Canadian Wins €2 Million at EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo

21st April 2008

Glen Chorny, a 22-year-old business student from Ontario, Canada, won the biggest poker tournament ever held in Europe when he took down the €10,000 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final for a first prize of over €2 million ($3 million).

After only two hands against Hungarian Denes Kalo, Chorny – who won his seat online with PokerStars - took the EPT Champion title with A5 against KQ when his Ace paired on the flop. For 31-year-old stockbroker Kalo, who won €1,179,000, it was the second time this season that he has been an EPT runner-up: he came 2nd at EPT Baden last October.

Chorny’s triumph came only three months after he took 13th place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $80k. He said: “It was tough out there, like a hard day at the office. Only the rewards are a lot better.”

The EPT Grand Final attracted a record field of 842 players creating a total prize pool of over €8.4 million ($12m): the richest prize pool in the world for a poker tournament this year.

Canadian Max Villemure, 19, from Montreal, finished 3rd. Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron - Cardplayer’s Online Player of the Year in 2007 - came 4th. Italian Luca Pagano, a Team PokerStars Pro, registered a record ninth EPT cash after finishing 6th.

Among the other star names in Monte Carlo this week were Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari (who came 8th for €168k), Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Freddy Deeb, Roland de Wolfe and Gus Hansen as well as almost all the Team PokerStars Pros including Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem (11th for €101,000), Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso and Lee Nelson.

Season 4 has taken in 11 amazing destinations including new events in Prague in the Czech Republic (555 players) and San Remo in Italy (701 players). The season has seen both player numbers and prize pools soar, and also the number of nationalities taking part – 48 in Monte Carlo, more than 70 during the season as a whole.

EPTLive.com – providing a live webcast of the action on the final two days – also saw record audience numbers.

The total prize money for season 4 of the EPT was over €38m, double the total for Season 3.