Italian Raffaele Sorrentino has won the main event of the first PokerStars Championship in Monte Carlo.
The winning prize was €500,800 but Sorrentino and runner-up Andreas Klatt struck a chip-chop deal that left €15,000 to play for.
Klatt was guaranteed €402,768 while the chipleader at the time had €451,714 locked up. As it went, Sorrentino took the extra cash and the title, too.
A Dream Come True
“It’s a dream come true," said an exhausted but happy Sorrentino after his win. "I was feeling like I could do this one week ago, and the closer it got, the more I believed in it.”
“I was really tired in the end. I re-raised too high with my aces but I was lucky that the other guy had queens.”
Sorrentino, an Italian who lived in Malta (he made the money in last year’s Battle of Malta) but flew in to play this week from Mexico, took over the chip lead early on Day 6 and slowly but surely extended it all the way to the end.
With 200 big blinds still on the table it took a major set-up for the heads-up to finish. Both players had shown to be the strongest at the table and it looked like this could become a very long finale.
Instead, after a quick deal, it took just around two hours until it was all over. The Italian picked up pocket aces and while his opponent believed his pocket queens would have to be the best hand, little did he know.
The chips went in and the board ran dry so Sorrentino claimed the title with the best starting hand in Texas Hold’em.
Runner-up Andreas Klatt, however, was the player who made the most headlines in Monte Carlo. He won the PokerStars National Championship a few days ago only to almost repeat the feat in the main event.
Main Event Numbers
- Buy-In: €5,300 NLHE
- Dates: April 29 – May 5
- Field: 727 players
- Prize pool: €3,525,950
Final-Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Raffaele Sorrentino | Italy | €466,714* |
| 2 | Andreas Klatt | Germany | €402,768* |
| 3 | Andrey Bondar | Russia | €271,500 |
| 4 | Maxim Panyak | Russia | €199,900 |
| 5 | Michael Kolkowicz | France | €147,120 |
| 6 | Diego Zeiter | Switzerland | €108,300 |
| 7 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | €79,750 |
| 8 | Romain Nardin | France | €58,740 |
*2-way deal
Bryn Kenney, Adrian Mateos Take Big Paydays
The largest pay-outs in Monaco this week went to Bryn Kenney (€1,874,500) and Vlacheslav Buldygin (€1,290,800) who came first and second in the €100k Super High Roller.
Julian Stuer defeated John Juanda to win the 3-day €25k High Roller event for €1,015,000 and Adrian Mateos (€908,000) took down the €50k event.
PSC Monte Carlo High Roller results
€10,300 NLHE, April 25-27, 110 entries
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Ole Schemion | Germany | €274,450 |
| 2 | Murad Akhundov | Azerbeijan | €188,860 |
| 3 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | €123,770 |
€100,000 NLHE, April 27-29, 61 entries
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Bryn Kenney | US | €1,874,500 |
| 2 | Vlacheslav Buldygin | Russia | €1,290,800 |
| 3 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | €832,800 |
€50,000 NLHE, April 30, 64 entries
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | €908,000 |
| 2 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | €652,700 |
| 3 | Erik Seidel | US | €423,800 |
€10,300 PLO, May 1-2, 60 entries
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Imad Derwiche | France | €174,600 |
| 2 | Sampo Ryynanen | Finland | €126,300 |
| 3 | Sylvain Loosli | France | €81,500 |
€25,500 NLHE, May 2, 85 entries
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Philipp Gruissem | Germany | €485,135 |
| 2 | Steve O’Dwyer | US | €494,665 |
| 3 | John Juanda | Indonesia | €266,550 |
€25,750 NLHE, May 3-5, 187 entries
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Julian Stuer | Germany | €1,015,000 |
| 2 | John Juanda | Indonesia | €683,900 |
| 3 | Thomas Mühlöcker | Austria | €471,400 |
The PokerStars Championship now moves to another venue where it hasn’t been before. From May 20 the next PSC will take place on the shores of the Black Sea in Sochi, Russia, former host of the Olympic Winter Games.
The main event starts on May 25 and TV coverage will commence on Saturday, May 27.
