Hannes Jeschka Wins Mediterranean Poker Part Main Event for $542,000

A thrilling conclusion to the 2022 Mediterranean Poker Party (MPP) Main Event saw the $5,300-entry tournament end with German player Hannes Jeschka on top, winning the first-place prize of $542,000. With a packed field of top players making the nine-handed final table, such as British pro Steven Warburton, former MPP Warm Up winner Arsenii Karmatckii and Italian Day 3 high flyer Riccardo Saraniero all making the latter stages, it was an exciting race to see who would join Rob Yong in winning a Mediterranean Poker Party trophy.

Early Levels Send Saraniero Home

The drama was there right from the first card on the final day as play raced down to the final table. When nine convened at the last table in the tournament, it was Italian podium-placed player Riccardo Saraniero who won the first prize of $53,000 for departing in ninth. He was all-in with pocket tens but was covered by Russian Arsenii Karmatckii with pocket kings and no tens came to help the Italian survive.

Next to go was Lebanese player Gabriel Akiki, who earned $65,000 for his eighth-place finish. All with ace-ten, he’d used a time bank to make what he thought was a marginal move. It wasn’t. Turkish player Nuri Hadioglu called with pocket kings, and the flop of K-6-4 catapulted his already winning hand into an almost unassailable position. Akiki needed running Broadway cards, but the turn of a three killed his dream and sent him packing before the jack on the river precipitated handshakes all round.

Out in seventh was the Austrian player Manuel Fritz, who fell at the end of a long session without any bust outs which saw Steven Warburton rocket to the top of the leaderboard. The big blind had gone from 300,000 to 500,000 by the time Fritz busted, his post dinner-break hand of king-queen committed against Warburton’s pocket queens, which held with ease, even finding the case queen on the river to send Fritz home with $80,000.

Turkish Delight Dies in Middle Stages

With six players remaining in the hunt for the trophy, two of the six players left hailed from nearby Turkey, just across the water from the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino in Northern Cyprus.  Unfortunately for them both, they would crash out in fifth and sixth place. First to go was Koray Korkmaz, who cashed for $110,000 in sixth when his queen-nine call for his tournament life ran into Karmatckii’s queen-jack and couldn’t catch up.

The second successive Turkish elimination was of Hadioglu, who busted in fifth place for $160,000 when he was short stacked. Hadioglu had just six and a half big blinds to his name when he called off his stack with pocket deuces, but he couldn’t hold against the aggressor in the hand, Karmatckii, whose ten-eight of spades found a ten on an agonising river for the Turkish player.

Two British players remained, but half the field was trimmed to a third of the field as Yiannis Liperis busted in third place. He was all-in for six and a half bigs too, calling it off from the big blind with king-jack. While his read was on point – Karmatckii had shoved from the button with queen-four – the board did not favor him. The flop came with a queen and two nines, and although Liperis still had kings and tens to call for, a jack on the turn was followed by a third queen on the river to end his chances, sending him back to Blighty with $230,000.

Warburton Runs Out of Luck

“With $100,000 left to one side for the winner, Warburton was out first.”

With three players remaining, talk turned to a deal that would suit all parties and after opening the calculator apps on their phones, a compromise on the pay-jumps was reached. Steven Warburton, the leader at the time, would get $534,000, with Arsenii Karmatckii ($471,000) and Hannes Jeschka ($442,000) also guaranteeing themselves a near half-million dollar prize.

With $100,000 left to one side for the winner, Warburton was out first, making his deal all the better. He busted shortly after losing most of his chips with pocket aces to Jeschka’s king-queen, the board of 9-3-2-K-Q the cruellest that could be imagined, the British player taking it with good heart, going on to collect the second-biggest score of the event in third place.

Jeschka had a marginal lead, holding 55.8 million chips to Karmatckii’s 47.1 million. That was enough to take the title in only the third hand of heads-up play, however, with Karmatckii three-bet shoving with ace-jack only to be called by the German with ace-queen. The ten-high board ended matters in Jeschka’s favor and despite the lead changing hands many times across the final day, the man who led the remaining 21 players into the final day’s play outlasted 20 opponents to claim the trophy and $542,000 top prize.