Sam Grafton Triumphs at PS Festival Bucharest Main Event
August 7, 2017 11:21 amThe PokerStars Festival Bucharest Main Event was held at the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel in Romania’s capital city, with 736 players entering the €1,100 buy-in tournament to create a prize pool of €706,560 ($834,763). Five days later, and UK pro Sam Grafton eventually triumphed over the field, including Turkey’s Anil Ozdemir heads-up, to claim the title, as well as a first place prize of €117,707 ($139,050).
While Grafton is a prolific online pro, his live earnings of $910,510 represent just a fraction of the $4,973,565 he has amassed playing online under the screen name “TheSquid”. After capturing the first live tournament title of his career, Grafton commented:
“I’ve been playing PokerStars events for a long time, trying to win one for around six years. To finally win one feels amazing. Back then, I didn’t really realise what it takes to win a tournament, how rare it can be in your career. In the past, I didn’t value the runs I made, but now I know how difficult it is to win a live tournament. It feels amazing.”
Anil Ozdemir and Sam Grafton entered the final table with more than half the chips in play, and then managed to dominate the proceedings to eliminate their remaining competitors and force heads-up play. By this stage, Ozdemir held 16.4 million in chips to Grafton’s 5.6 million, but before long Grafton managed to gain the upper hand, and was sitting on a 13.5 million stack versus the 8.95 million of his opponent.
The duo subsequently locked up a deal which saw Grafton guaranteed a payday of at least €110,000, and Ozdemir €97,993, with €7,700 left over for the eventual winner. After resuming the action, the final hand was played with Grafton shoving preflop holding K-9, and Ozdemir making the call with Q-J. The 10-3-2-J-Q which ensued completed a straight for Grafton, much to the delight of his rail, and commenting later he stated:
“I’ve had a lot of support through the years from all parts of the poker community; the players, bloggers, the staff and it’s nice to reward so many people’s patience and support in me now that I’ve achieved this title.”
Final Table Results:
1: Sam Grafton €117,707
2: Anil Ozdemir €96,933
3: Daniel Nietrzebka €57,600
4: Fahredin Mustafov €43,500
5: Patrick Bueno €34,400
6: Johann Eclapier €26,091
7: Traian Bostan €18,720
8: Yuriy Kudrynskyy €12,790