The alpha papa - Alexandru Papazian
What is it Joe Stapleton says every season on EPT Live? "The year of Romania", right?
Well, could 2016 actually be it? I mean, first there has been the announcement of the Eureka Poker Tour in Bucharest kicking off on May 18th, at which Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu might be playing within the birth country of his parents. Then there's the wave of talented Romanian pros who've been taking the EPT and other PokerStars tours by storm, prompting Stapes to mention it within the first place.
One thing's for sure, Alexandru Papazian will need to have been listening. The young Romanian beat Alexandros Kolonias heads-up to take down €25K high roller here in Monaco tonight for an enormous score of €1,197,000 - the largest ever live cash by a Romanian. His victory sends him as much as third on Romania's all-time money list, breaking the records of 1,701 of his countrymen.
The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT12 Grand Final have been all about breaking records. First we had the largest ever main event within the history of the Grand Final; you can now add the most important ever €25K to that list. Here's the way it played out.
It was a star-studded field bolstered by quite a few live satellite qualifiers, and that created a monster prize pool of €5,659,500. A COMPLETE of 175 players entered, with 56 re-entries. There can be 31 players finishing within the money, however the title of bubble boy would visit Ami Barer, yesterday. Once the bubble burst the bust-outs came thick and fast, as expected, with Steve O'Dwyer, Ivan Luca, Dan Smith, Day 1 chip leader Niall Farrell, and Kid Poker himself all making the money.
Negreanu came 15th for €83,760
Only 12 made it to the general day, that you would be able to read through intimately here. and it was Zvi Stern who held the chip lead originally of the business end. Here's how the counts checked out the start of the day:
| Zvi Stern | Israel | 1,638,000 |
| Max Silver | UK | 1,342,000 |
| Alexandros Kolonias | Greece | 1,338,000 |
| Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 1,231,000 |
| Ivan Deyra | France | 1,160,000 |
| Rafael Da Silva Moraes | Brazil | 1,026,000 |
| Eddy Maksoud | Lebanon | 907,000 |
| Imad Derwiche | France | 840,000 |
| Anthony Zinno | USA | 816,000 |
| Saar Wilf | Israel | 509,000 |
| Thomas Miller | USA | 383,000 |
| Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | 366,000 |
Ramin Hajiyev was the primary to be eliminated, followed by Thomas Miller and Ivan Deyra. That got us all the way down to one table, however it wasn't the official final table until Saar Wilf was eliminated in 9th place for €122,250. The Israeli got his stack in with Ace-Jack, but was trailing the Ace-Queen of Anthony Zinno who ended up making Queens full.
It didn't take long for us to seek out an eighth place finisher. Imad Derwiche knows all about this event as he finished runner-up in last year's Grand Final €25K to Charlie Carrel. He was super relaxed all day, dancing in between hands and joking with almost about everybody, but he came into the overall eight very short with lower than ten big blinds. He went all-in over Anthony Zinno's 100,000 open for 325,000 with the J♥J♠, which Zinno called. He was racing against Zinno's A♠Q♠, and suffered a Barry Greenstein - aka an Ace at the river - to hit the rail. Still, he picked up €147,710, so it was another great showing for the Frenchman.
Derwiche out in 8th
The next to fall was Max Silver. He went from chip leader to out very quickly, losing a big pot to Eddy Maksoud. The Lebanese player opened only to be three-bet by Alexandru Papazian, followed by a four-bet all-in from Silver. Only Maksoud called and it was Silver's pocket tens against the Ace-King of Maksoud for a 3 million chip pot. A King at the flop was all it took to cripple Silver, who was then right down to just two big blinds. He committed them with Queen-Jack against Papazian's six-four, however the Romanian made two pair at the river and Silver was gone. He collected €202,050.
No gold for Silver
At this point Alexandros Kolonias was building a large chip lead, and he'd add much more to it by busting Anthony Zinno in sixth. The yank was short - having just doubled Rafael Da Silva Moraes - when he shoved with the Queen-Jack, just for Kolonias to isolate with a shove of his own. The fairway had pocket Queens and the women held up. For his run, Zinno won €276,750.
Zinno fell in 6th
Eddy Maksoud would make his exit in fifth for €364,500. He was very short and got the last of chips in with ace-deuce, which Papazian would beat together with his ace-ten, making two pair at the turn and leaving Maksoud drawing dead.
Nice run for Maksoud
That got us right down to four, and a number of the chips were in front of Papazian at this point. He would eliminate Zvi Stern in fourth too to take a much bigger lead. Stern shoved at the button, Papazian isolated from the small blind and Rafael Da Silva Moraes gave up his big blind. Stern had Ace-seven and would have to hit something to overcome the pocket Queens of Papazian, but alas it wasn't to be. Stern collected €460,700.
Good showing for Stern
Papazian had an enormous chip lead when play got three-handed, holding 7.9 million to Kolonias' 2.3 million and Da Silva Moraes' 1.35 million.
The shortest of these three can be next to head. He called all-in against Papazian after hitting top pair on a Queen-high flop - the one problem was that the Romanian also had a Queen, plus a greater kicker. The Brazilian couldn't hit two-pair at the turn or river and he went to assemble his €568,200.
Da Silva Moraes thanks his rail
Heads up counts:
Alexandru Papazian - 7,390,000 Alexandros Kolonias - 4,160,000
While these two is probably not big names at the live circuit, online it is a different story. Papazian, playing under the screen name 'tilt21sted' on PokerStars, has $1.68 million in online winnings - his biggest score coming in a TCOOP event in January when he finished runner-up for $209,300. Kolonias is not any stranger to the virtual felt either; he's amassed $956,000 on PokerStars, $365,500 of which came from a 3rd place finish within the 2015 WCOOP $10K high roller.
After a few hands of heads-up play, Papazian and Kolonias decided to move on a dinner break. After they returned Kolonias managed a double as much as take the chip lead when an all-in pre-flop hand saw him win with Ace-King against King-Queen. But Papazian didn't get flustered; he went straight back to work and took the chip lead again not long after.
Kolonias v Papazian
The heads-up battle was fast-paced and almost entirely tank-less. From here at the lead switched on a pot-by-pot basis; crucial hand saw Kolonias make a 1.3 million call at the river of a K♣8♦6♥J♣K♦ board but muck when Papazian showed the J♠9♦. That gave Papazian 10 million to Kolonias' 1.45 million, but after all it wasn't over yet.
Kolonias doubled when his K♣8♥ held against Q♣J♥ all-in pre-flop, then was chipped down another time. Another double came soon after when his J♥8♥ paired at the T♦6♠K♦J♣2♠ board to overcome Papazian's A♥7♠.
But then it was Papazian's turn to multiply his stack by two. Papazian limped with the A♦6♣ and Kolonias jammed with the K♠Q♦. After the call, the board ran out A♣4♦5♠8♦3♥, and that sent Papazian' stack up slightly below 10 million again. A FEW hands later and it was in all places; Kolonias got it in good with pocket nines against Ace-four, but a four at the flop and crucial Ace at the river secured Papazian the win.
Fellow Romanian and EPT11 Deuville runner-up Dany Parlafes was railing Papazian for all of the heads-up battle. He's a person who knows how close you may get to a prestigious EPT trophy after which see all of it slip away.
That didn't happen for Alexandru Papazian. After all, it is the year of Romania.
EPT Grand Final €25K high rollerDates: May 4-6, 2016 Buy in: €25,000Entries: 231 (175 players plus 56 re-entries) Prize pool: €5,659,500
1 - Alexandru Papazian, Romania, €1,197,0002 - Alexandros Kolonias, Greece, €805,9003 - Rafael Da Silva Moraes, Brazil, €568,2004 - Zvi Stern, Israel, €460,7005 - Eddy Maksoud, Lebanon, €364,5006 - Anthony Zinno, United States, €276,7507 - Max Silver, United Kingdom, €202,0508 - Imad Derwiche, France, €147,710
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: European Poker Tour]
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