EPT Baden – Final Table Report
Thew celebrates his big win in Baden (Credit: Poker Stars Blog)
Julian Thew is 39 years old. He's a poker pro, hailing from Nottingham , England . The father of two, who recently won the Plymouth leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is having a great year. Now that he's added the EPT Baden event to his CV, the former draftsman can pay off his mortgage before he turns the big 4-0 just like he promised he would.
Obviously, Thew is a great poker player. However, he didn't make it to the top of the heap in Baden without first outlasting 281 other players included pros such as John Shipley, Barny Boatman and Ram Vaswani of the Hendon Mob, Patrik Antonius, Thomas Wahlroos and Annette Obrestad, the winner of the first WSOPE Main Event.
Gunnar Rabe, a Poker Stars qualifier from Sweden , was the final table bubble boy. His ninth place finish prepared the way for Day Four. The final eight included a former chef, Thierry Van den Berg, a former army officer turned poker pro, Vladimir Poleschuk, two psychology students, Thomas Fuller and Anton Allemann, and a man with ten cashes at the WSOP including three final tables, Ted Lawson.
The action got underway rapidly at the final table. On the very first hand, Allemann had barely taken his seat when he stood back up again. His big slick in the hole was crushed after the flop when his opponent Poleschuk, aka “The Impaler”, made two pair, kings and nines.
Two minutes later, Poleschuk struck again, this time knocking out American Ted Lawson. Lawson went all-in with the K,Q of hearts. Poleschuk flopped a heart flush with his suited A,9 in the hole. Lawson earned €83,600 for his seventh-place finish.
About an hour and a half later, Poleschuk eliminated his third player from the final table. Manfred Hammer, a grandfather of two who was born in Germany but now makes his home in Austria , pushed his remaining chips in the middle with pocket fives. Poleschuk called with an A,Q. The flop brought an ace for the Russian and put the final nail in Hammer's tournament coffin. Ouch!
Soon after, Poleschuk called Thomas Fuller's all-in bet with his pocket hooks but took a hit to his stack when the young American hit trip sevens on the flop and completed a full house on the river. Poleschuk still retained his chip lead, however.
The win seemed to ignite Fuller's fire. He made some solid moves, KO-ing Thierry Van den Berg along the way. After a short break, Fuller moves all-in for the biggest pot of the night. Poleschuk folds and watches his chip lead slip away. However, he is crippled by Julian Thew in a massive three-way tussle that takes Fuller from chip leader to short stack. A few hands later, Fuller is sent to the rail in fourth place, earning €83,600 for the effort.
As three-handed play began, Thew held a dominant chip lead with 1,816,000 chips. Dénes Kaló, a 31 year old sailing enthusiast who currently works as a sales manager for a broker company in his native Budapest ( Hungary ), was in second with 750k and Poleschuk had 255k.
It didn't take long for Vlad to push all-in with his A,Q. Kaló called him and flipped over a K,J. On the river he filled his gutshot Jack-high straight draw, almost impaling Poleschuk on the rail. The heads-up match began with Thew in the lead. To Kaló's credit, he lasted an hour before succumbing to his more experienced opponent.
Here are the final results:
1) Julian Thew - € 670,800
2) Dénes Kaló - € 375,000
3) Vladimir Poleschuk - € 225,000
4) Thomas Fuller - € 160,820
5) Thierry Van den Berg - € 132,900
6) Manfred Hammer - € 105,000
7) Ted Lawson - €83,600
8) Anton Allemann - €60,000