Andreas Hoivold, who we believe bears a striking resemblance to Tennis pro Peter Korda, has become Dortmund’s first ever EPT champion.500 players squeezed into the Casino Hohensyberg, albeit on separate days, to fight it out for that coveted title and mouth-watering €672,000 first prize. Undeterred by the cancellation of Deauville, most of the EPT regulars had made the trip, including Andy Black, Dave Colclough, Mats Iremark, Henning Granstad, Joe Beevers, Roland de Wolfe, Roy Brindley, Ram Vaswani and Marc Goodwin.
But, come Day 2, it was Scandinavian sensation Johnny Lodden who led the way with over 100,000 in chips. Unfortunately, as with many of his other EPT runs, his early progress would see him glide effortlessly into the cash, but eventually fall just short of that final table.
Instead, those positions went to the following players:
Seat 1: Andreas Hoivold -- 750,000
Seat 2: Erick Lindberg -- 617,000
Seat 3: Nicolas Levi -- 467,000
Seat 4: Jacob Rasmussen - 265,000
Seat 5: Sebastian Ruthenberg -- 717,000
Seat 6: Cristiano Blanco -- 1,258,000
Seat 7: Thomas Fougeron -- 286,000
Seat 8: Gunnar Rabe -- 668,000
Made up predominantly of unknown players from across Europe, there were a couple of familiar names in Lindberg (left) (who finalled in Copenhagen) and Thomas Fougeron, a well known Frenchman and circuit regular, but they were swiftly disposed of, falling in 6th and 8th for €109,000 and €85,700 respectively.The other recognisable face was that of Andreas Hoivold, a pleasant Norwegian player who we first spotted at last year’s Norwegian Championships. Since then, he’s finalled in the Ladbrokes Poker Million and built up quite a formidable reputation online.
And with these attributes behind him, Andreas swiftly began to command the final table, making short work of Rasmussen (K-K vs. Q-J), Rabe (A-9 vs. 2-2) and Guntherberg (9-5 vs. A-3 on a 5-7-5-6 board) to leave himself heads up with Italian football journalist, Cristiano Blanco.
In just two minutes, it was all over. A short-stacked Blanco (right) made his move with T-9, only to run into the Pocket Ladies of Hoivold, which ultimately stood up with an emphatic third Queen hitting the Flop. The crowd cheered and Hoivold briskly eyed up the silver case of €672,000 that lay just metres away.The trophies and spondoolies made their entrance and Andreas was left to bask in the glory as the latest EPT winner. But he won’t possess that title for too long, as just around the corner is Warsaw. Boy, this EPT train just never stops.