EPT Monte Carlo: Sam Greenwood Bags 3rd High Roller Title in 1 Month; Juan Pardo, Guillaume Diaz & Dmitry Shchepkin Win Titles

The 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT began on Tuesday, April 24 and will run through May 4 at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, Monaco.

The series has crowned four worthy champions already and the most noteworthy and impressive among them is none other than Canada’s Sam Greenwood, who is on one of the best winning streaks we have witnessed in recent times. Greenwood had already shipped two high roller titles this month and he has now bagged the €100K Super High Roller title as well! Greenwood won the WPT Amsterdam High Roller last week and the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final €51,000 Super High Roller earlier this month.

This time, Greenwood outlasted a more than stacked final table to walk away with €1,520,000 – his biggest score till date. With this score, Greenwood’s career earnings surpassed the $10 million milestone.

Other winners at the series include Spain’s Juan Pardo, who took down the €10K opening event for €201,500, Guillaume Diaz, who won the €1,100 EPT National for €250,000 and Russia`s Dmitry Shchepkin, who shipped the €2,200 EPT National High Roller for €173,000.

€100K Super High Roller

The event drew 30 super high rollers and the eventual champion Sam Greenwood defeated Germany’s Christoph Vogelsang, who received €1.04 Million for his runner-up finish.

“When you win, all the mistakes you made along the way don’t really matter. When you lose, you can kind of stew over them and second-guess yourself. No regrets, I can sleep easy tonight.” Greenwood stated after the event. “I probably would have thought that I won the [WSOP] Main Event. I can’t complain, everything’s great, but winning the Main Event would have been better.” he added.

Final Table Recap

Notably, Vogelsang led the final six survivors going into Day 3 and had a massive chip lead.

The first elimination of the day came quickly in USA’s Isaac Haxton. The hand saw Haxton shoving on the turn with an open-ended straight draw and Vogelsang called with pocket jacks and eliminated Haxton when the river bricked out.

The next elimination took several hours coming as players were mostly playing small ball poker with USA’s Justin Bonomo bowing out in fifth place.

Germany’s Ole Schemion went out in fourth place when he shoved with seven-six suited and Greenwood made the easy call with pocket queens.

After recreational player and businessman Ali Reza Fatehi hit the rail in third place, the heads-up match between Greenwood and Germany’s Christoph Vogelsang got underway.

Greenwood started behind Vogelsand but thanks to two big hands, the former got things in control and the end came quickly thereafter when Greenwood’s king-jack bested the ace-five suited of Vogelsang.

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Sam Greenwood – €1,520,000

2. Christoph Vogelsang – €1,046,000

3. Ali Reza Fatehi – €669,920

4. Ole Schemion – €513,000

5. Justin Bonomo – €401,000

6. Isaac Haxton – €313,000

€10K Opening Event

Spain`s Juan Pardo emerged victorious in the €10K opening event after besting the 71-entry field for €201,500, following three days of grueling poker action.

What deserved plenty of notice is Pardo’s journey and how he accomplished a lot in almost no time. With less than $3,000 in tournament cashes till last month, this 24-year-old Spaniard has changed in fortunes around and is nearing $1 Million with scores of €150,000 and €450,000 for a fifth- and a second-place finish in €25K events.

“It is a dream come true,” Pardo said after the event. “I feel tremendously happy and proud to have achieved this victory. I had to face good players like Timothy Adams, Stephen Chidwick or Rainer Kempe, but fortunately today things went perfectly. My arrival could not be better. I came to stay.”

Final Table Recap

Pardo started the day with a relatively short stack and the first three to walk out were Vladimir Troyanovskiy (9^th place), Stephen Chidwick (8^th place) and Orpen Kisacikoglu (7^th place).

Timothy Adams busted Rainer Kempe in fifth place with ace-king over the latter`s ace-jack.

UK’s Paul Newey hit the rail next and following suit was USA’s Ryan Riess in third place. And that set the pace for the short-lived heads-up match with Pardo starting off with a sizable lead over Canada’s Timothy Adams.

In the final hand, Adams shoved about 12 big blinds with king-nine, and Pardo woke up with ace-king to end things.

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Juan Pardo – €201,500

2. Timothy Adams – €145,000

3. Ryan Riess – €94,000

4. Paul Newey – €71,000

5. Rainer Kempe – €55,000

6. Orpen Kisacikoglu – €42,700

7. Stephen Chidwick – €33,500

8. Vladimir Troyanovskiy – €26,000

€1,100 EPT National

With a boisterous French rail by his side, 26-year old Guillaume Diaz took down the €1,100 EPT National event after conquering a 1,501-player field and pocketed the €250,000 first-place prize. Diaz also picked up the Platinum Pass worth $30,000 for defeating Italy’s Federico Petruzzelli heads-up after winning what turned out to be a very crucial coin flip.

“I feel pretty excited, pretty happy. It’s always great to win a tournament. It’s my biggest cash in poker so far,” an elated Diaz told media. On his assured trip to Bahamas, he said, “I was planning to go play there anyway but I’m pretty happy to have this kind of freeroll, have it in the pocket and be relaxed for the rest of the year.”

The final day of the event saw the 24 survivors return but action got underway fast and furious, and soon the final table was set after the elimination of Gaelle Baumann.

Final Table Action

It took over an hour for the first exit in Sorin Sufragiu who shoved his short stack with and Petruzzelli called with jack-nine offsuit and hit a straight on the turn to eliminate the former.

Just 10 minutes later, Giuseppe La Guardia fell as well. La Guardia opened, Petruzzelli three-bet and. La Guardia four-bet shoved queen-jack offsuit only to get snap-called by the of Petruzzelli. Two kings on the flop sealed La Guardia’s fate.

Team PokerStars Pro Randy “nanonoko” Lew, was the next finalist to be axed from the final table. Lew’s were up against Mrakes’ pocket jacks and Danilo Cangianiello’s pocket tens. A ten on the board sent Lew to the rail, while Cangianiello got a triple-up and Mrakes, the side pot.

Mrakes took out Abraham Passet after the latter shoved with pocket eights and former called with ace-king. Mrakes spiked a king to eliminate Passet.

Mrakes was eyeing to take it down with his lead but soon got down to a short stack and got his final chips in with ace-queen against Petruzzelli’s ace-nine offsuit. Petruzzelli hit a straight and Mrakes was out in fifth place.

Then came one of the most significant hand of the day which ended Danilo Cangianiello’s run. Cangianiello was all in with pocket king’s against Diaz’ ace-king. The rundown brought four fives on the board and Diaz won with his ace kicker to scoop the pot.

Short-stack Abdullatif Attia then ran his king-deuce into the pocket sixes of Petruzzelli and the latter hit a set to eliminate Attia, setting the heads-up play in motion against Diaz.

In the final hand of the event, Diaz five-bet shoved with pocket nines against Petruzzelli’s ace-queen. A ten high board declared Diaz the champion!

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Guillaume Diaz – €250,000

2. Federico Petruzzelli – €143,000

3. Abdullatif Attia – €100,000

4. Danilo Cangianiello – €74,120

5. Michal Mrakes – €57,840

6. Abraham Passet – €44,000

7. Randy Lew – €33,740

8. Giuseppe La Guardia – €24,620

9. Sorin Sufragiu – €18,910

€2,200 EPT National High Roller

The two-day €2,200 EPT National High Roller saw a total of 462 entries, with the total prize pool amounting €924,000. Outlasting them all was Russia`s Dmitry Shchepkin who went home richer €173,000. Italian high stakes pro Dario Sammartino missed the title by an inch – losing to a brutal two-outer heads-up and collected €109,000 as consolation.

Final Table Recap

Hongling Jiang started with 15 big blinds and soon got it in with queen-ten against Christopher Chaudey, who held king-ten. Chaudey rivered a straight to eliminate Jiang in ninth place.

Alexandre Reard, who had finished 16^th in the 2017 WSOP Main Event, was down to around six big blinds and exited next in eighth place.

Isabel Baltazar was the next casualty followed by Christopher Chaudey (6th place), Raffaele Carnevale (5th place) and Smain Mamouni in (4^th place) that paved way for the grueling three-handed session.

Karim Abdelmoumene exited after almost two hours of play as he lost a coin flip with queen-jack to Shchepkin’s pocket fours.

And with that the heads-up match between Shchepkin and Sammartino got underway with the latter starting in the lead. Shchepkin gained momentum and took over the lead and then the brutal final hand arrived. Sammartino jammed with ace-deuce on a six-deuce-deuce flop against Shchepkin’s pocket fours. The turn brought the four and just like that, the swingy heads-up match came to an end with the Russian winning the title.

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Dmitry Shchepkin – €173,000

2. Dario Sammartino – €109,000

3. Karim Abdelmoumene – €78,000

4. Smain Mamouni – €62,000

5. Raffaele Carnevale – €48,500

6. Christopher Chaudey – €38,000

7. Isabel Baltazar – €28,580

8. Alexandre Reard – €20,000

9. Honglin Jiang – €15,500

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