WSOP Europe: Pavlos Xanthopoulos Wins Second Bracelet for Greece
When the World Series of Poker brain trust announced that WSOP Europe 2015 would be at Spielbank Berlin in Germany, the expectation was that German players would walk away with a high percentage of the bracelets available.
That’s not quite how it’s going down though.
On Friday night in Berlin Pavlos Xanthopoulos won the €3,250 No Limit Hold’em event to become the second Greek winner this week. Through six events only one German player – Dietrich Fast – has captured any hardware. The first Greek player to win a bracelet was Makarios Avramidis in the opening event.
Xanthopoulos came out on top of a final table that included Fabrice Soulier, Alex Rocha, Farid Jattin and Mario Lopez to score his second cash this week. He finished 48th in the €550 Oktoberfest event that Fast won. While Xanthopoulos has had some success in his career, it’s mostly been in smaller buy-in events. Coming out on top on such a big stage, with a lot of money on the line added to the experience
“I’m super excited. My first big tournament,” said Xanthopoulos following his victory. Along with the bracelet, Xanthopoulos also earned €182,510 ($207,112 US) to more than double his lifetime earnings.
The final table began with Xanthopoulos right behind Lopez at the top of the chip counts but it was the player in third that was responsible for early fireworks. Sam Chartier started things off by eliminating Sergi Reixach in ninth and Artan Dedusha in eighth.
Lopez then picked up his only elimination of the night when he sent WSOP bracelet winner Soulier out in seventh place. Just five minutes after that elimination, Xanthopoulos busted Rocha in sixth.
Chartier was unable to continue his early momentum and became the fourth place finish at the hands of Thierry Cogniat. About 90 minutes after that elimination Xanthopoulos and Cogniat got into an all-in preflop confrontation with Cogniat drawing thin with pocket sevens against the Greek player’s pocket aces. The board brought not help and Cogniat was out in third, leaving Xanthopoulos and Lopez to play for the bracelet.
When heads-up play began Lopez had nearly a 2-1 chip lead. But over the course of the next two hours Xanthopoulos overcame Lopez to win the tournament and take home the bracelet.
The next WSOP Europe final table goes Saturday when Doug Lee looks to win his first bracelet in the €550 Pot Limit Omaha event at final table also includes Barny Boatman and Shannon Shorr.
Final Table Payouts
- Pavlos Xanthopoulos – €182,510
- Mario Lopez – €112,785
- Thierry Gogniat – €81,500
- Sam Chartier – €59,970
- Farid Jattin – €44,920
- Alex Rocha – €34,270
- Fabrice Soulier – €26,520
- Artan Dedusha – €20,860
- Sergi Reixach – €16,685
