John Juanda, one of the most respected members of Team Full Tilt Poker, took down one of the most prestigious poker tournaments of the year – the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe!
Juanda, who would enter the final table with the chip lead of just over 1.3 million in his stack, was one of the heavy favorites to take down his 4th WSOP bracelet. Not far behind him was good friend Daniel Negreanu, who also entered the final table atop the chip leaderboard. The buzz in he crowd was going back and forth on which of those 2 poker greats would nab another piece of WSOP hardware.
The final table itself was stacked with some great tournament players, including known online pro Scott Fischman. Two of the best Russian-born players in the world also made the finale – one of which was also had his ticket stamped for the “November Nine” WSOP Main Event final table – Ivan Demidov. It marked the first time in WSOP history that one person made the final table for 2 Main Events in the same year!
However, by the end of this amazing tourney it would be Demidov’s Russian counterpart Stanislav Alekhin that would be running hot at just the right time and absolutely tearing up his rivals in the process. He soiled Daniel Negreanu’s dreams of a 5th bracelet when his Jacks held up against D.N.’s A-9, sending him to the rail in an unexpected 5th place. And then, as fate would have it, the two people who entered the final table with the top 2 chip stacks – John Juanda and Stanislav Alekhin – would be the 2 people who would be playing it out heads-up for the first place prize of £868,800.
These two would Generasitogel trade the chip lead between them back and forth through much of the remainder of the final table. At one point, Juanda was crippled to just 900,000 in chips against Alekhin’s 6 million+. But an epic rally of sorts saw Juanda battle back and even up the chip counts, and then all of a sudden find himself chopping his opponent down to his final 600,000 in chips!
As I railed WSOP.com, here was the knockout hand that gave Juanda the title and his 5th WSOP bracelet:
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:33:09
John Juanda Wins the 2008 WSOP-Europe Main Event (£868,800), Stanislav Alekhin Eliminated in 2nd Place (£533,950)
Hand #484 – Stanislav Alekhin has the button. He moves all in and Juanda calls. Alekhin A-9 Juanda K-6. The flop is 6 6 2 and Juanda flops trips to the audience’s elation. The turn is a Q and Alekhin is drawing dead. To put the icing on the cake, the case 6 falls on the river for quads and John Juanda is our champion, winning the 2008 WSOP-E Main Event and his fourth World Series of Poker bracelet! Stanislav Alekhin made a tremendous effort tonight and takes home £533,950 for his runner-up finish.