Michael Tureniec won the Copenhagen leg of the 2011 European Poker Tour this week and took home a satisfying €497,271 for his efforts. It was a welcome reward for a player who has long been a part of this prestigious tour and many feel it is about time this veteran had a title to his name.
The tournament had a buy in of DKK 37,250 with 449 players taking part. Taking place at the Casino Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark, the total prize pool fund was DKK 15,086,400 which equated to €2,023,496. The final table included well known Finnish professional poker player Juha Helppi as well as Per Linde, John Eames, Kevin Iacofano, Nikolas Liakos, Mudassar Khan, Andreas Dalla Molle and Michael Tureniec himself.
Tureniec has experienced a slight moment of success on the EPT when he finished 2nd in the London leg of the 5th season in 2009. He finally went one better in Copenhagen by prevailing as the winner from a crowd that had some highly esteemed players involved including the returning WSOP legend Peter Eastgate.
The victory cements Tureniec’s reputation on the EPT as one of the most successful players to regularly compete having now notched up over $2.5 million in live tournament winnings. That is a mean feat in today’s competitive climate. Tureniec’s win will feel even sweeter after an epic and prolonged three hour heads up battle with fellow Swede Per Linde.
Other interesting success stories of the final table were British player John Eames who continued his fantastic start to 2011 after experiencing a good outing in the Aussie Millions and finishing 2010 with the win in the Full Tilt Poker Espana Grand Final. He finished 3rd here to take his total career winnings over the $1 million mark. Also, American online qualifier Kevin Iacofano finished a respectable 4th having beaten the odds and battled his way to a final table finish.
The Copenhagen leg of the EPT has always been a tournament that the pundits expect to deliver. It didn’t fail again this year as the table enjoyed some riveting poker with a fine mixture of styles present at the table. At the end of the day, it was a well deserved victory for Michael Tureniec and it will be interesting to see how he pushes on from this success and whether more glory will find its way towards him.
