EPT Grand Final - Live Updates

A fast final has come to a close and the man most predicted would win the tournament based on his crushing chip stack has done it.

Nicolas Chouity has won the EPT Grand Final!

This is what happened.

Chouity's Bullets Shoot Down Klinger! (Klinger 2nd; Chouity 1st)

Josef Klinger started the day unfancied to win based on his small amount of chips but he kept scrapping away, rode some luck along the way and found himself heads-up for the trophy.

It seemed as though the hand of destiny was firmly planted on Chouity's shoulder today though.

He has won almost every big pot he has played and he had such an amazingly dominant position in the chip counts, he was able to collect lots of uncontested pots throughout the day.

The last hand was typical, Klinger finding eights, pretty much a monster in thei heads-up position, but Chouity had no trouble taking him on for all his chips pre-flop...as he held aces.

Incredible match-up, both players got their chips into the middle and Klinger needed to spike a snowman to keep his slim hopes of glory alive.

The board was dealt out..9♥ T♠ K♦ 4♠....Q♣!

No eights, the aces took it and Chouity won yet another key hand.

It's a huge score for Klinger, he wins €1,000,000 for second place but for Nicolas Chouity, it's €1,700,000 for 1st as well as the glory and acclaim that comes with winning the biggest EPT tournament of the season!

He high-fived the rail, a huge smile plastered across his face as he took in all the applause and cheering from his enthusiastic fans.

Well done Chouity, he wielded his big stack superbly, levering his way to the title and he should enjoy all the attention and plaudits that will come his way for the immediate future.

We'll have winner shots and an interview with the winner shortly but for now congratulations to everyone at Monte Carlo and indeed across the whole EPT tour this season, who have contributed to make it such an enjoyable success.

Thanks for following our coverage - it wouldn't be the same without you - but for now it's goodbye from PokerListings in Monte Carlo.

Don't forget to hit us up later for our interview with the winner, Nicolas Chouity.

Since the players resumed after their dinner break, it has been one way traffic. The man who's been crushing?

None other than the chip leader Nicolas Chouity. Since late on yesterday, Chouity has held a dominant chip lead and he has been running good and playing well today.

In the few hands we've played since dinner, he has re-raised, shoved and generally bullied his way through Karmazinas and Klinger and moments ago we became heads-up as a result of his antics.

Karmazinas Feels The Power (3rd)

PokerListings spied Karmazinas returning from dinner in the "Tony G" mobile, the Lithuanian perhaps picking up a tip or two from his wily compatriot.

Whatever it was though, it didn't quite work although he was unfortunate at the outcome of this hand.

When Chouity shipped all-in from the small blind, Karmazinas called pretty quickly with A♦ 7♠ and when Chouity flipped up A♣ 6♦, he had a great shot to double up to over 5.5 million.

The flop was innocuous but a six spiked on the turn to give the unstoppable Chouity a lead he never relinquished.

So Karmazinas unlucky there, but he played great poker to get through to the final three and collects €700,000 for third spot.

Heads up then, Nicolas Chouity has a big chip lead over Josef Klinger. Who will be crowned the champ!

We're back from the break and the three men remaining are still in there fighting for the title.

It is Nicolas Chouity who is top of the tree right now with a dominant chip stack dwarfing the other two players, but as we've seen anything can happen.

Let's see how the game pans out over the next level.

Andrew Chen has had some close shaves in the past and again, his razor scraped the face of glory but never quite cut through to the top prize.

Hi demise happened thusly:

King Klinger! (Chen - 5th)

He was down to 2 million, which sounds like a lot but in reality is only just over 10 big blinds, so he shipped it into the middle to steal the blinds with 9♣ 7♣, running slap bang into Klinger's kings.

There was a small sweat for Klinger on the J♠ J♥ T♠ board but the turn and river blanked in the form of 5♦ 9♥ and Chen disappeared to the rail to speak to his friend Mike McDonald and collect his €400,000 payment for 5th place.

We're sure his time will come.

We were 4-handed now and one interesting aspect of this is that Herve Costa has folded his way into the top 4, having played only 3 hands at the final so far.

But then...he sprang into action!

The Costa Of Success (4th)

Shipping his giant 820k stack into the middle, he utterly failed to intimidate Chouity and his 17 million stack who made the call.

A♠ 9♥ for Costa; K♦ Q♥ for Chouity.

A good shot for the Frenchman to double but Chouity and his increasingly boisterous rail cheering loudly behind him weren't bothered.

And why should they be? Especially when the flop fell K-K-6!!!

Chouity had it wrapped up already and when the turn and river weren't running aces, Costa was out in 4th spot, collecting €500,000. He's done very well to ladder this far up the rankings for a huge payday. Well played sir!

One more key pot played out just before dinner - Dominykas Karmazinas shipping it pre with fives, only for Chouity to take a shot with the relatively weak-looking king-deuce.

For once he wasn't able to run good as a delighted looking Karmazinas won a well-merited double up to 3 mill.

And with that came dinner. We'll be back in an hour and a half for the resumption three-handed. Join us then as we continue the path to EPT glory.

Josef Klinger raised it up under-the-gun and Nicolas Chouity made the call. We had a flop!

The flop fell T♥ 5♥ 3♣ and Klinger checked, only for the chip leader to fire out 375k.

Now Klinger sprung into action, check-raising allin for an additional 1.985 million chips. Chouity looked unhappy but eventually said "I have to call, I call."

Chouity: K♥ J♥

Klinger: A♥ 4♥.

Wow, two overs and a flush draw for Chouity but a massive nut flush draw and gutshot for Josef Klinger!

Klingerwas a big 80% favorite for the hand, but Chouity had outs and the turn was a shocking J♣ to turn the tables and leave a distraught-looking Klinger staring elimination square in the face.

Needing a deuce, heart or ace to salvage his tournament, a hushed audience watched the dealer deal the river card.

A♣!

Wow, incredible scenes here in Monte Carlo. The crowd go wild, Klinger goes wild, and a pot of 4.5 million, potentially worth hundreds of thousands of euros goes his way.

Amazing stuff.

Aleh Gets Plau-ed, Ski(6th)

Aleh Plauski was very short with just 680k and shipped in his mini-stack, only for Chouity to reship allin and isolate him.

Plauski showed up with K♥ T♣, which was behind, though live, against Chouity's A♣ Q♦ board.

Plauski has been saved many times by the river when all-in, but this time there was to be no salvation - the board peeling off 7♠ 5♣ 2♠ 9♣ Q♣.

Chouity takes another scalp and Plauski gets himself busted in 6th place for €300,000.

The situation is borderline ridiculous out there at the moment.

Chouity's enormo-stack means no-one else has even the smallest amount of wiggle-room and right now it's fold city as desperation laddering occurs.

Chouity raises every so often and picks up the blinds - just padding his stack on what looks like a rampant march to victory.

Then suddenly action!

Josef Klinger raised to 275k and Costa - who has been incredibly tight -  shoves for 900k.

Klinger tanks for a while although realistically there can't have been many hands he could fold here and eventually he does call. This is what we saw:

Q♠ J♠: Klinger

7♣ 7♦: Costa

FLIP!

The flop comes A-K-9-7-Q.

A turned set seals the deal for Costa, the French contingent of supporters give some boisterous cheers and the last Frenchman in contention shakes his fist in pure ecstacy at that double-through.

And even before we could draw breath...another big hand!

Josef Klings On

The now shortstacked Klinger pitched his last one million into the middle and the tight-as-a-drum Aleh Plauski re-shipped allin.

The smart money suggested Plauski would be ahead and indeed he was showing an absolutely dominant pair of tens versus the T♠ 9♠ of Klinger.

Klinger was done and dusted there really, very hard for him to outdraw Plauski...and then...

The dealer dealt out a A♥ 9♣ 9♦ board to a chorus of "ooooohhhhhs" and "wooooooooows." Amazing catch!

The board ran out with no changes and an incredibly relieved Klinger's trip nines won the day.

We remain six-handed!

Forced to sit out for much of the last hour and a half, it wasn't long after the players resumed play that super short-stacked Roger Hairabedian was forced to get his chips into the middle.

He looked reluctant with just 311k, but when Chouity raised his big blind, with most of his stack in the middle already, he tanked awhile, making a quick joke before putting the rest in.

Hairbedian Succumbs (7th)

His tournament on the line, Hairbedian showed down J♠ 3♠ but was dominated by Chouity's A♣ 3♦.

A flop of A♥ A♠ 5♦ looked fairly conclusive but when the Q♠ turned, suddenly Hairbedian had outs to get back into it!

If he could hit a spade he would win a whopping 700k pot at 60k 120k!

But no...the Q♥ came to complete Chouity's full house and mean his stack just continues growing, his lead continues growing and his chances of winning...well u know the drill.

Meanwhile Roger Hairabedian leaves us in 7th spot, collecting €200,000 - no small win. He may regret never taking a shot to get a good stack going though.

They continue 6-handed,

Just to keep you guys in the loop, there has been a temporary loss of power here at the casino, resulting in the game being temporarily placed on hold.

We'll be back as soon as possible, but for now just hang tight.

To re-cap the situation we are facing in the tournament right now, the Lebanese Nicolas Chouity has extended his overnight chip lead and now has over 50% of the chips in play seven-handed.

There are a number of shortstacks with the blinds at 50k/100k, but Roger Hairabedian is most in danger, having let his midget stack dwindle down to a negligable amount.

He will simply HAVE to make a move soon if he isn't just to be totally swallowed up by the blinds.

We'll be back with coverage of the tournament as soon as it resumes, which will hopefully not be too far away.

It's a very one-sided final table right now.

Because the pay jumps are so huge and the lower-tier players are all bunched together there are lots of nervous laughs at the table and some very cagey play.

Moments ago Karmazinas elected to go for it though, raising it up pre-flop, only for Chouity to three-bet him to 525k.

Moments later Karmazinas shoved all-in and Chouity tanked a while, electing whether to call the additional 1.4 million. He knew because of the tournament position that Karmazinas would definitely have a big hand but eventually called with ace-jack.

Karmazinas showed up with A♦ K♣ though, dominating the chip leader and looking good for the 4 million chip pot.

We could tell you the board but in reality there was nothing surprising about it...no jacks and no kings meant Karmazinas' ace high was marginally better than Chouity so he jumps into second place for 4 million.

The Leaderboard

Here's how that hand and recent events have affected the chip lead. Come on Roger, make a move!

The players are on a break right now following the end of the first level but just before the break started, we saw a big bustout!

It was from an unexpected source too. Here's how it happened.

Guerfi Drowns In Cold River (8th)

Mesbah Guerfi came into the day in second place with the potential to win the tournament or at least finish high up the leaderboard with a massive payday.

Instead he finds himself the first man on the rail, courtesy of the following hand.

Having raised it up to 215,000, Guerfi saw his nemesis Nicolas Chouity make the call.

The flop fell 8♣ 4♠ 3♠ and the action went check, check.

The turn was the 4♦ and Guerfi bet out 310k, Chouity making the call.

The river came the K♦ and now Guerfi cut a big stack of chips from his piles and led out for 785k - much of his stack.

Chouity shrugged and announced "All-in" - Guerfi insta-calling with ace-king for two pair.

However a punch in the air from Guerfi and shout of "yes!" came as he had a slow-played pair of eights that had made a full house!

That was all she wrote for Guerfi who busts in eighth spot for €140,000 - a great payday but one that could have been so much more.

The players broke up at that point but will resume on level 29 - 50k/100k shortly.

Chouity is now a massive chip leader with 14 million and we think Andrew Chen with 2.8 million is in second. Can anyone stop Chouity?

The first hour has surprisingly seen no bustouts just yet. Risers include Aleh Plauski, whose cautiously played top pair with king-jack drew a stabbing steal attempt from Chouity.

No dice and Plauski added a few chips to his stack.

Josef Klinger has also risen too, at one point tangling with Mesbah Guerfi, when he raised to 185k pre-flop, bet the 9-8-8 flop, was called and then shoved the 9 turn, at which point Guerfi threw his hand away.

Guerfi then has been the biggest loser in the early stages, down a million chips as a result of both that hand and this following hand.

The Bully

The hand saw Plauski open to 220k, only for Mesbah Guerfi to make it 650k.

As the second biggest stack, he was probably silently praying that chip-leader Guerfi wouldn't stick his nose into the pot, so imagine his joy when Guerfi moved all-in covering him.

He looked understandably glum - as if he wanted to go have a cry and tell his parents that the big boy was bullying him.

Plauski couldn't call and after playing around with his chips for a bit, Guerfi also threw his hand away - Chouity's aggression saw him extend his lead at the top as he swept up the pot and added it to his multitudinous banks of chips.

Here's how they stand at present.

The Leaderboard

We're closing in on the start of the final table here of PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo and what a spectacle we have in store for you.

Yesterday saw many of the marquee names bounced out on the trampoline of tournament variance, but there are eight men still bouncing, hoping to double back-flip their way to the EPT Grand Final title and of course the €1,700,000 first prize.

Looking for a winner, realistically it's hard to look beyond massive chip leader Nicolas Chouity, who has almost 3 times more chips than anyone else and has 40% of the chips in play.

If anyone can topple him though, perhaps Andrew Chen can. Many felt he was the best player on show when he made the final table at EPT Prague 2008 and ran bad to finish 3rd. He followed that result up by finishing runner-up for a bracelet at WSOP 2009.

Now may be his big chance for redemption; the opportunity to take down his first big title. Can he swoop in from behind Chouity and snatch the win?

There are 6 other players who will have their say before the day is done too and this is how they line-up.

Stay with us as we let you know every twist and turn on the path to anoint the champion. There are a number of shortstacks so perhaps we will see them go for broke and try and chip up early.

We could have fireworks in the first few levels. Whatever happens glory and riches await.

Shuffle up and deal!