Saul Berdugo has been crowned the WPTDeepStacks Deauville €1,100 Main Event champion after he came through a 474 player field at the Casino Barrière.
Berdugo defeated Abdelhamid El Khayati heads-up for the win, with El Khayati scoring his second WPTDS Deauville festival silver medal after his runner-up spot in the €360 Opener event just three days ago.
Today’s final day of action capped four days of Main Event poker in Deauville, which coincided with a full festival of events running over five days, including High Roller and Ladies events.
Sixteen players returned for the final day all with the hope of securing the €98,000 first-place prize as well as the €2,000 WPTDS season-ending package.
Final Table Results:
1st: Saul Berdugo – €98,000 + €2,000 WPTDeepStacks season-ending event package
2nd: Abdelhamid El Khayati – €63,595
3rd: Joris Mahe – €47,090
4th: Rabah Ait Abdelmalek – €35,435
5th: Clement Carreira – €26,695
6th: Abdelakim Laidouni – €19,355
7th: Mohamed Mamouni – €14,504
8th: Jean Albertini – €11,800
9th: Romain Hamouche – €10,200
Saul Berdugo came into Day 3 with a big chip advantage over his 15 rivals but showed no signs of slowing down. Berdugo was able to steadily build his stack as he had done during Day 2.
Speaking after his win, Berdugo said he was a regular in the tournament poker scene in Paris in the past and also spoke of his love for the spirit and competition of tournament poker. Berdugo held the chip lead for all of Day 3 except for one period during five-handed play.
“I only lost the chip lead for five minutes, I never felt in danger.”
Berdugo plans to invest his winnings back into his love of tournament poker while enjoying some time at home in the coming weeks.
The action of the day
Amin Charef, David Dana, Samy Ouellani, Madi Macalou, Miroslav Alilovic, and Baptiste Carteau all departed the Day 3 action leaving ten players remaining.
Day 1a chip leader Cedric Cavalier (pictured below) was then the unlucky player to miss out on a place at the final table after he departed in 10th place.
The final nine then went to battle with Berdugo still at the top of the chip counts.
Romain Hamouche, who had earlier seen his full house lose against Clement Carreira’s quad kings, was the first player to depart the final table after his ace-eight was unable to hold against Berdugo’s king-jack.
Jean Albertini (8th), Mohamed Mamouni (7th) and Abdelakim Laidouni (6th) were then all sent to the rail before the final five battled to the dinner break.
When the action resumed, Berdugo had lost his chip lead for the first time during Day 3 with Joris Mahe, who had started the final table as the shortest stack, propelling himself to the summit.
Clement Carreira (pictured below) was the next to depart in 5th place for €26,695 after he moved all in from the small blind having flopped two pair holding jack-ten on a ten-four-four flop. However, unfortunately for Carreira, Abdelhamid El Khayati had pocket queens and held to win the pot.
Nearly an hour later Rabah Ait Abdelmalek exited in 4th place for €35,435, and it was again El Khayati who was involved. After El Khayati checked on an ace-jack-nine flop, Ait Abdelmalek shoved for 1.9m and was snap-called by El Khayati. Ait Abdelmalek had top pair with ace-three, but it was to be no match for El Khayati’s flopped set of nines.
Just 15 minutes later, Joris Mahe (pictured below) fell at the hands of Berdugo. Mahe was at risk on a nine-nine-eight-six board holding seven-six and in need of help against Berdugo’s trips with king-nine. Mahe didn’t receive a miracle river, and his exit in 3rd place for €47,090 paved the way for the heads-up match between El Khayati and Berdugo.
Berdugo held the slight chip advantage when the action resumed, but El Khayati made a comeback to even the stacks.
These two players had shown they were not afraid of taking a risk and playing aggressive poker throughout the final table and this ethos resulted in the heads-up match lasting just an hour.
In the final hand, the flop was down three-five-eight, and Berdugo checked to El Khayati who bet 700,000 from his 5,000,000 stack. Berdugo then applied maximum pressure on El Khayati and moved all in for nearly 9,000,000. El Khayati made the call and saw he needed to improve to survive.
El Khayati held four-deuce, and Berdugo was ahead with king-ten for just king high at this point.
The ten on the turn gave Berdugo top pair, and he faded El Khayati’s outs to the straight on the river to win the WPTDeepStacks Main Event for €98,000 + a €2,000 WPTDeepStacks season-ending event package.
Once again, the WPTDeepStacks has been supported fantastically by the players and staff at Casino Barrière.
If you would like to experience the World Poker Tour, then check out our events page!
Next up on the WPTDeepStacks scheduled is the return to one of our most popular stops in Berlin, Germany. The festival will run from Tuesday, January 8, with the WPTDS Main Event taking place from January 11-14. We look forward to welcoming you!
Every season the WPTDeepStacks runs a leaderboard promotion for both the North American and European events with a prize worth $10,000 in WPT buy-ins. After his Main Event win at WPTDS Marrakech and a cash this weekend in Deauville, Francois Tosques now sits at the top of the leaderboard with 1,050 points.
For now, it’s goodbye from Deauville and a massive congratulations to our Main Event winner Saul Berdugo.
