On Saturday, Dany Parlafes from Bucharest, Romania, sat down at the final table of the EPT Deauville Main Event with 44 per cent of the chips in play. Parlafes eventually made it to heads-up against Ognyan Dimov, who brought the second largest stack to the final table.
It turned out to be a marathon battle, as it took 117 hands before a winner had been crowned. Parlafes had the chip lead in the beginning, but Dimov hit a lot of boards and held the lead about halfway through the match. Dimov remained out in front after that, but things could have been very different if Parlafes had taken down the final hand of the tournament, a hand where he held the dominating hand pre flop.
Parlafes had A
K and was up against the A
J of Dimov when the chips went in. The dealer burned a card and delivered the flop Q36. The 6 fell on the turn and it was game over for Dany Parlafes. His dreams of becoming Romania's first ever EPT Main Event winner had been ruined. "
I'm crushed right now," Parlafes said at the end. "I'd been grinding back and I finally get the best hand and I lose."
Ognyan Dimov, on the other hand, was celebrating the first EPT title on European soil for a Bulgarian. In addition, he started planning for the future...
"I want to be the first Bulgarian to win two EPT titles," he told PokerStars Blog.
EPT11 Deauville, €5,000 NL Hold 'em Main Event
Entries: 592
Places paid: 87
Prize pool: €2,841,600
1 - Ognyan Dimov, Bulgaria, €543,700
2 - Dany Parlafes, Romania, PokerStars qualifier, €338,700
3 - Benjamin Buhr, France, PokerStars qualifier, €242,390
4 - Benjamin Pollak, France, €187,500
5 - Andrius Bielskis, Lithuania, PokerStars qualifier, €147,760
6 - Joseph Carlino, France, €115,650
7 - Massou Cohen, France, €85,530
8 - Matas Cimbolas, Lithuania, €58,820
