The tournament players were flocking to France for the end of last month, as the PokerStars European Poker Tour hit Deauville, bringing some of the biggest names in the game with it. It was a stop filled with intense action, near misses and a lot of fun as the tournaments played out with the Main Event wrapping up on the 31st. It was Lucien Cohen celebrating his victory as the tournament came to a close and he received the first place prize of €880,000, or just under $1.2M USD.
The European Poker Tour, commonly known as simply the EPT, is a televised series of poker tournaments which, unsurprisingly, take place throughout the continent of Europe. The tour is sponsored by PokerStars, who run satellites to the live tournaments, and is filmed to be later broadcast to fans around the world on television. We’re currently in the seventh season of the EPT, and thus far it certainly hasn’t disappointed.
Nearly reaching the cap of 1000, there were 891 hopeful poker players as the Main Event kicked off, a record-setting figure. The €5000 + €300 buy-in event commenced on the 25th of January and played out until a winner was found on the 31st, splitting the staggering €4.2 Million among the 128 top finishers, including an €880,000 first prize.
Lucien Cohen is almost an unknown in the poker world, and an unlikely champion of this event, which just further goes to show that anything can happen when the cards are in the air. With not one but two plastic rat sculptures, the Pest Control company owner battled his way through the entire field until he was left sitting heads-up across the table from Swedish online qualifier Martin Jacobson, who finished in second place in another EPT event in Budapest, during season five of the show.
As heads up play got underway, the frenchman Cohen found himself with a two-to-one chip advantage over the arguably more experienced Jacobson. While there was a lot of back and forth action and heads-up play was by no means short, Jacobson didn’t seem to be able to find any real traction and eventually moved in preflop with Seven Six suited. Cohen looked down at Ace King offsuit and made the easy call, and as the board ran out T933J it was all over, leaving the triumphant Cohen screaming in joy at the title and €880,000 in first place prize money.