3-betting all-in before the flop with A9 she was called by AQ and after the flop came down Axx things were not looking good and Holger Kanisch appeared to have an easy victory in his sights. But a 9 on the turn nearly sealed the deal for Sandra. An 8 on the river brought Holgers hopes of winning to an end and made Sandra Naujoks only the 2nd woman ever to win an EPT event.

Slowplaying before the flop, Holger called the raise of Sandra and on a flop of 5 6 7 with two hearts he checked. Sandra fired out and he raised, Sandra thought for a bit before going all in and Holger called pretty quickly.

Holger: J J
Sandra: A A

The turn and river didn’t change anything and Sandra Naujoks has taken the chip lead.

After 3-betting Sandra all-in from the SB Marc Gork was called out of the BB by Holger Kanisch. When the cards were turned up Marc held K T and Kanisch pocket 7’s. The 7’s held and the 21 year old Philosophy student is going home with an impressive finish and €307,000. Not bad for a guy who was more interested in his book than the final table today!

There is some talk here that a deal has been made among the three remaining players-all of whom are German and are only speaking German at the table-and Sandra has just made a rather instant rather poor call in call with J T of hearts after Marc Gork went all in before the flop. After the board came down J x x K x Gork doubled up and Sandra’s mammoth stack has taken a hit.

Both players getting all-in before the flop the AK of Sandra Naujoks was dominating the AQ of Johan Storakes. After the board came down 89222 Storakes was out and there are just three players left with a huge majority of them belonging to Sandra Naujoks.

After the tournament Storakes said the majority of the chips he accumulated at the final table and during the tournament were made with big bluffs, with him smartly taking advantage of his tight table image.

Well played Johan and congratulations!

Mike McDonald played a great tournament and that didn’t change at the final table but he could not dodge the freight train that is Sandra Naujoks. Shoving all-in from late-position he was instantly called from the blinds by Sandra and once the other players folded declared ‘I hope I have three outs’. He was ecstatic to see that his King Jack was actually a coin-flip to the pocket tens of Sandra.

Unfortunately for Mike the board came down with no king or jack and he is our 5th place finisher. We’ll try to catch up with Mike for an interview before the day is over.

Sandra Naujoks has gone from the short stack to a commanding stack and 2nd in chips since the end of the dinner break, in just 8 hands-without a showdown! Of those 8 hands she has been all-in 7 times with nobody willing to call her.

Shoving in before the flop with pocket sevens the talented Italian pro was called by the Ace Nine of Marc Gork. After the flop came down King hi with no nine he was looking good-but the ugly 9 of hearts came off on the turn and Luca was drawing to just two outs. The 5 of clubs on the river sealed his fate and Luca will be going home with 153,000 Euros and another impressive EPT finish. However he is obviously dejected and upset over the finish.

The password for the tournament is mcdonald08

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Down to just seven big blinds Timex shoved in with AQ and got an interesting call from 87s and caught an A on the flop and the river and has doubled up. Still not among the chipleaders but with much more room to negotiate.

He was the day 1a chipleader and pulled off the seemingly impossible feat of piloting that big day 1 lead into an impressive overall tournament and was a serious threat to win the tournament right up until he got very unlucky at the final table. He called a pre-flop all-in with AK and just had to dodge the Q8 of
Holger Kanisch and Kanisch caught a lucky 8 on the turn and doubled up-crippling McDonald.

Cengizcan Ulusu of Turkey, the unanimous weak link at this final table, busted out first in 8th place, taking home 83,500 Euros for his effort. The hand that crippled him was the fatal mistake that many of the more experienced and talented pro’s at the final table had been waiting for him to make. He raised with King 2 of diamonds and Mike McDonald moved in on him. Ulusu had what should have been an easy fold but he finally opted to flip a coin for his decision, and it came up ‘call’ so he did-and he had little chance against the pocket kings of McDonald.

He went out a few hands later.

William Thorson, Luca Pagano, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Sandra Naujoks, Marc Gork, Cengizcan Ulusu, Holger Kanisch and Johan Storakers. Truly and all-star cast.

We’ll be back tomorrow, thanks to all those who followed along today!

We caught up with Richard Kellett for a bit after the tournament was finished today to get his thoughts on his play and who he expects to go on to win the tournament. Richard said he thought he played a good tournament but got cold-decked at the end - losing with QQ to KK and then with A9cc to QQ the last two hands he played. Asked who he thought would go on to win the tournament he said Timex (Mike McDonald) is a very good player and on Sandra he thought ’she can play, but she’s nothing special’.

It was a solid finish for Kellett but it was fairly obvious he thought he should have done better after playing such a strong tournament. Better luck next time Richard!

Italian pro Luca Pagano has found great success on the European Poker Tour with his sold and patient play, making yet another final table here in Dortmund. Luca thinks he played a solid game and go involved in ‘very few hands’ at the final table. He said he’s not a loose aggressive player like many of his opponents, just patiently waiting for his spots to pick up chips.

We asked him what he thought of his competition going into the final table and he said there are only 1 or 2 soft spots in the field, but he wouldn’t name who they were. He did speak highly of Michael ‘Timex’ McDonald and said he thinks he has a very good chance to go back-to-back here in Dortmund with his ’super aggressive’ play.

Luca thought he made some great laydowns today, once when he caught an ace on the river but was still able to get away from his hand-but he says the key to his final table run was that he was lucky never to get unlucky.

Such is tournament poker. Good luck Luca!

We are down to our final eight players and its an all start cast. However someone had to be the final table bubble boy and that someone was PokerStars Shooting Star Florian Langmann. ThePlayr TV caught up with him after the tournament to get his thoughts on how he played and who he thinks will take down the final table:

An interesting hand took place a bit ago between Johan Storaker and Marc Gork. Before the flop Johan Storaker raised and while Marc Gork was considering what to do, Johan showed his cards to the EPT cameras which were streaming live over the net. Marc Gork’s cell phone began to vibrate repeatedly as he had received four text messages from friends telling him what Storaker was holding!

Gork did not read the messages and did not know what Storaker had so no foul play but it would have been an interesting situation if the floor would have had to rule on that. It was after all Johan’s free will to show his cards to the camera.

Lest anybody get upset about our title, it was a joke. We are not accusing anybody of cheating