Marius Kudzmanas Wins EPT Monte Carlo €1,100 NLHE Freezeout for €42,590 ($47,545)
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In the final hand of Level 26 of the €1,100 NLHE Freezeout at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT, Marius Kudzmanas grabbed the first-place prize of €42,590 ($47,545) and the famous PokerStars Spade trophy after defeating Oskar Jonsson from Iceland heads-up. In total 198 entries were generated which beat the 183-strong field of last year’s event who created a total prize pool of €192,060, with 27 players cashing in the tournament.
This win takes Kudzmanas’ lifetime recorded live tournament winnings to over $200,000 according to The Hendon Mob. The Lithuanian player started the day with a below average stack but quickly managed to build it up to something that could be used to put pressure on the other players. Even though he lost more than half of his stack at one point, he soon found the way back up and didn’t seem to lose sight of the finish.
The official final table also featured players like Paul Testud, Jeffrey Colpitts, and the Pupillo brothers, Nick and James. Other players who made the money, but not the final table included Natalie Teh, Frederic Delval, Julien Martini, Zakhar Babaev, and Francois Evard.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marius Kudzmanas | Lithuania | €42,590 |
| 2 | Oskar Jonsson | Iceland | €28,710 |
| 3 | Paul Testud | France | €19,760 |
| 4 | Nick Pupillo | United States | €16,110 |
| 5 | Jeffrey Colpitts | Canada | €12,850 |
| 6 | Leonel Graterol | Venezuela | €9,870 |
| 7 | Gabriel Chiva | Romania | €7,180 |
| 8 | James Pupillo | United States | €5,200 |
Final Day's Action
The final day started with 42 players in their seats and by the start of the first break of the day, only 29 of them were left. Martini was leading the pack by then as the bubble was approaching while the Day 1 chip leader Babaev was down to twenty big blinds. When Lawrence Andreys was eliminated, it was time for the bubble. First Benjamin Saada doubled up through Nick Pupillo, Mounir Tajiou doubled through Martini, and Leonel Graterol doubled through Anton Serhiienkov.
But in the tenth round of hand-for-hand play, Jonsson and Simone Agnoletto split the pot while Zorlucan Er bubbled when he was forced all in from the big blind with pocket fives. Jonsson and Agnoletto both held king-queen on the seven-seven-king-jack-ten board. After the bubble burst, the eliminations started flowing in with Shahar Levi, Giancarlo Imperati and Evard hitting the rail to take the tournament down to the final three tables.
Even though Martini was the chip leader during the first break, things went wrong after the bubble as he lost most of his stack with pocket sevens against the pocket jacks of Boutros Naim. The PokerStars Players Championship runner-up lost his last few chips to Nick Pupillo with king-ten while Pupillo held ace-ten.
Zorlu Er, the father of Zorlucan Er who bubbled, did make the money and finished in 17th place for €2,590. Teh made it to 12th place but ran her pocket tens into the pocket aces of Pupillo. Even though she managed to hit a set on the flop, Pupillo had done the same and the one-outer never came. Serhiienkov ran his ace-jack into the ace-king of Testud and was sent to the payout desk in tenth place for the remaining player to be redrawn to the unofficial final table. Saada would end up being the official final table bubble when he four-bet shoved with ten-nine and was snap-called by Kuzdmanas who had pocket queens.
The younger Pupillo brother, James, lost his last four big blinds with jack-eight when his shove was called by Testud who had ace-ten. The seven remaining players went into the dinner break with three players holding almost the same stack of 38 big blinds while the average was hovering around 28 big blinds. It would take almost the full level before the next player was sent to the rail. Gabriel Chiva shoved for almost sixteen big blinds on the king-ace-eight-five board with eight-five after having turned two pair. He was snap-called by Jonsson who tabled ace-five for the higher two pair.
Graterol was the next one to go when he flicked his last chips in with seven-trey and was called by Kudzmanas who had queen-seven. Five-handed play continued for a while but in the final hand before another break, Colpitts shoved from under the gun, Kudzmanas did the same with the bigger stack from the cutoff and Pupillo called with a stack that was bigger than Colpitts’ but shorter than Kudzmanas’. Colpitts had pocket nines, Pupillo had ace-king suited but Kudzmanas had found pocket kings to lead the way throughout the runout of the board to eliminate both of his opponents.
Kudzmanas went into the break with more than half of the chips in play and never looked back. Testud fell victim to Kudzmanas’ amazing run when he shoved less than twenty big blinds from the button and was called. Testud’s jack-nine couldn’t beat the ace-queen of Kudzmanas. After about an hour and twenty minutes of heads-up play where the chips went back and forth but keeping Kudzmanas in the chip lead while slowly chipping away more chips from Jonsson, Jonsson finally got all his chips in with king-seven. Kudzmanas called with ace-jack and the board didn’t bring any surprises as Jonsson’s stack was sent to Kudzmanas’ side of the table.
They shook hands, Kudzmanas’ rail cheered with the wine glasses and drank some more before taking the winner photos and celebrating a bit more on the terrace.
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