Khossein Kokhestani Wins PokerStars Eureka Hamburg Main Event (€110,070)
Khossein Kokhestani of Ukraine has taken a well-deserved victory here at PokerStars Eureka Hamburg Main Event, taking home the trophy from Casino Schenefeld and the sum of €110,070 after defeating Nicklas Delhi in a short heads-up showdown, who is consoled with the prize of €68,750 for his deep run.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khossein Kokhestani | Ukraine | €110,070 |
| 2 | Nicklas Delhi | Denmark | €68,750 |
| 3 | Stan Van Dijk | Netherlands | €49,110 |
| 4 | Simone Demasi | Italy | €37,780 |
| 5 | Sergej Schumacher | Germany | €29060 |
| 6 | Jonas Stechbarth | Germany | €22,350 |
| 7 | Tim Werner | Germany | €17,190 |
| 8 | Timo Schmiedeke | Germany | €13,230 |
| 9 | Rens Buijs | Belgium | €10,610 |
Final Day Recap
19 players returned for Day 3, and the two short-stacks, PokerStars Qualifier Philipp Ruthard and Andre Hegendorf, were the first players to depart in the first level of the day.
The two table redraw was made when another short-stack Yves Thalmann exited and from there the knockouts slowed in pace considerably.
The final table was ultimately set when Ercan Atmaca four-bet jammed with a middling suited ace in a cutoff versus button spot against Day 3 chip leader Stan Van Dijk, but ran into his opponent's ace-king.
In what became a marathon final table, there would be an hour of play before Belgian Rens Buijs was the first player to bust, his ace-high being usurped by Tim Werner's king-queen.
A further two hours of play then took place before Timo Schmiedeke lost a flip against Nicklas Dehli to depart in eighth, while Werner exited when he ran into Kokhestani's pocket kings.
Dehli also disposed of Jonas Stechbarth in sixth after he woke up with aces following his opponent's open-jam.
Going into the final five Dehli had a considerable chip advantage over his remaining opponents, and he leveraged it fully, opening a lot of hands and attempting to apply pressure where he could, best shown by putting Stan Van Dijk in the blender on a four-card flush board.
Unbelievably, Dehli woke up with aces again against Sergej Schumacher's pocket queens, and that meant the German departed in fifth place.
Dehli also accounted for Simone Demasi in fourth as his rampage continued, after Demasi jammed the button and Dehli looked him up with an ace and held.
Brief deal discussions were then held, but play resumed. The first piece of bad news came Dehli's way for a while when he lost a flip against Khossein Kokhestani, who had only shortly before doubled-up Van Dijk.
Three-handed play was cagey, with chips being traded back and forth, but with Dehli and Kokhestani always holding a lead over Van Dijk.
That changed when Van Dijk doubled through Dehli with trip kings.
After some more trading of chips, Van Dijk then doubled through Kokhestani with quad deuces, as did Dehli when he had Kokhestani's king-seven dominated.
By now the three were very close in stacks. Van Dijk sustained some damage when Dehli doubled through him with ace-high versus king-high. Dehli eventually knocked out Van Dijk after he had been left with crumbs when Kokhestani flopped the world with king-four suited and had Van Dijk drawing dead on the turn.
Kokhestani came into heads-up with a 2:1 advantage and it was over quickly after the money went in preflop when Kokhestani had a dominating jack, and the kicker proved crucial, giving him the trophy and his first major title.
Winner's Reaction
Kokhestani, who prefers to be known as Amir rather than Khossein, was understandably emotional after his victory and what appears to be his first recorded live cash.
"I am so so happy, I've been working very hard for this the last ten years or so, always trying to work on my game and learn from my mistakes. Poker players dream of winning a tournament like this, so I can't really believe its happened to me. I've always been someone who worked hard, so just for that to pay off is crazy, I'm very happy."
That concludes PokerNews coverage of this tremendous event, be sure to stay tuned for our coverage of tournaments around the world.