Two French pros will lead the chase for a €961,800 first-place prize, each holding more chips than the four other players combined, when the final six of the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event goes off, live on delay in Monaco, at 2 p.m. today.
WPT Amneville and APT Macau champion Adrien Allain (11,815,000), and former PokerStars Supernova and cash game specialist Jimmy Guerrero (11,480,000), stand above a pack of four players all hovering around the two-million chip mark that includes Slovakian and EPT9 Player of the Year Jan Bendik, Toulouse Business School student turned poker pro Pierre Calamusa, €10 Spin & Go qualifier and the first ever EPT Main Event finalist from Kazakhstan Asan Umarov, and Israeli Oren Rosen, a SCOOP and Sunday Warm-Up title holder who won the $600 Turbo Event at 2016 PCA.
Each of these players will be guaranteed at least €170,950 in sixth-place prize money when play begins nearing the end of Level 30 with blinds at 50,000/100,000 with a 10,000 ante. However, there are some massive pay jumps leading up to the almost-seven-figure first-place prize.
EPTLive will feature a live stream with hole cards up, and PokerNews will follow along with the stream providing hand-for-hand coverage, from the call to shuffle up and deal, until a brand new EPT Grand Final champion is crowned.
It should be a day boiling over with hot poker action, so take cover, the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event final table is about to explode.
Hand #14: Oren Rosen jammed the button with the and picked up the blinds and antes.
Hand #15: Oren Rosen woke up with the in the cutoff and pushed in again. Jan Bendik had the on the button and reshoved. The rest folded and after a run out, Oren Rosen hit the rail sixth.
Hand #50: Action folded to small blind Pierre Calamusa and he announced all in for 3,335,000 with .
Big blind Adrien Allain snap called with to make a pot of 6,795,000.
Both got up from the table to witness the outcome of the hand. The flop came , leaving Calamusa drawing slim.
The on the turn brought some chop outs as Calamusa could now hit a queen to stay alive.
The on the river didn't do it and Calamusa made his exit in 5th place, netting him €233,800. The remaining 4 players are guaranteed €305,660 from here on out.
Hand #53: Jan Bendik made it 325,000 with the , Asan Umarov shoved the and Jimmy Guerrero jammed the for way more. Bendik folded and the hands were turned over.
The board ran out and the €10 Spin & Go qualifier's run came to an end in fourth.
Hand #69: Jimmy Guerrero woke up with the in the small blind and raised it to 425,000. Adrien Allain picked up the in the big blind, re-raising to 1,150,000. Guererro shoved and Allain called immediately.
The flop put Guererro behind, the turn didn't help and the sent Guerrero to the rail third.
Allain will now enter heads up with Jan Bendik holding a 2:1 lead, but not before they take a 20-minute break.
Hand #206: Adrien Allain raised to 525,000 with the and Jan Bendik three-bet to 1,650,000 with the . Allain called.
The flop gave Allain a set. Bendik bet 1,600,000 and Allain flat called. The turn gave Bendik a bigger set and this time he checked. Allain bet 1.5 million. Bendik bumped it to 4,250,000 and Allain flat called again.
The river was a brick, Bendik shoved, and Allain called, handing Bendik his first EPT title.
Jan Bendik won the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €5,300 Main Event for a staggering €961,800, beating a field of 1,098 players.
EPT Season 12 was called the season of the "reg," with all the titles going to already well-established and experienced players. Bendik fit right in with that bunch, with years on the tour, two earlier appearances at EPT final tables, and the title of EPT Player of the Year back in Season 9.
On the penultimate day, the final table of eight players was reached, but play continued till the tournament was down to its final six. The two most established names of the final eight made their exit before the day was done, with Italian super high roller Dario Sammartino hitting the rail in eighth and former November Niner Antoine Saout departing in seventh.
The final six started out with a big discrepancy in chip counts. You had the haves, with Adrien Allain and Jimmy Guerrero with over 110 big blinds, and the have nots, with around 25 big blinds each.
Oren Rosen was the first to go. He had flown friends and family over from Israel to witness him playing the biggest final table of his career, but unfortunately, he had to settle for sixth place when he ran ace-jack into Jan Bendik's ace-king.
It took some time for the next player to go, but then they exited in pretty rapid fashion. Pierre Calamusa first hit a pure two-outer with kings all in on the turn against Jan Bendik's flopped trips. The miracle king on the river saved him then, but in the end he would part ways with his stack anyway. He got down to a push-or-fold amount and got it in with ace-four against ace-jack. A jack on the flop ended it all for the rising French star.
Calamusa's bust out was after a hand that could have changed the entire dynamic of the final table, when the two chip leaders clashed in a huge pot. Allain four-bet nine-six suited against Guerrero, and the latter made the call out of position with ace-queen. By the time the river was out there, both players hadn't improved, but Allain had all of his chips in the middle anyway. Guerrero was very close to calling the all-in bet with nothing but ace-high, but decided against it, and Allain got away with what must have been the biggest bluff of his career.
Allain was in the driver seat after that, though Guerrero was still firmly in second place.
Asan Umarov, the Kazakhstani player, who had qualified for this event via a €10 Spin & Go, showcased some craftsmanship today. While he was in for a bargain and was playing on by far the biggest stage of his poker career, he at no point showed to be impressed by the setting, other players, or the money involved. His solid play laddered him up to fourth place, shoving correct hands, and laying down others, but in the end he was short and shoved ace-nine into kings. A board full of blanks later saw Umarov hit the rail, collecting €305,660. Not bad of a return on a €10 investment. In the short interview that followed, he assured the audience he would return to the EPT, but first it was time to celebrate with his family and friends back in Kazakhstan.
Down to three-handed play, Bendik gained traction. More and more started to work for him, he won some sizable pots, and was in second place when his two opponents got it in against each other. Guerrero was looking to get back that second-place position when he pushed the action with pocket deuces. Allain wasn't going to throw away his ace-jack and called to put his countryman at risk. An ace and jack on the flop resulted in the one-time overwhelming chip leader departing in third place.
It was the Frenchman, Allain, with roughly 22 million heads up against the Slovakian, Bendik, with roughly 11 million. The two played for quite some time when the internet broke down in the entire building and the live stream went out. The issues were resolved when the two returned from dinner break, and the heads-up match continued.
The two played mano-a-mano for a bit longer, and Allain was in the lead for most of it before Bendik doubled and the two were back to even. Eventually, it was an enormous cooler that was needed to end it all.
Allain flopped a set of eights in a three-bet pot, but the turn gave Bendik a higher set of tens. It got all in on the river and Allain could only stand there in disbelief when he saw his opponent turn over the higher set. Just like that, it all ended.
Bendik was the new EPT Grand Final champion, taking home the first-place prize of €961,800.
Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Jan Bendik
Slovakia
€961,800
2
Adrien Allain
France
€577,800
3
Jimmy Guerrero
France
€406,850
4
Asan Umarov
Kazachstan
€305,660
5
Pierre Calamusa
France
€233,800
6
Oren Rosen
Israel
€170,950
7
Antoine Saout
France
€128,340
8
Dario Sammartino
Italy
€91,860
The season started with John Juanda winning EPT Barcelona, followed by Niall Farrell (Malta), Hossein Ensan (Prague), Mike Watson (PCA), and Dzmitry Urbanovich (Dublin) winning titles in an incredible season.
European Poker Tour Season 12 Winners
Year
Month
Stop
Champion
Players
Prize
2015
August
Barcelona
John Juanda
1,694
€1,022,593
2015
October
Malta
Niall Farrell
651
€534,330
2015
December
Prague
Hossein Ensan
1,044
€754,510
2016
January
PCA
Mike Watson
928
$728,325
2016
February
Dublin
Dzmitry Urbanovich
605
€561,900
2016
May
Grand Final
Jan Bendik
1,098
€961,800
The European Poker Tour will return to Barcelona for Season 13 August 16-28, and you can expect PokerNews to be there, so stay tuned.