Or Patreanu Wins €2,200 PokerStars Festival Bucharest High Roller for €55,500
Fifty-seven players returned at 2 p.m. local time for the second and final day of the €2,200 PokerStars Festival Bucharest High Roller Single Re-entry in the stunning JW Marriot Bucharest Grand Hotel. Ten late registrations joined the pack to create a total prize pool of €215,340. 15 players would receive a share of it, with the biggest slice of €55,500 going to the eventual winner.
It took more than twelve hours of play before Or Patreanu was able to call himself a PokerStars Festival High Roller champion. The 29-year old businessman from Tel Aviv, Israel, scored another big win for his home country in what's sure to be one of Israel's best years at the poker tables.
Alin Pandilica, who was one of the late registrants at the start of the day, finished runner-up and cashed €38,100. Eduard Norel became 3rd for €24,980, start-of-the-day chipleader Georges Yazbeck ended up in 4th place and received €20,200.
"It was a three-day marathon," laughed Patreanu when PokerNews spoke to him directly after his victory. "I fired two bullets in the Main Event and mincashed that one, so I actually lost money there," he chuckled. "I late-registered the High Roller because I was like, well, I broke even anyway, let's do this. And here we are," he smiled.
The Israeli may not be a fixture on the circuit, as a former poker professional he definitely knows his way around the poker table. "I've quit playing professionally years ago and focused on my business, but I know all the players in my home country. And I guess I've still got it," he laughed.
One of the players he's very well acquainted with is Shai Zurr, the Israeli who won a WSOP bracelet earlier this year. "Shai [Zurr] and I, we go way back. I know him very well, he's a good friend. We used to play cash games for hours every night years ago. He's absolutely one of the best players in Israel," Patreanu complimented his countryman.
Patreanu scored another big victory for Israel, which is more and more becoming a nation to be reckoned with on the poker circuit. There's a large contingent of Israeli's here in Bucharest but the big victory party has to wait until tomorrow. "They're all asleep now," laughed Patreanu, "and I can't sleep now obviously. But tomorrow they'll come, we make a winner picture together and then we celebrate."
Final Result PokerStars Festival Bucharest €2,200 High Roller Single Re-entry
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Or Patreanu | Israel | €55,500 |
| 2 | Alin Pandilica | Romania | €38,100 |
| 3 | Eduard Norel | Romania | €24,980 |
| 4 | Georges Yazbeck | Lebanon | €20,200 |
| 5 | Cosmin Voinea | Romania | €16,250 |
| 6 | David Borkowski | Poland | €12,700 |
| 7 | Alexandru Cinca | Romania | €10,050 |
| 8 | Mihai Stinca | Romania | €7,650 |
| 9 | Elie Ghazal | Lebanon | €5,600 |
Day 2 early action
After late registration had closed, the day started with 57+10 players. Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker was one of those late registrants and fired his second bullet in this tournament. The 2003 World Champion came up short again and fell in the early stages. Moneymaker shoved 15 big blinds in the middle with pocket nines and got a call from Ion Stoian with pocket jacks. Ironically, Stoian was the one who busted Moneymaker yesterday as well, giving him quite the story to tell of how he once busted Moneymaker twice in the same tournament.
Alexandru Papazian, Andreas Klatt, Marc Radgen, Mihai Malone, Lawrence Bayley, Andreas Vlachos, and Niko Koop all got eliminated during the first three levels of the day and had to part empty-handed as well. Another player who finished shy of the money was the aforementioned Ion Stoian, who went to the rail in a hand he won't soon forget.
With the pot around 20,000, Stoian held ace-king with the ace of spades on an all-spade queen-ten-eight flop. Stoian looked at his left-hand neighbor Cristinel Dumitru, who had 35,000 behind, and moved all in with his stack of 170,000. Although Dumitru folded, Stoian had presumably missed Georges Yazbeck still being active in the hand, the only player at that time to cover Stoian. Yazbeck snap-called with king-four of spades for the nut flush, and a shocked Stoian was sent to the river after the turn and river blanked out.
The bubble hand provided more drama, as Roi Koko got pressured by a massive shove from chipleader Dawid Borkowski, Holding ace-king, Koko eventually called while sporting a very healthy stack at that point. Borkowski tabled ace-five and rivered a straight with his inferior kicker to send Koko to the rail in dramatic fashion. Daniel Portiansky busted at another table at the same time, and both players chopped up 15h place prize money.
After the bubble burst, Tom Givony, Esa Karttunen, Salvatore Camarda, Maan El Hachem, and Paul Esau busted in rapid fashion to bring us to the final table of nine.
Final Table seating and chip counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mihai Stinca | Romania | 252,000 |
| 2 | Or Patreanu | Israel | 305,000 |
| 3 | Cosmin Voinea | Romania | 120,000 |
| 4 | Alin Pandilica | Romania | 365,000 |
| 5 | Georges Yazbeck | Lebanon | 390,000 |
| 6 | Dawid Borkowski | Poland | 700,000 |
| 7 | Alexandru Cinca | Romania | 210,000 |
| 8 | Elie Ghazal | Lebanon | 150,000 |
| 9 | Eduard Norel | Romania | 265,000 |
Final Table action
In one of the first hands at the final table, Elie Ghazal was forced to the rail. On a ten-high board, Ghazal got it in with king-ten against Padilica's ace-ten and couldn't catch up. Ghazal was followed by Mihai Stinca, who lost a classic race with ace-king against Patreanu's pocket jacks.
Seven-handed play lasted for nearly three levels of 40 minutes before Alexandru Cinca succumbed in 7th place. Cinca was dwindling short and raised all in with ace-seven after Yazbeck had opened. Yazbeck called with king-seven and hit a king to send Cinca packing.
Six-handed play lasted shorter, but it took still nearly two levels to see Dawid Borkowski bow out in 6th place. Borkowski limp-shoved pocket deuces in the small blind against Eduard Norel's ace-queen in the big blind. Norel found a queen to cripple Borkowski, and the Pole busted shortly after.
With the bustouts taking a long time up until this point, play was rather shallow five-handed, which resulted in a flurry of eliminations in short succession. Cosmin Voinea was the first of the remaining five to tap out. Voinea briefly held the chip lead before his bustout but lost multiple big pots to finish in 5th place. Day 1 chipleader Georges Yazbeck immediately followed Voinea out the door. Yazbeck had blinded off to just two big blinds and called all in with five-trey against Pandilica's jack-six. No help meant the end for the Lebanese dentist in 4th place.
Three-handed play didn't last long, as Patreanu and Eduard Norel got their chips in the middle for a pot of 75% of all the chips in play. It was as even as coin flips come, with Petreanu holding six-deuce of spades on a nine-eight-seven board with two spades, while Norel held ten-nine. Both players had a 49% chance to win the hand, and fortune favored Patreanu when the ten of spades hit the turn to give him the winner.
Heads-up play didn't last long. Patreanu started with a 4:1 chip lead and won the first all in of the night. Patreanu had open-shoved with pocket fives and Pandilica had called with ace-queen. The board ran out ten-three-four-deuce-seven to make Patreanu the new High Roller champion.
With Patreanu's victory, the PokerNews live reporting of the PokerStars High Roller comes to an end. Don't miss any of the live updates from the Main Event, which will go into its fifth and final day on Sunday, August 5th, and will restart at 1 p.m. local time.