Vladimir Geshkenbein Wins 2011 PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest! (�390,000)
Vladimir Geshkenbein is the 2011 PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest Champion after he defeated Belgium's Kevin Vandersmissen heads up.
The eight handed final table took ten hours to complete and was full of action from start to finish. Morten Mortensen was the first player to be eliminated, after around 90 minutes of play, his outdrawn by the of Koen De Visscher.
Half hour later and two players were busted out in quick succession. First Denis Murphy's was no good against the of Vandersmissen and shortly after Philip Meulyzer pushed the rest of his short stack into the middle with and found a caller in the shape of Vandersmissen with . Both players made a pair on the flop and Meulyzer stayed in front when the landed on the turn but Vandersmissen spiked the on the river to gift him two pair.
They played five handed for almost two hours until the elimination of Cristian Dragomir. He was left with less than two big blinds when his lost to with the money going in on a flop. The turn was the but the river was the . He committed the rest of his tiny stack with and ran into the of De Visscher.
Four handed play lasted for four hours then the last standing Italian player, Giacomo Maisto moved all in with on a flop and was called by Geshkenbein with The turn changed nothing but the river sent the Italian to the rail in fourth place.
Koen De Visscher was eliminated half hour later, shoving 20 big bling with and not being able to outrun the of Geshkenbein. Then came the fina hand, around 15 minutes into heads up play. A raising war between Geshkenbein and Vandersmissen saw the latter all in and at risk with against of Geshkenbein. The final board ran out and it was game over for Vandersmissen, who narrowly missed out on becoming the first-ever Belgian EPT Champion.
Geshkenbein's fans lifted their hero onto their shoulders and he described his victory simply as "awesome." We couldn't have put it better ourselves.
So that is allfor the PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest for another year. The European Poker Tour now packs up and heads off to Berlin, German between April 5-10. Join us then for the very best in live poker tournament updates.