Israeli farm manager Nadav Lipszyc by his own admission travelled to Malta with hardly any cash in his pocket to take up a seat in the main event of the Battle of Malta he had won in his first live tournament satellite .
A few days later he has Euro 200,000 in winner’s prize money, having bested 2,073 other hopefuls – many of them top international players – in his first major live tournament.
Trying to explain the inexplicable, Lipszyc said:
“I think that Daniel Negreanu entered my body and played for me!” And he revealed that he has never read a book on poker and does not study the game, although he does play at low stakes on internet sites and relies on his instincts at the table.
“You might not believe it but this is the first live event I’ve ever played except for the satellite. I’ve never known what I was really good at. I think I know it now,” he told media reporters.
In the heads up Lipszyc faced fellow Israeli Yaron Borenstein. The at that point penniless farmer started heads up action with a massive 42 million vs. 8 million advantage over his last opponent.
Despite Borenstein achieving a double up early on it was a brief affair. Borenstein’s runner up prize was Euro 132,000.