The EPT San Remo has wound down to one winner from the 837 starting players. And it found one player who has been playing his best poker recently take down the grand prize and the European Poker Tour trophy. The prize pool was built up to a nice €3,734,694, with the first place player taking home €800,000. After many ups and downs for many players in the event, Andrey Pateychuk beat out his opponent Dimitar Danchev in heads up play, with one of the craziest runner-runner knockout blows in recent history. Pateychuk has had quite a bit of success recently, as he is fresh off of a 15th place finish at the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Heads up play was really decided on one hand that came just over 2 hours after the two had gone back and forth, with Pateychuk doing pretty well throughout. The hand will be talked about for quite a while, and rightfully so. Danchev kicked off the action with a small raise, which led to a three bet from Pateychuk. Danchev then just called, and the flop came out with 2-4-9 with two spades, and Pateychuk put out a bet of 1,200,000. Danchev then raised, and they were off to the races as Pateychuk pushed it all in. This led to a call from Danchev, who turned over 10-9 for top pair; while his opponent turned over 6-7 to be way, way behind. The poker Gods were on his side on this day though, as the turn came with an 8 and the river came with a 5 to give Pateychuk runner runner straight cards to leave Danchev nearly out of chips. Danchev doubled up once, but was then knocked out.
The two decided to make a deal before heads up play began though, and both players took home €600k, with €80k going to the winner of the heads up match. So that sent Pateychuk home with 680k, and Danchev with €600k.
The €680k payday for Pateychuk is his largest of his career, which is a nice payday for a player who has only played the game for three years in total. Danchev also had his biggest score of his career in this event, and both of these two may be names to look out for in the poker circuit in the future.