Player Andrej Desset was pronounced champion at partypoker’s Grand Prix Austria Main Event. Desset defeated opponent Dan Semenescu from Romania in a heads-up battle for the champion trophy and the sum of €92,530 in first-place prize money.
The first ever Grand Prix Austria event attracted a field of 2,594 entries and offered a guaranteed prize pool of €500,000, with a buy-in of €225. The minimum cash amount to be won was set to €400. Poker fans were enabled to qualify and compete in eight different casinos throughout Austria. As many as 339 players succeeded in qualifying for the tournament’s second day, but Day 3 saw a reduction of the field to 65 survivors. However, only 12 hopefuls qualified for the hunt for the title at the end of Day 3, including two Golden Chip winners.
The nine-handed final table was set, following the elimination of players Vojtech Skalak and Martin Hodan in tenth and eleventh place, respectively. Final table play commenced with Andrej Desset in the chip lead while Andreas Schreiner was the player with the shortest stack out of nine hopefuls. Schreiner was the first one to bust when his pocket tens failed him against the ace-queen of opponent Sebastian Pauli from Germany. Schreiner’s elimination indicated the official final table had been reached.
Schreiner’s final-table exit was followed by the elimination of Romanian Dan Claitman who failed to survive the clash with his namesake Dan Semenescu. Semenescu went all-in for the hefty sum of €4.5 million. Claitman called from the small blind but his starting hand of ace-jack proved to be inferior to Semenescu’s ace-queen. As the cards that showed on the board did nothing to improve Claitman’s hand, he ended up at eight place, with 6,000 in chips.
After two quick eliminations, the field eventually whittled down to five survivors. Semenescu called Allessandro Valli’s raise while Christian Eisenstein response was to shove with suited king-queen. Valli decided it would be best to duck out of the way after Semenescu called again with his paired tens. The result was Eisenstein busting in seventh place, with 7,500 in chips.
Several hands later, Eisenstein was followed by Romanian Florin Ghimpu who moved all-in with his queen-nine. Ghimpo was actually attempting to steal the blinds and antes, but his attempts proved to be futile. The only female survivor at the table, Timea Kovesi from Hungary, called Ghimpo’s bet with her pair of jacks. The ten-high flop did nothing to improve Ghimpo’s chances and the Romanian ended at sixth place, with a prize of €10,000.
Sebastian Pauli followed in his footsteps and finished fifth, with 14,536 in chips. After Desset paired a ten on the river with his ace-ten, Timea Kovesi was eliminated at fourth place. Valli was the next to go and his third place earned him the sum of €40,000 in prize money.
After the final table was reduced to two survivors only, Desset and Semenescu started discussing a potential deal. The discussions proved to be successful as Desset and Semenescu locked up €77,530 and €67,470, respectively. Thus, there were €15,000 and the champion trophy to compete for.
Semenescu shoved with €14 million (the equivalent of seven big blinds) with his [Kh][2d]. Desset responded by calling his opponent’s bet with [As][6c]. As the board came [Ac][Qc][5c][6c][5h], Semenescu has no other viable option but to settle for the second place, leaving the first-place prize and the partypoker Grand Prix Austria champion trophy for Desset.
- Author
Harry Evans
