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The Warriors of Liechtenstein Main Event ended at exactly midnight, after a heads-up match that lasted just a few hands, with first prize and trophy going to Italian Alessandro Ferrari after a final table full of surprises.
A day that began at lunchtime, when there were still 16 contending for a place at the final table, with Anton Heinrich looking down on everyone thanks to his 3.5 million in chips, equivalent to about seventy big blinds.
His moment of glory lasted barely a couple of hours as he was taken advantage of first by Thomas Schmitter and then Nikola Gasevic, who at the start of the final table were the two with the most chips of all (although Gasevic had twice the stack of the Swiss).
The bubble man is "Spongediing" (photo above), left with just 3 blinds and forced to call with Q-T from BB the shove of Sven Löeffel from BTN with A-7o. Smooth board and the eight finalists can take their seats at the TV table.
The final table
We start with Gasevic who has about 40 % of the chips in play and therefore has no interest in putting chips in play unless for good reasons. However, his wait-and-see strategy doesn't pay off much as his opponents struggle to eliminate themselves.
The first suspect is Sven Löeffel, who probably out of fear of gambling everything preflop opts for an unusual line with A-Qo from UTG, finding Ferrari's defense from BB with J-J. A double barrel on K-8-8-x and a double call for the Italian, on the river the action goes check-to-check and Sven is left with 6 BB. He will find elimination shortly.
He is followed rather quickly by Thomas Schmitter, who also remained rather short, and in the 6-handed phase the game changes. Those with stacks try to put the pressure on (see Gasevic), while Minh Lu doesn't miss a chance to squeeze into any spot, as in the case of Schmitter's elimination, for instance, the Swiss shoves with Q-J off, cold-calls with 8-8 Gasevic and Lu follows with Q-Ts, despite the stack not allowing too much room for maneuver.
Unfortunately for him, the 10-7-6 flop was followed by a 9 which gave the Austrian a straight flush, and his stack was halved (the fold on the turn after Gasevic's shove even required an extra time bank).
However, the show has yet to begin and it is the Italian Givi who, not having chosen too conservative a strategy in some spots that he could easily have taken home with a simple c-bet, finds himself going all-in preflop with Q-Q.
The flop smiles on him, but on the turn a 9 as big as a house condemns him to a premature elimination that is also rather difficult to digest.
Not too much time passed and Minh Lu, who had even managed to overtake Gasevic for some stretches, consigned himself to history by squandering his stack under ICM pressure (e.g. when he 3-bet folds from SB the opening from UTG of 'Poker Bananas' with K-Qo and a 20x stack).
Up to this point, the situation seems to be fairly straightforward with Gasevic in the lead, "Poker Bananas" chasing with forty or so blinds, Ferrari hoping to double up and Ibrahim Habach waiting for yet another elimination of one of his opponents.
His strategy turns out to be the best under ICM pressure: he folds when there is to fold, defends when there is to defend, and bluffs when he can take advantage of the situation. However, he needs to double up and the spot against Gasevic with A-K vs A-Q is what he needs to take flight.
The board does not overturn the preflop percentages and Habach returns to breathing with a stack of just under 30 blinds in the most important phase of the tournament.
In the meantime, the downward parabola of "Poker Bananas" begins as he sees a big stack of chips slammed into his face by Ferrari with 9-8s from the BB, on his opening BTN with A-Qo. Snap-call and an 8 on the turn drops him considerably in the count.
Shortly afterward he finds himself once again in the rests with the Italian, but this time the percentages see him playing to 20, with 5-5 against K-K and no help from Lady Luck.
The key spot of the tournament, however, came while still in play and saw Gasevic and Habach in a hand that could have ended the game (or almost) early.
Habach has just doubled up and Gasevic tries to make the weight of his stack count by opening with a frequency that makes the German suspicious. Habach then decides to 3-bet from BTN with A-6 in Hearts and a stack of 26x, Gasevic flops and the flop is a sentence: 8-5-A rainbow.
They both check until the turn, a 9, on which Gasevic checks raises Habach's bet to 1.4M who calls another 2.4M putting his chips in the middle 10%. What happens on the river you can see below.
From this hand, Gasevic emerges dazed but holds on, while Habach, in disbelief, finds himself in the lead.
The Deal
The three finalists reached a deal that made everyone happy (Gasevic was already looking forward to a nice one-no-deal) and in the end, it was he who came out against Ferrari.
It all happened pre-flop, shove with A-5 from the Italian and call with 10-10 from the Austrian, Ace on the board, and game over.
The head-to-head lasted only a few hands because Ferrari closed the game with a runner-runner straight that drove the German crazy: limp from BTN and Habach's check, c-bet on 2-2-5 and call, Ferrari's second barrel on a 3 on the turn and Habach's call again, river 7 that closed Ferrari's straight with 6-4o and Habach's call with K-7s. Game over.
Ferrari collects 34.5K plus 3K reserved for the first, Habach something less even if after that 7 taken on the river the feeling is that of having won the lottery.
The payout
This is the order of arrival with the original payout and, next to it, the correct one after the deal.
1. 🇮🇹Alessandro Ferrari CHF 50,000 (36.5K after deal)
2. 🇩🇪Ibrahim Habach CHF 28,200 (32.5K after deal)
3. 🇦🇹Nikola Gasevic CHF 17,800 (27K after deal)
4. 🇨🇭PokerBanane CHF 12.500
5. 🏳️Minh Lu CHF 9.100
6. 🇮🇹GIVI CHF 7.150
7. 🇨🇭Thomas SchmitterCHF 5.720
8. 🇨🇭Sven Löeffel CHF 4.320
Il replay del tavolo finale
To review the whole action just click below...
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