By Lisa Yiasemides
The final day of the Main Event has drawn to a close and of the 510 entries, Christopher Puetz (pictured) was the player left standing here at King’s Resort, notching up his first Major Title and going home €270,000* better off as a result in the €3,300 Main Event.
There were and surprises along the way, with many of the big names and big stacks coming unstuck during six hours of battle across the felt. That is all history now though, with the 23-year-old German lifting the trophy and joining the WPT Champions Club in the process.
Winner’s reaction
Speaking to WPT.com following his win, Puetz explained that he got into poker around two years ago, when he began studying at university. His interest has grown during that time and he has no plans to slow down either. His next WPT event will probably be the WPT Tournament of Champions presented by Baccarat Crystal at the end of the season but he is also eyeing up a couple of others in the US.
Emotions, unsurprisingly, were still running high at the time of the interview and Puetz explained that he wants to take some time to think about what he will do with his winnings. One thing that he is certain about though, is that there will be a couple of days celebrating with friends and family when he returns to Austria, where he currently resides.
Action of the day
Rewinding back to the start and nine remained when play resumed with 40 minutes left of Level 27. Three players needed to go before the final table was reached and with a few short stacks in the mix, that could have come about very quickly. Instead, it took an hour for the first to fall, with Rifat Gegic (€24,000) taking 9th place after he made a move with king-eight suited blind v blind for 16 big blinds. Laszlo Papai called with a dominating king-queen and held.
Renato Nowak left next, just 20 minutes later. He had lost a chunk of his stack following a clash with Josef Gulas who had king-queen against Nowak’s ace-jack on an ace-jack-ten flop. Unable to recover he managed to climb one rung on the money ladder, winning €31,000.
It was more than two hours until the next elimination as everyone fought hard to make the final table. In the end, it was Hossein Ensan (pictured) who bubbled a seat in one of the shock departures of the day. Ensan began close-second in chips with around 80 big blinds that dwindled as a result of several unfortunate clashes.
First, Puetz doubled through Ensan after check-raising all in on the turn a pair of sixes, a gutshot and a flush draw against Ensan’s top pair eights. Ensan was unable to find his way back in and he will have to travel to another WPT event in order to win that elusive Triple Crown.
It was a different story for Farukh Tach. Coming into the final day with just 9bb, Tach managed to survive several double-ups and laddered all the way to 6th place for €52,000. He eventually busted with jack-ten after making a move in early position and running into Papai’s ace-king.
Next, it was Gianluca Speranza’s (€68,000) turn to leave. Speranza and Ensan were arguably the most experienced players at the table and Speranza brought a chip-lead stack through with him from yesterday. Today was a new day though and Speranza couldn’t seem to catch a break that clipped his stack. His last chips were lost to Papai after the Italian shipped pocket-fives and ran into dominating pocket-sevens.
For Gulas (€91,000), the story played out differently. After winning many of his chips without showdown, the Czech was eliminated after making an uncharacteristic call with ace-seven against Joep van den Bijgaart squeeze with pocket-nines.
The Dutchman entered three-handed play with half the chips in play and had accrued almost half when there were six left, wielding his stack to great effect, which made his departure all the more surprising. First Puetz doubled with a flip and he was unable to retake the lead from that point. He will have to console himself with the €125,000 payday.
Then there were two. And it took just seven hands for Puetz to land himself a spot on the podium. The hand that all but secured it for him, was an ace-jack versus ace-ten hand that ended up being four-bet shoved by Papai (pictured) and called by Puetz. With less than a big blind left, it was all over on the very next hand.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1 | Christopher Puetz | € 270,000 |
| 2 | Laszlo Papai | € 174,500 |
| 3 | Joep van den Bijgaart | € 125,000 |
| 4 | Josef Gulas | € 91,000 |
| 5 | Gianluca Speranza | € 68,000 |
| 6 | Farukh Tach | € 52,000 |
Congratulations go to our newest winner on becoming the latest WPT champion!
Want to read more WPT action? The WPTDeepStacks Paris festival has already begun and the Main Event kicks off in just a few days’ time, which will be accompanied by live coverage right here at WPT.com.
*Includes a $15,000 seat to the WPT Tournament of Champions presented by Baccarat Crystal at the end of the season.
Check out all the WPT Germany photos here. WPT Germany photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.