22-Year-Old Canadian Wins EUR2 Million at PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO, Monaco, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Glen Chorny, a 22-year-old business student from Ontario, Canada, won the biggest poker tournament ever held in Europe when he took down the EUR10,000 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final for a first prize of over EUR2 million (US$3 million).

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080418/301378 )

After only two hands against Hungarian Denes Kalo, Chorny - who won his seat online with PokerStars - took the EPT Champion title with A5 against KQ when his Ace paired on the flop. For 31-year-old stockbroker Kalo, who won EUR1,179,000, it was the second time this season that he has been an EPT runner-up: he came 2nd at EPT Baden last October.

Chorny's triumph came only three months after he took 13th place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for US$80k. He said: "It was tough out there, like a hard day at the office. Only the rewards are a lot better."

The EPT Grand Final attracted a record field of 842 players creating a total prize pool of over EUR8.4 million (US$12m): the richest prize pool in the world for a poker tournament this year.

Canadian Max Villemure, 19, from Montreal, finished 3rd. Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron - Cardplayer's Online Player of the Year in 2007 - came 4th. Italian Luca Pagano, a Team PokerStars Pro, registered record ninth EPT cash after finishing 6th.

Among the other star names in Monte Carlo this week were Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari (who came 8th for EUR168k), Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Freddy Deeb, Roland de Wolfe and Gus Hansen as well as almost all the Team PokerStars Pros including Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem (11th for EUR101,000), Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso and Lee Nelson.

Season 4 has taken in 11 amazing destinations including new events in Prague in the Czech Republic (555 players) and San Remo in Italy (701 players). The season has seen player numbers and prize pools soar, and also the number of nationalities taking part - 48 in Monte Carlo, more than 70 during the season as a whole.

EPTLive.com (http://www.eptlive.com) - providing a live webcast of the action on the final two days - also saw record audience numbers.

The total prize money for season 4 of the EPT was over EUR38m, double the total for Season 3.

PokerStars Facts

PokerStars (http://www.pokerstars.com) is the world's largest and most innovative online poker site with more than thirteen million players worldwide. To date, PokerStars has dealt over sixteen billion hands, run more than 75 million poker tournaments and pays out more than US$300 million in tournament prize money every month. In January 2008, PokerStars became the first poker site ever to reach the 170,000 simultaneous players mark.

For more information please visit http://www.pokerstars.com

    
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