Congratulations then to Christophe Savary, for whom victory must taste rather...erm...Sweet! The Frenchman started the final table in second place and mostly kept out of the early action, letting other players eliminate each other.
The key turning point for Savary was when he flopped a set and rivered a full house as Ludovic Lacay made a very disguised backdoor flush. The pot was the biggest of the tournament at that point and completely transformed the run of play. Lacay had been the chip leader for most of the day and was relegated to short stack while Savary took over the chip lead and never looked back.
With Lacay eliminated in 3rd place, Savary closed out his victory at the first time of asking, catching a straight against Eoghan O'Dea's flopped pair of Aces. The Frenchman joins compatriots, ElkY, David Benyamine and Thomas Bichon as one of those who have picked up a prestigious WPT bracelet.
Congratulations to him and all our finalists today, from Pokernews, it's over and out!
Christophe Savary made it 160,000 from the button and Eoghan O'Dea reraised to 420,000 from the big blind. Savary made the call and the two saw a flop of .
O'Dea led out for 400,000 and Savary reraised all-in. O'Dea thought for a minute and called, was this it?
O'Dea:
Savary:
The turn was the making the nut straight for Savary leaving O'Dea drawing dead, the river was little more than an afterthought. Irishman O'Dea goes home in second place with €262,446 to comfort him after he falls just short of taking the title as well.
Eoghan O'Dea raised to 210,000 from the button and Christophe Savary rereaised to 580,000 total. O'Dea, son of the famous Donnacha, thought for two minutes before announcing he was all-in.
The onus shifted back across to Savary and he shifted a little, uncomfortable in his chair. It wasn't so much the glare of the lights, but the size of the push which forced Savary to give up the pot.
After taking a few minutes to reset the table for heads-up play, the two men are now playing poker in its truest form for the title. Here's the way they stack up at the start of play:
Christophe Savary made a raise to 160,000 from the button, and Julien Arneodo quickly folded his small blind. In the big, though, Ludovic Lacay peeked at his cards and slid all ~1.4 million of his chips across the betting line. It didn't take Savary long to make the call, putting Lacay at risk for what was possibly the first time in this tournament. As a crowd of spectators craned their necks over the rail, the cards were turned up.
Showdown
Savary:
Lacay:
The flop was not very good at all for Lacay as it fell . A rustle of multilingual banter trickled through the audience, now shoulder-to-shoulder, three-deep around the entire perimeter of the table.
Turn: .
That's all she wrote for Lacay, now drawing stone dead to Savary's nut flush. The river completed the board. Lacay cringed a bit, shook hands with the two men who've outlasted him, and headed off to become a spectator himself.
Lacay put on a fine show here this week, crushing the field for more than a full day. In the end though, his bid for his first WPT title has fallen two spots shy. His third-place showing is good for €164,182. That's not too bad, but Lacay is clearly disappointed by that result.
Ludovic Lacay raised to 140,000 from the button and Julien Arneodo reraised all-in for 395,000 total.
Lacay thought for a minute before calling a good percentage of his own short stack.
Lacay:
Arneodo:
Arneodo was ahead but it was very tight as the flop came down meaning a split pot looked likely. But the turn put Lacay in the lead and the river meant we were down to the final 3 players.
Lacay has almost 1.7 million, nearly even with O'Dea but Christophe Savary has the rest.