 German businessman Daniel Pidun achieved his dream and won EPT Berlin – for a massive payday of €880,000 . Pidun, 36 from Lippstadt, near Dortmund, finished ninth here two years ago and 17th last year. He was dreading the prospect of missing the final yet again during yesterday’s marathon six-hour final table bubble, but once into the final eight he quickly powered towards the title taking a dominating eight-to-one chip lead into the heads-up against fellow German Robert Haigh.
Pidun, who runs a mobile phone company with his brother back home in Lippstadt, rarely plays tournaments but takes a week’s holiday every year to play EPT Berlin. The married father-of-two said: “Of course I’m really happy. It was time for me to win it! They say that all good things come in threes, and this was the third time. To win an EPT is a dream come true, but the fact that I have gone so deep twice before is what really makes this special.”
Robert Haigh, who takes €531,00 for his runner-up finish, is an EPT regular who has already won two side events this season. The 28-year-old German, who currently lives in Brighton in the UK, is now in a very strong position to win EPT Player of the Year; he’s just 205 points behind current leader Jan Bendik. He said: “I didn’t realise this would bring me so close, but I’m definitely going to grind every tournament in Monaco now!”
Several big names were eliminated on the penultimate day of the EPT Berlin Main Event. Calvin Anderson, who is the world’s #1 online player at the moment, finished tenth while others who ran deep include EPT Omaha Player of the Year Khiem Nguyen, Masters Finale champion Robert Auer, EPT Grand Final High Roller runner-up Olivier Busquet and EPT Tallinn winner Kevin Stani.
Tennis legend and Team SportStar Boris Becker recorded his biggest ever EPT cash, finishing 49th for €15,000.
With 912 players, this season’s EPT Berlin Main was the second biggest EPT ever held in Germany, generating a €4,423,200 prize pool and paying 136 players. Numbers were boosted by a huge turnout for the first ever Berlin Cup at the start of the festival. The €1,100 event attracted 911 players and was won by Dutch pro Pieter de Korver for €145,400. The €3,200 Berlin Cup High Roller event was won by American Micah Raskin for €105,368.
The €10,000 EPT Berlin High Roller also broke records with a total of 140 entries. Griffin Benger celebrated his 28th birthday by winning the event for a career-best live cash of €429,000. The prize pool was €1,372,000.
EPT Berlin results:
1 Daniel Pidun Germany € 880,000
2 Robert Haigh Germany € 531,000
3 Lasse Frost Denmark € 325,000
4 Pascal Vos Netherlands Qualifier € 255,000
5 Alexander Helbig Germany Qualifier € 202,200
6 Roman Herold Germany € 155,000
7 Julian Thomas Germany € 110,000
8 Roman Korenev Russia Qualifier € 77,000 Next stop, EPT Grand Finale Monte Carlo is already under way. |
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