Home / Poker News March 2009 / PokerNews Cup Alpine final table report
PokerNews Cup Alpine final table report
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-03-30 22:13
When the dust settled in the picturesque ski resort of Saalback Hinterglemm in Austria, it was Belgium’s Marc Naalden who stood triumphant, at the end of a grueling three hours heads-up battle with Runnar Lindepuu of Estonia.
For most of the 3-day event, it was Australia’s Mark Vos who kept the reins of the action firmly in hand, having built huge chip leads on both the first and the second day of the Main Event and coming to the final table with the chip lead as well.
Marc Naalden had about half as many chips as Vos had at the beginning of the final day of action. The short-stack was the UK’s Farhad Kia with a mere 74,100 chips.
As the action kicked off, Farhad Kia was keen to get something going and to let someone else take up the position of the short-stack. He failed to get any sort of traction though, and he soon busted out at the hands of Joseph Buhmann of the US. He moved all-in with a 10,9o and got a call from Buhmann’s 7,8o. The flop gave Kia the better pair but the river gave Buhmann a set and thus the first victim of the final table was singled out.
Jan Hlobil exited next, ejected by Runnar Lindepuu. His A,J got called by Lindepuu who had a pair of 8s in his pocket. The board gave Hlobil an Ace but it also gave Lindepuu another 8 too. The turn and the river failed to influence the outcome.
Joseph Buhmann, himself a short-stack, managed to hang on for a while thanks to the chips he had earned on Farhad Kia’s elimination, but his elimination came by eventually too. He was bounced by Salvatore Cundari in 7th.
Mark Vos exited 6th at the end of a phenomenal bad beat he took from Runnar Lindepuu who made a runner-runner straight.
Cundari left in 5th, followed by Simon Borg in 4th. A few minutes after Borg’s elimination, Fedor Los headed to the rail too, setting the stage for Naalden’s heads-up war with Lindepuu.
The heads-up stage lasted for 3 hours, despite the fact that Naalden headed into it with 1.6 million chips to Lindepuu’s 300k.
Lindepuu managed to double up early on, and the battle turned into trench-warfare until an all-in three hours later. Naalden’s pocket 8s got the better of Lindepuu’s 8,9 and the Belgian walked away with the €46,474 first prize.
