If you were creating a long title for a poker tournament: The World Poker Tour (WPT), National Series, Euro Finals Of Poker (EFOP) Diamond Championship, €5,000 main event, would be a very good attempt.
188 players, some with short names and others with long names, all entered this tournament hoping to get to the final table of the tournament with the long name! But final tables only have eight seats and you have to play really well, run like god or have a bit of both in order to get there. Tobias Wagner, Natalia Nikitina, Sam Trickett, Nicolo Calia, Ingo Paulus, Alexandre Brivot, Benjamin Pollak and Jean-Louis Tepper all had a bit of both, and at 16:00 (CET) they had their faces dusted in foundation, took their seats and had their moment in front of the silver screen.
Sitting at the top at the start of the day was Benjamin Pollak with 1,251,000 chips and lying at the bottom was Nicolo Calia with 176,000 chips. It was the shorter stacks that enjoyed the better start to the day when Brivot, Tepper and Calia all doubled up early in the tournament. Then after four hours and thirty minutes Calia was the first to go when his 
came up against the 
of Pollak.
Next to be eliminated was the Party Poker qualifier Ingo Paulus. Ingo earning €34,835 after being eliminated at the hands of Tepper. Then a significant moment in the tournament after Alexandre Brivot doubled up against Pollak. Brivot hitting a flush on the turn at the same time Pollak had nailed his straight. That hand propelled Brivot into the chip lead for the first time in the day dethroning Pollak at the same time.
Trickett was then eliminated in 6th place after he moved his short stack in the middle and was called by Tepper. Tepper’s pocket nines beating Trickett’s pocket fives and the dangerous player from London was eliminated in 6th place.
Tobias Wagner’s elimination in 5th place occurred just minutes before Pollak was eliminated in 4th place. Brivot took care of Wagner just before Tepper took care of Pollak and overtook Brivot as the chip leader.
With three players left it looked like Jean Louis Tepper was likely to take the title. He was applying the right pressure and had all of the momentum. Then Nikitina caught him with his fingers in the cookie jar and he was reduced to virtual dust after his 
was beaten by Nikitina’s 
in an all-in showdown. The hand put Nikitina into the lead for the first time and Tepper was eliminated a few short hands later and finished in third place.
So into the heads up action we went and Nikitina had a slight chip advantage. Brivot took early control of the heads up action and started to grind Nikitina down but Nikitina pulled herself back into contention again after winning a few hands. Then the first all in went the way of Brivot when his 
stood the test of time against Nikitina’s . Nikitina was reduced to 850,000 chips! Brivot had control, he had the chips and he looked the more composed. Nikitina was looking tired and looking like she wanted it to end. Then miraculously she pulled it around when she came from behind twice in all-in pots. Firstly her 
made two pair versus the 
of Brivot. Then her 
hit a two on the flop to beat Brivot’s 
. Now it was Brivot’s turn to be the short stack and he pushed it in not long after holding 
and Nikitina called with 
. There was no luck for Brivot and Nikitina’s hand held and she was crowned our new champion in her first ever live tournament of any significance.
The live updates can be found here
Final Table Payouts
1. Natalia Nikitina €243,830
2. Alexandre Brivot €174,170
3. Jean-Louis Tepper €113,210
4. Benjamin Pollak €69,670
5. Tobias Wagner €52,250
6. Sam Trickett €43,545
7. Ingo Paulus €34,835
8. Nicolo Calia €26,120
Tatjana Pasalic Speaks to our Winner
Final Table Image Gallery
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