The World Series of Poker Europe has continued to build momentum toward this weekend’s main event, with another winner’s bracelet awarded in event six, a Euro 3,250 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em competition that concluded on Friday in a victory for Greek player Pavlos Xanthopoulos.
Aside from the prestigious bracelet, Xanthopoulos claimed the first prize of Euro 182,510 after besting a field of 255 other hopefuls in a highly competitive tournament.
The Greek player started final table action with a good chip stack, lower only to that of the Argentinian leader Mario Lopez, and the two dominated the game to the three-handed stage. By then Lopez had achieved a significant chip lead and looked likely to crush the remaining opposition presented by Xanthopoulos and French player Thierry Gogniat.
Then Xanthopoulos came to life with some aggressive action that eliminated Gogniat and left the Greek player with a strong enough stack to continue his assault on Lopez.
The late surge of aggression again paid off as Xanthopoulos (and some good cards) steamrollered over Lopez to claim victory in the ninety minute heads up.
For Lopez it was the disappointment of another runner-up finish (he came second in this year’s Little One for One Drop event at WSOP in Vegas) although the second prize of Euro 112,785 was some consolation.
Other cash outs on the final table included:
Thierry Gogniat France Euro 81,500
Sam Chartier Canada Euro 59,970
Farid Jattin United States Euro 44,920
Alex Rocha United States Euro 34,270
Fabrice Soulier France Euro 26,520
Artan Dedusha UK Euro 20,860
Sergi Reixach UK Euro 16,685