The next chapter of the prestigious EPT tour has already written its last lines, which the poker world watched yesterday via Live Stream. It featured the last seven players on the televised table, and with a 34bb average, I don't think anyone would have expected that we would have to wait more than a 12-hour marathon for the champion to be revealed!
The final table kicked off rather quickly, with Brazilian Jonathan Guedes busting the table in 7th place in the sixth hand of the evening. He and a pair of didn't flip against Angelo with and had to settle for €154,900.
We had to wait almost 3 hours for the next elimination, after which German player Niclas Thumm had to leave the game in an unpleasant way. He flopped got all his chips behind the line with a combination of with which he faced Angel with a pair of . The smile on the German's face froze the river, which brought an uncompromising and with it a €201,000 reward.
The definitive 5th place with a reward of €261,700 went to French player Jonathan Pastore, who was followed shortly to the cash by Serbian Jovan Kenjic (€340,500). The imaginary bronze medal along with a reward of 442,900€ ended up in the hands of American Rania Nasreddine, whose success was wished by many spectators around the world.
At this point, the heads-up started, the course of which perhaps no one had predicted. Dutchman Derk van Luijk went into it with an advantage of about 80bb:40bb over his Bulgarian opponent Boris Angel, but he was certainly not about to give up just like that!
As the clock ticked down, Angelov gradually took the lead, which Luijk reclaimed for himself after a few hands. The first all-in call came much later, when Angelov spun for his tournament life with a combination of against Luijk's pair . The coveted ace didn't make it to the board for the Bulgarian, but all the remaining queens in the deck put on an even better show:
Quads!
- PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) May 4, 2024
👉 https://t.co/SB357usSaR or https://t.co/ZarB0RN21O#EPTMonteCarlo pic.twitter.com/fY6TwM049C
But the double-up didn't get us any closer to knowing the champion, quite the opposite - there were another three hours of play ahead of us, which was eventually deciphered by this hand. In it, Angelov sent Luijk into limbo all in with , which the Dutchman made with immediately snapped. The whole room immediately became alert and watched the hand that could have ended everything:
The €1,000,000 moment. 👇
- PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) May 4, 2024
It's Dutch delight for Derk van Luijk, as he takes down the #EPTMonteCarlo Main Event. 👏 🏆 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/RXvgyAFh9d
That's what finally happened, and after this hand, the final decision was made for Van Luijk to become the 8th ever Dutch EPT champion. "I still can't realise it, it's unbelievable! I've had countless crashes and comebacks, it was a very tough and long heads-up." As champion, the Dutchman took home the trophy and a straight €1,000,000, but qualifier Boris Angelov need not be sad either, as he took his €500 online qualifier to €620,500 after a performance of a lifetime.
| # | NAME | COUNTRY | PRIZE |
| 1 | Derk van Luijk | Netherlands | €1,000,000 |
| 2 | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | 620,500 |
| 3 | Rania Nasreddine | USA | 442,900 |
| 4 | Jovan Kenjic | Serbia | 340,500 |
| 5 | Jonathan Pastore | France | 261,700 |
| 6 | Niclas Thumm | Germany | 201,000 |
| 7 | Jonathan Guedes | Brazil | 154,900 |
| 8 | Jozef Cibicek | Slovakia | 119,000 |
| 9 | Philipp Wenzelburger | Germany | 91,500 |
A lifetime achievement for Switzerland's Luca Marki
Spontaneously, alongside the final day of the Main Event, the final table of the last tournament, which was the €25k EPT High Roller, was also being played. The astronomical buy-in tournament attracted a record 189 players who took care of the €5,930,470 prizepool thanks to 247 entries. This was split amongst the top 31 players, with a €1,253,070 prize awaiting the winner.
Names like Artur Martirosian, Mikita Badziakouski, Ramon Colillas, Leon Sturm and Andras Nemeth had to say goodbye to the tournament before the final table. The biggest loser of the tournament was Norwegian pro Kayhan Mokri, who busted as chipleader in the last 4 hands, only to be eliminated by two suckouts in third place (€559,200).
After his elimination, heads-up players Mauricio Sanchez of Colombia and Luca Marki of Switzerland negotiated a deal to split the entire prizepool and the trophy and title went to the Swiss, who held a slight chiplead at that point.
| POS | NAME | COUNTRY | PRIZE |
| 1 | Luca Marki | Switzerland | €1,085,970* |
| 2 | Mauricio Salazar Sanchez | Colombia | 950,000€* |
| 3 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 559,200 |
| 4 | Masashi Oya | Japan | 430,200 |
| 5 | Sergey Lebedev | United Kingdom | 330,900 |
| 6 | Pedro Neves | Portugal | 258,400 |
| 7 | Lander Lijo | Spain | 215,400 |
| 8 | Arsenii Karmatckii | Russia | 179,500 |
| 9 | Felipe Boianovsky | Brazil | 156,100 |
Source - Twitter (X), PSlive, PokerNews, Flickr
