Tomas Ribeiro Wins Fifth Bracelet for Portugal in WSOPE €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha
Table Of Contents
After a final day that lasted roughly six one-hour levels, Tomas Ribeiro from Portugal claimed the title in Event #11: €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe. Ribeiro defeated Omar Eljach heads up and took home his first gold bracelet and €128,314 in prize money.
Tomas Ribeiro won the fifth bracelet for his home country of Portugal, after Jonathan Aguiar, Francisco António da Costa Santos, Diogo Veiga, and Joao Vieira struck gold before him.
When asked about the final table, Ribeiro said, “I knew pretty much every player, and I just tried to cruise to the final table, see how my opponents were feeling, tried to make the right moves at the right time, the right value bets, search for cards and... I got lucky!”
"I won three tournaments, but they didn’t have trophies, and winning my first ever trophy at a WSOP event; it’s totally overwhelming."
About playing poker, he said “I’ve been a full-time poker player since 2014 when I was nineteen years old, I usually play a lot of cash games in Omaha, 50/100 is my limit now. I enjoy No-Limit Holdem, too, but I feel a little outdated because I haven’t studied it for a while. I’m a poker guy, so I love all kinds of poker! “[With Omaha], I like the card removal effects, when you play four cards you have double information, you can play with that. You can use more information on the game when in no-limit hold'em it’s more a people’s game, at least I feel that way.”
Ribeiro didn't come in the dark on the final table, as he said, “I’m used to playing cash games with him [Marc Palatzky] here at King’s and in Barcelona, we know each other quite alright and I felt comfortable with him. Obviously, he’s a good player, but I was ready and confident. I have to say my toughest opponent was Omar Eljach; he was really competent during the whole tournament. I really appreciated his game and company during the final table and the day before.”
Regarding his plans, “I came to King’s before; I really like the casino here. The service is amazing, and I also lost a heads up match with Leon Tsoukernik one month ago, and I was looking for revenge too, he owned me last time! But I came here with a couple of friends and my girlfriend, we all came here to play, and it’s going well!”
Finally, when asked about what a WSOP bracelet means to him, he said: “Actually it’s my first trophy ever, I won three tournaments, but they didn’t have trophies and winning my first ever trophy at a WSOP event it’s totally overwhelming.”
2019 WSOPE Event #11: €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tomas Ribeiro | Portgual | €128,314 | $142,516 |
| 2 | Omar Eljach | Sweden | €79,291 | $88,067 |
| 3 | Marc Palatzky | Germany | €54,787 | $60,851 |
| 4 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | €38,581 | $42,851 |
| 5 | Ilyaz Dosikov | Russia | €27,701 | $30,767 |
| 6 | Anson Tsang | Hong-Kong | €20,285 | $22,530 |
| 7 | Leonid Yanovski | Israel | €15,157 | $16,834 |
| 8 | Christopher Frank | Germany | €11,161 | $12,396 |
Palatzky Delivers the First Four Eliminations
Marc Palatzky started the day with the third-biggest stack, behind only Tobias Peters and Omar Eljach. Soon enough, though, he had a chipleading stack after busting one player after the other. Christopher Frank, Leonid Yanovski, the defending champion Anson Tsang, and Ilyaz Dosikov couldn't handle Palatzky's momentum, and they all fell from his hands.
Anson Tsang was one of the exciting stories of the final day, since he was there to defend the title he won last year in this very same event, but fell short when he busted in sixth place. In his final hand, he had ace-king-nine-three against Palatzky's king-queen-ten-seven, but the German player found a flush draw and a pair on the flop that improved to a full house on the river.
Ribeiro Dominates
Tomas Ribeiro had a near-average stack for most of the day and at one point, was even left with just fifteen big blinds during seven-handed play. He was patient watching Palatzky do the job for him, and he took over when the event was four-handed by winning some pots off Palatzky at first and then eliminating the start-of-the-day chipleader Tobias Peters.
The next victim of Ribeiro was Palatzky, whom he first left short and then sent to the rail when he had just nine big blinds left.
The heads up started with a significant advantage for Ribeiro, but things weren't easy for him. Ribeiro had ninety big blinds against Eljach's eighteen, but after a couple of hands, the latter managed to close the gap, with 65 big blinds for Ribeiro against 43 for Eljach. A pot where Ribeiro turned a full house against Eljach's trips pulled him away again, and the final blow came when the Swedish player had fifteen big blinds left in a hand where Ribeiro had king-queen-queen-ten against Eljach's ace-king-jack-six. The board kept the lead for the queens, and Ribeiro was the new champion of Event #11: €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha.
Check out the WSOPE Live Updates via the World Series of Poker Europe Live Reporting hub.
