| Level 34: | 250,000/500,000/500,000 |
| Entries: | 1/727 |
| Prizes: | €90,875 |
Marius-Laurentiu Dinu had not riffled chips or peeled cards in the live arena for two years before a friend told him about the PartyPoker Tour Castellón. The Romanian had recently moved from London to Sevilla, and vowed to win silverware. His friend wagered €200 that Dinu would not be standing with a trophy.
After three days of play in the €150 Mini Main Event, in which Dinu barely left the top of the standings, the champion made clear he would be collecting his side-bet winnings to add to the €16,000 career-best payday he secured by defeating Alberto Martinez of Spain heads-up.
The key hand for Dinu was undoubtedly with six left against PartyPoker Tour ambassador Matt Staples, who topped the standings at the time. Staples had rockets, but Dinu had turned a queen-high straight, and the Canadian called off versus the victor’s turn check-jam, sending Dinu to the top of the counts alongside Christian Martin, who had occupied that spot since the start of Day 2.
From there, Dinu eliminated Konstantinos Vatseris, Fabian Torres and Martinez in a brutal final cooler on the way to victory.
€150 Mini Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 |  Marius-Laurentiu Dinu | Romania | €16,000 |
| 2 |  Alberto Martinez | Spain | €11,000 |
| 3 | Christian Martin | Spain | €7,500 |
| 4 |  Fabian Torres | Colombia | €5,500 |
| 5 |  Matt Staples | Canada | €3,750 |
| 6 |  Kevin Brzozowski | United Kingdom | €2,685 |
| 7 | Andres Carbonell | Spain | €2,000 |
| 8 |  Konstantinos Vatseris | Greece | €1,500 |
| 9 |  Hugo Gotuzzo | Argentina | €1,200 |
Winner’s Reaction
On his poker background, Dinu said “I’m a recreational player, I haven’t really played for two or three years. My friend told me about this tournament and I said ok I’ll go play. I played quite alot in London, mainly cash, for three or four years, and I moved here, and I told my friend I’d win. He said you’ll bust first day, so we bet €200 that I won’t win a trophy, I’ll be calling him soon!”
“I literally haven’t played a hand for two years. I moved to Sevilla a year ago, and I was here to see my friend and he said let’s play, so yeh, amazing. Yes the straight versus Staples was big, I think two or three hands I played bad. It’s impossible to play perfect but I tried my best.
“I’ll be back for the Main Event, maybe I can win two. If I come back to play poker I might have to quit my job because I love it too much!”
Final Day Recap
Nine players took their seats for the final day, with Martin holding a slim lead over Staples and Kevin Brzozowski, while Dinu was sitting seventh at kick off, but with a manoeuvrable stack.
There were no eliminations in the first session, during which Staples took the lead when he rivered a flush against Brzozowski. Andres Carbonell was among the short stacks, and a rail had gathered to support him. He picked up doubles in quick succession, the second with aces where he couldn’t bear to watch the outcome.
It was only a matter of time before the first knockout came, and when the players returned from break, the floodgates opened, with Hugo Gotuzzo losing a flip to Staples.
In the next hand, Dinu won the classic race against Vatseris, and minutes later Martin turned a set against Carbonell’s top pair to reduce the field to six within 20 minutes of the restart. Dinu proceeded to crack Staples’ aces, but Brzozowski was next to go when he lost a race against Martinez.
Almost before Brzozowski had reached the payout desk, Staples jammed the button with a suited ace, but ran into Martinez’s monster in the big blind to end his run in fifth. Torres was now the clear short stack, and he walked into Dinu’s ace-king to leave Dinu, Martin and Martinez to battle it out for the title.
The trio traded pots for a period, before Dinu made a full house to damage Martin and develop a significant lead, which only extended when he outkicked Martinez on top pair.
A cruel two-outer paved the way for the heads-up contest, after Martinez three-bet jammed over Martin’s open with an underpair, but found a set. Dinu had the lead, but Martinez drew almost level quickly.
Any hopes of a comeback were quickly snuffed out however, after the poker gods served up a pure cooler. Both players held suited kings, Martinez’s slightly better, but the champion flopped top two pair.
After a check-raise on the flop from Dinu, Martinez turned a flush draw to go with his top pair, but the champion improved to a full house. Action was checked to the river, where Martinez made the flush. Inevitably, the chips hit the middle, and Dinu was crowned champion.
That concludes our coverage of the Mini Main Event, but we’ll be back from 2 p.m. on October 9 with reporting from Day 1b of the Main Event, along with our recap of the day’s side event results, including Main Event Day 1a chip counts, so stay tuned to poker.pro!
