The Main Event at the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) festival in Paris drew to a conclusion over the weekend as the final seven players reconvened to crown a winner. Jorge Abreu came into the final table with more than half of the chips in play and wasted no time in adding to his lead – and he did so in style, scoring a double knockout in the early goings.
The Portuguese wasn't ahead when the chips went in – far from it, in fact – but, as we all know, the best hand doesn't always hold up.
Carnage at the final table
Unfortunately, the video below doesn't include the preflop action – which is arguably the most interesting part of the hand. Nazar Buhaiov got the party started, raising from under the gun with , before Casimir Seire looked down at
and fired in a small three-bet. Abreu, with plenty of chips to wield as the table bully, opted to four-bet with
.
Thierry Gogniat committed the last of his four big blinds with . With all of this action in front of him, Tomas Jozonis peeled
in the big blind and had no choice but to commit his stack.
Buhaiov fled the scene quickly, but Seire had a much more difficult decision to make – although, in retrospect, maybe it's a trivial fold with two players already all-in and the runaway chip leader still to act behind you. Either way, Seire asked for a count of Jozonis' chips as he debated the spot, but didn't take too long to make the fold – perhaps the most profitable fold of his career as his discipline assured him, at the very least, a chance to ladder up.
Abreu considered following Seire into the muck, but with a chunk of his chips already committed to the pot he decided to go with it. When the cards hit their backs, Jozonis found himself in a great spot to nearly triple his stack – but then the dealer spread the flop and all of a sudden he needed to fade half the deck to stay alive.
Abreu left both opponents drawing stone dead on the turn card, delivering not one, but two pay jumps to himself and the rest of the table. With the infusion of chips added to his already-overwhelming lead, Abreu went on to close out the victory and take home the €1,148,600 first-place prize.
Featured image courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd/PokerStars