Thomas Hofmann has been crowned the WPTDeepStacks Berlin €1,200 Main Event champion after he came through a 645 player-field at the Spielbank Casino.
Hofmann defeated Eldaras Rafijevas heads-up for the win after a tense and well-battled heads-up match.
Today’s final day of action capped four days of Main Event poker, which coincided with a full festival of events running over five days in Berlin, including High Roller and Ladies events. The Main Event came with a €500,000 guaranteed prize pool, but that target was smashed with the final number set at €688,215.
Twenty-seven players returned for the final day all with the hope of securing the €129,510 first-place prize as well as the €2,000 WPTDS season-ending package.
Speaking after his win, Hofmann was taken aback by the victory.
“I feel great,” he said.
“Wow!” he added after pausing to let the moment sink in and take a look at his winning hand.
Hofmann spoke of how he took time away from his business as a Telecommunications Engineer in his home nation of Switzerland to be in Berlin and said he wanted to return to the Spielbank for the WPTDeepStacks having witnessed the event for the first time in 2018.
Hofmann added that he plans to attend WPT Barcelona in March, and will now have an eye on the whole WPT schedule and look to take a potential shot at the WPTDS Europe POY Leaderboard and the €10,000 first-place prize.
WPTDeepStacks Thunder Valley Final Table Results:
1st: Thomas Hofmann – €129,510 + €2,000 WPT season-ending package
2nd: Eldaras Rafijevas – €83,720
3rd: Patrick Kubat – €61,700
4th: Sebastian Trisch – €45,985
5th: Alexandru Cinca – €34,660
6th: Andreas Mitsch – €26,425
7th: Wojciech Wyrebski – €20,380
8th: Thorsten Fleischhut – €15,905
9th: Brian Cornell – €12,560
Day 3 got off to a fast start with Bachir Ouail exiting within the first few hands, followed by Amit Cohen not long after. The bust-outs continued to come thick and fast with Milad Sheva, Martin Schneider, Maciej Rogacki, Michal Lubas, Halil Coknez and Pavle Nikolic all hitting the rail within the first 90 minutes of play.
Jonas Lechner and popular German player Wilhelm Breuer were next to depart before Tomasz Brzezinski’s elimination in 17th place paved the way for the final two tables redraw.
Michael Pedersen and Lukas Soucek then took 16th and 15th place respectively before start-of-day chip leader Andreas Mitsch (pictured left below) survived on the river against Patrick Kubat.
Mitsch was all in on the ace-three-nine flop and had been called by Kubat holding king-nine and the flush draw. The king on the turn put Kubat into the lead and Mitsch was in real danger of departing. But the three on the river improved his hand to two pair and gave him a lifeline.
The pace once again picked up with Leonardo Armino and Adrien Garrigues suffering the same fate at the hands of Eldaras Rafijevas. Short stack Armino was all in with king-queen, and Garriques reshoved over the top following Rafijevas’ open and was called. Armin held king-queen, Garrigues pocket kings and Rafijevas was in a dream scenario with pocket aces and held to score the double knockout.
Vitali Zerf(12th) and Yehia Said (11th) were next out the tournament area before Albert Hoekendijk (pictured standing below) ran pocket eights into pocket nines preflop and missed out on a place at the final table.
The final table got underway after the Tournament Director welcomed the players and before long Brian Cornell, who started the day second in chips, was at the payout desk. Cornell held pocket tens and was in a classic race against Wojciech Wyrebski’s ace-king. Cornell saw his tournament ended after Wyrebski hit a wheel on the turn and left in 9th place for €12,560.
Short stack Thorsten Fleischhut was next to leave in 8th place for €15,905 before Wojciech Wyrebski run came to an end in 7th place for €20,380 when his pocket queens were cracked by ace-ten on the river after Eldaras Rafijevas hit two pair.
Mitsch was then able to ladder up to 6th place for €26,425 following the miracle river he received with 14 players remaining.
Alexandru Cinca (pictured below) saw all his chips move in Rafijevas’ direction after he lost a flip against the chip leader and departed in 5th place for €34,660.
In 4th place for €45,985 was Sebastian Trisch after his all in from the small blind for nine big blinds with ten-five was snap-called by Patrick Kubat holding king-queen.
Kubat was the clear short stack three-handed, and despite finding a double up against Hofmann, he was unable to survive and departed in 3rd for €61,700 when his all-in with ace-six from the button was called by that man Rafijevas, this time holding pocket nines.
When heads-up got underway, Hoffman held the advantage with 12,000,000 to Rafijevas’ 7,000,000. It was a tense affair, and Rafijevas pulled the stacks level, but Hofmann was persistent and carved away at Rafijevas’ stack for an hour.
In the final hand, Rafijevas moved all with pocket threes and was called by Hofmann holding ace-jack. An ace appeared on the flop to give Hofmann one hand on the trophy, and although Rafijevas picked up a wheel draw on the turn, it wasn’t to be for the Lithuanian, and he departed as runner-up for €83,720, which left Hofmann to claim the WPTDeepStacks Berlin Main Event title.
It’s been a fantastic event here in Berlin, and we hope you can join us for our next festivals as WPT heads to Sochi, Russia in just seven days, followed by the WPTDeepStacks Brussels in February, and WPT Barcelona in March, all our events can be viewed here.
For now, that’s all from us here in Berlin! Auf Wiedersehen!
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