EPT Berlin €5,000 NL Hold’em Main Event Final Table Recap

The final table of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Berlin €5,000 NL Hold’em Main Event was held yesterday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel despite delays from an onsite robbery that occurred Saturday afternoon. 

 

The top eight from the gigantic 945 person playing field met up to duke it out for the title and the €1 million first place prize. Going into the round the playing field looked like what follows.

 

Seat 1: Marko Neumann with 2,185,000 chips

Seat 2:  Marc Inizan with 3,655,000 chips

Seat 3: Kevin MacPhee with 6,070,000 chips

Seat 4: Artur Wasek with 3,530,000 chips

Seat 5: Marcel Koller with 3,590,000 chips

Seat 6: Nico Behling with 960,000 chips

Seat 7: Ketul Nathwani with 4,685,000 chips

Seat 8: Ilari Tahkokallio with 3,940,000 chips 

 

The first elimination of the match came within minutes. Short stack Nico Behling went all in on the preflop with A-Q only to be called by Marcel Koller who held pocket 10s. The flop revealed nothing useful for the Behling and he was sent packing in eight place with €72,000. 

 

Marko Neumann would be the next to fall under the axe. Running low on chips he went all in on an A-K only to be taken out by Kevin MacPhee who held pocket 7s which turned into a three-of-a-kind on the flop. His loss would prove to be MacPhee’s gain who grew his chip lead to 10 million from the pot. Neumann would leave with a very reasonable concession prize though taking home $120,000 for his seventh place finishing. 

 

Then came the elimination of Marcel Koller who moved all in for 2,395,000 on the preflop with A-Q only to meet Ilari Tahkokallio’s pocket queens. He left in sixth with €165,000. 

In fifth was Ketul Nathwani with €210,000 who’s A-6 was no match for MacPhee’s pair 9s. His loss would further bolster MacPhee’s chip lead bring him up to 14 million overall. 

 

Things went slow from there. It took nearly three hours for another player to be removed from the competition. When it finally happened it was Artur Wasek who took the long walk. He moved all in preflop on pocket queens but ended up just short against Marc Inizan’s pocket Kings and walked away in fourth with €280,000. 

 

After a brief dinner break the top three players returned to the match. At this point Tahkokallio had managed to wrestle the chip lead from MacPhee with 12,260,000 chips to MacPhees’ 10,760,000 and Inizan was coming up the rear with quite a disadvantage of 5,690,000. 

 

Inizan managed to hold it together for awhile but eventually his luck ran out when he decided to reraise all-in on a Js 10s. He left in third with €350,000. 

 

Now it was down to the final two and with MacPhee once again in the chip lead. That lead would be increased, lost, and then increased again before the match was through but it all eventually came down to a single hand. Both players went all in with MacPhee holding 4s 3s and Tahkokallio 9h 6h. As the flop finished up MacPhee was left with a straight and Tahkokallio pair six. Tahkokallio walked away in second with €600,000 to show for the trip. 

 

MacPhee a 29-year old Idahoan who likes to play online as “ImaLuckSac” won the title, the trophy, free entry into the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final and a cool $1,000,000. He won his spot at the tournament playing online at PokerStars. 

 

The Full Final Table Results:

1 – Kevin MacPhee, €1,000,000

2 – Ilari Tahkokallio, €600,000

3 – Marc Inizan, €350,000

4 – Artur Wasek, €280,000

5 – Ketul Nathwani, €210,000

6 – Marcel Koller, €165,000

7 – Marko Neumann, €120,000

8 – Nico Behling, €72,000