It what was one more blink and you will miss it UKIPT final table, Rodrigo Espinosa emerged victorious in under five hours and is €136,000 at an advantage tonight. He came into the day second in chips, took the chip lead when he eliminated Jake Cody in eighth place and not relinquished it.
That hand against Cody set the tone for Espinosa's road to victory on the final table. He raised with aces, Cody shoved for just below 20 big blinds with nines and didn't get there. With five players left Espinosa had accumulated greater than half the chips in play and would have much more when he won the largest pot of the tournament with three players left.
Katja Svendsen had started the overall table as chip leader and was in with a perfect chance of turning into the primary female main event champion on both the UKIPT and Estrellas tours. She made a really perfect fist of it too, never slipping out of the highest three in chips but bust in an enormous flip against Espinosa. On a T♠9♦3♦ flop she held 8♦6♦ to Espinosa's pocket kings, the chips - all 10,320,000 of them - went in and she or he had a 42% chance of getting two thirds of the chips in play.
The board bricked out though and the Norwegian, who resides in Kent, was out in third winning €58,700. As for Espinosa, he now had a better than three-to-one chip lead going into heads-up play against Christian Bauer.
Between them Bauer and Espinosa had knocked out all but one of the crucial players on the final table so as to heads-up play. Yet Bauer started with not up to 1,000,000 greater than he began the overall table with, or about nine big blinds in real money for the reason that the cost of poker had gone up. Yet he still had 33 big blinds and one double up would've put him right back within the mix. However, it was to not be for the 27-year-old German professional player who resides in Vienna.
Just five hands into heads-up play he found a great place to double up. He flopped top pair with K♣3♣ on a 9♠K♠6♥ board and got it in against Espinosa's 9♥7♠, but the Spaniard was given instant service at the 7♣ turn and Bauer missed his outs at the 2♦ river. Still the web professional collects €82,900 so as to add to his career earnings and will be rightly pleased with his performance this week.
One of Bauer's victims was Javier Elorza, who had lifetime live winnings of just €386 before this tournament. He added another €44,050 to that ledger today but came briefly stacked and not escaped that territory. Looking back he did an exceptional job to ladder to fourth place. He could have got lucky against Gareth Hamilton with five left but additionally made some disciplined ICM folds equivalent to folding pocket sixes to a single raise from Espinosa when his compatriot had pocket sevens and folding king high from the massive blind when shoved on from the small blind.
But, he picked the inaccurate time to name all-in with king high as Bauer had A♦K♦ when he took his stand with K♣7♥. Like Elorza, Daniel Rodriguez came to the overall table knowing he'd need some luck to be within the shake up come the tip. Within the same vein as Elorza he never got anything going and ran pocket eights into Bauer's pocket queens to bust in sixth place which was good for €26,550, a career high.
If Elorza did a fair job to complete fourth given he started the day sixth in chips then Gareth Hamilton can look back on his own laddering job with pride. However, it will be pride mixed with a way of what could have been as Hamilton had an eventful day. He was dead last coming to the general table but essentially absorbed Marcin Barwinski's stack into his own by doubling up with A♦K♠ against the Pole's A♥J♣ after which eliminating him in seventh with A♠J♥ against Q♠J♣.
Whilst his stack never climbed above the water mark of average he had a valid shot on the big money before losing with a dominating ace against Elorza. Despite getting one double up through Svendsen, the Irishman's luckless run continued when his pocket kings were cracked by Espinosa's A♦8♦ who went runner-runner-runner diamond only for the additional ouch factor.
Neatly nestled in the midst of the pack originally of play was none rather than Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody. With WSOP, WPT and EPT titles to his name he's one in all five owners of the coveted Triple Crown but was in with a shot of completing the UKIPT Triple Crown today, which I'm sure you'll agree is as prestigious! He has UKIPT High Roller and UKIPT Series flags, however the wait goes on for a UKIPT Main Event win as he was first out today.
He'd been forced to lift and fold a couple of times and had slipped below 20 big blinds when, facing a raise from Espinosa, he peaked down at pocket nines. He committed his chips only to run into the Spaniard's pocket aces. Still he was philosophical in his exit and its back to bracelet trying to find Cody for now.
To atone for all today's action click here and to peer the entire list of payouts click here but that's it from Marbella. Football results apart we've had a good time within the sun and we are hoping you've enjoyed the coverage. The following UKIPT event is the UKIPT Series that occurs on the Hippodrome Casino, August 8th-10th.
PokerStars Marbella Festival Final Table Result:
1st. Rodrigo Espinosa, Spain, PokerStars Qualifier, €136,000
2nd. Christian Bauer, Germany, €82,9003rd. Katja Svendsen, Norway, PokerStars Qualifier, €58,7004th. Javier Elorza, Spain, PokerStars Qualifier, €44,4505th. Gareth Hamilton, Ireland, €35,1506th. Daniel Rodriguez, Spain, PokerStars Player, €26,5507th. Marcin Barwinski, Poland, PokerStars Qualifier. €19,0508th. Jake Cody, United Kingdom, Team PokerStars Pro, €13,030
All photos are copyright of Danny Maxwell and Rene Velli.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Estrellas Poker Tour]
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