GERMANY’S daniel pidun wins ept berlin for €880,000
Berlin, germany, April 27, 2013 – It’s the third time he’s run deep but this time German businessman Daniel Pidun achieved his dream and won EPT Berlin – for a massive payday of €880,000.
Pidun, 36 from Lippstadt, near Dortmund, finished ninth here two years ago and 17th last year. He was dreading the prospect of missing the final yet again during yesterday’s marathon six-hour final table bubble, but once into the final eight he quickly powered towards the title taking a dominating eight-to-one chip lead into the heads-up against fellow German Robert Haigh.
As well as his EPT Berlin title, Pidun received a stunning watch worth more than €5,000 from luxury Swiss brand Slyde, the Official Watch Sponsor for EPT9 Main Events.
Pidun, who runs a mobile phone company with his brother back home in Lippstadt, rarely plays tournaments but takes a week’s holiday every year to play EPT Berlin. The married father-of-two said: “Of course I’m really happy. It was time for me to win it! They say that all good things come in threes, and this was the third time. To win an EPT is a dream come true, but the fact that I have gone so deep twice before is what really makes this special.”
Robert Haigh, who takes €531,00 for his runner-up finish, is an EPT regular who has already won two side events this season. The 28-year-old German, who currently lives in Brighton in the UK, is now in a very strong position to win EPT Player of the Year; he’s just 205 points behind current leader Jan Bendik. He said: “I didn’t realise this would bring me so close, but I’m definitely going to grind every tournament in Monaco now!”
Several big names were eliminated on the penultimate day of the EPT Berlin Main Event. Calvin Anderson, who is the world’s #1 online player at the moment, finished tenth while others who ran deep include EPT Omaha Player of the Year Khiem Nguyen, Masters Finale champion Robert Auer, EPT Grand Final High Roller runner-up Olivier Busquet and EPT Tallinn winner Kevin Stani.
Tennis legend and Team SportStar Boris Becker recorded his biggest ever EPT cash, finishing 49th for €15,000. Team Pros Liv Boeree, Sandra Naujoks, Theo Jorgensen, Alex Kravchenko and Jan Heitmann also made the money, along with EPT TV presenter Natalie Hof.
With 912 players, this season’s EPT Berlin Main was the second biggest EPT ever held in Germany, generating a €4,423,200 prize pool and paying 136 players. Numbers were boosted by a huge turnout for the first ever Berlin Cup at the start of the festival. The €1,100 event attracted 911 players and was won by Dutch pro Pieter de Korver for €145,400. The €3,200 Berlin Cup High Roller event was won by American Micah Raskin for €105,368.
In other side events, Team Pro Marcel Luske had a great week, taking down both the €330
7 Card Stud Deepstack tourney for €7,170 and the €1k PLO tourney for €32,000. Other winners included EPT Campione champion Jannick Wrang who won the €550 Mixed Game event; Jason Wheeler won the €2k NL Turbo for €69,500; Christopher Day, the €1k NL event for €74,700; Daniel Studer, the €2k NL for €131,000 and EPT Sanremo champion Rupert Elder won the €1k NL Turbo for €49,800. American Ankush Mandavia won his second heads-up event of Season 9 and is now well ahead in the EPT Heads-Up Player of the Year race with 600 points.
The €10,000 EPT Berlin High Roller also broke records with a total of 140 entries. Griffin Benger celebrated his 28th birthday by winning the event for a career-best live cash of €429,000. The prize pool was €1,372,000. As well as his title, trophy and cash prize, Benger also received a bracelet from Official EPT 9 High Roller Bracelet Sponsor Shamballa Jewels.
EPT President Edgar Stuchly said: “It’s been a really great event here in Berlin. We had 912 players for the Main Event - 167 more than last season - and the EPT Berlin High Roller broke all records for an EPT €10k with 140 entries - double last year’s field. I’m sure a lot of the popularity of this year’s EPT Berlin is down to the new festival format which included our new Berlin Cup events. These attracted massive fields and proved a great draw for both local and international players. Feedback has been very positive throughout the festival; players love Berlin, and we are now really looking forward to the final stop of Season 9 in Monaco.”
Final table/payouts:
Name / Country / Status / Payout1 / Daniel Pidun / Germany / € 880,000
2 / Robert Haigh / Germany / € 531,000
3 / Lasse Frost / Denmark / € 325,000
4 / Pascal Vos / Netherlands / Qualifier / € 255,000
5 / Alexander Helbig / Germany / Qualifier / € 202,200
6 / Roman Herold / Germany / € 155,000
7 / Julian Thomas / Germany / € 110,000
8 / Roman Korenev / Russia / Qualifier / € 77,000
The next and final stop for EPT Season 9 is the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final. This flagship Festival of Poker is running from May 6-16, 2013 at Le Sporting Casino in Monaco. For more information, please visit http://www.ept.com.