The newest champion in Monte Carlo is a first-time winner. Dutch player Derk van Luijk had lady luck on his side as he won the first- major title of his poker career. A massive 1,208 entries created a record prizepool in the province on the French Riviera, and over $6 million was won, the bulk of which by some terrific players at the final table.

Superstars Fall Just Short of First Timers

Winning an EPT Main Event is something very few players have on their CVs. The race to become the latest ET champion saw several star names fall early, as 176 players reached profit. Sylvain Loosli (175^th) scraped into the money places, WSOP Main Event finalist Philippe Souki (154^th) soared slightly higher and Byron Kaverman finished 85^th for almost $15,000.

Ana Marquez was eliminated in 71^st place, former EPT Barcelona champion Sebastian ‘Now I can go to the toilet’ Malec came 61^st and ‘Cowboy’ Dan Smith exited in 29^th place, for over $25,000. Close to the final table, there were prominent exits for David Docherty (16^th for $43,700) and Adrian Mateos, the Spanish professional leaving in 11^th place for $75,725.

Once into the final table action, seven remained. Top of the leaderboard was the Bulgarian Boris Angelov with 11.5 million chips, the equivalent of 77 big blinds. Behind him was the only female player at the table, Rania Nasreddine, with 7.9 million, while the eventual winner van Luijk languished on 21 big blinds, with only Brazil’s Jonathan Guedes the only smaller stack with 13 bigs.

Guedes Goes Early

First to leave the fun was Guedes, who failed to spin up his short stack, busting for $166,850. All-in from the big blind with , Guedes was gotten by Angelov, whose hit a gin flop of and after a turn and river, Guedes was heading to the rail.

One of the longest periods of the game without a bust-out saw the lead change hands on multiple occasions, it only ending when German Niclas Thumm found himself hitching a lift from the action. All-in with on a flop of , Thumm was well ahead of Angelov who had . A on the turn maintained that situation but a stunning on the river gave the Bulgarian a full house and sent Thumm home with $216,500.

Angelov was drawing to another scalp when he shoved with on a flop of . Jonathan Pastore was right to call off his stack with but while the kept the Frenchman in the lead, a on the river once again gave Angelov the best hand and sent the popular pro Pastore home with $281,900.

Luick on His Side

With four players left, Jovan Kenjic was busted for a score of $366,800. All-in with , he lost the coinflip to Derk van Luijk’s . There were nearly three players in the hand, but Rania Nasreddine folded ace-jack, and a ten-high board played out to send home Kenjic.

That correct decision by the American was followed by another as she shoved with on a board showing . Getting a call from the slightly smaller stacked van Luijk with jack-ten, Nasreddine knew what she needed to dodge… but announced the cards anyway, begging for no jack, ten or three.

Of course, the river was the , sending her home with $477,100 a couple of hands later as her scraps disappeared.

Heads-up, both players enjoyed leads of approximately 2:1 in chips before the initial leader van Luijk called off with and held against the shove from Boris Angelov with . A board of pronounced van Luijk a first-time winner of an EPT Main Event and after going close before, he’d done it at last.

Over the course of the final two days of the event, van Luijk had won with ace-jack against pocket aces, hit a two pair on the river again three-handed and doubled up when at risk no fewer than six times. He was delighted to take home the trophy and top prize of over $1.07 million.

“It’s an amazing feeling. I cannot even realize still that I’ve won,” he said. “It feels like I’m spacing right now. You don’t realize it yet, but it’s an amazing feeling. My brother flew in this morning when he realized I was in the final seven last night. He bought a ticket and came this morning. I was very relaxed during my play. I wasn’t really worried about busting. I got down to 10 big blinds, and that’s enough to spin it back up. I wasn’t really worried or anything like that. I was more trying to enjoy the ride that I was in.”

After winning the first major title of his poker career, van Luijk was a deserving winner over a thrilling finale at the base of the French Alps, climbing the metaphorical mountain on numerous occasions.

Headline photograph by Manuel Kovsca for PokerStars, the home of the European Poker Tour.