Michael Watson wins the Monte Carlo Main Event to claim his second European Poker Tour title

Michael Watson defeated a field of 1,098 entries to catch 2023 Monte Carlo European Poker Tour €5,300 No Limit Title Hold’em Main Event. For the win, the 39-year-old Canadian professional poker player took home $801,885 in prize money and the honor of becoming the third player in history to receive that many awards. EPT The main event headliners, Victoria is joined by Corinne Mitchell and Michaelai Popal.

“He couldn’t be happier with the achievement,” said Watson. Pokerstars Reporters after coming out on top. “It’s definitely something I’m really excited about. I’m going to keep trying to build on it, of course. But it’s definitely a huge result.”

“Winning two main events on the same Tour is really tough,” said Watson. “I think it’s definitely there, probably the biggest achievement of my poker career and I’m really happy about that.”

Watson I EPT The main event victory came in 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He beat a field of 928 entries in that tournament for nearly $730,000. He also has a file World Poker Tour He won the main event to his name, after defeating 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup For about $1.7 million.

Watson now has nearly $20 million in tournament winnings on record, which puts him fifth on the all-time Canadian money list.

This last victory saw Watson earn 1920 card player Player of the Year points. It was his third title and fifth ranking final of the year. With a total of 3,240 credits and over $2.3 million to date POY Earnings, Watson is now ranked 7th in 2023 POY Race order submitted by Global Poker.

the EPT Monte Carlo The main event took place over seven days inside the Salle Des Étoiles in Monte Carlo Sporting in the Principality of Monaco along the French Riviera. The event included two runs on April 30 and May 1, and then allowed five more days for the field of 1,098 entries that resulted from the end of registration to beat the champion.

The top 159 finishers cashed in the event, with accomplished players like bracelet winner Orpen Kisacikoglu (40th), PokerStars Players Tournament WINNER Ramon Colellas (32), 2023 PCA Main event runner-up Pedro Neves (20), winner of the Peter Aerts bracelet (17), 2021 EPT Sochi Main event champion Artur Martirosyan (14th) and bracelet winner Jason Wheeler (7th) are all running deep. Wheeler’s elimination by Leo Worthington-Leese brought the fifth day closer, as Worthington-Leese edged Watson for the chip lead when his six-piece held Wheeler.

Watson was able to return to the top of the leaderboard in the early action of the final day. Then he expanded his chip advantage thanks to a pre-cooler that saw his pocket sockets better than Arnaud Enselme’s bracelet-winning pocket scores (6th – $193,563).

Sami Boujemaleh was next down, with most of his group heading to Worthington-Lees when Boujemaleh’s pocket cards were caught by the pocket queens. Boujmala then got the rest of his pack out with KQ trailing Worthington-Leese’s AQ. Both players made queens, but Worthington-Leese’s superior player earned him the bet. Boujmaleh earned $251,611 to be the fifth-place finisher.

Joachim Haraldstad got the last six or so of his large blinds in preposition with the K-6 of his mini blinds. Watson with 10-8 scores called a proper trip and flop to take the lead. He ended up backing up to eliminate Haraldstad (4th – $327,153).

Shortly thereafter, Worthington-Leese took the all-in at 973 flop with 105 to draw a flush. It was against Jj Leonard Mao. 5 In turn, Worthington-Leese gave a pair some extra outs, but 6 In the end sending him packing in third place ($425.272).

Watson entered the showdown game with 17,500,000 to 15,425,000 Maue. The two struck a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money which left nearly $36,000 and the title to play for.

Maue outpaced the lead at first, but Watson soon won a large pot with his top pair and king kicker edging the same pair with Maue’s six kicker. That hand gave Watson a 3:1 lead. Maue struggled again to even nearly a point, but Watson was able to extend his chip advantage back to better than 2:1 again by the time his last hand was dealt. Watson raised the button by 109 Maue defended his big blind by 43. The flip came 1075 And Watson made a running bet when checking it out. Maue was lifted by his straight drawing and called out Watson with the top pair. Bring the role a, prompting checks from both players. 7 In the end, the board was paired and Maue moved it all in. Watson thought about it for a few minutes before making the call to win the bet and the title. Maue earned $745,977 as runner-up, the largest live tournament score to date for a professional German poker player.

Here is a look at payments and POY Points awarded on the last day:

Image credit: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intel Intellectual Holdings Limited.