EPT Barcelona – Chips Before Friendship
Sander Lylloff - EPT Barcelona Champ (Credit: Poker Stars Blog)
With the elimination of Spaniard Juan Maceiras in ninth place, the EPT televised final table was ready to get underway. Sitting in seat one was American Greg Dyer from Minneapolis , MN . The 20 year old Harvard student – he's studying statistics – has taken a $5,000 bankroll and turned it into $150,000 prior to the EPT final table, of course. Greg had 1,606,000 chips as the action began.
Seat two also featured a young American, 19 year old Ohio native, Adam Junglen. Known online as AJunglen7, Adam won a PokerStars' Sunday Million event in July, which netted him over $200,000. Junglen also cashed in the Aussie Million main event in January 2007. Junglen was on the short stack with 320k.
Nikolaus Jedlicka, 20, sat in seat 3. The Viennese player won the Austrian Masters tournament earlier this summer. He plays on PokerStars as “RealAndyBeal” and used his Supernova W-dollars to buy his way into the EPT Barcelona Main Event. His chip stack was 569,000.
In the fourth seat was Mika Paasonen. The 29 year old dude from Haamenlinna , Finland used to be a security guard. That is until three years ago when he watched a movie called “Rounders” with some pals and was bitten by the poker bug. Paasonen was sitting pretty with 924,000 chips and had been at the top of the heap since Day One in Barcelona .
Mark Teltscher, seat 5, is a bit of an EPT celebrity. The London resident, aged 27, won the EPT's second season London event and finished 11 th in the Grand Final. The former Bridge champion also plays backgammon and has won nearly a million dollars in poker tournaments around the world. Teltscher comes to the final table with 676,000 chips.
Sitting next to Mark is his roommate (for the Barcelona event anyway), Sander Lyllof. The 25 year old from Copenhagen , Denmark is also a backgammon player. He took up the game after failing to get into university and was a youth chess champ. Sander held 502,000 chips as the action got underway.
Seat 7 belonged to Norwegian player, Trond Eidsvig. The 22 year old turned pro about 18 months ago and played at the EPT Dortmund event in Germany last year. Trond was one of the short-stacked players at the final table with just 452,000 chips.
Finally, French actor/singer Patrick Bruel, 47, was sitting in seat 8 with 374k. Bruel, who has over 40 films to his credit, is also the first man from France to win a WSOP bracelet, a feat he accomplished back in 1999. Although Bruel has played in many EPT events over the years, this was his first final table.
Bruel would also be the first player to depart the final table. After only four hands, he went all-in with his pocket tens after an Ah,3h,8h board. Mark Teltscher called with his Ac,9h for top pair and a heart flush draw. The turn brought a six of hearts and that was it for Bruel – neither of his tens was a heart.
Teltscher then knocked out the next player. About half an hour after Bruel's exit, “RealAndyBeal”, the baby-faced Nikolaus Jedlicka went all-in after Teltscher's early position raise with pocket tens. Teltscher called and flipped over the A,Q. A queen came on the flop and an ace sealed Jedlicka's fate on the turn. He received €154,700 for his eighth-place finish.
On the next elimination, Teltscher sat back and allowed his buddy, Sander Lylloff to do the deed. Adam Junglen, now on the short stack, made his final stand with an Ad,4c. Lylloff dueled with his pocket eights. The board didn't help out AJunglen7 and that was it for the talented young American.
Mika Paasonen got in on the action about ten minutes after Junglen's elimination. He ko'd the Norwegian, Trond Eidsvig with his 10,9 after making a full house, tens full of nines, on the river. Eidsvig took €250,800 for fifth.
The Trond termination brought Paasonen close to the chip lead. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to keep him in the game. After losing an enormous pot to Teltscher, Paasonen found himself in the danger zone. Greg Dyer finished the Finn off with a K,10 and began three-handed play against Lylloff and Teltscher in middle position with 2 million chips.
Prior to the dinner break, Lylloff made an advantageous double-up through his buddy, Teltscher, bringing him to near-even with the chip leader. Dyer found himself in trouble with about 1.325 million chips. FunkiMunki, Dyer's online handle, couldn't rebound either. His third place finish came at the hands of the Dane.
As heads-up play began, Lylloff had the advantage with 3,658,000 chips to Teltscher's 1,765,000. Within ten minutes, the match was all over. The duo barely had time to enjoy the bottle of Cristal champagne that was opened when heads-up play began. On the final hand, Lylloff raised to 120k from the button. Teltscher re-raised with pocket kings to 260k. Lylloff with a J,10os responded by pushing all-in. The flop and turn brought Lylloff jacks to put him in the lead and give him the championship.
Here are the final results:
1) Sander Lylloff - €1,170,000
2) Mark Teltscher - €673,000
3) Greg Dyer - €388,800
4) Mika Paasonen - €301,000
5) Trond Eidsvig - €250,800
6) Adam Junglen - €196,500
7) Nikolaus Jedlicka - €154,700
8) Patrick Bruel €104,500