Home / Poker News March 2009 / Second ever female EPT Champ: Sandra Naujoks
Second ever female EPT Champ: Sandra Naujoks
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-03-15 21:52
The final day of the EPT’s Dortmund Main Event featured an extremely diverse final table, with an ex-champ of the same event, a woman aiming to become only the second female to ever win an EPT Main Event and a motley crew made up of the previous days’ chip leaders. Holger Kanisch, one of these chip leaders would eventually do battle with Sandra Naujoks in the heads-up stage of the event. The winner however was Sandra Naujoks who followed in Vicky Coren’s footsteps to become the second female winner of a
European Poker Tour Main Event.
Cengizcan Ulusu, the marginal short stack of the final table was the first to head to the rail after about an hour of play. He was crippled by Canada’s Mike McDonald, who was still in hot pursuit of a second consecutive EPT title at Dortmund, and then finished off by Johan Storaker and Marc Gork.
The following elimination was the result of an all Swedish battle. Johan Storaker squared off against professional player William Thorson, in a hand which his K,J managed to get the better of Thorson’s 9,8 on the turn, where he made a pair of Ks.
Luca Pagano didn’t really want to go: it took the others over two hours to get rid of him in 6th place. He was eventually eliminated by Marc Gork.
Sandra Naujoks sent defending champion Mike McDonald to the rail next, ending his championship defense dreams.
Johan Storaker was the next to go, and being the last non-German player in the field, he left behind an all-German top 3.
3-handed play continued for a while, with none of the players involved keen on heading for the pay-out queue. Gork managed to clinch the chip lead at one point, but eventually he was eliminated in 3rd place, after he ran his K,10 into Naujoks’ pocket 7s.
The heads-up play between Naujoks and Kanisch wasn’t a smooth affair either. Even the final hand was a peculiar one: Kanisch’s A,Q lost the race against Naujoks’ A,9 on the turn of the final board.
Thus Naujoks took down the €917,000 first prize, sending Kanisch home in second with €533,000.
