EPT Snowfest 2011 Won By Vladimir Geshkenbein

Vladimir Geshkenbein has just won the EPT Snowfest Mountain, after overcoming a field of 482 players over six days to capture the title, as well as collect the €390,000 ($548,925) first place prize.
After the two Day 1 starting flights were completed, Russian player Geshkenbein had managed to transform his 30k starting stack into 250,000 chips to lead the field going into Day 2.  Over the next few days, Geshkenbein then stayed near the top of the chip counts until eventually entering the final table of eight in third place.
First to exit the final table was  Morten Mortensen in 8th (€35,000), whose pocket eights were defeated by Visscher’s A-J, followed by Denis Murphy in 7th (€49,000) holding A-J to Vandersmissen’s A-K.
Philip Meulyzer then had to be content with a 6th place finish (€65,000) after pushing pre-flop holding A-K to Vandersmissen’s Q-J, only for the board to fall A-J-4-7-Q.
Geshkenbein then won a major pot against Dragomir, after the Russian pushed all-in holding Kh-10h on a Jh-2d-6h flop, only to be called by his Romanian opponent with pocket eights. A 9h then fell on the river to decimate his chip count and soon after Dragomir was eliminated from the competition in 5th (€81,00).
Italian player Giacomo Maisto then added the rest of his chips to Geshkenbein’s stack holding Q-10 to the Russian’s Q-4 on a Q-9-8 flop. Unfortunately for Maisto a 4 then hit on the river and so he finished in 4th for a €100,000 pay-day.
After Geshkenbein with pocket jacks took care of Visscher (Ac-7c) in 3rd (€147,000), the heads-up phase of the tournament got underway with  Geshkenbein and Vandersmissen practically level in chips.
It took just thity minutes into the battle before both players found themselves all-in pre-flop with Vandersmissen holding K-10 to Geshkenbein’s A-9. The Russian then sealed his victory on a A-9-8-K-5 board and thus Belgium player Kevin Vandersmissen had to be content with a runner-up finish worth €260,000, while Vladimir Geshkenbein was crowned the  2011 European Poker Tour Snowfest champion.