Many people thought it would never happen but Jakub Michalak has been crowned the ISPT Wembley 2013 champion after a great day’s poker play at Wembley Stadium. The final table was played out in a suite overlooking the pitch as opposed to on the hallowed turf but if there was one immediate benefit from this, it was the fact that the victor didn’t have to climb all of those stairs to collect the trophy and the all-important cheque. I suppose when you win you find an extra source of energy somewhere but some players must find those stairs a great strain at the end of the game! Not that this have been on the mind of Jakub Michalak although he will no doubt celebrate as though he won the FA Cup or Champions League final.
The second last day of the ISPT event at Wembley saw twenty hopefuls whittled down to the final six players, who would all return on Wednesday the 5th of June to see who the 1 million euro winner would be. Of course, the fact that deals are always likely to be made means that the actual winner may bag less than 1 million euros but getting a huge sum of money and winning a prestigious poker tournament at Wembley Stadium is likely to be all that a poker player really needs!
A lot of poker players went quickly
The tournament exits came thick and fast at the start of play on Tuesday with players like James Sullivan, Neil Bernadout, Giuseppe Stagno, Leon Louis, Leigh Wiltshire and even WSOP bracelet winner (two times) Praz Bansi were making the lonely walk from Wembley Stadium. They were quickly followed by Florian Hoeller, Freddy Deeb and Dave Ulliott, the man the poker world knows as “Devilfish”.
Bassam Elia was next to go and although there would have been disappointment in finishing in 11th place, the thought of grabbing €19,000 would certainly help to cheer him up! Jean Miguel Lacerda was out in 10th and the final table had been achieved. During the break, there were discussions about making a split of the cash at this point but this was shouted down and at the final 9, the money up for grabs was still along the lines of the original tournament layout. The players who crashed out before the end of the day were Julian Gardner, Jerome Brion and Ferhad Seyadi.
This left the final six players, and their chip count as Pete Linton (11,070,000), Alban Juen (7,615,000), Gwendoline Janot (6,230,000), Nick Hicks (6,230,000), Jakub Michalak (4,825,000) and Xavier el Fassy (4,555,000).
Into the final day and sadly, Gwendoline Janot, the final female player left in the tournament crashed out in 6th place. At least there was a prize of €73,000 (officially but indications about a deal being made would see Janot grab €243,000) to make her feel better. She was quickly followed by Alban Juen in 5th.
There was a bit of a shock in 4th place as Pete Linton crashed out, and he was the big favourite going into the final day. Yet again, sometimes the pressure gets to players and if you get misfortune running against you, the game can run against you. Pete did seem fairly relaxed in his post-tournament interview but he was able to take it in his stride. The fact that he usually plays PLO games and he bagged a great deal of money in the process (unofficially it seems as though Pete takes home €290,000) will definitely keep him satisfied for a good while yet.
Nick Hicks crashed out in third place and he was quite philosophical about his performance in the final day, which he felt was not up to scratch. Nick blamed this on a big lack of sleep in the past few days but even with that in mind, third place is not a bad finish. He got a third place medal as well as more than €200,000 so the Dusk Till Dawn player definitely had a lot to be proud of. This left Jakub Michalak and Xavier el Fassy for the head to head but there could only be one winner with Jakub Michalak grabbing the top prize after Xavier went all in and didn’t get the vital King he was looking for.