BSOP Main Event Sees Bumper Finale as Alen Fillipi Wins Career-High Score

Martin Kabrhel reached the final table but fell just short of his second title in Sao Paulo as Alen Fillipi scored one for the home crowd at a record-breaking Brazilian Series of Poker saw its Main Event award $3,877,000 in prizes in South America. The winner, Alen Fillipi, won his biggest-ever score in the event as he got the best end of a three-way deal at the top of the leaderboard, with Pedro Padilha one of several local heroes to just miss out on the podium.

*denotes three-way deal.

Record Breaking Scenes in Sao Paulo

The Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) has been huge for the past fortnight, with a packed schedule and fields that are bigger than anything that has come before. In fact, the BSOP Championship event, or Main Event, set a record for Latin American poker tournaments in terms of attendance. When the dust settled, it was a local winner, as the Brazilian champion Alen Fillipi took home $683,600.

Of the 714 entries, only 103 of that number reached the money places and profit on their $6,000 entry fee. While some cashed for the minimum of $10,000, such as Luiz Torres, others such as Rafael Ferreira, Allan Mello and Andres Korn added $11,000 to their results for the year.

As the final table of nine convened under the lights, Diones Lopes led with 93 big blinds, as eight Brazilians and one passionate Czech Republic player fought for the title in Sao Paulo. Martin Kabrhel, fresh from winning a high roller event earlier this series and his fifth WSOP bracelet in October, was the short stack on just 16 big blinds and he couldn’t spin it up to go any further, cashing for $55,000 when his ace-ten ran into the ace-king belonging to Lopes.

Padilha Misses the Podium

Next to go was Bernardo Soares, who fell to the eventual winner Fillipi. All-in with queen-jack, Soares ran into a problem as Fillipi had the dominant hand of king-queen. The chips went in on a flop where Soares had flopped the open-ender but no cards came to complete the draw and he departed with a score of $70,000.

Giorgio Tonin was eliminated in seventh place for $95,000 after he too was dominated to defeat, ace-three shot down by Pedro Padilha’s ace-queen. Soon, the field was trimmed to five, with Gregory Fabiao claiming $124,000 in sixth place. All-in with pocket eights, Fabiao was chopped down by the pocket kings of Alen Fillipi as the chip leader woke up with a monster hand.

Ramiro Araujo cashed for $170,000 in fifth place when he shoved for 26 big blinds pe-flop with a suited king-ten. Matheus Grazziotin couldn’t believe his luck with ace-king, snapping off the call and cutting off another opponent on his route to glory, a board of 9-5-2-K-2 pairing both men, but with Grazziotin’s kicker playing even after a pair of deuces joined on the board.

Just outside the podium places, the event lost its most experienced player, as Pedro Padilha was eliminated for a score of $230,000. Padilha lost with the ‘Texas Dolly’ – ten-deuce – as a four-way hand ended with Grazziotin winning the hand with an ace-high spade flush.

Fillipi Fills Up

With just three players left, a deal was struck between the remaining trio. Leaving $162,000 to play for – and the gleaming trophy – Lopes was glad for doing a deal when he busted in third place for $519,400. All-in with the best of it, his ace-queen was slain by Alen Fillipi’s king-six suited after a board of Q-8-5-2 with two spades by the turn completed with another spade – the nine.

Just two players remained, with Fillipi in control on 57 million chips and Grazziotin on just 14 million. Very quickly, all the chips headed to the winner. On a board of T-5-4-J-6, Grazziotin moved all-in with five-four for a flopped low two-pair.

Fillipi thought about it for a moment, but with no flush draw out there, he made the call and turned over the superior two-pair of jack-four for the win. Grazziotin cashed for $423,000 while Fillipi won the $683,600 top prize and the BSOP Championship trophy as he celebrated the biggest victory of his poker career.