Home / Poker News May 2010 / WPT Barcelona – Ali Tetkintamgac wins
WPT Barcelona – Ali Tetkintamgac wins
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2010-05-26 06:02
There’s no doubt about it. The WPT has found a home in Europe, and player numbers continue to rise on various events, despite the steep buy-ins. The latest leg of the series, the €3,200+€300 Main Event came to a conclusion the other day, with Germany’s Ali Tekintamgac walking away a winner. Tekintamgac pocketed a cool €315k together with a bracelet and an entry into the 2011 WPT World Championship, worth a not too shabby $25,500.
This WPT event was the second ever large buy-in live event that Tekintamgac took part in. The first one was the EPT’s Monte Carlo Grand Final, where he showed promise by finishing in the money. He took home €15k for his 125th place finish.
Tekintamgac was the one who went into the final table action holding the chip lead. The position suited him fine and he took full advantage of it by placing pressure on the shorter stacks from the get go. Manuel Blashke from Austria proved to be the early catalyst for action. He eventually finished in 4th place. Another intesting presence at the final table was that of Spanish film director Roberto Garcia Santiago. The 40-year old had come along for
PartyPoker’s celebrity invitational event and decided to give the Main Event a go. He finished the Day 1 flights with the overall chip lead, which put him into prime position for a nice deep run. He eventually finished 2nd, knocked out by Tekintamgac in the heads-up stage. His reward was a €160k one, money which he pledged to use for a film project of his centered around poker. It certainly doesn’t hurt to popularize the game as much as possible at every available opportunity.
Santiago found himself facing down Tekintamgac heads-up with a huge chip deficit to make up for. Though it wasn’t for lack of trying, he just couldn’t overcome that handicap. The final hand of the
poker tournament saw the Spaniard’s 9d, 8h go up against the German’s 5c, Qc. The money had gone all in before the flop. The flop fell K,A,5 all heart and Santiago’s chances were starting to look better. The Qd of the turn though dealt him a heavy blow and the 2d on the river sealed the deal in the German’s favor.
Mats Iremark finished in 3rd place after he ran his pocket Q’s into Tekintamgac’s pocket rockets.
