Ulrich Pauls Wins PokerStars Festival Hamburg Main Event For €105,850
6 years ago29 Nov
Local man Ulrich Pauls was the surprise winner of the PokerStars Festival Hamburg Main Event at the weekend, his first-ever live recorded cash of €105,850 setting him up for a Christmas to remember after his ‘feel play’ saw off a field of over 500.
The week-long festival in the major northern port city had seen a lot of winners at the Spielbank Schenefeld Casino, but the Main Event is the one they all want, and 567 entries had ponied up the €1100 buy-in to take a shot at the €549,990 prizefund, with a PokerStars Festival trophy as the shiny bonus.
Pauls couldn’t match the track record in experience of many – or even most – of his opponents, but explained his winning approach, telling reporters:
"I like to play following my feeling. If I feel something I play and today this strategy worked really well."
With 15 players returning for the final day’s play, Pauls had never intended being one of them – only a friend’s call convincing him to give the day1d re-entry a try – and it [proved to be an excellent decision as he watched player-after-player hit the rails, Rudolf Koster being the final table bubble-boy at the hands of Poland’s Michal Lubas who thus became the big stack as the official final table was set.
Pokerstars pro Marcin Horecki bowed out at the hands of Pauls pocket aces…
…with the Hamburg man also seeing off several others, until only he and Lubas were left to slug it out for the title heads-up – a match decided when Pauls called Lubas’ all-in, only to find out he was facing trips and only holding a gutshot himself.
As ever, though, poker smiles kindly on some and less so on others at times, and the runner-runner straight handed Lubas yet another runner-up spot after his Rozvadov near-miss earlier this year. For Pauls it was victory and a big payday on home soil.
Final table results:
1 | Ulrich Pauls | €105,850 |
2 | Michal Lubas | €66,220 |
3 | Jan Sigel | €47,410 |
4 | Behzad Zarnegar | €36,960 |
5 | Bo Rundström | €28,980 |
6 | Andrei Nodea | €22,770 |
7 | Karolis Domarkas | €16,990 |
8 | Marcin Horecki | €11,770 |
9 | Rudolf Köster | €9,290 |
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