Dane takes EPT Copenhagen event

Mads Andersen, a 35-year-old backgammon champion from Copenhagen, earned €341,000 after winning the four-day, PokerStars.com-sponsored European Poker Tour (EPT) Scandinavian Open, the richest poker tournament ever held in Scandinavia.

Anderson beat over 280 players to take the championship, including pros Marcel Luske, Joseph Hachem, Gus Hansen, Ram Vaswani, Julian Thew, Pascal Perrault, Rob Hollink, Tony Chess, Chris Moneymaker, and Noah Bergen, among others.

The Scandinavian Open was the fifth stop on the 2005-2006 EPT and was hosted at the Casino Copenhagen. The tournament boasted a buy-in of approximately €4,020 and a total prize pool of nearly €1 million.

Two-hundred and eighty-eight players registered for the event, while another 100 players were turned away and placed on the waiting list. Approximately 60 players qualified for the tournament on PokerStars.com, sponsor of the EPT.

Final table play lasted 10 hours. For his first place win, Anderson received the cash prize and a €10,000 seat to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Monaco, from March 7-11, 2006. Half of the eight final table finishers were Danish, including Anina Gundesen, who finished in sixth place; the highest ever finish on the EPT by a female player.

The EPT Scandinavian open was filmed for television and will be broadcast on a variety of channels in the U.K., Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and in 54 other territories on the Eurosport network.

Final table results are listed below. All sums are listed in Danish kroners.

Please see www.ept.com for further details.