Emil Olsson Leads the WPT Copenhagen Final Table

(Photo: Emil Olsson)

If you are a lover of poker then it is a certainty, that at some time or other you have been drawn to the TV screen and the World Poker Tour (WPT) final table. As Agent Smith said in the hit movie The Matrix, "It’s inevitable."

Today was the fourth day of competition at the Danske Spil & PartyPoker WPT Copenhagen. The money bubble had been reached, and past. Everyone was getting paid, and so the next goal was to make that coveted final table. It wouldn’t be the TV screen, but the final table would be streamed live around the Internet. It was a very worthy goal and one that was in the forefront of everyone’s mind.

We reached the final six players after playing four-levels, and heading the cast of potential champions is 26-year old Emil Olsson from Sweden who finished the day with 2,208,000 chips.

Here is the recap of today’s events.

It seems that these days Steve O’Dwyer spends more time at WPT final tables that Mike Sexton and Vince van Patten. O’Dwyer has three final tables and a WPT National Series title under his belt. In fact, the National Series win came in Denmark during Season X. O’Dwyer had been ill since landing from Hong Kong, and today was the first time that he had felt well enough to eat some food. He was in good spirits, for the first time this week, but was desperate for a double-up early doors. When the chance came it was a flip against Frei Dilling Kjaer and it didn’t go as planned. O’Dwyer leaving us in 18th place after his pocket jacks failed to hold up against ace-king.

(Photo: Steve O’Dwyer)

The next player to follow O’Dwyer down the winding staircase of the Casino Copenhagen was Peter Jepsen. Was it a blow up? Was it just one of those things? You can listen to Peter Jepsen talking about the exit in his own words. He was disappointed, but he is poker and understands the rules of the game.

(Photo: Peter Jepsen)

So Level 19 ended with 16-players. Frei Dilling Kjaer joining Stanislav Barshak at the top of the counts, with both players on, or around, the 750,000 mark.

The second level of the day saw three people leave at one end, and a new chip leader emerge at the other. Morten Klein found pocket tens to destroy the pocket fours of Claus Nielsen, before we lost one of our strongest competitors in Jens Kerper. It was a cooler when it happened. Kerper holding [8s] [5s] on a [8d] [8c] [2c] [9h] board, and Philip Jacobson holding [8h] [7c]. There was a 60% chance of the pot being split but the [6c] fell on the 34% side and Kerper was out. That win pushed Jacobson into the top spot, but he lost ground a few hands later in a hand against Morten Klein.

As we moved towards the latter part of the level, Robin Ylitalo started to emerge from the pack. He won a monumental flip against the starting day chip leader, Stanislav Barshak, to move into second spot. It was [Ac] [Qc] v [Tc] [Ts] and Ylitalo spiked an ace on the flop to move above 800,000. Then as the level ebbed away Ylitalo added a further 200,000 to his stack to finish as the chip leader.

The two people to leave the competition in Level 19 were Kenny Kousgaard & Christian Honore. After surviving by the skin of his teeth for the entire day, the luck of Kenny Kousgaard eventually expired when his pocket sixes couldn’t dodge the [Kc] on the river to give Niclas Martinsson the victory holding ace-king. Then seconds before the break ended Emil Olsson’s pocket kings were too strong for the ace-queen of Christian Honore.

(Photo: Christian Honore)

The level ended with 12-players in the field and Robin Ylitalo holding the chip lead with 1,000,000 chips.

The 20th level was the quietest of the day with only Niclas Martinsson leaving the party. Jimmy Jonsson doubled through Frei Dilling Kjaer [Ad] [Kh] v [Kd] [Js] to reduce Kjaer to his lowest chip stack in some days. But then Kjaer was right back in the thick of it again after winning a flip against Martin Tonnesen. That hand reduced Tonnesen to a shove or fold strategy but he survived the level without anyone calling when his chips were in the pot. Then Morten Klein and Jan Djerberg had a tango. It was all-in pre flop with the [Ac] [Jh] of Klein holding strong against the [As] [8d] of Djerberg. Finally, we had the exit of Martinsson. It was pocket sixes versus the rockets of Ylitalo and Martinsson just couldn’t dodge those bullets baby.

The level ended with still 11-players in the field and Stanislav Barshak was back on top.

Level 21 saw us merge into one table after the eliminations of Thor Drexel and Martin Tonnesen. It was Morten Klein who eradicated Drexel, despite not even knowing he had managed it! It was [Ad] [As] for Klein and [Ah] [Jh] for Drexel. At the turn, Drexel had hit his straight on a [Kd] [Qd] [6h] [Td] board to take an unlikely lead. Klein thought it was all over, and when the [3d] hit the river he was about to leave the table until someone told him he had made the nut flush. Out went Drexel and he was followed one hand later by Martin Tonnesen, after falling foul to Jimmy Jonsson [Ad] [7h] < [Qc] [Jc]; Jonsson flopping a jack. Nine soon became eight when Jimmy Jonsson ended the hopes of Bircan Cakar, It was kings for Jonsson, ace-king for Cakar and five community cards later Cakar was out.

(Photo: Thor Drexel)

The level ended with eight remaining players and that man Barshak was still in the lead.

Level 22 proved to be the final level of the day, and the two players who were eliminated were two of our best. The first player to be eliminated was the aggressive Swede Jimmy Jonson. It was a flop of [9c] [7s] [6d] that did all of the damage. Jonson bluff shoving with a gut shot only to run straight into the top set of Emil Olsson. The gutter ball never materialised and Olsson took a huge chip lead.

(Photo: Jimmy Jonsson)

The final table of six was set after Stanislav Barshak eliminated the Day Two chip leader Frei Dilling Kjaer. The final hand was a blind battle with Kjaer firing all three streets with [Ac] [Th] on a [Ah] [9d] [8c] [Qc] [5s] board only for Barshak to river two pair to send the high stakes cash game player out in seventh place.

(Photo: Frei Dilling Kjaer)

Here are the final table standings and chip counts

Seat 1: Emil Olsson – 2,208,000
Seat 2: Stanislav Barshak – 1,597,000
Seat 3: Robin Ylitalo – 934,000
Seat 4: Philip Jacobson – 742,000
Seat 5: Jan Djerberg – 824,000
Seat 6: Morten Klein – 568,000

The final table will start at 12:00 (local time) and you can either catch the action right here on the live updates, or on the live stream with Jesse May in commentary with a host of supporting acts.