Dominik Panka Wins Second Major Tournament Of 2014
February 3, 2014 12:13 pmFresh from his victory at the $10k PCA Main Event for $1,423,096, Poland’s Dominik Panka has closed out January in style by winning the €10,000 High Roller at EPT Deauville for a further €272,000 ($371,498). In the high-roller event, the 22-year-old overcame a field of 96 players (plus 19 re-buys) over three days on his way to capturing his second biggest ever career score.
Following his impressive win, Panka, commented: “To be honest, I had aces three times at the final table and also on the money bubble I eliminated another unlucky player with kings against my aces. I wasn’t really three-bet bluffing to be honest. I three-bet bluff twice at the final table, other than that all my three-betting was with good hands.”
The €10,300 Main Event attracted a small but tough field of pros to the Casino Barriere de Deauville in France to create a prize pool worth €1,104,000. Amongst the notable names cashing in a the event was such players as Michael Tureniec in 17th (€18,000), Yann Dion in 11th (€22,800), and Martin Staszko in 9th (€27,600).
By the time the final table of eight had been set, Albert Daher was way ahead as the chip leader on a 1.3m stack, followed by Martin Schleich (762k), Ondrej Vinklarek (737k), and Davidi Kitai (733k). Also competing for the title was Dominik Panka (672k), Kent Lundmark (665k), Nikolay Losev (523k), and a short-stacked Adrian Mateos Diaz with 363k in chips.
Dominik Panka (A-K) then proceeded to eliminate Adrian Mateos Diaz (A-3) in 8th (€37,000), before being dealt pocket aces and doing likewise to Davidi Kitai (4-3) in 6th for €64,200. After Panka (K-7) then dispatched Kent Lundmark (Q-6) to the rail in 3rd (€122,000), the heads-up-phase of the competition got underway with both Panka and Lebanon’s Albert Daher fairly even in chips.
Eventually, Dominik Panka was then able to reduce his final opponent to a short-stack before sealing the victory when his A-9 beat Dahler’s K-4 to lift the EPT title.
Final Table Payouts:
1. Dominik Panka (Poland) €272,000
2. Albert Daher (Lebanon) €189,000
3. Kent Lundmark (Sweden) €122,000
4. Ondrej Vinklarek (Czech Republic) €101,000
5. Martin Schleich (Germany) €81,500
6. Davidi Kitai (Belgium) €64,200
7. Nikolay Losev (Russia) €49,100
8. Adrian Mateos Diaz (Spain) €37,000