Nathan Tetart has been crowned the WPTDeepStacks European Championship Deauville €1,500 Main Event champion after he battled through a 405 player-field at the Casino Barrière.
Tetart defeated the popular Greg Ceran Maillard heads-up to win the €102,655 first-place prize + €2,000 WPTDeepStacks Main Event package for next season.
Despite Tetart starting heads-up with a massive chip advantage, Maillard, who usually finds himself on the other side of the poker table as a reporter and Team Manager of PMU.fr, held his own but ultimately fell at the last hurdle.
“It’s a dream!” said Tetart after his victory.
“I was down to just three big blinds at one point during the tournament, so this is unexpected for me.”
Confessed recreational player Tetart, who currently lives on Réunion Island, qualified for the WPTDS Main Event via the €250 satellite at his second attempt and admitted he only expected to be in Deauville for one day.
“I had to explain to my wife that I had to stay another day, and another day because I kept getting through. I even had to call my hotel at 8 pm this evening and request my room for another night like I have done all week.”
Tetart admits that the money will not change his view on his poker career, and will continue to play mostly online just for fun.
Final Table Results:
1st: Nathan Tetart €102,655 + €2,000 WPTDeepStacks Main Event package
2nd: Gregoire Ceran Maillard € 70,115
3rd: Teunis Kooij €50,670
4th: Parham Ahoor €37,460
5th: Wellington Guedes €27,970
6th: Jacques Bellity €21,625
7th: Baptiste Carteau €16,985
8th: Richard Dubourg €13,255
9th: Dylan Slama €10,475
The final day’s action got underway at 1 pm as the remaining 15 players took their seats in the Casino Barrière to battle.
After 30 minutes of bedding in, the action got real for Andrej Tekel (15th-€5,570) when he put his tournament life on the line with the flop down ten-seven-deuce. Dylan Slama called Tekel’s check-shove for 350,000 and saw he was ahead.
Tekel turned over seven-five for middle pair and needed help against Slama’s king-ten for top pair. However, Tekel received no help as the board completed and he was the first player to hit the rail in Day 3.
Mathieu Rabalison (14th-€6,790) then saw his run come to an end over back-to-back hands. Rabalison moved all in from early position with ace-queen and saw Richard Dubourg under call from the big blind with pocket jacks. With both players stood from their seats, Dubourg celebrated after the board fell in his favor.
Rabalison was left with just four big blinds and departed immediately after when he ran queen-ten into Anthony Apicella’s pocket aces.
Frederic Bois (13th-€6,790) was next to leave after he hit bottom pair on the flop from the big blind. After check-raising all in, Bois saw Baptiste Carteau call with pocket kings and hold.
Just moments later, Carteau scored another knockout at the expense of Ugo Faggioli (12th Place-€8,380).
Faggioli moved all in from under the gun with ace-king and ultimately lost a flip against Carteau’s pocket sevens to depart.
Carteau wasn’t done there however and scored his hat-trick of eliminations shortly afterward when he flopped top two pair with queen-nine. Anthony Apicella (11th Place-€8,380) had moved his short stack into the middle preflop with ace-five and was unable to hold after Carteau’s call from the big blind.
Steve Lacomblez (10th place-€10,475) was then the unfortunate man to miss out on a spot at the final table. When the flop fell five-six-seven, Lacomblez’s shove with king-eight was called by Parham Ahoor who held six-seven for two pair. The turn and river cards bricked for Lacomblez and sealed his fate.
The final nine regrouped as one table for the first time with Ahoor leading the chip counts and Day 3 chipleader Wellington Guedes the short stack.
Guedes had the perfect start when he won a flip with pocket eights to double through Dylan Slama, and not long after it was Slama who hit the rail in 9th place for €10,475 when an all in with king-six from the button ran into Gregoire Ceran Maillard’s pocket jacks.
Richard Dubourg (8th place- €13,255) who won a series of double ups at the end of Day 2, as well as early on in Day 3, saw his luck come to an end when he rang ace-king into pocket kings. Dubourg four-bet all in from small blind and saw Nathan Tetart fold ace-jack before Teunis Kooij called and held.
The play completely slowed down at this point and 90 minutes passed before Baptiste Carteau (7th-€16,985) was the next player to lose their seat at the final table.
Carteau lost a vital flip with ace-king against Ahoor’s pocket tens, and just a couple of hands later saw the last of his chips move into the direction of Bellity after ace-king once again let him down against Bellity’s pocket kings.
When the players returned to action from the dinner break, there were two quick-fire departures in the form of Jacques Bellity (6th-€21,625) and Wellington Guedes (5th-€27,970).
Bellity lost a flip with king-jack against Ahoor’s pocket jacks, and Guedes saw his shove with queen-ten from the small blind lose to Tetart’s ace-nine.
Parham Ahoor then lost one of the biggest pots of the final table when he found two pair from the small blind. Unfortunately for him, Tetart found a straight from the big blind, and Ahoor called a check-shove from Tetart to lose a 7,000,000 pot.
Ahoor then saw his day come to an end in 4th place for €37,460 when he shoved king-nine from the small blind only to see nemesis Tetart wake up with ace-king.
With Tetart taking a big chip lead three-handed, Teunis Kooij and Maillard battled it out not to bust, but Kooij ultimately missed out on a place in the heads-up match when he ran ace-queen into Tetart’s pocket kings and found no help from the board.
Tetart held a 10-1 chip advantage over Maillard when they resumed play, but the latter was supported by a large and excited rail who cheered him on to two double ups.
But Maillard was unable to overcome the deficit and ultimately took the runners-up spot when he brutally ran pocket jacks into pocket queens, and Tetart was left as the last player standing.
Not only did the WPTDS European Championship Deauville have a final title to award this season, but it was also the setting for the WPTDS Europe Player of the Year contest to be concluded.
The victory ultimately went to WPTDeepStacks Barcelona Main Event champion Simon Brandstrom after he saw off competition from the likes of Francois Tosques and Felix Schulze in a tense final battle.
Brandstrom was awarded the trophy by WPT Event and Marketing Manager Maxime Rouison and collects €10,000 WPT buy-in credits for any WPT event next season!
That’s all from us here at WPT.com in Deauville, as another exciting season of WPTDeepStacks action in Europe ends.
WPTDeepStacks will be back for a brand new season in July, with our first stop taking place at King’s Resort, Rozvadov from July 11-22 for the WPTDeepStacks Germany festival.
Check out all the World Poker Tour photos right here at Flickr.
Photography by Tomas Stacha / Poker-Photo
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