Mario Sanchez Triumphs At Grand Series of Poker Marbella

Spain’s Mario Sanchez has triumphed at the Grand Series of Poker Live Marbella main event, after seeing off a field of 392 players on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the €74,150 ($96,743) first place prize.
Following his impressive victory in in southern Spain, the poker pro now takes his live earnings to $141,538, to go with the $144,208 he has won playing online under the screen name “losttoriver”.
As the €1,100 buy-in tournament reached its final table of nine, Sweden’s Andreas Johansson was the chip leader. He was also joined by three more of his compatriots, with Mario Sanchez Spain’s only remaining representative at the table.
First to leave the arena was Germany’s Stephen Dreimann in 9th (€8,365), after his pocket nines fell to the pocket queens of Matt Adams. Sanchez (9-9) then  eliminated Jari Porkka (8-8) in 8th €10,080 to take over the chip lead, before then dispatching start of the day table leader Andreas Johansson to the rail in 7th (€15,210). Continuing his assault, the Spaniard (A-10) subsequently did likewise to Jari Rättyä (Q-Q) in 6th (€15,210).
Next, UK’s Matt Adams made his run at the competition by eliminating Alexander Scherdin in 5th (€19,770) and Janos Toth in 4th (€26,630), before Mario Sanchez put paid to his run by knocking him out in 3rd (€34,990), thus heralding in the heads-up phase of the tournament.
At this stage, Mario Sanchez held a commanding 6.35m to 1.49m chip advantage over Sweden’s Kristian Johansson, and eventually the final hand was played with Johansson all-in pre-flop holding pocket nines to his opponent’s pocket tens. With no help from the board, Johansson finished the runner-up for €48,290, while Mario Sanchez was crowned the 2013 Grand Series of Poker Marbella champion.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1: Mario Sanchez — €74,150
2: Kristian Johansson — €48,290
3: Matt Adams — €34,990
4: Janos Toth — €26,630
5: Alexander Scherdin — €19,770
6: Jari Rättyä — €15,210
7: Andreas Johansson — €15,210
8: Jari Porkka — €10,080
9: Stephen Dreimann — €8,365