04 May 11

Hot, Hotter, HotKarlMC - PokerStrategists Clean Up in San Remo

PokerStrategist HotKarlMC celebrated his latest second place at a PokerStars.net EPT main event in San Remo, a great success for the 20-year-old. As in Berlin, in the High Roller event another Team PokerStrategy.com player, Thorsten77, left all his opponents behind.

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Trying to make it two female winners
in a row: Xian Liu
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HotKarlMC on day 4
It's not an uncommon fact that sport journalists love their statistics. So for the commentators on the PokerStars.tv stream, the main event at the PokerStars.net EPT San Remo was already a dream come true when the final three players emerged. 

"If Liu wins, it will be the second time in a row that a female has taken the victory in San Remo. If Rupert Elder wins, it would be the second Brit in row. For Max it would be his second heads-up in a row, fantastic!" they rejoiced.

The PokerStrategists had their fun over the past week. HotKarlMC took 2nd place for the second time in the space of just a few weeks at the EPT, while Throsten77 won the highroller event. Reason enough to tip our hats to both community members.

HotKarlMC shapes the final table

In the main event HotKarlMC was "only" second in chips at the final table, yet he still played as aggressively as a chip leader. The data representative for PokerStars.tv gave a VPIP value of 41, whereas the actual chip leader had a value of 21.

With his unique playing style, HotKarlMC continued to shape the table. Neither Barry Greenstein nor Vanessa Selbst, both sat in the commentator's booth, could put him on any kind of opening range and neither could his opponents.

Italians hit the rails first

The action was just as big at the final table and it didn't take long until the Italian Roberto Spada, previously 3rd in chips, was reaching for his coat. He pulled out the big guns at the table but still failed to impress his opponents.

The other three Italians weren't much more successful and hit the rails within a short amount of time. The former short stacks Max Lykov und Xuan Liu profited from this. While the Russian winner at the PokerStars.net EPT Kiev picked less obvious spots, the Canadian player at the table got involved in more showdowns.

With luck and panache they played to the front, even occassionally taking the chip lead. Lykov was out in fourth place but was happy with it, having fought his way up from 7th at the start of the final table.

A rollercoaster ride to heads-up

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HotKarlMC being interviewed after a job done
With four or three remaining players, Max Heinzelmann aka HotKarlMC started his rollercoaster ride. He continued to be very active but lost a few large pots. When he finally open pushed a medium strength hand with 25BB and Xian Liu called, he was relying on help from the board.

The poker gods were smiling on him and his live cards, and he doubled against Liu. The Canadian then lost several important hands and finally won €360,000 in 3rd place.

With at least 2nd place secured, HotKarlMC went against Rupert 'elrupert' Elder in heads-up, who had a comfortable 2:1 chip lead at the start.

Still, Max made a much more experienced and powerful impression than his opponent and successively gained on Elder's lead. After a while Max caught a good bluff and was even able to take the lead, a result which was fervently greeted in the PokerStrategist's forum.

Only one card missing for the victory

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The elated winner: Rupert Elder
Then came the crucial hand, with just one card separating Max from his first EPT triumph: with a re-rasied pot, 6-7-8 landed on the board, followed by an  A on the turn. The action reached its pinnacle, Elder shoved all-in and HotKarlMC snap called.

The players turned over 66 and 9T, a classic set-up in Max's favour. Elder's chances were at 21%: a paired board for a full house or four of a kind to stay in the running.

An A on the river turned this small chance into a reality and the tournament carried on, with Elder taking a strong lead once again.

Max didn't submit and reached 9-10 million chips again, roughly 2:1 behind. In a further pivotal hand, he bluffed a J-J-Q-K-T board just over the pot size on the river for 3 million chips, but after much deliberation, Elder called with 2 pair.

A bluff gone awry

HotKarlMC needed a double-up badly at this point, but he didn't get it: his re-shove with Q5o was called by Elder with A5o and a blank board ended the main event with Maximilian Heinzelmann still taking a strong 2nd place.

Joy and frustration were the feelings that HotKarlMC expressed in the interview which followed, where reporter Albatrini shared his emotions saying, "on one hand there was the lost hand with the full house on the river, on the other there's an impressive 2nd place with at least €600,000."

So, congratulations! HotKarlMC will take a break now until his first WSOP - after all, he will be turning 21 shortly before it. We're on the edge of our seats!

Thorsten77 successful in the High Roller event

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Thorsten77 shipped the
PokerStars EPT San Remo High Roller
There was another high roller event taking place in San Remo, which attracted 62 players with a buy-in of €10,000. Among them was Team PokerStrategy.com player Thorsten77 and the winner of the High Roller event in Berlin,  Allanon.

Well-known faces from the community included LeChiffre19, Ace0nTheRiver and psychobenny.

While Allanon was out relatively early with QQ against T8, his opponent went all-in with top pair on the flop and turned trips, Thorsten77 could start his next deep run. Treading lightly and with a solid chip stack he made it to the final table, which also meant the money ranks.

Thorsten77 needed some help in a blinds battle with QJ against AJ, which he more than got with A-K-T on the flop. His reward? 130,000 chips. At the time chip leader was Swedish professional William Thorson, holding nearly 500k in chips. Yet even this comfortable stack wasn't enough, and and he went out in 6th place.

The last three make a deal

Thorsten77 won a flip among the five remaining players as his 77 held up against AJo, although afterwards he was the short stack out of the four players.

Nonetheless, he survived one more player, then won a crucial hand from the small blind. Going up against Sam Chartier, he flopped the nut flush draw with KT on a monochrome board and hit already on the turn. Chartier then tank-called two bets on turn and river, making Thorsten77 the chip leader as the pot was pushed his way.

At this point the final three players, Sam Chartier (480,000 chips), Oleh Okhotskyi (504,000 chips) and Thorsten77 (566,000 chips) made a deal. In the next few plays, Thorsten77 beat Chartier with 88 against 77 and with ATo against Okhotskyi's 88, thus winning the PokerStars.net EPT San Remo High Roller event.

Congratulations!



Results from the EPT San Remo Main Event & Highroller Event
Main Event High Roller
Place Name Prize money
 Name Prize money
1st Rupert Elder
 €930,000 Thorsten77 €220,000
2nd HotKarlMC
 €600,000 Oleh Okhotskyi €132,000
3rd Xian Liu
 €360,000 Sam Chartier
 €78,000
4th Max Lykov   
€290,000 Salman Behbehani €57,000
5th Francesco de Vivo   
€220,000 Fernando Brito €42,000
6th Massimiliano Manigrasso   
€170,000 Thorson William €30,000
7th Constantino Russo   
€125,000 David Sonelin €24,000
8th Roberto Spada   
€81,950 David Sands €18,400