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MAJOR POKER PRIZE TAKEN BY A TEENAGE PLAYER
Published: 2006-03-14
 19-year-old Georgia U student beats all in Monte Carlo poker competition
Another major poker tournament - the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monaco held over the weekend - has been won by a "young gun" poker player.
The Associated Press reports that a 19-year-old freshman from the University of Georgia was the only American remaining as play began on the final day of the Poker Stars European Poker Tour's Grand Final.
American political science student Jeff Williams won the big event after beating off competition from a total of 298 players - including scores of world-class poker professionals and three World Champions - Team Pokerstars' members Joe Hachem (2005) and Greg Raymer (2004) as well as 2001 champion Carlos Mortensen.
Jeff Williams won Euro 900,000 ($1,078,000) after a gripping final table. He paid just $41 to reach the Euro 10,000 buy-in No Limit Texas Hold'em Grand Final, after he qualified for the event on Pokerstars. His dramatic win was watched by his parents David and Cindi - a total surprise to their son - who made the trip across the Atlantic after following his progress on the PokerStars blog.
The five-day Euro 10,000 No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament - the biggest ever held in Europe - generated a prize pool of nearly Euro 3,000,000 ($3,552,000).
The EPT is Europe's richest poker tour - with tournaments televised for broadcast throughout the world. Season 2 featured events in Barcelona, London, Baden, Dublin, Copenhagen, Deauville and the Monte Carlo Grand Final - with a total of 2,009 players generating an overall prize pool of Euro 9,824,000.
The dramatic final stages of the tournament on Saturday, March 11 ended with Jeff in a heads-up showdown against Arshad Hussain, from the UK. Arshad had spent nothing to reach Monte Carlo after winning a Frequent Player Point tournament on PokerStars and took home Euro 492 000 for his second place.
Jeff said: "Arshad and I have played each other a lot in heads-up tournaments on PokerStars and Arshad normally wins. So I was pretty nervous but by then I had a big chip lead which makes a difference. This whole event has been just amazing. To reach the final table and then find myself sitting next to Marcel Luske, one of my poker heroes, was incredible. I am still taking the whole thing in. I can't really believe it. "
The 3rd and 4th place finishers in the event were also PokerStars qualifers. Aleksander Strandli, from Oslo, Norway won Euro 251 000 and Marc Karam, from Ottawa, Canada, won Euro 195 000.
The EPT Grand Final was held over five days (March 7-11) at the glamorous new Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort. Among the top poker professionals competing were last year's EPT Grand Final winner Rob Hollink, French singer Patrick Bruel, Irish star Andy Black and Swedish champion Martin de Knijff. Team PokerStars was also represented by Aussie Millions winner Lee Nelson, French WPT Ladies Champion Isabelle Mercier and Italy's Luca Pagano.
The Grand Final also attracted record numbers of media to the French Riviera, with more than 80 TV, press and online media from around the world attending - four times the number who came last year. It was also the first tournament to be covered live by a national newspaper - the Times Online.
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Online Poker Player Becomes A Pro
Published: 2006-03-08
 March 8 -Online Poker room Pokerroom.com's "Become a Poker Pro" tournament was won by Jim Davenport, and investment bank analyst. He beat out a tough field on the Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas this past weekend...
Davenport trailed the leaders for most of the tournament, but dominated the action for the last hour.
Davenport called an all-in bet with A-Q after the flop came A-J-7 to win the tournament'. His opponent held Q-7, and the Ace on the turn spelled his end. a
"I'm still feel very nervous," Davenport said. "I believe in doing something that I am excited about in the mornings, and now I have a new employer."
Davenport will receive a total prize package of $250,000 and will be sponsored by PokerRoom.com for the next year. He will receive $60,000 in cash, plus have all his expenses covered in 12 tournaments, including the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
The "Become a Poker Pro" tournament saw all player who had won satellites for poker tournaments in the last two years compete. The tournament started online with 69 players, and players carried their chip stacks into the final table that was played live on the cruise ship. Davenport went into heads up trailing 1:2 in chips, and played power poker from there.
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