Monday, March 13, 2006

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American teenager wins EPT Grand Final

By Lianne Elias

A 19-year-old American poker player plowed through a field of almost 300 competitors to take first place at the PokerStars.com-sponsored European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Monaco, March 11.

Jeff Williams, a freshman at the University of Georgia, was awarded €900,000 (just over $1 million) for his efforts.

He qualified for the event online at PokerStars.com, outlasted a field consisting of some of the world's best players. Famous participants included World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champions and Team PokerStars members Joseph Hachem (WSOP 2005) and Greg Raymer (WSOP 2004).

Also competing were Marcel Luske, Kiril Gerasimov, Carlos Mortensen, Liz Lieu, Isabelle Mercier, Juha Helppi, Patrik Antonius, Jan Boubli, Noah Boeken, Andrew Black, Rob Hollink, Tony Bloom, and Barny and Ross Boatman, among others.

The No-Limit Hold'em EPT Grand Final had a €10,000 buy-in and offered a prize pool of €2,980,000. It was the biggest No-Limit Hold'em event to ever be held in Europe. Twenty-seven places were paid.

The five-day series ran from March 7-11 at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort on the Mediterranean coast.

Final table results are as follows:

Place	Name	Country	Prize
1st	Jeff Williams	U.S.	€900,000
2nd	Arshad Hussain	U.K.	€492,000
3rd	Aleksander Strandli	Norway	€251,000
4th	Marc Karam	Canada	€195,000
5th	Tierry Cazals	France	€168,000
6th	Ross Boatman	U.K.	€140,000
7th	Marcel Luske	Holland	€112,000
8th	Fraser Dunphy	U.K.	€84,000

Of the 8 final table finishers, the top 4 won their seats to the Grand Final online through cash qualifiers at PokerStars.com.

Please see PokerStars.com or www.ept.com for further details.

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