Pieter de Korver Wins EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final

The 2009 installment of the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final wrapped up over the weekend. In the end, Team PokerStars Netherlands Pro Pieter de Korver triumphed over the 935 player field en route to a €2.3 million payday.

De Korver was nearly bumped from the final table when he was down to just three big blinds remaining. However, the old adage “All you need is a chip and a chair” held true and the Netherlands native mounted a comeback of epic proportions to take down the finale of the fifth EPT season. On the final hand, de Korver knocked out Matthew Woodward. After a flop of 5-10-6, all hearts, de Korver checked and Woodward bet out 700,000. De Korver promptly put his opponent all-in and Woodward called, flipping over 6d-4h for middle pair and a baby flush draw. De Korver turned over 6-9 of spades for middle pair with a better kicker. The turn and river came the queen of spades and seven of spades, respectively, handing the 26 year-old the win in the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final.

De Korver was down to his final 400,000 chips when blinds were a healthy 80,000-160,000. However, he tripled his stack holding Q-4 through Woodward and poker pro Dag Martin Mikkelsen and never looked back. Here were the results from the eight-handed final table:

1st Place: Pieter de Korver (Holland) - €2,300,000
2nd Place: Matthew Woodward (United States) - €1,300,000
3rd Place: Mikhail Tulchinskiy (Russia) - €800,000
4th Place: Dag Martin Mikkelsen (Norway) - €600,000
5th Place: Eric Qu (France) - €470,000
6th Place: Alem Shah (Germany) - €350,000
7th Place: Daniel Zink (Germany) - €250,000
8th Place: Peter Traply (Hungary) - €170,000

Mikkelsen was the aggressor early on, bumping Traply from the final table in eighth place after the Hungarian entered play with the chip lead. He also sent Zink packing in seventh place, leading many to believe that Mikkelsen would walk away from Monaco as the EPT Season 5 champ. De Korver then flopped a boat with pocket sixes and stole a massive pot off of the Norwegian, who was ultimately sent packing by Woodward in fourth place. Mikkelsen took 42nd in the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $237,000 in a tournament eventually won by Jerry Yang. Woodward also ousted Tulchinskiy, this time coming out on the winning end of a race with pocket threes against the Russian’s Q-10.

The Monte Carlo Grand Final marked the end of the fifth season of the EPT. The tournament series traversed more than 13,000 miles across two continents. Its Main Event winners over the course of the nine month-long season included Sebastian Ruthenburg (Barcelona), Michael Martin (London), Will Fry (Hungary), Joao Barbosa (Warsaw), Salvatore Bonavena (Prague), Poorya Nazari (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure), Moritz Kranich (Deauville), Jens Kyllönen (Copenhagen), Sandra Naujoks (Dortmund), and Jason Mercier (San Remo). A special £1 Million Showdown held during the EPT festivities in London was also won by Mercier, who defeated a final table that included 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event victor John Juanda, World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup IV winner Michael “SirWatts” Watson, reigning WSOP HORSE Champion Scotty Nguyen, 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure runner up Isaac Haxton, Full Tilt Poker pro David Benyamine, and Isabelle Mercier.

The 2008 installment of the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final attracted a field of 842 entrants. This year, that number grew by 11%. The very first end of season EPT event generated 211 runners in 2005 and was won by Rob Hollink. At the time of writing, no schedule for Season 6 has been posted on the EPT’s website, although the Barcelona tournament has traditionally kicked off the schedule each September.

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Poker glossary:

ROLLED UP - In seven-card stud, being dealt three of a kind in the first three cards.
CRYING CALL - A call made with little chance of ultimately winning, but marginally better than an immediate fold.
COLD CALL - Calling both a bet and raise at the same time, as opposed to calling a bet then later calling a raise made after the call.
BET FOR VALUE - Betting a hand that, in the long run, is expected to win more than it loses. Antonym: BLUFF.
TIGHT - [1] A style of play that entails playing fewer hands than average. Antonym: LOOSE. [2] A FULL HOUSE.
OVERPAIR - In Hold'em, a pair in the hole that is larger than any community card on the board.

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