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22-year-old Heinz takes WSOP
November 9, 2011
By Jeremy Olson
VegasInsider.com
Pius Heinz wins 2011 WSOP Main Event
Back in the spring, German poker player Pius Heinz wasn’t even sure if he wanted to continue pursuing poker full-time since he had been struggling with his tournament play. However, after winning the 2011 WSOP Main Event and $8.72 million, it definitely looks like he made a smart decision to keep playing.
Of course, you never would’ve guessed that the 22-year-old university student was bound for WSOP greatness since he entered the 2011 Main Event final table seventh in chips. Here’s a look at how Heinz and the other players’ chip stacks looked heading into Day 1 of the final table:
1. Martin Staszko (Czech Republic), 40,175,000
2. Eoghan O’Dea (Ireland), 33,925,000
3. Matt Giannetti (United States), 24,750,000
4. Phil Collins (United States), 23,875,000
5. Ben Lamb (United States), 20,875,000
6. Bob Bounahra (Belize), 19,700,000
7. Pius Heinz (Germany), 16,425,000
8. Anton Makiievskyi (Ukraine), 13,825,000
9. Sam Holden (United Kingdom), 12,375,000
WSOP Main Event Final Table – Day 1
What stood out about this year’s WSOP Main Event final table was that the separation from the biggest to shortest chip stack wasn’t as big as in previous years. Even still, the UK’s Sam Holden came onto this table as the short stack, and he exited the tournament first too when his A-J hand was dominated by Ben Lamb’s A-K combo. But it’s worth mentioning that it took three hours before Holden was eliminated.
It wouldn’t take nearly this long for the next elimination to occur since Anton Makiievskyi went all-in with K-Q; he was called by Heinz and his pocket 9’s. Initially, Makiievskyi was in the lead on the flop, but the turn gave Heinz a full house and the win. This hand also gave the German a huge pot, and boosted him into the lead.
Except for Heinz, the bottom of the final table hadn’t fared well with Holden and Makiievskyi both eliminated, and things wouldn’t change much for “Bob” Bounahra. The Belize City native moved all-in with A-5, only to see Martin Staszko call with his much better A-9 hand. Bounahra failed to pair his 5, and was knocked out in seventh place.
Eoghan O’Dea, whose father is legendary Irish gambler Donnacha O’Dea, was one of the favorites heading into the Main Event final table. Unfortunately, he got the short end of some big hands down the stretch, and found himself forced to go all-in with Q-6 as the blinds increased. Staszko took advantage of the opportunity by calling with pocket 8’s, and O’Dea got no help from the community cards, which eliminated him in sixth place.
Next up was Phil Collins, who shoved his 18.3 million chip stack in with Ad-7d, before getting called by Heinz and his pocket 9’s. The board of 6d-5c-4s-9d gave him both a flush and straight draw, plus three outs with an ace. However, the river card of 7s didn’t deliver what Collins needed, and the 26-year-old was out in fifth.
Play got much tighter with just four players left and one elimination needed to end the day. After nearly 80 hands of play between Heinz, Staszko, Lamb and Matt Giannetti, it was the latter player who saw his chip stack dwindle considerably. Eventually, Giannetti decided to push his last 12 million chips into the middle with A-3 offsuit. To his dismay, Ben Lamb called with pocket kings, and added insult to injury by getting quad kings with help from the board. With three players remaining, the chip counts going into Day 2 of the final table looked like this:
1. Pius Heinz, 107,800,000
2. Ben Lamb, 55,400,000
3. Martin Staszko, 42,700,000
WSOP Main Event Final Table – Day 2
The last day of the 2011 WSOP Main Event final table opened with a bang as Ben Lamb made a big raise against Martin Staszko while holding K-J(o). Staszko proved that he wasn’t one to be bullied, and shoved the remainder of his 42.7 million chips into the middle. Lamb called since he had committed so many chips to the pot already, and that put his K-J hand against Staszko’s pocket 7’s; the slight advantage of the pocket 7’s held up as the board gave Lamb nothing, and the Czech took a huge pot. This left Lamb with very few chips, and he went all-in three hands later with Q-6, only to be met by Staszko and pocket jacks; once again, the community cards were no help to Lamb, and he busted out in third place.
After the extremely quick elimination of Lamb, it was down to Pius Heinz and Martin Staszko for the Main Event title. Neither player was able to break away from each other as they went back and forth for over 100 hands. But with a 3-2 chip advantage, Staszko made the mistake of thinking Heinz had bad cards when he called an all-in move by the German. The two players flipped over their cards, and Heinz had the edge with Ah-Qh versus Qc-9c. Staszko was hoping for a flush, queen or 9 to land on the board, but he got nothing, and Heinz overtook the lead in a big way.
Now with a 4-1 chip advantage, the German proceeded to push his edge over the next several hands, and eventually got Staszko to go all-in with 10c-7c; however, Heinz flipped over As-Kc, which was good enough to win since the board helped neither player. After the final hand ended, Pius Heinz became the first German poker player to win the WSOP Main Event title, and more importantly, he scooped a massive $8.7 million prize.
Here are the official results from the final table:
1. Pius Heinz, $8,715,638
2. Martin Staszko, $5,433,086
3. Ben Lamb, $4,021,138
4. Matt Giannetti, $3,012,700
5. Phil Collins, $2,269,599
6. Eoghan O’Dea, $1,720,831
7. Bob Bounahra, $1,314,097
8. Anton Makiievskyi, $1,010,015
9. Sam Holden, $782,115
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