Dzmitry Urbanovich Wins EPT Dublin Main Event for €561,900
Last Season's European Poker Tour Player of the Year, Poland's Dzmitry Urbanovich, won the 2016 PokerStars EPT Season 12 Dublin Main Event at the Royal Dublin Society Saturday night.
Urbanovich, who cleaned up in the high roller events in Season 11, won his first EPT Main Event title and the €561,900 first-place prize that came along with it, ultimately finishing atop a field of 605 players in Ireland's capital.
Gilles Bernies, the man Urbanovich defeated in heads-up play, is a part-time poker player, student, and DJ from Germany. He went through the event breathing heavily and taking his time throughout all the hands he played. The 27-year-old Bernies took a massive lead into heads-up play, but could not deny the young Polish phenom the title.
Six players returned Saturday afternoon to battle for the EPT Dublin crown, eight years after the last time the tour stopped in the city. Within the first few hands of six-handed play, the United Kingdom's Rhys Jones shoved short and was eliminated by the chip-leading Urbanovich in sixth place.
Some 34 hands later, Greek player and Twitch streamer Ilios Kamatakis ran second pair into Bernies' top pair, top kicker to say goodbye in fifth place.
Bernies then took a big chip lead by winning a massive flip against Urbanovich a few hands later, and only increased that lead as four-handed play continued.
Eventually, Bernies picked up queens and picked off the event's final Irishman, Patrick Clarke, with a weak ace. Exactly one hand after Clarke busted in fourth, Kully Sidhu took a race for all his chips with ace-six versus Bernies fives and missed, finishing third.
Bernies took a massive 4-1 lead into heads-up play with Urbanovich, but Urbanovich doubled through early on, flopping a straight and getting paid off with a river shove to jump right back into contention.
Then, Urbanovich took a big lead of his own when he flopped a pair and a flush draw and Bernies got out of line shoving with four-high. Bernies defied domination to double back through, but Urbanovich continued to lead.
It wasn't long before Bernies grinded back to about even and the two took a 30-minute dinner break. When they came back, it went back and forth for a good while before Urbanovich took the lead for the final time. Bernies shoved a flush draw into Urbanovich's trip aces and hit the flush on the river, but that card also gave Urbanovich a full house.
Urbanovich, having won four side events at EPT Malta in Season 11, finished runner-up in the €100,000 Super High Roller at the Grand Final, and having started off Season 12 with another super high roller runner-up finish in Barcelona, finished off Bernies rather quickly. He first extended his lead and then found pocket kings when Bernies shoved queen-high to book his first EPT main event win and end the EPT Season 12 Dublin poker festival in style.
| Position | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Poland | €561,900 |
| 2 | Gilles Bernies | Germany | €349,800 |
| 3 | Kully Sidhu | United Kingdom | €250,300 |
| 4 | Patrick Clarke | Ireland | €193,650 |
| 5 | Ilios Kamatakis | Greece | €152,600 |
| 6 | Rhys Jones | United Kingdom | €119,450 |
With that, PokerNews' coverage from EPT Dublin has come to a close, but there is still one more big, bad stop left on the European Poker Tour for Season 12. That's the Grand Final in Monaco to take place April 25 through May 6. Coming hard with 79 tournaments, it's going to be an exciting affair and one PokerStars deems the "biggest and best yet" for an EPT stop. PokerNews will be there, and we hope to see you there, too!