The Second Edition of the PokerStars Festival was brought to Romania by PokerStars and organized in partnership with Pokerfest Romania.
PokerStars Festival Bucharest counted more than 3.300 entries at events, fabulous prizes and a Main Event with a guaranteed prize of 500.000 euros. PokerStars, the sponsor of the biggest live poker event ever staged in Romania, offered prizes worth more than 1.3 million euros during the seven days of the Bucharest Festival.
Professional poker player, Englishman Sam Grafton resisted the 736 players enrolled in the Poker Stars Main Event with a buy in of 1.100 euros. Grafton has won the title and the prize of 117.707 euros after defeating Anil Olgun Ozdemir, a Turkish player. Grafton was undoubtedly the player with the greatest achievements in the field, having a solid background in online poker.
He has won nearly $ 5 million in online tournaments and has two major tournament wins in live tournaments. He has always been an entertaining character at the gaming table, being renowned for smiling all the time and speaking extensively in live events.
“I’m an online player, that’s what I like to do: to fight with other online player.This is how I earn my daily living, and it’s kind of a bonus for me to go and play in a live tournament. I love Bucharest. It’s a fantastic city, I came here in a winter and I knew from that time that if a live tour would ever be organized, I will come back. It’s a very nice place for the game and the venue has a very good vibe”, Grafton stated.
On the last day, Grafton was second in terms of chips and knew he was expecting a hard draw for his table position. Leader of the ranking, Ozdemir, was seated only two places behind him. In the end, Grafton and Ozdemir came face to face in the final duel. Ozdemir entered th egame by having a 3-to-1 chip lead. Moreover, he had a better start and has distanced himself from his opponent. But Grafton did not give in and managed to finish first. The two made a deal, leaving the sum of 7,700 euros to play for the title. At the end, Grafton defeated Ozdemir, when his “K-9” was better than Ozdemir’s “Q-J”. Ozdemir ended with two pairs, Grafton went with color, and Ozdemir won 96,993 $.
At the final table, the game rolled out. Seven players returned for the last day, but two of them left during the first three hands of the day. Traian Bostan was defeated by Grafton and left with seventh place, with a prize worth 18,720 euros. Bostan had 12 big blinds and ended with a “8- 10” and Grafton with a “K-9”. Grafton climbed onto the leaderboard and sent the last Romanian player home.
Pokerstars Bucharest Festival 2017: final results, main event
1st place – Sam Grafton, UK, € 117,707
2nd place – Anil Olgun Ozdemir, Turkey, € 96,993
3rd place – Daniel Nietrzebka, Poland, € 57,600
4th place – Fahredin Mustafov, Bulgaria, € 43,500
5th place – Patrick Bueno, France, € 34,400
6th place – Johann Eclapier, France, € 26,091
7th place – Traian Bostan, Romania, € 18,720
8th place – Yuriy Kudrynskyy, Ukraine, € 12,790
Or Patreanu wins high roller in the Bucharest Pokerstars Festival and a prize of 55,500 euro
The High Roller with a buy-in worth 2.200 euros at the Poker- Stars Festival drew 111 entries (made by 101 unique players), creating a total prize pool worth 215.340 euros. Or Pătreanu, from Israel, won the grand prize and the much coveted trophy, getting the prize worth 55,500 euros. Pătreanu, 29, defeated his competition and won the biggest prize in his career. He defeated Alin Petrișor Pandilică in Romania in the final duel, one-on-one, leaving the latter with the prize of 38.100 euros and second place. “I gave up playing professionally a few years ago and I focused on my business, but I know all the players. And I think I’m still good at the game”Patreanu said.
Liviu Vârciu wins the Vip Tour
Liviu Vârciu won the VIP tournament organized at the PokerStars Festival in Bucharest and, besides the trophy, he also won the big prize package for the PokerStars Championship Barcelona, which will take place at the end of August. After releasing Chris Moneymaker from the game, Liviu came face to face with Andrei Gheorghe and quickly won, after being all-in. Getting the second place, Andrei Gheorghe will also be part of a unique experience, with the winning prize leading gim to the PokerStars Festival in Dublin at the end of September.
The VIP tournament was attended by many celebrities such as Răzvan Fodor, Sorin Bontea, Gina Pistol, Liviu Vârciu, Mikey Hash, Mircea Bravo, Marius Onuc and Andrei Gheorghe, well known passionate poker players.The strategy, analysis and statistics knowledge of the eight celebrities has been put to the test, because professional poker player Chris Moneymaker, PokerStars Team Pro, has also entered the table.
Alexandru Papazian, the first Romanian winner of a WSOP bracelet, Andreas Klatt, the hero of the PokerStars Championship in Monte Carlo, the Russian online legend Vladimir Shabalin and many others,also attended the Bucharest Festival.
Anghel Won Megastack title
The first event of the Poker- Stars Festivalin Bucharest was MegaStack, which had a buy-in of 170 euros. The large number of registrations – a total of 756 – raised the prize pool to $ 108.864, and the top 114 players in the rankings received cash prizes. The title came to the host nation, through player Alexandru George Anghel, who went home with $ 15,440 after a three- split deal with his countryman, Alexandru Daniel Pavel, and Patrick Bueno. Paul and Bueno have secured 13.000 euros in this deal. Bueno then crowned the result by winning the fifth place in the Main Event.
