PartyPoker Million

PartyPoker Million VI, MSC Poesia, 4-8 May 2008

Entrants: 171
Buy in: $8,200
Prize pool: $1,402,200

Final results:
1. Alexander Jung $358,280
2. Dominik Stopka $225,585
3. Cory Albertson $159,235
4. Mika Paasonen $119,425
5. Raymond Estall $92,885
6. Andraes Jorbeck $67,675
7. Johannes Strassman $47,770
8. Peter Steinlesberger $31,845
9. Kenneth Gregersen $21,230

25-year-old Alexander Jung has become the first German to win the PartyPoker.com Million after taking down the $358,280 first prize.

The Mathematics student from Berlin beat fellow German Dominik Stopka heads-up to take the prestigious title on board the MSC Poesia, a luxury liner that left Venice on the 3rd May and returned on the 10th. He joins a prestigious list of winners that includes Kathy Liebert, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Michael Gracz and Mike Schneider.

Jung has had success on the World Poker Tour and at the World Series of Poker but his PartyPoker.com Million VI triumph is the biggest of his career. “This is my biggest live win so far. The structure of the tournament was perfect for me, and there were some very good players here,” he said.

“I had a lot of respect for Dominik. I had seen him play a great many hands, mostly without a showdown – and when he did have to show it was often something like aces – so he is a good player. However, I felt one or two others were a bit tight on the final table – perhaps wanting to try and climb the money positions.”

Jung, who credits strategy books and his mathematical education with improving his game, intends to use his winnings as a bankroll. He was so focused on his poker that he only managed to leave the liner once on the one week luxury cruise and was amongst a strong group of German online qualifiers who made up 20% of the main event field.

It was a week when German speakers really dominated, with Johannes Strassmann a big chip leader in the early stages and eventual runner-up Dominik Stopka the chip leader going into the final table. Also on board the liner were the likes of Florian Langmann and inaugural PartyPoker German Open champion Sebastian Ruthenberg, both of whom have had significant success on the circuit in recent times.

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: “Alexander Jung was the deserving winner in a week where German players truly dominated the tournament. The heads-up was a clash of two different kinds of player."

"In Jung you had the mathematical online whiz kid and with Stopke the experienced and respected professional who has fine tuned their game over the years.” “Everybody on board had a great time – it is just that the German players departed a great deal richer!”

30 countries were represented in the main event with a line-up that represented a united nations of next generation poker talent. Online qualifiers won a PartyPoker.com Million VI package worth $12,000, comprising $8,200 buy-in for the no limit texas hold’em main event, $2,700 for the accommodation and the cruise and $1,100 spending money.

Amongst those who failed to make the final table include Canada’s history-making Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Brazil’s Christian Kruel, Danish sensation Soeren Kongsgaard, Christoph Haller, Alan Smurfit and JJ Liu.