Team partypoker’s Joao Simao secured the largest live poker tournament cash of his career when he fell at the final hurdle of the partypoker MILLIONS Germany €25,000 Super High Roller, losing out to Patrik Antonius.

partypoker MILLIONS Germany €25,000 Super High Roller Results

Fifty-one entries were processed, 14 of these were re-entries, creating a prize pool of €1,228,750 and this huge sum was distributed among the top seven finishers.

Some of poker’s elite players, including Niall Farrell, Steffan Sontheimer, Christoph Vogelsang, partypoker ambassador Patrick Leonard and Manig Loeser bust before the money places. Loeser’s exit was particularly painful as it resulted in him bursting the money bubble

Manig Loeser bursts the bubble

Manig Loeser burst the money bubble

Loeser moved all-in with and Stefan Schillhabel called instantly from the big blind with . By the river the board read and it was game over for Loeser and the start of a payday for the remaining seven players.

Dominik Nitsche was the first player to bust in the money when his couldn’t get there against the pocket nines in Renato Nowak’s hand. Nitsche was joined on the sidelines by his fellow German Dietrich Fast who three-bet shoved over a Nowak raise with and missed the board completely, meaning Nowak’s black eights held to reduce the player count by one.

Fifth-place, and the first six-figure score, went to High Roller specialist Steve O’Dwyer who min-raised to 600,000 with and saw Schillhabel three-bet to 1,700,000. O’Dwyer went into the tank for almost two minutes before jamming all-in for 6,125,000 only to see Schillhabel snap-call with . The community cards failed to come to O’Dwyer’s rescue and he exited the tournament area.

Schillhabel then endured a torrid time that saw him go from hero to zero in a few hands. First, Nowak doubled through Schillhabel to leave him with approximately eight big blinds. Then Antonius opened to 750,000 on the button, Simao called in the small blind and Schillhabel moved all-in from the big blind for 2,450,000. Antonius folded, but Simao called. It was for Schillhabel against the for Simao. A ten on the flop was enough to win the pot for Simao.

The action continued at a frantic pace and the tournament eventually reached the heads-up stage when a short-stacked Nowak raised all-in over Antonius’ open and Antonius tossed in the extra calling chips. Nowak showed and Antonius . No help arrived for Nowak and only two players remained in the hunt for the €425,000 first-place prize.

Joao Simao leads going into heads-up

Joao Simao in action

Simao held a 39,000,000 to 12,000,000 chip lead over Antonius going into heads-up but Antonius managed to grab the chip lead as the tournament progressed to the 250,000/500,000/500,000a level. Everything was going in Antonius’ favour and it looked inevitable that the Finn was going to emerge victorious.

The final hand saw Antonius limp in for 600,000, Simao raise to 1,900,000 and Antonius call. The flop fell , Simao bet 1,200,000 and Antonius called. The turn was the , Simao bet again, this time 2,300,000 and Antonius called. The completed the river and Simao moved all-in for 8,600,000 only for Antonius to instantly call. Simao flipped over for a rivered set of kings, but Antonius had backed into a straight with his to bust the partypoker hero.

The €251,250 Simao won for this runner-up finish is the largest of his live career and takes the Brazilian’s live winnings past the $1.1 million barrier. For Antonius, this was his first live cash in almost a year and it boosts his winnings to more than $7.1 million.

Keep up-to-date with the rest of the partypoker MILLIONS Germany events via My partypoker Live.

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