Marc Goschel is Crowned Champion of the Main Event

By Lisa Yiasemides

Marc Goschel (pictured above) has bested the 371-strong field to take the WPTDeepStacks Germany Main Event title, trophy and €97,670 in prizemoney, plus a €10,300 partypoker Millions Ticket for his efforts. Over almost 11 hours of play here at King’s resort, Goschel remained calm and composed as the final 16 players were reduced one by one until he was the last man standing.

Final Table Results:

1st: Marc Goschel €97,670 + a €10,300 partypoker Millions Ticket
2nd: Claudio Di Giacomo €63,770 + a €10,300 partypoker Millions Ticket
3rd: Artur Rudziankov €46,760 + a €10,300 partypoker Millions Ticket
4th: Vasile Sabou €34,730 + a €10,300 partypoker Millions Ticket
5th: Tim Beyer €26,130 + a €10,300 partypoker Millions Ticket
6th: David Hu €19,920
7th: Andrej Bogdanov €15,390
8th: Omar Lakhdari €12,050
9th: Ihor Yerofieiev €9,565

The first part of the day was fast and furious, with the unofficial final table reached after just one hour and fifteen minutes. Mohamed Mangroe (pictured below) narrowly missed out on a spot, bubbling the final table when he finished in 10th place, after running ace-seven suited into ace-jack. Players took a short break before the remaining nine returned to battle it out once again.

Ihor Yerofieiev departed in 9th place (€9,565) after he moved all in with jack-ten suited and ran into Claudio Di Giacomo’s pocket-queens. Half an hour later, it was Omar Lakhdari’s turn to leave. It was back-to-back losses that meant the end for Lakhdari who was in good shape until that point, he took €12,050 for 8th place.

Next to fall was Andrej Bogdanov (€15,390) in 7th place. His fate was decided in a huge flip with Artur Rudziankov. Bogdanov made a pair on the flop with ace-king but the river delivered a jack, giving Rudziankov a set of jacks, taking Bogdanov out of the game. Not far behind him was David Hu (pictured below), who also busted with ace-king. This time it was in a three-way all in with Vasile Sabou who had pocket-jacks and Di Giacomo, who had ace-queen. A queen hit on the turn to triple Di Giacomo and Hu also lost the side pot to Sabou. He bubbled a €10,300 partypoker Millions seat and he had to settle for €19,920 for his 6th place finish.

Tim Beyer had managed to navigate a short stack all the way from the bubble yesterday. He busted with ace-nine to Di Giacomo who re-jammed with king-queen suited and paired his queen. The live satellite qualifier won entry to the event for only €200 and he goes away with the partypoker Millions ticket (that all top five finishers receive) as well as €26,130 in cash.

Then Vasile Sabou was eliminated in 4th place (€34,730). He moved all in from the small blind with pocket-sixes over a late position open and ran into pocket-aces, which Goschel found in the big blind. The third-place finisher was Artur Rudziankov (€46,760), who had been leading since the latter part of Day 2 and had a huge chip lead throughout the final table. The cards turned out to be his undoing with several pots not going his way. The nail in the coffin was in a hand against Goschel. Rudziankov (pictured below) had top pair and a gutshot against Goschel’s overcards and a flush draw and he was unable to hold through to the river.

Then there were two and though Goschel had the chip advantage, the chips were passed back and forth in mostly small and medium-sized pots for an hour and a half. That was until Di Giacomo (pictured below, left) open-shoved preflop with queen-nine of clubs for 25 big blinds and Goschel called with ace-eight of clubs. Di Giacomo flopped the world with a queen-high straight and Goschel took the hit. It did turn around for Goschel half an hour later when he hit a full house on a board that also gave Di Giacomo a flush. Di Giacomo bet-called 1.8 million and was left short again after that clash.

Finally, it came down to another post-flop pot. Goschel had turned a straight in a hand where Di Giacomo had a pair and a straight draw. Di Giacomo decided to bet-reraise all in at this point and the river was no help to him. After a valiant effort, he takes home €63,770 for finishing runner-up.

That leaves the newest Champion to celebrate his victory, knowing he has secured the biggest result of his career so far. It overtakes his previous best, which was for a 1st place finish in the €550 WPT Warm Up Event in Montenegro in 2015. Congratulations go to Goschel on his performance and the fantastic result.