Timothy Adams Wins EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 Single-Day High Roller for €548,030
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There was an entertaining end to the €25,000 Single-Day High Roller at the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour, with Timothy Adams emerging triumphant after heads-up opponent Sean Winters threatened a monumental comeback.
After masterfully nursing his short stack throughout the final table, Winter entered heads-up with a 20:1 deficit, before doubling three times to reduce the arrears and increase the likelihood of an improbable victory. Unfortunately for Winter, the fourth all-in went the way of Adams who took home €548,030.
EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 Single-Day High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Payout (EUR) | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timothy Adams | Canada | € 548,030 | $612,698 |
| 2 | Sean Winter | United States | € 389,600 | $435,573 |
| 3 | Kazuhiko Yotsushika | Japan | € 255,080 | $285,179 |
| 4 | Charlie Carrel | United Kingdom | € 196,290 | $219,452 |
| 5 | Alex Foxen | United States | € 155,440 | $173,782 |
| 6 | Isaac Haxton | United States | € 121,560 | $135,904 |
| 7 | Ali Reza Fatehi | Iran | € 95,660 | $106,948 |
| 8 | Chan Wai Leong | Malaysia | € 74,730 | $83,548 |
Moments after winning the tournament, Adams shook Winter's hand and said "Nice ladder." Winter started the final table with a stack of 550,000 and never really advanced further from that, nursing his short stack to a heads-up battle where he almost came away with the title.
Adams said that his play was heavily influenced by the shorter stacks such as Winter's.
"You just do not get a break. You're either playing or talking poker with friends or looking at poker situations."
"It depends where your stack is," said Adams. "I was a middling stack so I couldn't really do anything because I was trying to outlast them, and then I kind of got in the driver's seat, then I could push the game a little bit.
"But at the same time with ICM, if other people aren't playing to the boundaries of ICM, then ICM doesn't really work!"
The pivotal hand came when third-place finisher Kazuhiko Yotsushika called off his last 30 big blinds with king-ten offsuit against the seven-nine suited of Adams, with short-stacked Sean Winter sitting with five big blinds behind him.
"I didn't think he'd call me with king-ten offsuit so I guess I was lucky. Yotsushika was tough. I thought he played pretty good. He was tough to read as well."
Adams says that in the past he used to travel and play for the experience, but now treats packed schedules like those at the EPT as a work trip.
"I've been traveling for a while now and before you used to have a day off here or there, and it was kind of nice to have that reset. But nowadays the schedules are just so jam-packed with poker every single day.
"You just do not get a break. You're either playing or talking poker with friends or looking at poker situations."
"It might be nice to have a scheduled day where there's no power. But to be honest, before, when I used to travel it would be for the experience and now it feels totally like a work thing where I just go and I just work."
€25,000 Single-Day High Roller Recap of the Day
A total of 83 players entered the Single-Day High Roller, and 11 players would be in the money. Early on it was Ahadpur Khangah setting the pace, but he would fade to bust well short of the money.
Other notables who failed to make the money include EPT Barcelona Super High Roller champion Mikita Badziakouski, EPT Prague Single-Day High Roller champion Thomas Boivin, Maria Ho, Erik Seidel, Bryn Kenney, Lauren Roberts, Nick Petrangelo, and Bryn Kenney.
By the time three tables remained, Yotsushika was top of the pile, followed by Alexander Uskov and Super High Roller champion Sergio Aido.
As the eliminations continued, Yotsushika was the first player over the million chip mark, but he was soon joined by Ali Reza Fatehi and Charlie Carrel.
The bubble burst when Winter's ace-queen suited cracked the pocket queens of Aido after Winter turned a flush draw. With that, the remaining 11 players were all guaranteed €49,820.
Tsugunari Toma and Matthias Eibinger would bust before the remaining players redrew around one table.
Yotsushika still held the lead, but it was Fatehi who would eliminate Ole Schemion to close the gap. However, the Japanese player quickly jumped back ahead, sending Chan Wai Leong to the rail in seventh.
Carrel had been engaged in almost a running battle with Fatehi, and eventually, the Brit won out; his queens holding against Fatehi's ace-jack to take over the chip lead.
He added the elimination of Isaac Haxton in sixth place before a five-handed stalemate started.
With Alex Foxen and Winter both sitting with short stacks, the other players at the table navigated their respective stacks carefully - one false move could spell disaster for them.
There were doubles for Winter and Adams before Foxen was eliminated by Carrel. The double had put Adams firmly in the driving seat, toppling Yotsushika from his seat at the top of the chip counts. Adams then set about taking chips from Carrel and soon he had more chips than the rest of the table combined.
Carrel was next to go, at Adams' hand, and he was soon followed by Yotsushika, with Adams now holding 7.9m of the 8.3m in play.
A Winter comeback looked improbable, but he soon had Adams looking over his shoulder after three quick doubles gave him "playing chips" as he called. However, it was not to be, with Adams emerging victorious at the fourth all-in, earning himself a cool half a million euros in the process.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for more coverage, with the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller starting at 12:30 pm. All the EPT Monte Carlo live updates can be found in the PokerNews Live Reporting section.
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Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
