Rainer Kempe Wins the €25,000 NLHE for €400,850 at EPT Monte Carlo
In the final minutes of Level 24, Rainer Kempe was crowned the winner of the €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em after defeating Joao Simao heads up for €400,850. There were 53 entries in total, 36 unique players who reentered 17 times in total, creating a total prize pool of €1,272,530. The top seven players were paid.
With the win here in the Monte Carlo Bay Resort & Hotel, that makes five tournaments Kempe has won in 2019 already with all his cashes this year amounting to almost $2,500,000 in total. His biggest win so far this year took place during the PCA in January when he took down the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller for $908,100 where he defeated Alex Foxen heads up. For Simao, the cash of €289,500 is his second biggest ever to take him to almost $3,000,000 in lifetime earnings according to The Hendon Mob.
The star-studded field meant that the final table was filled with renowned poker players like Jean-Noel Thorel, Richard Yong, Seth Davies, Steve O’Dwyer, David Peters, Adrian Mateos, and the PokerStars Ambassador Andre Akkari. Not all of them would make the money though.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | €400,850 | $446,322 |
| 2 | Joao Simao | Brazil | €289,500 | $322,341 |
| 3 | Andre Akkari | Brazil | €184,520 | $205,452 |
| 4 | David Peters | United States | €139,980 | $155,859 |
| 5 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | €108,170 | $120,441 |
| 6 | Seth Davies | United States | €82,710 | $92,093 |
| 7 | Richard Yong | Malaysia | €66,800 | $74,378 |
Today’s Action
The day started with some delay here at the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT as no fewer than fourteen players entered the tournament before they could kick off. Alexander Uskov, Mikita Badziakouski, Sam Greenwood, Andras Nemeth, and Simao were the ones to reenter while the rest were fresh to the field. Simao was off to a great start when he found aces and hit the nut flush on the river to leave Bryn Kenney with almost nothing and he busted shortly after.
The action was swift during the earlier stages until the final table was reached. Ramin Hajiyev was eliminated when he shoved his last 13 big blinds in with nine-eight suited and was called by Timothy Adams who held ace-king. Adams flopped trip aces to win that one, but he would later bust with ace-king when he failed to get there against Ivan Leow's pocket nines. Leow was also responsible for busting Nick Petrangelo with ace-nine holding against Petrangelo's ace-four.
Ole Schemion started the day fourth in chips but ran his pocket eights into the ace-queen of Simao who flopped trips. Sean Winter bubbled the final table running his king-eight into the eights of Mateos. Even though the final table was reached, they still weren't in the money yet; they needed to lose two more players. Thorel would finish in ninth place when his ace-four failed to beat the pocket fives of O’Dwyer who had turned a set, and they were on the bubble.
Kempe was short and shoved his last six big blinds in with ace-king and managed to double against the king-queen of Akkari which was the point where things started turning for the German. The Day 1 chip leader Mateos lost it all on the bubble when he got it in from the small blind with pocket sixes and was called by Peters in the big blind with the shorter stack who had ace-king suited and rivered top two pair to double up. After losing that hand, Mateos shoved his last chips in with ace-ten and was called by Simao who had ace-queen. Simao hit two pair on the flop to burst the bubble and leave Mateos empty-handed for today.
Yong was the first to go to the payout desk to collect his cash for €66,800 when he failed to win with ace-queen against the pocket queens of Simao. Davies was the next to leave the final table when his last nine blinds went in with pocket jacks and Peters called with ace-king. The board ran out five-six-trey-ace-king to give Peters two pair and Davies’ chips. It would take another twenty minutes before O’Dwyer was done for the week as his ace-nine couldn’t beat Kempe’s ace-king.
Peters finished in fourth place when his ace-seven couldn’t beat the king-ten of Kempe who ended up flopping a pair of kings. Forty minutes later, Akkari jammed with ace-deuce in the small blind and was called by Kempe who found ace-king in the big blind. Kempe turned a flush to bust the PokerStars Ambassador in third place for €184,520.
Kempe began heads up in the lead which he never gave up. He ground Simao down to his last six big blinds which he then shoved with jack-five. Kempe made a quick call with ace-six and stayed ahead throughout the runout of the board which was queen-trey-eight-six-ten to give him a pair of sixes in the end to claim the win.
This concludes the coverage of this two-day event but make sure to stick around as the €25,000 EPT High Roller and the €5,300 EPT Main Event are still playing down to a winner today!