American Kevin MacPhee claimed the 2015 WSOPE Main Event title and €883,000 today in Berlin - not to mention his second bracelet this year.
After winning the EPT Berlin main event five years ago this is MacPhee's second big title in the German capital.
On his way to this one today he beat JC Alvarado, Andrew Lichtenberger, David Lopez, Felix Bleiker and the only German at the final table, Killian Kramer.
The six finalists (out of 313 starters) came back to the Spielbank at noon to crown the final bracelet winner of this year's WSOP season and determine the winner of the Main Event.
MacPhee began with a commanding lead and, for most of the time, it looked like a wire-to-wire win but in the end one player managed to almost beat him to the title.
Top German Kilian Kramer Finishes 5th
The first to fall today was Swiss player Felix Bleiker. He begann the day with only seven big blinds and was quickly eliminated when he got it all-in with queen-jack against David Lopez with ace-eight.
Killian Kramer.
An ace on the board sealed Felix’s fate and sent him home with €130,000 – his biggest live cash so far.
Kramer, the last German standing on home soil, was eliminated soon afterwards when he shoved all-in with A♥ T♦ and was called by MacPhee with A♠ K♠.
The board fell 9♠ 7♥ 3♠ 4♠ 3♦ to give MacPhee a flush and send Kramer, who finished 18th in this year's WSOP Main Event in Vegas, home in 5th place.
MacPhee Dominates, Lopez Lucky
MacPhee continued to dominate this final table ad libitum, holding more than two-thirds of all chips with four players remaining. He also eliminated Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger.
He shoved all-in for 16 big blinds with Q♠ T♠ only to have MacPhee find Q♣ Q♦ in the small blind, call the all-in and win the showdown.
With three players left the only one to remotely contest MacPhee's domination was the Spaniard Lopez, who got a bit lucky just at the right time when he eliminated JC Alvarado.
After a raise and reraise both players were all-in before the flop. Showdown:
JC Alvarado: A♦ K♥
David Lopez: A♣ Q♠
Board: A♥ 4♣ 2♦ 6♥ Q♣
Alvarado was in the lead until the river but the queen gave Lopez two pair and Alvarado had to settle for third place – still worth €315,000, his best WSOP result so far.
Tested by Lopez.
Surprisingly Tense Heads Up
The heads-up started with MacPhee in a considerable lead holding 70% of the chips. But the stacks were still quite deep and Lopez had 70 Big Blinds to work with.
MacPhee kept pressuring his opponent but Lopez was no pushover. The Spaniard gained some ground and appeared to be spot on with his reads, like calling three barrels with 9♥ 5♣ on a 6♠ 5♥ 4♣ K♣ J♥ board to beat McPhee's bluff with T♠ 7♥.
After an hour of heads-up play Lopez equalized and later took the lead after winning multiple small pots in a row.
But MacPhee kept fighting and regained the lead after flopping a full house with K♦ 8♦ on a K♣ K♠ 8♠ Q♣ J♣ board. Lopez rivered a flush with T♣ 4♣ and lost more than half his stack due to this setup.
After this hand Lopez was left with roughly 30 big blinds and they soon vanished as both players got it all-in preflop.
David Lopez: K♥ K♣
Kevin MacPhee: A♦ 4♦
Lopez was in front but had to dodge an ace. The board fell 7♣ 5♥ 2♥ 3♣ J♠ and although Lopez dodged the ace, he lost to MacPhee's turned straight.
This hand sealed the tourney and left MacPhee celebrating his 2nd bracelet this year and his 2nd big scoop in Berlin. He offered drinks to everyone and will be on his way to Malta to play the EPT Main Event which starts tomorrow.
WSOPE Berlin Main Event Quick Stats
- Players: 313
- Buy-In: €9,800 + €650
- Prize Pool: €3,067,400
- Winner: Kevin MacPhee (€883,000)
Complete Payouts
1. Kevin MacPhee (USA): €883,000
2. David Lopez (Spain): €475,000
3. Juan Carlos Alvarado (Mexico): €315,000
4. Andrew Lichtenberger (USA): €225,000
5. Kilian Kramer (Germany): €175,000
6. Felix Bleiker (Switzerland): €130,000
7. Erik Seidel (USA): €100,000
8. Mario Sanchez (Spain): €75,000
9. Johannes Becker (Germany): €60,000
10. Nikolaus Teichert (Germany): €60,000
11. Enver Abduraimov (Ukraine): €46,000
12. Conor Beresford (UK): €46,000
13. Ardit Kurshumi (USA): €36,000
14. Pierre Chevalier (France): €36,000
15. Dzmitry Urbanovich (Poland): €28,700
16. Adrien Allain (France): €28,700
17. Özgür Arda (Turkey): €23,500
18. Robert Zipf (Germany): €23,500
19. Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria): €23,500
20. Dominik Nitsche (Germany): €23,500
21. Ola Amundsgaard (Norway): €23,500
22. Konstantin Puchkov (Russia): €23,500
23. Paul-François Tedeschi (France): €23,500
24. Jeffrey Rossiter (Australia): €23,500
25. Mark Eddleman (USA): €20,000
26. Benjamin Pollak (France): €20,000
27. Roland Israelashvili (USA): €20,000
28. Jeffrey Gross (USA): €20,000
29. Elliot Smith (USA): €20,000
30. Mario Puccini (Germany): €20,000
31. Viacheslav Goryachev (Russia): €20,000
32. Jason Mercier (USA): €20,000
