Vasili Firsau Will Lead The bwin WPT Prague Final Table

The bwin World Poker Tour (WPT) Prague main event has reached it’s crowning point, and it’s a case of dejavu as Vasili Firsau will once again lead the charge when the final six players return to recommence battle, just like he did at the recent WPT Grand Prix de Paris; only this time he will be wanting to go one place further.

The plan for the day was simple. To shave enough bodies off the sides of these tables so we could end the day with a final table of six.

So how do you get down from 21 players to a final table of 6 in five levels?

This is how.

The first player to be eliminated was the Winamax Pro, Manuel Bevand, after he lost a coin flip against Ryan Spittles: 55<AQ when an ace sprung out of the pack on the turn.

Mateusz Moolhuizen quickly followed Bevand out of the door when he also lost a flip TT<AK against Julian Thomas, and Timur Margolin was out in 19th after hitting a straight on [Jd] [9d] [6s] [7s] [8h] – holding [Td] [Tc] – only for Scott Augustine to be holding a better straight with [Qs] [Ts].

We were guaranteed a new WPT champion after the last remaining WPT Champions Club member bit the dust in 18th place. Season XI WPT Barcelona winner, Chanracy Khun, getting it in on [Qd] [Td] [4d] holding [As] [Jd], and Andrey Shatilov was just too strong for him when he called holding [Ad] [Ac]; a fourth diamond on the river giving the Russian the bigger flush.

Govert Metaal’s tournament ended in 17th place when he ran AJ into the AQ of that man Thomas again, and Emil Mattsson ran AJ into the KQ of Mickael Pages, only for a king to turn up on fourth street to send him packing.

The final exit of the first level was a tough one to take for Carla Solinas. The Italian got it in good with pocket aces against the pocket fives of Roger Hairabedian, but the former WPT National Series winner hit a straight on the turn and Solinas was out.

The second level of the day contained five eliminations.

First to exit was Marc McLaughlin and what a tough way to exit it was. The former Nov Niner getting it in 99 v 88 of Daniel Laidlaw only for the deck to produce a third eight on the river and McLaughlin was out.

The PMU qualifier, Mickael Pages’s, good run came to an end in 13th place when he got it in holding top two pair on [Td] [8d] [7s], only for Valeri Savov to snap him off holding [Jh] [9h] for the nuts; and we would not be having back-to-back Polish champions in Prague after Piotr Pietrzak got it in AJ<AQ in a hand against Daniel Laidlaw. No jack in the box and the Pole was out.

The final exit of the level was the Italian Andrea Benelli. He had previously lost a chunk of his chips bluffing against Gintaras Simaitis, when he got it in against Savov. It was [Kd] [6d] for Benelli, [Ah] [Qd] for Savov and a queen on the flop and ace on the river sealed the deal tightly.

The third level started with the elimination of Ryan Spittles. It was a torrid day from the man from UK who had to play with Vasili Firsau and Ognjen Sekularac fixed on his left hand shoulder; Spittles finally running out of steam when his AT hit the brick wall of Hairabedian’s TT.

Scott Augustine ran pocket nines into the suited ace-king of Julian Thomas to bow out in 9th, and then Daniel Laidlaw was exceedingly unlucky to be sent to the rail by Ognjen Sekularac when his JJ failed to overcome the AT of the Serbian’s semi bluff.

The final elimination of the night belonged to Roger Hairabedian who lost a big pot hero-calling the river on [As] [6h] [5d] [3s] [Ks] with pocket sevens against the pocket kings of Simaitas. Then with just seven big blinds remaining Hairabedian got it in with ATs and ran into the pocket kings of Valeri Savov, to set up our final table.

Final Table

Seat 1: Ognjen Sekularac – 1,275,000
Seat 2: Vasili Firsau – 2,491,000
Seat 3: Julian Thomas – 1,354,000
Seat 4: Gintaras Simaitis – 666,000
Seat 5: Valeri Savov – 934,000
Seat 6: Andrey Shatilov – 2,427,000