Benny Spindler Wins 2012 EPT San Remo High Roller
October 12, 2012 11:41 amGermany’s Benny Spindler has just won the EPT Sanremo High Roller event, after overcoming a field of 74 players on his way to collecting a prestigious EPT title, as well as the €253,000 ($327,357) first place prize.
The €10k buy-in tournament had a total of 10 re-buy to create a prize pool worth €823,200, with plenty of big name pros joining the fray including Vanessa Rousso, Bryn Kenny, Jonathan Duhamel and John Duthie. The final table’s billing was no less spectacular and included the likes of 2010 November Niner Joeseph Cheong, Germany’s Philipp Gruissem, Russia’s Igor Kurganov, Swedish pro Joel Nordkvist and, of course, Benny Spindler.
Spindler (Q-Q) then started the final day by eliminating Igor Kurganov (Ad-Jd) in 7th (€32,900), while Joseph Cheong’s 3-bet shove with 7-7 was enough to dispatch Philipp Gruissem (A-K) to the rail in 6th for €41,200. Pocket sevens was no help to Kent Roed, though, as Nordkvist (Q-J) sent him packing in 5th (€57,600) as the board rolled out J-2-9-4-A.
As the final four players battled on, Joseph Cheong then found himself increasingly on a short stack before re-rasing all-in from the small blind holding A-3. Benny Spindler made the call with 10-8 and soon after Cheong exited in 4th (€75,100) after the board fell K-8-5-2-6. Two hands later, and Spindler (Q-Q) dispatched Joel Nordkvist (A-Q) to the rail in 3rd (€98,500) to get heads-up against WPT title holder Keven Stammen.
At this stage, Spindler held a 3.4m to 791k advantage over his US opponent, but Stammen was able to reverse his deficit to grab a monster chip lead himself before Benny Spindler took the lead once more. Eventually, the prolonged affair came to a conclusion after Stammen three-bet all in preflop holding pocket sevens and was called by Spindler with no less than the pocket rockets.
Keven Stammen then had to content himself with a runner-up finish worth €200,000, while Benny Spindler was crowned the EPT Sanremo High Roller champion, taking his live career earnings to an impressive $3,462,281.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Benny Spindler – €253,000
2. Keven Stammen – €200,000
3. Joel Nordkvist – €98,500
4. Joseph Cheong – €75,100
5. Kent Roed – €57,600
6. Philipp Gruissem – €41,200
7. Igor Kurganov – €32,900
8. Igor Yaroshevskyy – €24,700