Shchepkin Wins PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT National High Roller
Dmitry Shchepkin has become the latest winner of EPT silverware, winning the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino €2,200 EPT National High Roller for a sweet payday of €173,000. With the first place prize, the Russian more than tripled his all-time best score. Italian high stakes player Dario Sammartino finished in second place after losing to a brutal two-outer heads-up and received €109,000.
The two-day event saw 358 players do a total of 462 entries, creating a total prize pool of €924,000 with 71 of them receiving a money finish. Notables that cashed included Lily Kiletto, Leo Margets, Jan Bendik and Rainer Kempe. The second day started with 55 hopefuls, with Shchepkin declared the winner after a twelve-hour day.
€2,200 EPT National High Roller Final Result
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | Prize in $* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dmitry Shchepkin | Russia | €173,000 | $209,823 |
| 2 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | €109,000 | $132,200 |
| 3 | Karim Abdelmoumene | France | €78,000 | $94,602 |
| 4 | Smain Mamouni | France | €62,000 | $75,196 |
| 5 | Raffaele Carnevale | Italy | €48,500 | $58,823 |
| 6 | Christopher Chaudey | France | €38,000 | $46,088 |
| 7 | Isabel Baltazar | France | €28,580 | $34,662 |
| 8 | Alexandre Reard | France | €20,000 | $24,256 |
| 9 | Honglin Jiang | New Zealand | €15,500 | $18,799 |
* Prize in $ via XE.com
Hongling Jiang (9th - €15,500) started the final table with 15 big blinds and got those in after fifteen minutes of play. Jiang was up with queen-ten against Christopher Chaudey's king-ten. Jiang flopped a queen but Chaudey rivered a straight to send the man from New Zealand packing.
Alexandre Reard (8th - €20,000) was down to around six big blinds when he got a first-in spot on the button. With ace-six, he went for it and got a chance to triple up after Raffaele Carnevale called in the small blind, who folded to a push from Isabel Baltazar in the big blind. Baltazar held pocket queens and remained ahead after the board ran out jack-high. Reard, 16th in last year's WSOP Main Event, added another nice score to his lifetime winnings of over $1.6 million.
Although she knocked out Reard, Isabel Baltazar dropped back down later and ran her final chips into a set of fives from Karim Abdelmoumene. Baltasar received €28,580 for her seventh-place finish. After losing Christopher Chaudey in 6th (€38,000), Carnevale in 5th (€48,500), and Smain Mamouni in 4th (€62,000), three-handed play started which would last quite some time.
After nearly two hours, it was Karim Abdelmoumene who busted out in 3rd (€78,000). After being down to five big blinds, Abdelmoumene lost the coin flip with queen-jack against Shchepkin's pocket fours.
Heads-up, Sammartino quickly grabbed a substantial lead after winning with pocket kings against pocket fours. Shchepkin got himself back into it by rivering a five with nine-five against Sammartino's king-ten suited. The final hand was brutal: on a six-deuce-deuce flop, Sammartino got it in with ace-deuce against Shchepkin's pocket fours. The turn brought the four to seal the victory for the Russian, making him the EPT National High Roller champion!
Photos courtesy of René Velli, PokerStars.
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