Who will join Christian Harder, Kenny Smaron and Elliot Smith as Main Event winners in the first season of the PokerStars Championship era?
That's the question that will be answered today when PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® kicks off its final day, with six runners remaining out of 727. Michael Kolkowicz, Andrey Bondar, Andreas Klatt, Raffaele Sorrentino, Diego Zeiter, and Maxim Panyak are the players still in contention for €500,800 and the title here in Monaco.
Kolkowicz, a Frenchman, holds the chip lead, but it's still anybody's game as everybody is between 20 and 60 big blinds heading into the final day of the event. Kolkowicz has 4.6 million as blinds will restart at 40,000/80,000/10,000, and the shortest stack belongs to Diego Zeiter (1,780,000), so it's a tightly bunched group indeed.
Klatt, meanwhile, has come out of nowhere to emerge as a breakout player here at PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo. He won the PokerStars National Championship here, topping a field of over 1,200, and he has followed that up with this final table run. No matter what happens today, he's a big favorite to score a prize as one of the top players on the MonteDam Swing leaderboard, a special PokerStars promotion in partnership with the WPT.
Cards are in the air at 1 p.m. local time, but the live stream and corresponding PokerNews coverage kicks off at 2 p.m.
Hand #46: Maxim Panyak completed with . Andrey Bondar shoved with and took it down.
Hand #47: Michael Kolkowicz opened to 360,000 in the cutoff with . Bondar had in the small blind and moved all in for 2,145,000. Kolkowicz called after about a minute. Bondar was a huge favorite but did see an flop that paired his opponent. The turn and river were clean for the Russian, and he doubled.
Hand #85: Raffaele Sorrentino opened to 330,000 with on the button. Michael Kolkowicz shoved all in for 1,970,000 with in the small blind. The flop came , giving Sorrentino trips and Kolkowicz a gutshot. The turn gave Kolkowicz a few more outs but the river was a .
Hand #102: Raffaele Sorrentino opened on the button for 330,000. Panyak shoved for 1.9 million from the small blind with . Sorrentino asked for a count and quite determined announced he was calling.
The flop came , just about as good a flop as they could come for Sorrentino.
As the hit the turn and completed the board, Panyak exited in 4th place.
Panyak, an experienced player who qualified for this event online, receives €199,900. The remaining 3 players are guaranteed €271,500 from here on out.
Hand #138: Andreas Klatt was first to act and woke up with . The German raised to 450,000. Sorrentino, though, wasn't folding. He found and three-bet to a sizable 2,025,000.
Klatt, with 5,140,000 behind at the time, shoved for 5,590,000 total. Sorrentino instantly called and seemed to apologize for having such a huge hand.
Klatt could overtake Sorrentino as the chip leader, but he had to find a queen or some other help to do so. It wasn't meant to be, the 11,230,000 pot would never get really exciting.
The flop did nothing for either, not even giving Klatt back door outs. The on the turn was a blank and so was the on the river. Both made full houses but Klatt's wasn't worth anything, he had to settle for second place.
"C'est un rêve", a indiqué Raffaele Sorrentino quelques secondes après sa victoire sur le Main Event PokerStars Championship Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®. L'Italien encaisse 466,714€ après un deal en head's up contre Andreas Klatt.
La Table Finale (5300€ - 727 joueurs - 3,525,950€)
Place
Nom
Gains
Deal
Vainqueur
Raffaele Sorrentino
500,800€
466,714€
2e
Andreas Klatt
368,700€
402,786€
3e
Andrey Bondar
271,500€
4e
Maxim Panyak
199,900€
5e
Michael Kolkowicz
147,120€
6e
Diego Zeiter
108.300€
Les deux Russes Andrey Bondar et Maxim Panyak terminent 3e et 4e pour 271 500€ et 199 900€. Raffaele Sorrentino s'est chargé de leur cas et a donc éliminé quatre de ses adversaires en finale. L'Italien a en effet puni le chipleader à l'entame de la finale, le Français Michael Kolkowicz.
Sur la main suivant un combat de blindes avec le Transalpin qu'il avait perdu, le Français, probablement avec le cerveau un peu pollué, a 3-bet shove 17 blindes avec après une ouverture au bouton de Sorrentino. En route vers son premier succès majeur, ce dernier a payé avec pour éliminer l'ultime tricolore en lice. Au moment où le Français a tout mis avec Air, Bondar et Panyak avaient 11 et 14 blindes...
Le Calabrais prenait alors un ascendant sur la dernière table tandis que Michael Kolkowicz quittait la finale plus riche de 147 120€ après avoir été dans le Top 5 du tournoi depuis son entame. Habitué des deep-runs sur l'European Poker Tour et plutôt redoutable online sous le pseudonyme de 1mDonuts, l'Italien double ses gains en carrière et s'approche désormais de la barre symbolique du million de dollars de gains cumulé en live.
Le tournoi a rassemblé 727 joueurs sous la bannière du PokerStars Championship contre 1098 lors du sacre de Jan Bendik sur l'European Poker Tour Grand Final 2016. 143 joueurs se sont glissés dans l'argent dont le SLovaque, 36e pour sa défense de titre, et 24 Français.
Romain Nardin (8e) a pris date pour le futur tandis que Paul-François Tedeschi (18e) attend lui sagement son heure. Mention aussi pour l'ancien Paul Testud, 29e après s'être qualifié en live, et qui inscrit donc une nouvelle ligne à son palmarès, lui qui est recordman français du nombre de places payées...
La prochaine étape du PSC se déroulera en Russie dans deux semaines, sur le site de Sotchi qui avait accueilli les Jeux Olympiques d'Hiver...