Maciej Lipny Wins European Masters of Poker Gran Canaria

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• USA - English

DUBLIN, Ireland, February 1 /PRNewswire/ --

- Pole Axes Competition to Take Title and EUR66,240 at EMOP Gran Canaria

Maciej Lipny has won the European Masters of Poker Gran Canaria topping the sold out field of 288 players to take down EUR66,240 at the Casino Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

The final table, who were vying for the bulk of the EUR288,000 prize pool, consisted of five Finns, a Dane, two Swedes and Lipny from Poland.

The Pole started the final nine as chip leader and despite a slow start, which saw his chips begin to dwindle, he knocked one player out in sixth and got a couple of double ups before finding himself heads-up with Henri Ovasta from Finland.

Heads-up lasted under 10 minutes and the final hand saw Lipny bet 155,000 preflop and Ovaska call. The flop came Q-J-5 with two spades and Lipny checked. Ovaska bet 165,000 and Lipny called. The turn was a 4. Lipny checked once again and faced a bet of 385,000 from the Finn, which he called. The river fell a queen and the Pole came out betting, pushing 215,000 into the pot. Ovaska pushed all -n and Lipny called.

Lipny had J-T for two pair (queens and jacks) which was too much for Ovaska's A-7.

Lipny becomes season II EMOP's second champion after EMOP Ljubljana winner Vladimir Mefodichev.

    The final table payouts were:

    1: Maciej Lipny (Poland) -- EUR66,240
    2: Henri Ovasta (Finland) -- EUR39,744
    3: Mika Nyyssonen (Finland) -- EUR25,920
    4: Reijo Anttila (Finland) -- EUR16,128
    5: Soren Godskesen (Denmark) -- EUR12,672
    6: Jimmy Ostensson (Sweden) -- EUR9,792
    7: Bjorn Lundgren (Sweden) -- EUR8,640
    8: Tommi Heikinniemi (Finland) -- EUR7,488
    9: Mikko Pirinen (Finland) -- EUR6,336

Lipny's win marked a fantastic weekend for Polish players who won three out of the seven events played.

The tour now gears up for its third stop - Casino Estoril, Lisbon, Portugal - from March. 25 to 28, 2010.

Qualification for the EUR1,000+EUR100 buy-in main event in Lisbon is now underway on all poker sites on the Entraction network for as little as EUR2 or 200 VIP points. There are 32 daily satellites feeding into the main weekly qualifiers which take place each:

Tuesday 20:40 (CET) - EUR100 buy in with five EUR2,000 packages guaranteed Thursday 20:40 (CET) - EUR100 buy in with five EUR2,000 packages guaranteed Sunday 20:40 (CET) - EUR200 buy in with eight EUR2,000 packages guaranteed

Online poker players on the Entraction network, including premium partners 24hPoker.com, C4A.com, NoIQPoker.com, Pokerihuone.com, Pokerdassi.com, and Potraiser.com, can also participate in the special EUR14,500 EMOP Lisbon Challenge at the end of February.

The three tournament-long ranking challenge has 10 packages to EMOP Lisbon. The ten players that performs best overall during these three tournaments will win an EMOP Lisbon package including EUR1,100 buy-in and EUR350 for travel expenses. In order to qualify for the EMOP Challenge players must reach the minimum VIP-point requirement between Feb 1 (00:00:00 CET) and 21 (23:59:59 CET).

In season I over 1,000 players took part in EMOP events across European destinations, battling for prize pools which totaled more than EUR1.6 million. In excess of 1,400 players are expected to attend main events during season II.

For more details visit http://www.europeanmastersofpoker.com .

About European Masters of Poker

EMOP is a live poker tournament series running in Europe. EMOP gives the recreational player opportunity to play big international poker tournaments with affordable buy-in. EMOP chooses to cooperate with the best casinos in Europe to give the participants an unforgettable experience. Partners in the Entraction poker network will send at least 200 qualifiers to each event.

The European Masters of Poker gives the gaming operator a unique possibility to create ambassadors for and loyalty to their brand. EMOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Entraction Group. Please visit http://www.europeanmastersofpoker.com for more information.

Contact: [email protected], +353-863057469 for more details.

SOURCE European Masters of Poker