Chorny Wins the EPT4 Grand Final

The PokerStars EPT4 Grand Final will go down as the biggest and baddest tournament in European Poker history and while it took almost 14 hours of poker to finish it off on the final day, it was sure worth it.

We were treated to some stellar deep-stack play from some of the best young players in the world in the final, but by the time it was all said and done it was time to convert the more than €2 million first-place prize into Canadian dollars.

Glen Chorny took it home as the 22-year-old Timmins, Ontario native came into the final day with the chip lead and played a wise-beyond-his-years, uber-aggressive style of poker that clearly outclassed the field.

With play suspended early on Day 4 we returned at 1 p.m. local time Thursday with 10 players remaining and the need for two more eliminations before play would go in front of the TV cameras. But thanks to the less-than-stellar play of both Stig Top Rasmussen and Henrik Gwinner, it wouldn't be long before we were down to the final eight.

Do I make you Chorny baby!

Stig, who proved he was the definition of a Euro-donk on Day 4, catching an ace after shoving with A-10 into Antonio Esfandiari's limped queens, was at it again today. The Dane managed to move in once again with the worst of it, this time out of turn. He was summarily dismissed when his tens couldn't beat Valeriy Ilikyan's jacks.

Gwinner had also shown his true wild-man colors throughout the fourth day. When he open-shoved with A-9 despite having almost 20 big blinds, Isaac Baron made the solid call with A-10 and it was obvious Gwinner did not have the skill set to earn a spot at the final table.

With those two out of the way we were left with a final table including chip leader Chorny, Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron, Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano, Antonio Esfandiari, Valeriy Ilikyan, Michael Martin, Denes Kalo and Maxime Villemuir and once the cameras got rolling the first casualty came rather quickly.

No triple for the magic man.

Antonio Esfandiari came in to the great eight with a legitimate shot at the WPT, WSOP, EPT Triple Crown, but he also came in as the short stack. The Magician shoved with a weak ace and no sleight of hand could help him when Luca Pagano looked him up with A J and flopped the nut straight.

Valeriy Ilikyan then proved he didn't belong, shoving with ace-queen and getting shot down by Michael Martin's ace-king.

Once we got down to six, the next few levels were spent trading the chip lead around. Glen Chorny handed it to Luca Pagano when the PokerStars pro caught a river queen to steal a $2.5 million pot from the Canadian, but Luca handed it right back to another man from Canadia when his jacks couldn't hold against Maxime Villemuir's big slick.

Ciao PokerStar.

They took a dinner break, but once they'd been fed, it wasn't long before the action followed. Team PokerStars pro Luca Pagano busted in the first half of the first level following chow time when he sensed weakness in a Denes Kalo pre-flop raise and was proven wrong. The Italian said ciao running ace-jack into queens and failing find an ace.

A few minutes later, Martin and Chorny got into their second altercation of the night; rumor has it the two had had words in the bathroom earlier in the evening and it was clear to all involved that these two didn't like each other. No love was lost when Martin ran his flopped top pair into Chorny's overpair and busted fifth, but both players were at least classy enough to shake hands as Martin said his goodbyes.

It took what felt like forever to get to the next victim, but eventually Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron went home fourth. Widely considered one of the best young online players in the game, Baron got short and although he doubled up once to survive shoving with any two, he was eventually bested when he shoved all-in on a raggedy board facing a Glen Chorny raise and ran into the Canadian's pocket aces.

Go westmenlo.

It was the last we'd see of the young American in Monte Carlo, but based on his play throughout, all the hype about Baron was certainly justified.

Three-way play lasted a good while until Kalo lost half his stack to Villemure. Then, just a hand or two later, Villemure lost his entire stack in a straight-over-straight debacle with Chorny that sent Chorny into heads-up play with a 10-1 chip lead and Villmure out third. The heads-up match was almost over before it started, although Kalo managed to make it last a whopping two hands before Chorny became the PokerStars EPT4 Grand Final champion when his A 5 bested the Hungarian's K Q.

Once again a North American had flown across the Atlantic and stolen the EPT Grand Final title from the European's clutches. Hungary's best poker player will keep the €1,179,000 in second-place money on this side of the pond, his second second on the EPT this year (the first being Baden), but Chorny's €2,020,000 is flying home via Air Canada.

Winnar!

For full big-hand recap of how it all happened you can always check out our Live Updates page, and to hear just how Chorny felt about winning the biggest tournament in the history of European poker, our exclusive interview with the man should be up here before you know it.

Despite the overpriced food and booze in Monaco the PL.com crew could not have enjoyed Monte Carlo more, and will surely return for more Côte d'Azur poker debauchery next year.

It was a great fourth season of Euro-donkstrikery but you European Poker Tour junkies craving more will have to wait for the beginning of Season 5 in Barcelona penciled in for September.

Until then, we here at PL.com will be everywhere else the best poker players in the world are, because that's what you've come to expect and we always aim to please.