophy, the Shamballa EPT bracelet and a giant check for €825,000. Indeed, this is a novel experience for the 22-year-old online pro — he’s made more than a million dollars online, but this is his first live cash. “RIP legendary Hendon Mob page” he wrote on Facebook the night before the final in reference to his completely empty live results page. What a first entry it’s going to be.

There are just two stops left on the EPT for this season. PokerNews will be back in the beautiful Italian city of San Remo in a few weeks and then will go straight on to Madrid after that for the Grand Final. Be sure to join us then.

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