Ole Schemion Wins 2016 EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller for €1.6 Million

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Apr 30, 2016 4 min read

The 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller final table started with eight players, all in the money after Mike McDonald bubbled the event the night before. Guaranteed €236,750, they were all eying the €1,775,500 first-place prize.

Paul Newey started out with 250,000, the original amount of the starting stack that become just five big blinds. He doubled the first two hands and was right back in it, however, leaving the role of short stack to Ivan Luca. The Argentinian pro, known online under the moniker "Negriin", would eventually be the first to go. He found jacks and no way of escaping against Mustapha Kanit's queens. The two got it in before the flop and the board improved neither.

Next in line at the payout desk would be Sam Greenwood. He slowplayed kings and ended up hurt against Kanit's rivered straight with the good ol' nine-deuce.

"I played this hand really stupidly," said Greenwood, before paying his neighbor off.

Not much later, down to just four big blinds, he pushed with seven-five suited, only to get called by Kanit with the dominating 10x5x. Again, no help for the dominated, and the tournament was down another player.

With seven remaining, Kanit made the laydown of the tournament. Ole Schemion raised holding kings and was three-bet by Igor Kurganov who had king-queen. Kanit then four-bet with queens, but he folded to Schemion's shove after Kurganov laid down his hand as well.

Schemion won some, not as much as he could have, but did show down a nice hand not much later. He called down Ali Reza Fatehi with just ace-high in a sizable pot and was right, Fatehi tabled his missed flush draw with king-four.

Stephen Chidwick, who had made a nice laydown against Fatehi earlier, was left extremely short when he pushed jack-ten into Paul Newey's kings. Newey finished the job not much later, besting Chidwick's ace-three with ace-king.

Kanit doubled after a bluff by Fatehi failed, but it was Newey who would be the next to go. He got it in good with his set of eights against Schemion's flush draw, but the German wunderkind would get lucky hitting his flush on the turn. The board didn't pair on the river and Newey had to settle for fifth, worth €485,300.

Igor Kurganov, who had made the final table in this very event the past two years, departed in fourth place (€627,300). First a limp-push failed against Fatehi, and finally, his short stack went to Kanit after his queen-ten didn't improve against ace-queen.

It didn't take long before the tournament would be down to just two players, and it was businessman Ali Reza Fatehi hitting the rail in third place. He had proved unafraid of the big names and didn't hold back at all in big pots with big bluffs, but eventually he came up short in a hand against Schemion. He got it in with fives against ace-ten and Schemion hit a ten to get the tournament to heads-up play.

Schemion and Kanit agreed on a deal right away. At first they didn't want to leave anything in the middle and just chop it all together without playing on, but were forced by the tournament officials to leave €50,000, the title, and trophy to play for. They agreed and played their hearts out to give the live stream viewers something to stay at home for on a Saturday night.

The levels were brought back to 20 minutes in length, kickstarting the fireworks. The two started out with Schemion holding a slight lead, and he also took the first big pot. He called down a bluff leading Kanit with just ace-high and diminished the Italian's stack to just 20 big blinds.

When Kanit found sevens after the level had just gone up, there was no way of avoiding the chips going to the middle. Schemion was waiting with queens and made one of the quicker calls in the history of the game. Schemion flopped top set, but Kanit picked up a flush draw on the turn to keep things interesting until the final river card. The seven on the river gave Kanit a set of his own, but it wasn't enough. The amicable Italian, who has already won €10,000, €25,000, and €50,000 high roller events on the European Poker Tour, would have to wait to complete his high roller superfecta.

It was Ole Schemion holding the trophy at the end of the day. After a break from the live circuit, Schemion celebrated his return with a cash in the €10,000 High Roller and a win in the €100,000 Super High Roller for almost €1.6 million. Welcome back, Mr. Schemion!

_{*Denotes a head-up deal.}

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