EPT Crowns Main Event Champion
No other fitting place for the richest prize in the short European Poker Tour (EPT) history then in the Enchanted land of twenty three dollar cheeseburgers, Monte Carlo. Surprisingly, an American managed to walk away with the silver suitcase stuffed with the 1.8 million Euro first prize after defeating Canadian Marc Karam heads-up.
The hand that decided the champion was a virtual coin flip but it played on so many levels above common poker knowledge that it was fitting to see these two players battling it out for the title. An excellent break down of the final hand can be found here, where PokerStars blogger Brad "Otis" Willis, a formidable player himself, sat in awe of the final hand.
Reporting for PokerNews, Dr. Pauly was also a witness to the million dollar coin flip as it was played out, here's his capture of the final hand and tournament results:
Eight men entered the Salle des Etoiles with one thing on their minds… to win the EPT Grand Finale Championship and take home €1.8 million. 706 players shared a collective dream of leaving luxurious Monte Carlo as a millionaire, but most of them would go home empty handed. They all each bought in for 10,000 Euros each to take part in the largest and most prestigious tournament outside of America. When it was all over, Gavin Griffin emerged as the winner. Although the final hand was a virtual coinflip, karma was on Griffin's side as he became the EPT Grand Finale Champion.
Final Table Results:
1 Gavin Griffin (USA) €1,825,010
2 Marc Karam (Canada) €1,061,820
3 Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark) €610,550
4 Kristian Kjondal (Norway) €471,180
5 Josh Prager (USA) €391,550
6 Steve Jelinek (UK) €305,270
7 Andy Black (Ireland) €238,910
8 Ram Vaswani (UK) €159,270