Friday, 29th March 2024 01:26
Home / Uncategorized / EPT9 Sanremo: Balazs Botond barges to €10,500 win in ‘Antes only’ event
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Balazs Botond is finding Italian tournaments to be happy hunting grounds. Following up from his fourth-place finish at EPT Campione for €157,000 in Season 8, Botond last night took down the €330 ‘Antes only’ event to pocket €10,500. That win takes Botond’s career live earnings to $519,592 and with three deep EPT runs under his belt we’re likely to see more of the man from Budapest this season.

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Balazs Botund wins trophy and free massage

Event #23, 9 October
Buy-in: €330
Game: NLHE ‘Antes only’
Players: 110
Prize pool: €32,010

1. Balazs Botond, Hungary, €10,500
2. Franco Polidori, Italy, €6,100
3. Walid Bou-Habib, Lebanon, €3,500
4. Claes Nilsson, Sweden, €2,800
5. David Vamplew, UK, €2,160
6. Jean Gianotti, France, €1,650
7. Marton Czuczor, Hungary, €1,300
8. Luca Dante Moda, Italy, €960
9. Luigi Pignataro, Italy, €800
10. Asker Aloev, Russian Federation, €800
11. Erik Koskas, France, €720
12. Daniele Mazzia, Italy, €720

The Hungarian had to beat a tough table for a €330 buy-in; EPT winner David Vamplew ($2,003,674 live winnings) was securing his second side event final table of Sanremo, nearly-man Marton Czuczor, who has finished 11th in two EPT main events, also attended as did the focussed Walid Bou-Habib, an underestimated force on the EPT. Bou-Habib has five main events cashes and a further ten notches from side events that have built him $338,561 of EPT winnings since 2008. That’s some consistent grinding.

Vamplew, arguably the most well known player in the last nine, went into the final table contesting for the chip lead but it simply wasn’t to be. Perhaps he didn’t have his usual winning mindset in place.

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Vamplew winning EPT London

Andrew Teng, another nearly-man with two 12th place EPT finishes, was dual railing Vamplew and Melanie Weisner (who was getting stacked up in the €2,200 side event and has, we’ve heard, just bust in 10th).

“He’s got loads of chips,” said Teng.

“Yeah, but he’s not going to win. He’s too drunk,” said fellow railer and EPT Loutraki champ Zimnan Ziyard.

Always take the words of an EPT winner with a little gravitas. It was a good spot, although one that anyone paying attention could have made: Vamplew’s teeth were stained crimson with red wine. And, perhaps more telling, he was sloshing a glass of red wine around in his hand. That Ziyard, he’s sharp…

There are several side events starting tomorrow and a couple more open for late registration tonight.

Late registration tournaments
Event #26: 8pm €990 NLHE ‘Win the button’
Event #27: 9pm €330 NLHE/PLO

Four side events start tomorrow
Event #28: 2pm €5,200 NLHE turbo six-handed
Event #29: 3pm €330 EPT Main Event turbo (30,000 stack/15 minute levels)
Event #30: 6pm €2,100 NLHE turbo “six-handed”
Event #31: 7pm €120 NLHE hyper turbo (10,000 stack/10 minute levels)

Click through to find all EPT9 Sanremo side events results here or the live reporting, news and interviews of the main event here. You can also follow the High Roller, which is down to 19 players here.

is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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