Home / Poker News September 2009 / WPTM Cyprus Classic – Day 6: Champ crowned
WPTM Cyprus Classic – Day 6: Champ crowned
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2009-09-16 15:12
The Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus was the scene of several first ever events a few days ago. The World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Classic has just crowned its first ever champion in French poker professional Thomas Bichon, who became the first ever major poker champion crowned on the island of Cyprus.
181 players registered for the event, and no, Despite the EPT’s Barcelona stop going down at about the same time, there was no shortage of “name” pros on the roster.
6 players made it to Day 6 to lock horns at the official final table, duking it out for the biggest share of the $1.5 million prize-pool, by far the biggest one Cyprus had ever seen.
The first victim of the final table was Rony Jazzar, the Lebanese player who’d begun the day with the largest stack. It didn’t take Jazzar long to get rid of his stack though. First, Rep Porter busted one of his bluffs and that move cost him about half his stack. Then he tangled with Uri Keidar on a board of 7s,Qs,2h,5h shoving all-in while holding K,Q. Keidar had 8s, 6s for the open ended straight draw and the 4-card flush. The 10s on the river meant an early trip for Jazzar to the rail.
He wasn’t lonely there for long though as Janar Kiivramees joined him, courtesy of Steven Fung. The two of them made the all-in move before the flop, when Kiivramees committed his entire stack on his pocket 5s and got called by Fung with pocket 9s. The board brought nothing but bricks and Kiivramees was done in 5th place.
Following the Estonian’s departure, play ground to a halt as nobody would head to the rail for about 3 hours.
Porter took a bad beat after his early double up, to get dangerously close to the edge, when Fung hit a runner-runner straight to relieve him of a large part of his stack. He did bounce back though and staved off elimination. He built his stack right back up and soon he was in a better shape than ever. It was then he locked horns with Bichon, and as his flush draw failed to fill against his opponent’s set, he was right back to a short-stack.
He still didn’t give up though and soon he managed to chip back up to 240,000 chips, before being bounced for good by Uri Keidar.
That was the moment when Bichon took over. Fung was the first of his remaining two opponents to fall. He shoved all-in on a 9d,5d vs 5,Jo match-up and headed to the rail when the board brought a bunch of bricks.
The heads-up stage between Bichon and Keidar was a short affair, which, given Bichon’s monster chip lead, was no surprise at all. It was all over basically before it started. In only two hands – which both saw the two players go all-in - Bichon was the first WPTM Cyprus Classic Champion.
The win gave him a $579,165 prize as well. Keidar picked up $380, 645 for his second place.
