Norwegian Kevin “KevBoyStar” Stani has won €400,000 after besting a field of 420 players at the €4,250 PokerStars.com EPT Tallinn, the biggest poker tournament ever held in Estonia.
As part of his prize, Stani also wins a seat to the Season 7 EPT Grand Final in Spring 2011 and gets a great 800 point head-start in the race to be EPT Season 7 Player of the Year.
Business management graduate Stani, 27, has been playing poker for seven years and has enjoyed a string of good results, both live and online. He came sixth in the $10,000 High Roller WCOOP last year for $134,000 and beat 1,204 players to win the PokerStars Sunday 500 in February 2009 for $108,000. His best live result was 127th in this year’s WSOP for $57,000. Stani was one of the last players to qualify for EPT Tallinn, winning his seat in a $530 qualifier on PokerStars only four days before the event began.
He said: “I was playing cash games online and just randomly saw the satellite advertised in the PokerStars lobby. I wanted to come here anyway so I thought I’d play it. It feels awesome to win. I’ve been through some tough times which have made it hard to focus.. made it hard to play.. but I stayed with poker and told myself things are going to get better. I’m glad I did.“ Stani, one of 120 players who qualified on PokerStars, is only the third Norwegian to win an EPT after Andreas Hoivold and Bjorn-Erik Glenne took down Copenhagen and Barcelona respectively in Season 3.
The EPT Tallinn runner-up was Moscow student Konstantin Bilyauer, 22, who was playing only his second major live tournament. He busted Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Ivan Demidov on his way to a €250,000 payday.
There was disappointment for French Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern however who narrowly missed his chance to make history and become the first ever double EPT champion. Mattern, who won EPT Prague in Season 4 and came fifth at EPT Warsaw in Season 5, came third here in Tallinn for €160,000.
PokerStars qualiifer Dmitry Vitkind from Moscow, Russia, who won his seat in a $22 rebuy satellite on PokerStars, walked away with €120,000 after finishing fourth.
Entrants from 40 countries competed in the Main Event creating a total prize pool of €1,596,000.
Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano achieved a record-breaking 15th cash in the EPT Tallinn Main Event. He bust in 26th place for € 8,000. Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov from Russia came 22nd for €10,000. Friend of PokerStars and EPT6 Qualifier of the Year Pierre Neuville from Belgium, who won six satellites for EPT Tallinn, came 41st for €6,700. New Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, attending her first ever EPT, came joint third in the €3,200 Heads-Up Tourney for €11,400. The event was won by American Kevin Eyster for €41,000.
