Ole Schemion Wins PokerStars Championship €10K Opening Event
German mega-talent Ole Schemion returned to the winner's circle yet again in a PokerStars Live event, taking down PokerStars Championship Presented by Monte-Carlo Casino €10,300 Opening No-Limit Hold'em event for €274,750 and his ninth spade trophy.
Schemion has been particularly dominant here in Monte Carlo. Last year, he won the €100,000 Super High Roller here for about €1.6 million and chopped the €50,000 Super High Roller for another €857,241. The young crusher also has three other wins in side events here, each coming in 2013.
This time around, Schemion topped a final table that included fellow German high roller Koray Aldemir, Steve O'Dwyer and 2013 WSOP Main Event champ Ryan Riess.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ole Schemion | Germany | €274,750 |
| 2 | Murad Akhundov | Azerbaijan | €188,860 |
| 3 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | €123,770 |
| 4 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | €100,300 |
| 5 | Luc Greenwood | Canada | €80,560 |
| 6 | Ryan Riess | USA | €62,950 |
| 7 | [Removed:119] | France | €49,610 |
| 8 | Gerald Karlic | Austria | €37,880 |
The tournament drew 110 entries for a prize pool of €1,067,000.
Riess came into the final day, which had seven players returning, as the chip leader. He was looking to build on a recent heater that saw him add a WPT title to his trophy case when he won the $10,000 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale for $716,088.
That came after he finished top 17 in four events between PokerStars Championship Bahamas and PokerStars Championship Panama, including the Main Event in the former.
However, Riess could not make his lead last as he went down in sixth place. Riess flopped a set of deuces and bet every street. On the river, Schemion shoved on him and Riess wasn't willing to let it go. The former WSOP Main Event champion called only to be shown a turned straight from the German.
Schemion came in as the second-shortest stack but navigated into heads-up play with Akhundov.
Schemion came in as the second shortest stack but, greatly helped by the big pot against Riess, navigated into heads-up play with Murad Akhundov of Azerbaijan.
Akhundov might not be able to match Schemion's poker accomplishments, but he's had quite a bit of success himself at Monte Carlo. He finished in the top five in a pair of high roller events last year for a little under €500,000 and proved he wasn't going to just let Schemion waltz into another win.
The two were very deep when they began battling heads up, and Akhundov quickly erased the chip deficit, primarily courtesy of a pot that looked to be four-bet preflop.
Akhundov bet big on a flop of all clubs and then shoved an offsuit four turn after Schemion called. Schemion tanked as long as the timer would let him. He wound up calling with seven-six of hearts for second pair and a straight draw. Akhundov, though, had him dead with jack-ten of clubs for a flush.
However, Schemion opened the very next pot and then called off his stack with pocket queens and found himself well ahead of king-eight. He doubled through after flopping a set, and he rolled that momentum to a win after about another hour of play.
No rest for the wicked, though. Schemion moved immediately into the €100K to begin chasing his next big score.
Photos by Tomas Stacha, PokerStars
