1. Vadzim Kursevich, Belarus, €875,000
2. Paul Guichard, France, PokerStars qualifier .fr, €557,000
3. Vuong Than Trong, France, €328,000
4. Yorane Kerignard, France, €260,000
5. Bruno Jais, France, PokerStars qualifier .fr, €200,000
6. Olivier Rogez, France €155,000
7. Luca Pagano, Italy, Team PokerStars Pro, €110,000
8. Mick Graydon, Ireland, PokerStars qualifier, €67,200

WCOOP finalist Vadzim Kursevich, from Belarus, has won EPT Deauville and a first prize of €875,000 after defeating an 889-strong field.

Kursevich, who turns 25 on Wednesday, beat young French pro Paul Guichard heads-up to take down the €5,300 event in Normandy, France. Kursevich, who came fifth in last September’s WCOOP Main Event and has been proudly wearing his WCOOP final table jacket throughout the tournament, is the first ever EPT champion from Belarus. His biggest live result before today was third place at EPT Berlin last season for €300,000.

Kursevich, who also wins a bracelet worth more than €10,000 from Shamballa Jewels, said: “I can’t really believe it. It’s like a dream. A lot of times, you finish 28th, fifth, even second – and you think ‘What do I have to do to be the champion’ but when you are, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

PokerStars.fr qualifier Guichard, 19, from Nice, took €557,000 for his runner-up finish. Fellow Frenchman Yorane Kerignard, who came fourth for €260,000, was making his third EPT final table appearance. The 26-year-old from Aix-en-Provence also finished fourth at EPT Copenhagen Season 6 earning DKr 1,050,000 (around €120,000) and sixth at this season’s EPT San Remo for €130,000.

Luca Pagano, who finished seventh for €110,000, broke his own record in Deauville with a 20th EPT Main Event cash and seventh final table appearance. His first EPT final was also here – at the very first EPT Deauville in Season 1.

Nearly 200 players won their seats to the event on PokerStars, including more than 80 who qualified on PokerStars.fr. More than 20 members of Team PokerStars Pro also took part including Jonathan Duhamel, Arnaud Mattern, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Julien Brecard, Vanessa Rousso, Richard Toth, Jude Ainsworth, Dario Minieri, Liv Boeree, Vicky Coren, Eugene Katchalov and Vanessa Selbst.

With 477 players, France had more than 50% of the field in Deauville, and five players at the final table. Bruno Jais, who finished fifth for €200,000, won his seat thanks to a mis-click. The 49-year-old advertising executive was planning to compete in a €10 tournament on PokerStars.fr but accidentally registered for a €500 Deauville satellite instead.

The next stop on the PokerStars European Poker Tour is the 35,000 DKK buy-in EPT Copenhagen event running from February 20-25, 2012 at Casino Copenhagen in the Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel.

Sfez, a regular at Casino Deauville, took €242,000 for first place with Visser snagging €152,000 for his runner-up finish. Visser, 22, who is studying for a masters in entrepreneurship, has had a string of great results on the European Poker Tour. Only last month, he came eighth in the PCA Main Event for $156,400. He also came 14th at the first EPT in Vilamoura, Portugal, and was runner-up in the EPT Grand Final €5k side event in Season 6. He also went deep at the World Series last summer, finishing in 44th place for $196,174 and in December, he won a €1k Main Event in Venlo, Holland for €42,000.

This was by far the biggest cash of Sfez’s poker career – his best live result before today was third place in a €500 side event at the EPT Grand Final in Season 4 for €23,700. He was also runner-up in a €500 side event here in Deauville in Season 1 seven years ago.

LE CLAINCHE WINS EPT DEAUVILLE WOMEN’S EVENT
French player Anne Le Clainche won the EPT Deauville Women’s Event for €7,850. Charlotte Van Brabander from Belgium came seventh and last season’s winner Anais Lerouge from France was fifth.

Anne Le Clainche, France, € 7,850
Agnes Jacques, France, € 4,940
Diana Ardeleanu, France, € 2,920
Thi Thu Nguyen, France, € 2,140
Anais Lerouge, France, € 1,580
Latifa Guennas, France, € 1,120
Charlotte Van Brabander, Belgium, Friend of PokerStars, € 1,010
Cecilia Laroussinie, France, € 904

A total of 78 women competed including Coralie Nauder, Gladys Morville (who won her seat in last night’s satellite), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier’s girlfriend Cathy Hong, Kateryna Panova and Caroline Darcourt. The total prize pool was € 22,464.

MATTHIAS WINS EPT DEAUVILLE €1,500 NL EVENT
Belgian Team PokerStars Pro Matthias de Meulder has scored the biggest live cash of his career by taking down the EPT Deauville €1,500 side event for a €131,000 first prize. De Meulder, 23, from Antwerp, beat French player Michel Kirchner heads-up to win the two-day event.

De Meulder’s victory was the biggest live cash of his career to date. The 23-year-old came tenth at EPT Barcelona at the beginning of Season 8 for €50,000 and 40th at EPT San Remo also won a €350 event It’s already been a great 2012 for Matthias and his twin brother Christophe. Last week Christophe won a €770 side event at the Dom Classics in Utrecht for €30,576.

The €1,500 side event started yesterday with 378 players, creating a €544,320 total prize pool. 40 places were paid. Among the others who cashed were Sam Chartier, Craig McCorkell, EPT Player of the Year Fernando Brito, Jason Wheeler, Victor Lemos, Davidi Kitai and Jan Bendik.

NACHO WINS EPT DEAUVILLE €1K PLO SIDE EVENT
Team PokerStars Pro and two-time LAPT winner Nacho Barbero won the EPT Deauville €1k PLO side event for € 37,500. The victory takes Barbero’s overall live tournament winnings close to €2 million. This was Barbero’s second tournament title in France – and seventh overall. As well as winning LAPT Punta del Este and LAPT Lima in 2010, Barbero – who turns 30 in eight days – also took down the EPT7 London High Roller and the debut PokerStars France Poker Series event in Beaulieu. The Deauville €1k PLO event began on Thursday with 116 players, creating a €113,680 total prize pool. Lebanese player Ibrahim Ghassan was runner-up for €21,600 and German pro Andre Klebanov, who came third at EPT London this season, was third for €12,500. 12 places were paid.

KOJO WINS EPT DEAUVILLE HEADS-UP
PCA $5k NL Turbo winner Kunimaro Kojo has won the EPT Deauville Heads-up tourney for €25,000 after beating Team PokerStars Pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom. It was a small but very high-quality field that started the €3,200 event yesterday. The eight players included Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren (beaten by Kojo in the first round) as well as EPT6 Deauville champion Jake Cody who was beaten by his best friend Matt Perrins, also in Round 1.

The win brings Kojo’s total live tournament winnings to more than $350,000. At last summer’s WSOP, he came 14th (out of 128) in the $25k Heads-Up Championship for $67,436 – the event that won Jake Cody his WSOP bracelet. Kojo was 14th again in the $25k PCA High Roller event last month for $ 65,270 and last October he was runner-up in the EPT London £2k NL Turbo side event for £22,000.

The European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event has reached the final table after the 889 players who started the week with high hopes of winning one of tournament poker’s highest accolades were whittled down to just eight. Leading the way going into Monday afternoon’s final table is Paul Guichard who will start the day armed with 5,955,000 chips.

Guichard is a relative unknown in the live tournament arena with five cash in major tournaments to speak of, these cashes combined only add up to $23,680 but he is guaranteed to become a more recognisable name and face after his performance in Deauville. His life tournament earnings are also set to swell too as he is now guaranteed no less than €67,200 for his efforts in France but he is only seven eliminations away from walking away with a life-changing €875,000!

Hot on Guichard’s heels is Vadim Kursevich of Belarus with 5,670,000 chips. Kursevich has a little more live experience than the chip leader with just shy of $600,000 in winnings, the bulk of which he won when he finished third in the ET Berlin Main Event back in April 2011. That day he lost out to an extremely talented pair of players in Max Heinzlemann (runner-up) and Ben Wilnofsky (eventual winner) otherwise he could have walked away as an EPT Champion. Can he go one or even two better in Deauville?

By far the most experienced live tournament player in the final eight is the Italian Luca Pagano. The Team PokerStars Pro holds the record for cashes on the European Poker Tour with 20 to his name and this is his seventh final table though he has never actually taken down a Main Event, with his best finish being a fourth place finish at the 2009 EPT Warsaw Main Event/. He sits down this afternoon with 2,010,000 chips in his stack and with blinds being 30,000/60,000/5,000a he still has enough room to manoeuvre and go after that elusive first EPT title.

The shortest stack at the table is Ireland’s Mick Graydon but he is also probably the most experienced poker player of the final eight, not because of his age, because he is only 26 years old, but because of his online prowess. Graydon became Ireland’s first-ever SuperNova Elite on PokerStars (the highest VIP tier) and has over $1,000,000 on PokerStars alone. He reached SuperNova Elite playing mainly nine-handed sit ‘n’ go tournaments so this final table should be a walk in the park for him. He only has around 16 big blinds in his stack but he knows better than anyone that one double up will completely alter the dynamics of this table.

Play resumes at 1200CET and will continue until a champion is crowned. Who will it be? Tune in tomorrow to find that out!

EPT Deauville Main Event Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Bruno Jais: 3,450,000
Seat 2: Mick Graydon: 960,000
Seat 3: Olivier Rogez: 4,415,000
Seat 4: Vong Than Trong: 2,570,000
Seat 5: Vadzim Kursevich: 5,670,000
Seat 6: Paul Guichard: 5,955,000
Seat 7: Luca Pagano: 2,010,000
Seat 8: Yorane Kerignard: 1,680,000

A total of 889 players from 51 countries competed in this season’s €5,300 EPT Deauville creating a total prize pool of €4,267,200. This is just two short of last year’s 891 total. 128 places are being paid; first prize is €875,000.
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EPT Deauville is running from January 31 to February 6 at Casino Barriere. In addition to title and cash prize, the EPT Deauville champion will receive a bracelet from Shamballa Jewels worth more than €10,000, plus Gamble hoodie, shirt and sweater from JAQK, the first clothing brand inspired by poker players. All the other seven finalists will also receive JAQK apparel.

Click on image to zoom

The €5,300 EPT Deauville Main Event is taking place January 31 to February 6 at at Casino Barriere. In addition to title and cash prize, the EPT Deauville champion will receive a bracelet from Shamballa Jewels worth more than €10,000, plus gorgeous Gamble hoodie, shirt and sweater from JAQK, the first clothing brand inspired by poker players. All the other seven finalists will also receive JAQK apparel.

Bilokur, 37, beat Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel heads-up to take down the 2012 PCA High Roller title, coveted trophy and stunning €10,000 bracelet from Official High Roller Bracelet Sponsor Shamballa Jewels. A total of 141 players entered the event – with seven re-entries – creating a total prize pool of $3,626,000.

Bilokur’s previous biggest cash before today was winning a €2,000 side event for €174,000 at EPT Berlin in Season 6. Here in the PCA High Roller, he was up against some of the best players in the world – and a quality final table that included online tournament specialist Jason Koon, high roller Isaac Haxton, PokerStars Team Online’s Randy Lew and veteran pro Govert Metaal.

Although Bilokur took the title, it was Duhamel who stole the show at this year’s PCA, earning himself more than $1.2 million in the process. The 2010 World Champion was in superb form from the get-go, finishing fourth for $313,600 in the three-day $100,000 Super High Roller event (the first event of the festival), fifth in a $5,000 NL Turbo event for $17,990, first in the $5,000 NL 8-Max event for $239,830 and now a runner-up finish in the High Roller for an additional $634,550.

This year’s PCA has featured more than 40 events and attracted thousands of poker players from all over the world. As well as the $25,000 High Roller event, the last day of this year’s ten-day PCA festival featured numerous events including the final of the PokerStars World Cup of Poker VIII (won by Peru), the $5,000 Heads-Up Championships (won by Scott Seiver) and £1,000 Ladies Event (won by Kathy Saraf). Shawn Buchanan topped a record-breaking 87-strong field to win the $10,000 High Roller Turbo.

1 Leonid Bilokur Ukraine $1,134,930
2 Jonathan Duhamel Canada Team PokerStars Pro $634,550
3 Isaac Haxton USA $380,730
4 Jason Koon USA $271,950
5 Nicolas Fierro Chile $217,560
6 Govert Metaal Netherlands $181,300
7 Michael Telker USA $145,040
8 Randy Lew USA PokerStars Team Online $108,780

The next PokerStars live event is European Poker Tour Deauville in northern France from January 31 – February 6, 2011.

Dibella bested a 1,072-strong field to win the 2012 PCA Champion’s title and coveted trophy. He faced tough competition in the final including his heads-up opponent, internet pro Kyle Julius, as well as Faraz Jaka, Xuan Liu, 2009 PCA runner-up Tony Gregg and Dutch pro Ruben Visser.

Dibella, who hails from Westchester, New York, said he was totally overwhelmed by his win, calling it “surreal”. He said: “I make more money at poker than as a day trader but I’m not going to call myself a professional just yet. I’m a recreational player, but maybe I’ll take it a bit more seriously from now on. It’s definitely much safer than my day job!”

Xuan Liu, 25, from Toronto, who finished fourth for $600,000, was the first woman to ever reach a PCA Main Event final. She first came to fame last April when she finished third at EPT San Remo for €360,000.

This year’s PCA field included 481 players who won their seats online with PokerStars. Canadian student Mark Drover made it the furthest. He won his seat via PokerStars’ Steps satellites and finished fifth for $468,000. Brewery sales manager David Bernstein, 30, from Toronto won his seat to the PCA for nothing at all after entering a free draw run by UKASH – and finished seventh for $260,000. Canadian Warren Strong, 49, from Port Perry, also free-rolled into the PCA Main Event after winning the Class of 2004 promotion, part of PokerStars’ 10th Anniversary celebrations. He finished 29th for $46,000.

This year’s $10,000 Main Event attracted a total of 1,072 players, creating a $10,398,400 prize pool. Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein fared the best out of the Team PokerStars Pros, finishing 25th for $46,000. Other Pros who cashed included Luca Pagano (30th, $46,000), Jan Heitmann (38th, $41,000), Arnaud Mattern (58th, $32,500) plus Leo Fernandez, Christian De Leon, Joao Nunes, Noah Boeken, Liv Boeree, Juan Manuel Pastor and four members of Team PokerStars Online: Javier Dominguez Gomez, Randy Lew, Anders Berg and Shane Schleger.

PokerStars-sponsored Spanish golf star Sergio Garcia was taking part at his second PCA and cashed in 51st place for $35,000.

Team PokerStars Pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom won his first major live title when he took down the $100,000 Super High Roller at the start of the festival for $1,254,400. His fellow team-mates Jonathan Duhamel and Daniel Negreanu finished fourth and fifth.

Other events this week included the $5k PokerStars PLO Championship, won by Canadian Adam Coviensky. American Mike Gorodinsky took down the PokerStars 8 Game Championships for the second time. He also won the event in 2010, and was runner-up last year. Team PokerStars Pro Joe Cada won the $2k NL event while PokerStars Team Online’s Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome won the $1k Omaha 8 / Stud 8 event and PokerStars Greek Challenger Georgios Kapalas won the the $1k NL 6-Max.

Main Event final table/payouts:
1 John Dibella USA $1,775,000
2 Kyle Julius USAs $1,500,000
3 Faraz Jaka USA $755,000
4 Xuan Liu Canada $600,000
5 Mark Drover Canada PokerStars qualifier $468,000
6 Tony Gregg USA $364,000
7 David Bernstein Canada $260,000
8 Ruben Visser Netherlands $156,400

The next PokerStars live event is European Poker Tour Deauville in northern France from January 31 – February 5, 2011.

Name Country Status Chips
Faraz Jaka USA 6,470,000
Kyle Julius USA 6,450,000
Xuan Liu Canada 6,355,000
Ruben Visser Netherlands 4,400,000
John Dibella USA 3,465,000
David Bernstein Canada 1,960,000
Mark Drover Canada 1,430,000
Anthony Gregg USA 1,160,000

A total of 1,072 players entered this year’s PCA, creating a total prize pool of $10,398,400. 160 places are being paid with $2,000,000 for first

Among the 24 players left in the field are Anthony Gregg, who was PCA runner-up in 2009, Byron Kaverman (who won the $5k NL side event at last year’s PCA), EPT Qualifier of the Year Martin Jacobson (runner-up at two EPTs last season) and Xuan Liu, who was third at EPT San Remo last season, Dutch pro Ruben Visser and PokerStars-sponsored Australian Danny Chevalier, the reigning PokerStars Australia New Zealand Player of the Year. Everyone left is guaranteed at least $52,00 and chasing a $2 million first prize.

Name Country Status Chips
Faraz Jaka, USA, 4,114,000
Alex Fitzgerald, USA, 2,709,000
Phil D’Auteuil, Canada, 2,280,000
Anthony Gregg, USA, 2,142,000
Byron Kaverman, USA, 2,136,000
Sam Greenwood, Canada, 2,109,000
Kyle Julius, Canada, 1,818,000
Lee Goldman, USA, 1,760,000
Martin Jacobson, Sweden, 1,627,000
Maksim Semisoshenko, Russia, 1,446,000
John Dibella, USA, 1,406,000
Mark Drover, Canada, 1,383,000
Daniel Schmieding, USA, 1,309,000
David Bernstein, Canada, 1,160,000
Xuan Liu, Canada, 1,082,000
David Granados, Mexico, 980,000
Daniel Shiff, USA, 834,000
Alex Venovski, UK, 592,000
Corey Burbick, USA, 551,000
Ruben Visser, Netherlands, 461,000
David Peters, USA, 424,000
Charles Furey, USA, 379,000
Danny Chevalier, Australia, 302,000
Nikolaos Alafogiannis, Canada, 221,000

Among the 64 players left in the field are Team PokerStars Pros Luca Pagano, Jan Heitmann, Barry Greenstein and Arnaud Mattern. Everyone left is guaranteed at least $32,500.

A total of 1,072 players entered this year’s PCA, creating a total prize pool of $10,398,400. 160 places are being paid with $2,000,000 for first.