Aki Vihikainen Leads Final Nine Players in PLO Grand Slam Prague €10,400 Million
A final table has been reached in the Diamond Poker Series PLO Grand Slam €10,400 Championship here at the All Inn Casino in Prague. The final nine players have each locked up €26,150, while one is just eight eliminations away from claiming the Diamond Poker Series Trophy and €258,900 top prize.
Aki Vihikainen was cruising with a top-five stack for nearly the entire day before a late-night heater propelled him to the top of the counts, ending with 5,560,000, well ahead of his nearest competitor Kevin Gorsic, who bagged 3,705,000.
Rounding out the top three is Jeremy Trojand with 2,420,000. Vihikainen was cruising throughout the day, rarely dropping outside the top five chip stacks, before winning a massive pot against fellow big stack Luuk van den Belt late in the night to claim the top spot.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aki Vihikainen | Finland | 5,560,000 | 139 |
| 2 | Jeremy Trojand | Germany | 2,420,000 | 61 |
| 3 | Alexander Petersen | Netherlands | 900,000 | 23 |
| 4 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 1,690,000 | 42 |
| 5 | Juha Helppi | Finland | 2,095,000 | 52 |
| 6 | Veselin Karakitukov | Bulgaria | 1,480,000 | 37 |
| 7 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 2,210,000 | 55 |
| 8 | Luuk van den Belt | Netherlands | 1,900,000 | 48 |
| 9 | Kevin Gorsic | Slovenia | 3,705,000 | 93 |
Other players to survive the penultimate day include Ole Schemion, Juha Helppi, and Cesar Garcia. For Helppi and Garcia this will be their second final table in just as many days, with the two players finishing third and fourth respectively last night in the PLO Grand Slam €5,200 Million.
Day 2 Action
The day began with 23 players returning from Day 1, but with late registration available for three more levels that number quickly grew, with 29 Day 2 entries bringing the field to 107 by the time late registration closed, just surpassing the €1,000,000 guarantee.. Among the early exits today were Aku Joentausta and Aleksei Vandyshev, who finished last night's €5,200 Million in second and first place respectively.
Dennis Weiss found himself grinding a severely short stack on the stone bubble, getting his last five big blinds in preflop against Ole Schemion, with the latter player making two pair to bring the 15 remaining players into the money.
Youness Barakat made another deep run in this event, but fell a few spots before the final table after getting his chips in on the flop with the nut-flush draw, and failing to improve against Vihikainen's flopped nut-straight. WSOP Europe Main Event champion and start-of-day chip leader Omar Eljach was next out in twelfth, after missing his flush draw against Van den Belt, who was good at showdown with just one pair.
The pivotal hand for Vihikainen came with 11 players remaining in a hand against Van den Belt, with both players holding a top three stack at the time. Vihikainen flopped a set of aces and got two big streets of value to firmly establish himself as the chip leader, while Van den Belt fell a few spots down the leaderboard, ultimately finishing the night in seventh in chips. Short stacks Maksim Shuts and Tomasz Krzesinski were out soon after in 11th and 10th place to bring an end to the night.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | € 258,900 |
| 2 | € 178,100 |
| 3 | € 116,700 |
| 4 | € 94,550 |
| 5 | € 75,950 |
| 6 | € 59,300 |
| 7 | € 46,750 |
| 8 | € 35,700 |
| 9 | € 26,150 |
The action is set to resume tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. for the final day, with 14:30 remaining on Level 18 and blinds of 20,000/40,000/40,000. Stay tuned to PokerNews to catch the thrilling conclusion of the flagship event of the series.