By Lisa Yiasemides
After an epic 13 hours of poker here at Casino Spielbank Berlin, Daniel Szymanski (pictured) has done it – winning his first WPT event and becoming the latest WPTDS Champion.
The Pole started the day second in chips, out of the 24 players who returned, and he remained near the top of the counts throughout the day.
In an all-Polish heads up battle, Szymanski defeated Bartlomiej Paradowski following a heads-up match that lasted around two and a half hours. As the final hand played out, the significance of the situation was apparent, with Szymanski waiting with bated breath until the last card was dealt.
About a minute after he had won, reality sunk in and he cried out “Wow! Come on!” It is a moment that he will probably never forget – doubling up as his first major title as well as the biggest cash of his career so far. Speaking to WPT.com afterwards, he said he that it felt “amazing” and that he plans to use some of the €130,000* winnings to play future WPT events. “This series is the best!” he added.
Rewinding back to the start the final three tables saw a series of quick eliminations. One of which was Michal Mrakes in 22nd place for €4,600, after less than an hour of play. Mrakes got it in with pocket-tens against Paradowski’s pocket-kings and found no help on the board.
It took another five hours to reach the final table. Kai Lach bubbled a spot, finishing in 9th place (€12,370) after he flopped a set of three and ran into Stephan Klam’s set of eights.
The early stages of the final table saw a lot of shift in the counts and Klam (€15,707) was the first to fall. He had had an incredible run after coming back from a mere 500 chips at 2,000-4,000 blind levels yesterday. He came unstuck though after getting his short-stack in with ace-deuce suited against Boris Smuskevicius’ pocket-kings.
Day 2 chip leader Luc Glodt (€20,150) was out in 7th, after check-raising all in on an eight-high board with eight-five and getting called from eventual winner Szymanski with ace-jack. The jack river ended Glodt’s hopes and he was joined at the rail just minutes later by Zahi Ben Gigi (€26,160) in 6th place. Ben Gigi busted after getting it in on the turn with a straight when Paradowski had turned a flush.
It was 4th place for Christian Teubner (€45,600) after he shoved with pocket-sevens and ran into Szymanski’s pocket-tens. Kazemieh Aghdam (€61,200) departed in 3rd when he lost a flip to Paradowski (pictured below).
Then there were two and the heads-up match saw much back and forth, with the chip lead changing hands numerous times. Once again it came down to a classic flip, with Szymanski holding the pair (deuces) and Paradowski with the overcards (ace-jack). Paradowski began the day as chip leader and held onto that lead for most of the day but unable to connect with the board, he takes runner up position and a very nice €83,160 for his efforts.
A special congratulations go out to our newest WPTDS Champion, Daniel Szymanski!
Well that’s a wrap for now, but don’t despair – with WPT Russia (January 20-26) just around the corner, there will be plenty more WPT live updates to enjoy in just a few days’ time.
In the meantime, check out all the WPTDeepStacks photos right here at Flickr.
WPT UK photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.
*Includes a €2,000 package to the WPTDS European Championship in Deauville.