Although he didn’t win any tournaments at the European Poker Tour stop in San Remo, Italy, this past week, Waterloo’s Mike “Timex” McDonald was able to walk away from Europe with a bit more cash than what he started with.
In the EPT Main Event, Mike had a deep run in the event, making it to the next to last day. He tweeted at the time, “Busto 18th, TT (pocket tens) into KK, cashed for €19K.” Not making the final table would provide Mike some time, however, to get into one of the bigger side events, where he would take down some more loot.
Right after his elimination from the Main Event, Mike found his way over to the €10,000 No Limit Hold’em (w/one rebuy), which was basically serving as this particular EPT stops “High Roller” event. As the tournament was working its Day One, Mike reported over Twitter that he was in the running, but a little low. “60K at last break,” he tweeted, “17 left, average is 75K.”
Things would get better in Day Two action for McDonald, as he reached the money in the tournament. “Three people busted simultaneously,” “Timex” chirped, “Fifth out of seven in the money, 110K, average is like 180ish.” Mike would then ride a rollercoaster as he looked to make the most profit possible from the tournament.
Down to five players, Mike would lose a bit when he was able to get away from pocket threes, but he would win a hand against Mclean Karr. “AK>88 against Mclean, third of five (remaining players),” Mike reported to his fans. He would move up by eliminating Karr, but would eventually be eliminated from the tournament when his A-5 was run down by K-10 suited.
Although he didn’t report who did the deed, Mike tweeted, “A5<KTs to bust in 3rd for 69K euros, gl to Sam and Bryn (although no reports exist for this event, it is thought it was Sam Trickett and Bryn Kenney).”
Thus, Mike McDonald’s trip to San Remo looked like this: eighteenth place in the Main for a €19,000 payday and another €69,000 for finishing third in the side event. Total that up and Mike comes home from Italy with €88,000 (approximately $123,857 Canadian) in his pocket. To put that in perspective, Mike’s take from the two tournaments was more than what the eighth place finisher in the EPT San Remo Main Event, Kevin MacPhee, received for his efforts.
In that Main Event, Andrey Pateychuk would prove to be the last man standing, riding his strong play all the way to the EPT San Remo championship. At the start of play on Thursday afternoon in San Remo, Australia’s Daniel Neilson held the lead, but Pateychuk was able to take a large portion of Neilson’s chips about two hours in to assume a lead that he would essentially hold all the way to the title.
MacPhee, who was looking to become the first ever double EPT champion, was knocked out in eighth by the U. K.’s Barny Boatman, who earned his biggest cash of his career by finishing in fourth place. Neilson would recover somewhat from Pateychuk’s chip theft to earn a third place finish, but the real action would begin once heads up play began.
Sitting virtually even in chips, Pateychuk (13 million) and Dimitar Danechev (11 million) did something that has become a rarity in major tournament events, brokered a deal. Of the €1.28 million that was left between the top two places, the duo decided to take €600,000 each and save back €80,000 for the eventual champion. The twosome battled for almost two hours for that €80K, with Danechev taking a slim lead on a couple of occasions, before the final hand determined the champion.
After seeing his stack savaged by a Pateychuk straight, Danchev would push his final $1.3 million in chips to the center from the big blind and Pateychuk made the call. Pateychuk, holding pocket sevens, had a lead over Danchev’s suited K-Q, but the board couldn’t resist giving a bit of a sweat. The flop came J-J-4 and the turn Ace gave Danchev ten outs to the river to attempt to get back in the game. An innocent three hit the felt, however, and Andrey Pateychuk had taken down the EPT San Remo championship.
1. Andrey Pateychuk (Russia), €680,000*
2. Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria), €600,000*
3. Daniel Neilson (Australia), €285,000
4. Barny Boatman (United Kingdom), €225,000
5. Jan Bendik (Slovakia), €170,000
6. Yorane Kerignard (France), €130,000
7. Rocco Palumbo (Italy), €95,000
8. Kevin MacPhee (United States), €63,694
* – reflects final table deal
The last few months have been Andrey’s coming out party, so to speak. Along with this EPT championship, Pateychuk made a late run at this year’s World Series of Poker Championship Event before falling in fifteenth place. With that finish and the EPT title, Andrey Pateychuk has earned $1.4 million in 2011.
Congratulations to Andrey Pateychuk for his finish at the EPT San Remo and welcome home to Mike McDonald. Although he didn’t win, he still earned a nice chunk of change from his European vacation. The money may come in handy for Mike; as he landed in Toronto today, he tweeted, “As I get off the plane, they say, “Would passenger McDonald please make himself known at baggage claim. They lost my bags.”
