2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT

Børge Sandsgaard has done it again! The Norwegian, who cashed no less than four times at last year's PokerStars Championship, won the €330 EPT Cup at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino, claiming his second trophy in two years after winning the €1,100 Turbo last year. Sandsgaard bested a field of 1,057 entries, who came from four starting days.

Sandsgaard received €47,000 for his victory after making a deal heads-up with Jose Astima, where the latter would receive €42,000. The two agreed to stop playing after the deal was made, eschewing heads-up play, and Sandsgaard was declared the official winner.

A cool and collected Sandsgaard spoke with PokerNews after the abrupt ending.

"I never get excited," he explained. "There's something wrong with me," he followed, emotionless. "I don't get excited, so I don't get nervous."

Asked if that's a good quality for a poker player to have, Sandsgaard concurred.

"I think it's the best. No heartbeat," he said while pointing at his throat, a common tell that many poker players have a hard time controlling.

Last year, Sandsgaard went on a rampage in Monaco, cashing no less than four times. Highlights were a victory in the €1,100 turbo (€15,600) as well as a massive third place in the €1,100 National (€83,350). He acknowledged Monaco is a special place for him.

"I don't play so much live," he added about not appearing often on other stops. Once he does, he's proven to be a dangerous contender and can now call himself an EPT winner on top of that.

€330 EPT Cup Final Result

The day started with 158 out of 1,057 players, who were all in the money after surviving one of the four Day 1s. Although many players were left at the start, with an average stack of 20 big blinds and 30-minute levels the field got whittled down to the final nine in a little over five hours.

Final table action

Keeping up the trend before the final table, the bustouts kept following each up in quick succession at the final table as well. Stephen Foster (9th - €4,237) was gone directly after the start, while Patrick Cohen (8th - €5,400) followed him shortly afterwards. Cohen was all in with pocket fours but couldn't crack Børge Sandsgaard's pocket aces, the first of many pots the eventual winner would ship.

Kevin Enjalbert became the 7th place finisher (€7,500) after losing with king-queen against Hugo Basin's jack-ten when the latter hit a jack on the flop to win the hand. The next scalp was for Sandsgaard again: he took out Benoit Alziany in 6th place (€10,000). After Sandsgaard knocked out Alziany, he, Basin and Jose Astima held nearly equal stacks of 6 million, while Enzo Vitale and Giovanni Rosadoni were the short stacks with 2 million each.

After the dinner break, former chipleader Hugo Basin found himself on a downward slope and lost several key pots to Sandsgaard to drop to 2 million. Subsequently, the Norwegian claimed the chip lead and never surrendered it afterwards. He knocked out Rosadoni in 5th place (€13,600) with pocket queens against ace-deuce of spades.

Astima, not very active up until that point, then knocked out Basin next (4th - €17,800). Basin shoved king-jack in the small blind and Astima called with queen-jack in the big blind. The queen flopped to end Basin's run. It was another payjump for short stack ninja Vitale, who survived being extremely low on chips throughout the final table. With his last few big blinds, he finally fell in third after losing ace-king against Sandsgaard's jack-ten of spades.

Astima and Sandsgaard compared the numbers, made the deal and agreed not to play heads-up anymore. And just like that, the winner of the EPT Cup was crowned. Congratulations to Børge Sandsgaard!

Tags: Borge SandsgaardEnzo VitaleHugo BasinJose Astima

Steve O'Dwyer won his eighth tournament with a buy-in of at least $50,000 when he shipped the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT.

O'Dwyer got €676,300 for topping the 41-entry field, continuing his amazing run in high roller events. It's his second PokerStars $50K title this year already as he also won the one at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $769,500.

"That was one of the most absurd final tables I've ever played," O'Dwyer said afterward as he wound down. "Luckily, I ran really hot all in. Made some good reads... and probably some bad plays. That's poker."

€50,000 EPT Single-Day High Roller Final Result

One such read secured him the tournament. On a completed ace-high board featuring four to a wheel and a couple of clubs, O'Dwyer faced a bet of all but Nick Petrangelo's last few crumbs. Petrangelo had barreled every street, and O'Dwyer used a couple of time extensions.

"Why do I think you're full of shit?" he asked.

The American transplant found the call button with queen-five and it was good as Petrangelo could only offer a verbal surrender and a muck before sending over the last of it for the tournament the very next hand.

What made the final table so absurd, though, was the table dynamic.

While O'Dwyer has had a lengthy, successful career that's spanned thousands of tournaments and dozens of final tables, he's likely never participated in one quite like this one. The structure — featuring single reentry and 30-minute levels — often results in shorter stacks, but the 2018 edition of this event took things to the extreme. Final table average stacks consistently hovered around 15 big blinds and it was largely a preflop shovefest.

Considering the money jumps of tens of thousands of dollars, that makes for some white-knuckle poker.

An extended money bubble that took about an hour and basically consisted of short-stack all-in Russian roulette saw Sam Greenwood take the fateful pull. He lost a flip to Petrangelo with ace-king suited against sevens and will have to console himself with his €1.5 million from winning the €100K Super High Roller.

At that point, with blinds at 10,000/25,000/25,000, only Petrangelo had a somewhat comfortable stack with 1.4 million while everyone else was nursing an average of under 20 bigs. What followed was a test of patience and quick mental math as everyone constantly asked one or more opponents for a stack estimate.

Not only was it critical to know the stacks of players who had entered the pot, but everyone needed a rough idea of everyone else's stack as well to figure ICM implications. It wasn't uncommon for a player to get ask for three counts before or during a single hand, and that was paired with a 30-second timer adding to the pressure.

It took about two hours before Rainer Kempe finally went bust, during which time the average stack sank to about 13 big blinds. Justin Bonomo and Daniel Dvoress each got down under five big blinds but avoided their graves as shorties kept doubling up.

"Of course [it's frustrating]," O'Dwyer said of the situation. "You're just rooting for everyone all in to bust."

Finally, the deadlock broke when Kempe got caught shoving jack-nine into Steffen Sontheimer's king-queen suited.

Dvoress went out next at the hands of Bonomo, who ran his stack of less than two big blinds all the way into the chip lead. Unfortunately for him it was short-lived, he jammed on the button and Petrangelo woke up with sixes, which absolutely crushed six-five suited.

"Well, it was fun being chip leader," he said.

The American couldn't recover and went out fourth. Sontheimer followed in third when ace-three couldn't hold against Petrangelo's king-four. That left O'Dwyer and Petrangelo, and postflop poker became the norm once again with stacks of 25 big blinds, which must have seemed like double or triple that to the players.

Petrangelo put the pressure on and O'Dwyer made his fateful call to all but sew things up.

O'Dwyer said the stacks at the final table forced him to make his focus absolute.

"You just have to be on your toes," he said. "Dynamics change so fast. If you have the chips, you get to be the bully, and if you don't you have to figure who else is the bully and adjust."

In the end, O'Dwyer made enough adjustments and got lucky enough times to pocket another huge score, and he made it to the registration desk to sign up for Day 2 of the Main Event before calling it a night at Le Sporting.

Tags: Steve O'Dwyer