The final table chip-leader at the 2011 PokerStars EPT Grand Finale was the self described poker pro from Venezuela, Ivan Freitez, who despite his solid chip-lead was not the betting-man’s choice to take home the €1.5 million first-place prize-money. But win he did, and Freitez did it on his wedding anniversary to boot — I’m guessing he will NEVER have a problem remembering his anniversary date from here on out!

Pitted against a tough lineup that included Team PokerStars pros Alex Gomes (looking to complete the poker triple crown) and the crowd favorite, Team Spain pro Juan Macerias, not to mention Supernova Elite record-setter Andrew “azntrackr” Li, Freitez not only navigated his way to the title, he absolutely owned the final table throughout.

With Freitez’s aggression from start to finish, the big names still remaining in the field were the first to hit the rail with Li finishing in 8th place, followed by Gomes in 7th, and Macerias in 5th. The Venezuelan was aggressive with his big stack and was willing to gamble, which was evident on the final hand when he called a big all-in re-raise from Torsten Brinkmann –who held AK– with 9Ts! Congrats to Ivan Freitez, the father of three who has just won his first major poker title.

Here is a look at the complete final table payouts from the EPT Grand Finale:

1.    Ivan Freitez — €1,500,000
2.    Torsten Brinkmann — €900,000
3.    Tamas Lendvai — €550,000
4.    Andrey Danilyuk — €400,000
5.    Juan Maceiras — €315,000
6.    Eugene Yanayt — €250,000
7.    Alex Gomes — €185,000
8.    Andrew Li — €130,000

Tags: 5 Million, Aggression, Andrew Li, Betting Man, bodog, Brinkmann, Congrats, Favorite Team, Finale 1, Grand Finale, Ivan, Poker Room Bonus Code, Poker Sites, PokerStars, prize money, Record Setter, Tamas, Triple Crown, Venezuelan, Wedding Anniversary

This entry was posted on Friday, May 13th, 2011 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.