WSOP Europe: Ryan Hefter Wins €1,650 Monster Stack
Prior to Black Friday you could find Ryan Hefter playing some on Full Tilt Poker under the screen name ‘ShermHoy’ or posting on PocketFives as ‘heftybags’. His day job – Hefter works for Credit Suisse – recently saw him relocate to Poland and while his finance career is flourishing, the move appears to helped him with his poker goals too.
On Wednesday Hefter came out on top of a 580-player field to win the €1,650 Monster Stack at WSOP Europe in Berlin. The win comes with the highly sought after first WSOP bracelet and €176,205 ($202,305 US). With his 9-5 career in full swing, Hefter has an even deeper appreciation for the win.
“I can’t even put into words how I feel right now,” Hefter said. “I work, so I don’t have time to tour the circuits.”
The third and final day actually began with 22 players and took just over 14 hours to complete. With just nine players remaining, Hefter was in the middle of the pack with a little less than an average stack.
The first player eliminated from the final table was David ‘Davidp18’ Peters. The Ohio native was eliminated by Carlos Chang, who was attempting to become the first WSOP bracelet from Taiwan. Henrik Hecklen eliminated Richard Sheils in eighth and then Chang claimed another victim.
Justin Frolian, one of two German players at the final table, was eliminated by Change in seventh. Just 45 minutes later the other German final tablist, Armin Eckl, was sent packing by Hecklen. And after Chang eliminated Diego Ventura in fifth it appeared that he and Hecklen were on a collision course to get heads-up for the bracelet.
Despite having been responsible for the first five eliminations, Hecklen and Chang could go no further. Hecklen was the first to go, eliminated by Gilbert Diaz. It took nearly 90 minutes but Chang was finally eliminated at the hands of Hefter.
It took nearly 8 1/2 hours to go from the official final table to heads-up play, but didn’t take long at all for Hefter to finish off Diaz. Play had gone on so long on the final day that tournament directors were forced to add two levels to the posted structure sheet. Only 17 hands were needed for heads-up play with Hefter coming out victorious.
The next final table will be Thursday morning and should be relatively quick. The €2,200 Eight Game Mix event has just three players remaining with Alex Komaromi leading and Scott Clements in second, looking to improve upon his runner-up finish in the $5,000 Eight game Mix event at WSOP APAC last October in Melbourne.
Final Table Payouts
- Ryan Hefter – €176,205
- Gilbert Diaz – €109,625
- Carlos Chang – €80,170
- Henrik Hecklen – €59,495
- Diego Ventura – €44,725
- Armin Eckl – €34,180
- Justin Frolian – €26,415
- Richard Sheils – €20,675
- David Peters – €16,455
