A record-breaking 935 players made the trek to Monaco for the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final, which began last week. Now, the field has been trimmed to just 14, with Hungarian poker player Peter Traply leading the pack.
The Monte Carlo Grand Final in the luxurious city marks the conclusion of the fifth EPT season. Last year in this event, Traply finished in 26th place and banked €42,000 from the €10,000 buy-in tournament. At the time of writing, the Hungarian sits with a commanding chip lead over the rest of the field. In fact, he is the only player with over four million chips. The next closest combatant, Russian poker player Mikhail Tulchinskiy, has 3.2 million.
Holding the fifth largest stack in the EPT finale with 14 players to go is Dag Martin Mikkelsen, who hails from Norway. He made a deep run in the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas, banking $237,000 for his efforts. Mikkelsen finished fourth in the EPT’s Barcelona stop during Season 4 for $27,000. Also in the hunt and representing Norway is Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, the winner of the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event. In that tournament, she won $2 million and became the youngest bracelet winner ever. During the EPT Dublin stop during Season 4, Obrestad finished as the runner up, banking another $416,000 for her efforts. Obrestad will turn 21 years old in September and consequently will not be able to compete in the 2009 WSOP festivities, which kick off on May 27th from the Rio.
Here are the chip counts as they stand with 14 players remaining, according to numbers reported by PokerStars. Blinds are 30,000-60,000 with an ante of 5,000:
1. Peter Traply (Hungary) – 4,175,000
2. Mikhail Tulchinskiy (Russia) – 3,245,000
3. Marc Naalden (Holland) – 2,980,000
4. Daniel Zink (Germany) – 2,225,000
5. Dag Martin Mikkelsen (Norway) – 2,210,000
6. Matthew Woodward (United States) – 2,195,000
7. Christopher Rossiter (United Kingdom) – 1,850,000
8. Pieter De Korver (Holland) – 1,835,000
9. Eric Qu (France) – 1,720,000
10. Alem Shah (Germany) – 1,650,000
11. Annette Obrestad (Norway) – 1,625,000
12. Steven Silverman (United States) – 1,320,000
13. Grayson Physioc (United States) – 1,125,000
14. Johannes Strassmann (Germany) – 520,000
Naalden has four WSOP cashes to his name for over $100,000 in total and took third in the Season 2 EPT Copenhagen event for $116,000. Woodward finished 95th in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, which was ultimately won by Jamie Gold. Rossiter grabbed 20th in the EPT German Open in 2008 for $25,000. Strassmann, who sits as the tournament’s short stack, has made three EPT final table appearances, recording two sixth place finishes during Season 4 events in San Remo and Dortmound for a combined payday of $300,000.
A total of 88 players finished in the money. Among those who took home cash from the prestigious EPT tournament were:
19th Place: Jason “Taknapotin” Somerville (United States) – $67,000
31st Place: “Miami” John Cernuto (United States) – $58,500
33rd Place: Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) – $52,000
38th Place: Alexander Kravchenko (Russia) – $52,000
41st Place: Steve Sung (United States) – $45,500
43rd Place: Joe “ender555” Ebanks (United States) – $45,500
53rd Place: Luca Pagano (Italy) – $40,300
58th Place: Garrett “GBecks” Beckman (United States) – $36,400
64th Place: Samuel Chartier (France) – $36,400
69th Place: Phil Laak (United States) – $32,500
76th Place: Andreas Hoivold (Norway) – $28,600
The tournament will crown a winner on Sunday. Last year’s champion, Glen Chorny, barreled through a field of 842 players en route to a $3.1 million payday. Heads-up, Chorny defeated Hungarian poker player Denes Kalo, with American Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron taking fourth for $901,000. Also at the final table were Antonio Esfandiari and Luca Pagano. First place this year will take home €2.3 million, also the equivalent of $3.1 million at current exchange rates.
