Elias Gutierrez Wins Super High Roller in Cyprus for $417,000

The Spanish poker professional Elias Gutierrez won the EPT Cyprus Super High Roller Warm Up for $417,570 last night after defeating Russian player Alexander Zubov heads-up. Gutierrez, who also got the better of his fellow Spaniard Adrian Mateos deep in the event, triumphed in the $25,000 buy-in event, which had 57 entries and created a prizepool of $1,368,570 at the The Merit Royal Hotel, Casino & Spa in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Boika Bubbles as Gutierrez Gets Lucky

With just eight players being paid, the bubble boy would exit in ninth, by which point it was an all-male competition. Aliaksei Boika was the man at risk but had the best of it pre-flop with committed for all of chips against the of the eventual winner Gutierrez. Without a flush draw to call on, a flop of quickly meant that Gutierrez was drawing to two outs but after the turn, a on the river bumped the Spanish player up the pecking order and dashed Boika’s chances of making a profit.

With eight left, the official final table was led by the Italian Enrico Camosci, who had a massive 6.9 million. Soon, he’d added another 500,000 chips to his pile, as he took out the Chinese player Zhendong Li in eight for $54,700. Li was all-in pre-flop with but was dominated by Camosci’s and never hit any help across the board to reduce the field to seven.

Out in seventh was the Latvian former WSOP champion Aleks Ponakovs, who was also taken out by Camosci. Ponakovs called off his small stack with and was right to have done so as Camosci’s shoving hand of was behind. It stayed that way on the flop but a on the turn set the Italian into the lead and a on the river ended all hope for the Latvian as he left with $68,400.

The Leader Leaves

With six players left, Enrico Camosci had 7.21 million chips, more than double anyone else’s stack and more than four times more than anyone except his nearest challenger Gutierrez. Somehow, Camosci contrived to exit in sixth place for $89,000 in an extraordinary turn of events. It was Gutierrez who did the damage, as he first won abig pot without showdown before he called correctly for his tournament life with a set of jacks when Camosci bluffed with a busted flush draw.

Camosci was soon on the rail, after his lost to Gutierrez’ pocket nines, leading to the Italian’s demise. Gutierrez was now in charge and as he was filmed by his YouTube team – for his 200,000 followers – he laid down the law time and again. Artsiom Lasouski busted for $116,300 in fifth when his short stack disappeared representing after Dimitar Danchev’s held to mean just five players remained.

Five became four when Danchev himself left for a score of $150,500 in fourth place. All-in with , he lost to Mateos’ when a board of sent the Bulgarian home outside the podium places. Gutierrez was still a massive leader, holding four times as many chips as his opponents combined.

Gutierrez Gets Over the Line

“This is special today, but it will also be special the day I can upload this video and people can relive this experience.”

Three-handed, Mateos missed out on the heads-up battle, cashing for $198,400 in third place. The Spanish four-time WSOP bracelet winner effectively shoved with on a flop of . It was a bluff at the worst time as Gutierrez called with . Only an offsuit king would face Mateos after the turn but a on the river wasn’t his salvation.

Heads-up, Gutierrez had 12,150,000 chips to Alexander Zubov’s 2,135,000. That dominance did lead to one quick double-up for the at-risk Russian and over the next hour, he drew level before shocking fans by taking the lead. More strong betting on flops led to Zubov holding 9.4 million chips to Gutierrez’ 4m, but soon, the tables were turned for the last time.

The Spanish player’s was too strong for Zubov’s and with a reestablished lead for Gutierrez, Zubov shoved with and was called off by the champion-in-waiting with . A board of proclaimed Gutierrez the winner for $417,570 and the ‘Spadie’ trophy, with Zubov forced to be content with $273,700 as runner-up.

“It means a lot because I always feel the pressure of winning, especially creating content,” admitted Gutierrez. “When the heads-up was not going my way, I was feeling very intense. The break was great for me. I could relax a bit and rethink what I was doing. I’ve been playing poker for 14 years, 15 maybe, so it’s been a while. I’ve been playing online most of the time, but particularly now in the future I see myself playing live poker mainly.”

Gutierrez explained that his passions of poker and content creation are fuelling his fight for more trophies.

“It is my other passion to create content,” he said. “It means double when you win a tournament. This is special today, but it will also be special the day I can upload this video and people can relive this experience from a different angle. Both things, creating content and playing poker professionally, are my two passions and I’m very lucky that I can mix both of them and do what I do.”