Kostas Papastavrou Steamrolls His Way to Victory in WPO $150

2016 Winter Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, FL
Event 4
$150 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 508
Prize Pool: $59,310
December 5-7, 2016

Kostas Papastavrou pulled off a convincing performance Wednesday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa winning Event 4 of the property’s Winter Poker Open. Papastavrou claimed the top spot in the $150 Deep Stack defeating a tough field of 508 entries. For his efforts, he went home with $13,071, a $1,650 seat in the $300,000 guaranteed Championship and a guitar trophy.

With 30-minute levels on Day 1 and 40-minute levels on Day 2, the event moved fast to start but offered plenty of play late. The final table was reached around 6:45pm but play didn’t conclude until nearly 10:45pm. There was some talk of a chop nine-handed, but Papastavrou insisited on playing it out. The one roadblock to an early night went on to take a massive chip lead when he played pot worth nearly 4,000,000 against the start-of-day leader Devaraj Munisekar. With six players left, Munisekar raised and Papastavrou made it 445,000 to go. Munisekar shoved and Papastavrou called off 1,944,000. It turned out to be a race — a race that Papastavrou’s ace-king won.

The hand catapulted Papastavrou into the lead and he bullied his way to a heads-up berth against Kevin Pahl. The pair debated briefly before deciding on a chop that saw Papastavrou take the top spot while Pahl went home with an even $10,000.

With a modest pricepoint and a super-sized field, one might be surprised to see the talent that made Day 2 of Event 4. Five-time WSOP Circuit ring winner John Holley, 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $350 winner Vitor Coelho, 2016 WPTDeepStacks-Tampe Main Event champion Anthony Astarita and Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador Wally Maddah were among those who returned to compete for the top prize. While they each cashed, it was Papastavrou’s trophy for the taking.

Papastavrou is a 54-year-old professional poker player. He immigrated to the United States from Greece about 38  years ago and has spent much of his time Stateside in Florida. He’s been playing for a living for 21 years and has recorded two major victories prior to this.

Event 4 results:

1st: Kostas Papastavrou – $13,071 + $1,650 Seat
2nd: Kevin Pahl – $10,000
3rd: Mark “Bud” Wiser- $5,338
4th: Brandon Sinawi – $4,241
5th: Kevin Goldstein – $3,321
6th: Devaraj Munisekar – $2,728
7th: Angelo Valdez – $2,165
8th: Tony March – $1,690
9th: Will Dominguez – $1,186
10th: Onder Ekinci – $771
11th: Vitor Coelho – $771
12th: Daniel Ramirez – $771
13th: Mal O’Connor- $593
14th: Antonio Rangel – $593
15th: Jean Zabin – $593
16th: James Gibson – $445
17th: Wally Maddah – $445
18th: Anthony Astarita – $445
19th: Erik Zika – $326
20th: Christina Taylor – $326
21st: Eric Buel – $326
22nd: Sumit Mantaporn – $326
23rd: Michael Henin – $326
24th: Jimmy Davis – $326
25th: Michael Scott – $326
26th: James Smith – $326
27th: Carlos Loving – $326
28th: Jason Hamilton – $297
29th: Oscar Lindo Zeledon – $297
30th: David Hudick – $297
31st: Joao Figueiredo – $297
32nd: Robert Panetta – $297
33rd: Ryan Hughes – $297
34th: John Holley – $297
35th: Hank Zheng – $297
36th: Greg Osborne – $297
37th: John Ambrosi – $267
38th: Ian Pearson – $267
39th: Matthew Mirabella – $267
40th: Rina Coss – $267
41st: Michael Nostrame – $267
42nd: Chase Kinchen – $267
43rd: William Sanford – $267
44th: Brian Dokendorf – $267
45th: Mohammad Affaneh – $267
46th: Chad Kitchen – $237
47th: Vencent White – $237
48th: Vicki Holmes – $237
49th: Kenneth James – $237
50th: Jordan Keller – $237
51st: William McPhillips – $237
52nd: Anthony Thomas – $237
53rd: Jeffrey Kichman – $237
54th: James Wood – $237