Wheeler and Van den Bijgaart Headline WPT Amsterdam Final Table
The first-ever World Poker Tour event in Amsterdam, a tournament that attracted 341 entries, is down to the final table of six, and local favorite Joep van den Bijgaart and WPT Amsterdam High Roller champ Jason Wheeler are both still in contention. However, both players trail chip leader Steve Warburton with 2,810,000, while Fredrik Andersson, Kees van Brugge and Farid Yachou are also still vying for the �215,000 first-place prize.
The penultimate day of the Main Event started with 16 hopefuls including WPT Champions Club member Giacomo Fundaro, Sorel Mizzi and Thierry van den Berg. The latter was the short stack coming in, but he did manage to squeeze out a little pay jump. The first player to get knocked out was actually World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event winner Scott Davies, who lost a big coin flip holding ace-king versus Fundaro's pocket tens.
The next player to go was Van den Berg, who got his money in holding ace-queen versus Mizzi's pocket fives. The flop brought an ace, but the river spelled disaster when Mizzi hit his set. Van den Berg was disappointed to get knocked out and collected �12,000 for his performance.
Just a few hands later, Barrie Pietersz was eliminated in 14th place when he ran pocket nines into Van Brugge's tens. From there, the third Dutchman in a row fell when Erik van den Berg ran ace-king suited into Wheeler's aces. With a dozen players left play slowed down considerably, and for almost three hours nobody busted.
The last champ remaining, Fundaro, was then shown the door, after running into Aki Pyysing's queens. Fundaro had a pair and a gutshot before picking up a flush draw on the turn, but he could not hit on the river. Sandro Pitzanti was the next to go in 11th place when he called Van Brugge's shove on an ace-high board with ace-five. However, Van Brugge had flopped a set of sevens, and all of a sudden just 10 remained, all of which were guaranteed �14,650.
The chips were divided evenly with ten players remaining, and it took a huge bad beat for Mizzi to fall short of the final table. Mizzi got his money in good with ace-king suited against Andersson's ace-queen suited, but the Swede managed to river the nut flush for the double. Mizzi was knocked out on the next hand when he shoved ace-three into Wheeler's ace-king suited.
Louis Salter was knocked out soon after reaching the final table when he shoved ace-four into Andresson's queens. Salter took home �20,500 for his efforts, and Andersson retook the chip lead. The last Fin remaining, Pyysing, busted in eighth when his ace-ten couldn't hold up against Wheeler's ace-five. The American pro flopped a pair of fives after the two clashed before the flop, and Pyysing collected �27,500.
The final table bubble saw Pim van Riet reshove nine-deuce suited into Van den Bijgaart's aces, which of course spelled disaster and officially established the final six.
The fifth and final day will kick off on Saturday at 2:00 p.m., so tune back then PokerNews.com for live updates of the final table. Here are the final table payouts for your information.
| Place | Payout |
|---|---|
| 1 | �215,000 |
| 2 | �150,000 |
| 3 | �90,000 |
| 4 | �68,000 |
| 5 | �51,000 |
| 6 | �41,260 |