Thursday, 28th March 2024 18:26
Home / Uncategorized / EPT9 Sanremo: Marc-Andre Ladouceur wins IPT High Roller and €132,400
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Marc-Andre Ladouceur has won the Italian Poker Tour High Roller bagging €132,400 and his first live title. The Canadian overcame a three-to-one deficit against Swede Alex Roumeliotis in a four hour head-up putting to bed the disappointment of finishing runner-up in the €10,000 Heads-Up Championship at EPT Barcelona.

“I remember sitting at the €10,000 Heads-Up in Barcelona with that big trophy next to me. I played for nine hours with it on the table so to actually win one is nice. To get a first title on the EPT is nice,” said Ladoucuer.

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Marc-Andre Ladoucuer, winner of the IPT High Roller

Tournament info
Buy-in: €5,000 + €300
Game: NLHE High Roller
Players: 75 (3 re-buys)
Prize pool: €378,300

1. Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Canada, €132,400
2. Alex Roumeliotis, Sweden, €83,200
3. Kevin Schulz, USA, €49,200
4. Joel Nordkvist, Sweden, €36,000
5. Mihails Morozovs, Latvia, €26,500
6. Vadim Kursevich, Belarus, €18,900
7. Michael Benvenuti, USA, €17,000
8. Artem Metalidi, Ukraine, €15,100

While most people would describe winning €132,400 as being perhaps something a little more than nice, Ladouceur was obviously thrilled, and perhaps a little relieved, to have won the title. Was he concerned that this was going to be another missed chance?

“Yes, I knew going in that it was a strong possibility and having finished second in Barcelona and bubbling the final table in the (WSOP) Main Event makes this that much more exciting for me,” said Ladouceur.

It’s been quite a year for the Canadian who finished 13th in the big one for $465,159 and second in that Heads-Up Championship at EPT Barcelona for €101,000. Incredibly for someone whose last three cashes, including this one, have been six-figure scores this is his first live tournament win. You’d say that it’s unlikely to be his last given the company that he keeps; Ladouceur calls the likes of Sam Chartier and former World Champ and Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel friends. In fact, several of the Canadian pros even live in the same building in Montreal.

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Ladouceur and the Canadian crew

The two-day event (Event #2 of the EPT Sanremo festival) started on Wednesday but stretched into three given a turn out of 75 players (and three re-buys). The final four players returned to play through to the win with Mihails Morozovs, Vadim Kursevich, Michael Benvenuti and Artem Metalidi having finished in the cash last night. Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Alex Roumeliotis, Kevin Schulz and Joel Nordkvist were the players left in.

“We started again four-way. Kevin had a huge lead with 900,000-something to my 470,000. Nordquist went out ace-eight versus my ace-queen. Alex and Kevin then started to battle and Alex pretty much got all the chips, so I started with about 500,000 to 1,400,000. Alex is a very good player and got me down to less than 300,000,” said Ladocuer.

Given his recent go-deep-but-then-bust results he was concerned about going bust.

“I know I need to be shoving a lot because Alex is very good post-flop. He’s one of the best online players in the world, but I knew that going in and knew that I was going to have to change a few things,” said Ladoucuer.

Despite being heavily outgunned around 300,000 to 1,700,000 Ladoucuer never gave in, a trait he showcase admirably in Barcelona when he ground back games three and four in the best of five heads-up against Terje Augdal.

“I play online a lot of 20 big blind CAP games so I knew that I could not get exploited there and I could get a small advantage by shoving and re-shoving. As the blinds went up the blinds went shallower and that probably played to my advantage.”

The result certainly backs up his claim, and to any that had been saying that Ladoucuer, who plays as ‘FrenchDawg’ on PokerStars, is one to watch. The online player is certainly making a profitable transistion to the live game. He intends to play most of the EPT season and should he keep notching up six-figure scores at each festival who can blame him?

Click through to find the full schedule of EPT Sanremo tournaments or the live reporting, news and interviews of the main event here.

is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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