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Europe storms Bellagio, the home of poker in Las Vegas. Scandics reign supreme! |
December 19, 2005 |
| Five Europeans in the final 18 at the Bellagio five-diamond Classic |
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Well it was $15,300 to enter and 555 players entered to create an $8 million dollar prize pool. But it was the Europeans who dominated the event. The Five-diamond World classic at a location designed on a European lake resort in Italy.
Patrik Antonius the young Swede with the playboy looks (so the girls tell me) was dominating the event but his challenge was coming from other Europeans vying to take this premier event in the WPT calendar. The final 18 had 5 Europeans still in the running.
First out in 18th was Barney Boatman, the Hendon mobster well known for his poker commentaries alongside the legendary voice of poker Jesse May. He can console himself with $64,000.
Next to fall was Peter Costa, an English player with a phenomenal record in big field events in America. He collected $80,500.
The final 9 featured the last 3 Europeans and guess what they were all Scandinavians, an area that is producing some of the best players in the world online and offline. Those cold boring nights in freezing conditions have bred some of the most aggressive players ever seen in the poker world.
Out in 8th place was Bengt Sonnert, the young tall fearless Swede who has made such a big impact on European Poker both online and offline. He can commiserate with $128,000.
The final 6 swayed back and forth with the chip lead and the two major protagonists being Patrik Antonius, the Finnish sensation and another tall Scandinavian natural being Rehne Pedersen from Denmark. As the battle continued everyone else fell away to leave these two heads up playing for over 3 million dollars. Despite the aggressive style of Antonius, the EPT winner in Austria, it was the Danish sensation that triumphed.
Rehne Pedersen collected 2 million dollars and an automatic $25,000 entry to the WPT final in April. As a consolation Patrik Antonius had to settle for a second place prize of 1 million dollars.
I think we will see these two locked in several battles over the coming year, and it is still scary to see how well the players from this Scandinavian region are dominating live poker events after cleaning up online.
I am looking forward to the WPT final in April and hopefully you can join us by qualifying through the satellites running daily on IPNpoker.com.
Tony Ure,
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