Unknown PokerStars qualifier Nicolas Chouity has landed the €1,700,000 first prize at the European Poker Tour Grand Final, in Monte Carlo. He emerged triumphant from a final table lacking in big poker names, after fending off ex-chess player and poker professional Josef Klinger.
Chouity took just twenty minutes to win the heads-up battle, the final hand coming when Klinger moved all in with two eights, only to have Chouity insta-call with pocket rockets. An unhelpful board meant that Klinger had to settle for the runner-up spot and the €1,000,000 consolation prize, while Chouity took the EPT Season 6 crown.
Lebanese Chouity, who qualified for the event through a $22 online PokerStars satellite, went into the final table with a huge chip lead, holding around 40% of the total tournament chips, so it was no surprise to see him emerge triumphant. His closest rivals were Canadian online professional Andrew Chen and Frenchman Mesbah Guerfi, who both had 3,670,000, but were unable to make an impression on the final table, finishing 5th and 8th respectively.
Day 3 saw a host of big names drop out of the EPT Grand Final, including Chris Moneymaker, Kevin MacPhee and Juan Manuel Pastor and the day’s poker came to a halt just before ten o’clock, as Nicolas Chouity’s top set sent the flush draw of Andre Santos packing in 25th place. American online poker player Kevin “1$ickDisea$E” Eyster held a slight chip lead, with 2,768,000 chips to the 2,618,000 of 2009 PokerStars Italian Poker Tour winner Matt Perrins.
Neither Perrins nor Eyster could make effective use of their big stacks on Day 4, finishing 10th and 16th and it was Chouity who set about building a chip lead, which he earned around 3 o’clock when tangling with Sami Kelopuro of Finland, on a tricky looking 4 T 4 T 3 board. Kelopuro opened for 95,000 and Chouity raised to 240,000. A bet of 325,000 by Chouity was called, before the pair checked it down. Kelopuro mucked after seeing Chouity’s sixes, giving the Lebanese player a pot of over a million in chips.
He never looked back from there and soon built an impressive lead over his rivals, which he used to full effect in landing the European Poker Tour Grand Final. He said, “It’s like a dream come true”, before revealing his hopes that his win could help the development of poker back in Lebanon. “I think many will try to do what I accomplished… [poker] will be growing more once they see a Lebanese like them winning an EPT Grand Final”.
The seventh season of the European Poker Tour kicks off in August, in Estonia.
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