/ Matthew Pitt / 28 March 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Geshkenbein captures the EPT Snowfest title
At the start of the fifth and final day of play (six if you include the two Day 1s) all the talk surrounding the European Poker Tour Snowfest final table was the fact there were three Belgian nationals out of the eight players, all with a great chance of becoming the very first Belgian EPT Champion.
By the time play had some to an end, some ten hours after it had begun, the Belgian's were forgotten and it was Russian Vladimir Geshkenbein who was being held aloft by his army of fans in scenes that would not look out of place at a football match back in his homeland of Russian (though he was raised in Switzerland and now resides in Malta.)
Geshkenbein, known as "Beyne" when he is plying his trade online, managed to turn his 30,000 starting stack into a field leading 235,000 during Day 1b and manage to keep this massive stack all the way to the final table, where he started fourth out of eight, with a stack of 1,678,000. Whilst the majority of the final table were content with drinking water, fruit juices and energy drinks, Geshkenbein sat down with a vodka and lemon with a small stuffed monkey and donning a snakeskin cowboy hat and he continued to drink throughout the day and night of the final table!
The Russian, famed for his extremely loose-aggressive style, saw his stack fluctuate wildly but once he had all but eliminated Cristian Dragomir when five handed he never looked back. In that particular hand the flop read Jd-2d-6h and Geshkenbein check-raised Dragomir's 255,000 bet all in. After almost five minutes Dragomir called and turned over 8s8d and was up against the KhTh of Geshkenbein. The eights stayed in front as the 4s fell on the turn but the 9h was one of Geshkenbein's outs and it left his Romanian opponent, who was once berated by Phil Hellmuth at the WSOP, with less than two big blind.
That hand gave Geshkenbein over 5,000,000 chips and the ammunition to make life very difficult for his opponents, who were having a hard time putting him on a hand at any point of the tournament. He got extremely lucky in a hand with fourth place finisher Giacomo Maisto when he found himself calling an all in bet with Qd4d on a 9s-8c-Qc flop to find himself up against QsTc. The 2s on the turn kept him behind but the 4h on the river was the three outer he was looking for.
Half hour later and he called a 20 big blind shove from Koen De Visscher, one of the two Belgian's in the top three, with JsJc, which held against Ac7c to set up a heads up encounter with Kevin Vandersmissen, a very takented player who was superb from start to finish in this tournament. Heads-up only last a few hands, much to the disappointment of the rail who were expecting an epic encounter. In the final hand Geshkenbein raised, Vandermissen three-bet then called when the Russian moved all-in. Geshkenbein held a less than stellar Ah9d but it was still ahead of the KdTs of his Belgian opponent. The flop came down As-9h-8d, almost locking the hand up for Geshkenbein but even he looked worried when the turn brought the Ks into play. However, any thoughts of a major suckout were soon dismissed as the river came down 5s to deny Belgium their first-ever EPT Champion, though Vandersmissen did pick up €260,000 for his efforts over the week.
The €390,000 Geshkenbein picked up represents the largest cash of his career, his previous best being his first live cash when he won the 2009 APPT Macau High Roller event for $266,705 after beating Johnny Chan heads up. He may not be a household name just yet but his skills and personality in this particular event would make me think that there is much more to come from this young man in the future. Mark my words!
Final table payouts
1st place: Vladimir Geshkenbein - €390,000
2nd place: Kevin Vandersmissen - €260,000
3rd place: Koen De Visscher - €147,000
4th place: Giacomo Maisto - €100,000
5th place: Cristian Dragomir - €81,000
6th place: Philip Meulyzer - €65,000
7th place: Denis Murphy - €49,000
8th place: Morten Mortensen - €35,000
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