The very last Partouche Poker Tour Main Event is over (more on that in a moment). Ole Shemion has surely found the perfect spot on his mantle to display that shiny new trophy as he became the last champion of the 5-season-long poker tour, scooping up €1,172,850 for his illustrious victory. But an equally intriguing story developed just as quickly as it vanished from the tables on Day 2 of the PPT Main Event.
It may be time to give our dear friend Tom Dwan a new nickname. Instead of “Durrrr”, maybe we should start calling him “Speedy Gonzalez”!
Okay, that reference was probably just lost on the last two generations. You see, Speedy Gonzalez was this little cartoon mouse… oh, never mind. The point is he was really fast!
Mr. Dwan showed up early at the Cannes Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France on Day 2 of the Main Event to take advantage of the late registration facility. He forked over €8,500 and made his way to the poker tables, ready to battle it out for a piece of the €5 million guaranteed prize pool; the very last prize ever to be award on the Partouche Poker Tour.
In Dwan’s very first hand, he was dealt a beautiful pair of Kings. Who wouldn’t put a few chips on the line with pocket Kings? Tom went a little further than that, pushing his entire stack into the middle on his opening hand. A French player holding pocket 10’s quickly followed suit, and Mohsin “Chicago Hands 1” Charania topped it off with a push of his own, showing rockets.
With enough pockets to make half a pool table, the board came down with no help to any of them. Charania’s Aces held up, sending Tom Dwan to the rails faster than he could say, “€8,500 down the drain!”
The only response from Tom “Durrrr” Dwan came via a Twitter post that simply stated it had been a “fun trip”. Charania, on the other hand, was thrilled by the outcome, stating “First hand of the day got it in AA vs Durrs KK and some fre[n]chies 10s to bust both up to 130”.
As far as this being the last of the Partouche Poker Tour, you’ve probably heard some pretty nasty rumors about the prize pool being guaranteed at €5,000,000, only to be reduced to the near €4.3 million that the buy-ins actually rounded up to, then yet again brought back up to the initial €5 million that had been guaranteed. Well, the rumors were all true.
Despite persistent denial from the poker tour’s owner, Patrick Partouche, the original advertisements for the PPT Main Event had in fact depicted a €5,000,000 GTD Main Event. The organization did everything they could to delete the evidence of old ad banners and posts, but poker player’s had snagged screen shots before they vanished from the web. The most prominent evidence was a video taken after the 4th season main event where of one of the PPT’s organizers actually stated that the next season’s main event would boast a €5m guarantee.
After initially denying the full prize pool, Patrick Partouche released a final statement that the PPT Main Event would honor the €5 million, but that it would be the last penny they ever shelled out as the Partouche Poker Tour would be no more. And with that, we say a fond farewell to the PPT, a hearty congratulations to its final winner, Ole Shemion, and a sincere “Better luck next time!” to Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.
