Tim Hartmann is this year’s paddypower.com Irish Winter Poker Festival champion after defeating a star-studded field in Dublin. The German who started the final table as the overwhelming chip leader managed to hold to his lead all the way up until the end and claim the victory plus, the €100,000 first prize.
Nineteen players returned for the final day of play at the Burlington Hotel in the Irish capital and the final table lasted for twelve long hours, with the heads-up battle accounting for 3 of them. Standing in his way at the final table were Irish pro’s Jay O’Toole and Ronan Gilligan, while Julian Thew started with the second largest stack and was a constant threat for the majority of the day.
But despite the big names at the table, it was Polish player Patryk Pietnoczko who gave Hartman the most problems. Going into heads-up play Hartmann held a commanding 6:1 chip-lead, but as time went on the Polish player seized the momentum and at one point he took-over the chip lead himself.
But it didn’t last for long and soon enough Hartmann re-established his advantage. The final hand saw both players get all of their chips into the middle preflop wth Hartmann turning over Ace-Four against Pietnoczko’s Ace-Eight. But a 4 on the flop spelt disaster for the Pole and when the following two cards didn’t help either player, Hartmann was crowned the winner and spelt the end of 3 highly entertaining exciting days of poker.
Here is how the final table finished up:
1. Tim Hartmann – €100,000
2. Patryk Pietnoczko – €56,500
3. Ronan Gilligan – €35,000
4. Julian Thew – €28,350
5. Marc McDonnell – €22,300
6. Jay O’Toole – €18,300
7. Daniele Nestola – €14,400
8. Ahmed Eydan – €11,400
9. Trevor Dineen – €8,400
