Ronny Kaiser became the first PokerStars.com European Poker Tour champion from Switzerland today when he won the first event of EPT Season 8, in Tallinn, Estonia.
Kaiser, 21, from Bern, won €275,000 after defeating a field of 282 players in the €4,250 event, held at the Swiss-owned Swissôtel Tallinn. In one of the most talented final tables the tour has ever seen, Kaiser found himself up against the likes of Sami Kelopuro, Jani Sointula and PokerStars qualifier Stuart Fox, but it was Polish player Grzegorz Cichocki whom he had to beat heads-up.
Kaiser, who started playing poker online when he was 18, is considered one of the best Omaha cash game players in Europe, and is a regular in the €100-€200 games in Austria. He’s played around ten EPT Main Events with his best result before today being 20th at EPT6 San Remo, for €30,000.
As well as his prize, Kaiser also gets an 800 point head-start in the race to be EPT Season 8 Player of the Year.
He said: “It’s great to win. I’ve been chip leader for three days so I was really thinking this time I’m going to win it. I have had deep runs four or five times but always finished around 20th. Now my goal is to become the first ever Swiss World Series bracelet winner.“
Grzegorz Cichocki, 38, from Jedlina, near Wroclaw scooped €180,000 for his runner-up finish, the highest EPT place ever achieved by a Polish player. Raigo Aasmaa, 23, who came third, was the first Estonian to ever make an EPT Main Event final, earning €110,000.
Two PokerStars qualifiers made the final: Erland Melsom, from Norway, finished sixth for €45,000, while British pro Stuart Fox came fifth for €55,000. Eight more PokerStars qualifiers cashed in the event – out of more than 60 who won seats. Arvi Vainionkulma, who bust in eighth place for €25,000, enjoyed a €4,250 bonus after winning back his buy-in in the last longer contest organised by Skrill, the Official Payment Provider Sponsor for EPT Season 8.
There was disappointment for EPT veteran Johan van Til, a serial qualifier on the tour, with five previous Main Event cash finishes. He bubbled the final table, taking €17,500 back to Holland.
Highest ROI of the event arguably went to Finnish player Petri Vuolle. Vuolle won his way to Tallinn for just €2 after competing in the “EPT Tallinn Adventure”, a Finnish promotion on PokerStars. After making it through the first round of online satellites, he then triumphed in a 16-man live satellite in Tallinn, winning his Main Event seat. This was Vuolle’s first major live event but he made it all the way to 23rd place, snagging €7,700 for his efforts.
Local hero Andres Soome was another player benefitting from a PokerStars promotion. The Estonian won his seat in a PokerStars-sponsored live satellite for Estonians, held just a few days before the Main Event, and finished 33rd earning €6,500.
Team PokerStars Online’s Anders Hoyer Berg, from Norway, min-cashed the event, coming 40th for €6,500.
Entrants from 40 countries competed in the EPT8 Tallinn Main Event creating a total prize pool of €1,071,600. Skrill, the future name of online payment providers Moneybookers, joined the roster of EPT sponsors by becoming the Official Payment Provider Sponsor for EPT Season 8. And it wasn’t just poker on offer in Tallinn this year; the city is also celebrating its role as the 2011 European Capital of Culture.
1 Ronny Kaiser Switzerland €275,000
2 Grzegorz Cichocki Poland €180,000
3 Raigo Aasmaa Estonia €110,000
4 Jani Sointula Finland €80,000
5 Stuart Fox UK PokerStars qualifier €55,000
6 Erlend Melsom Norway PokerStars qualifier €45,000
7 Sami Kelopuro Finland €35,000
8 Arvi Vainionkulma Finland €25,000
