Spain's Javier Gomez Wins 2015 partypoker WPT Prague Main Event
After 212 hands of poker, it was Spain's Javier Gomez who took down the 2015 partypoker World Poker Tour Prague Main Event title for €175,000 and a $15,400 seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions.
For Gomez, the win marked his second six-figure score of 2015. Back in March, Gomez took fifth in the European Poker Tour Malta €5,300 Main Event for €205,300. He now boasts approximately $440,000 in career live tournament earnings.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Javier Gomez | Spain | €175,000 |
| 2 | Pavel Plesuv | Moldova | €120,000 |
| 3 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | €77,500 |
| 4 | Pedro Marques | Portugal | €57,400 |
| 5 | Abdelkader Benhalima | Algeria | €43,000 |
| 6 | Henrik Hecklen | Denmark | €34,100 |
| 7 | Pavel Veksler | Israel | €28,200 |
| 8 | Sergio Aido | Spain | €22,500 |
| 9 | Pavel Savin | Russia | €17,000 |
Gomez beat Moldova's Pavel Plesuv heads up after a four-hour battle that lasted 138 hands, while play from six down to two took only 74 hands.
Bulgarian Fahredin Mustafov started the day with a big lead, and short-stacked Henrik Hecklen was the first to get knocked out. On the 17th hand of play, Hecklen found ace-four and busted out to Gomez's king-queen suited. Gomez hit a king on the flop, and Hecklen, the Danish pro, collected €34,100 for his deep run.
A little while later, Gomez doubled through Abdelkader Benhalima. Gomez raised to 70,000, Benhalima three-bet to 215,000, and he then called Gomez's shove. Gomez held queens against Benhalima's king-queen, and the board ran out dry. On the very next hand, Benhalima doubled through Pedro Marques, but two more hands later the field was down to four.
Benhalima jammed ace-nine for 1.3 million in chips, and Gomez made the call with pocket tens. The board brought no help for Benhalima, and he took home €43,000 for his fifth-place finish. This hand gave Gomez a big chip lead, and he didn't relinquish it until deep into the heads-up battle.
Marques busted out in fourth place, and he took home €57,400 after losing a big coin flip with ace-jack suited against Gomez's sixes. Gomez continued to dominate and busted out Mustafov in third place, who couldn't win the coin flip with sevens versus ace-nine of diamonds. Mustafov collected €77,500 for his efforts.
Gomez started the heads-up battle with 6.2 million versus Plesuv's 1.4 million, and after Plesuv managed to take the lead by winning a high volume of small pots, things went back and forth for hours. In the end, Plesuv had Gomez on the ropes, but the Spaniard won three all-in pots in a row to secure his first WPT victory. Plesuv collected €120,000 for his second-place finish, while Gomez received a big paycheck worth €175,000.
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