Published on
Update on

Third time’s a charm for Akin Tuna who won the €10, 300 No-Limit Hold’em event trophy, a part of the 2018 Pokerstars European Poker Tour Prague. He raked in more than 10 times his initial investment, namely €125,330. Tuna bested more than 38 entrants to win the big prize.

He has built a solid tournament winnings bank of $725,000 for finishing in the money a number of times before. Despite having a clear shot at a title twice in the past, Tuna wiffed both times. This time he made a good fist of staying true to his strategy until the end no matter what’s thrown at him.

His stack went through a roller coaster ride on day 2 of the tournament. Starting as the chip leader he hit many stumbling blocks along the way to the final day. In the dotted with twists and turns day two, little did Akin Tuna know that one last swing of the pendulum will bring him the chip lead. Daniel Dvoress had a way of keeping him honest all the time as he presented the biggest threat on the table for much of the second day.

Ognyan Dimov was first to lead the charge in the war of attrition in the final day. He made a well-calculated move, probably hoping to face a small pair, and called Orpen Kisacikoglu’s all in. The Turk turned over a pair of fives and ultimately got busted. On the other hand, Dimov continued posturing a conservative approach.

But Tuna knew how to keep the pot boiling. He left Dvoress doubting after what seemed to be a defensive bet. Tournament regular Daniel Dvores, whose winnings from live action stand at the formidable $6,787,067, then pushed all in with top pair and king kicker (king-queen). Much to his surprise, Tuna got the better end of the deal with his ace-queen. By winning that pot the Turk established a comfortable lead, having about 60% of the chips in play in front of him.

And Then There Were Three

Dimov entered the three-way action with the worst of it but fought his way through to doubling twice. Kitai was the one to blink first, making a questionable call on the river with queens for all of his chips. The cold deck had served Tuna a rivered straight – enough to eliminate the Belgian from the tournament.

Ognyanov Dimov came up with a standard raise of two times the big blind. Tuna defended three-betting to 100 000 and leaving Dimov little choice but to ship his remaining stack. Indeed the Bulgarian came over the top and went all in with pocket jacks. His pocket pair held up and Ognyanov doubled through Tuna.

Though it seemed that the odds are stacking up against Tuna, at the heights of the pressure he copped it sweet. More specifically in the decisive hand. Truth be told, Dimov had every reason to much the flopped straight earlier, with three to a flush out there. Although this hand didn’t finish off the Bulgarian, it crippled his stack beyond retrieval.

On the very next hand, the Bulgarian tapped off and applauded his opponent. Tuna earned the right to lift the signature PokerStars trophy and take more than €125 000 in prize money.