None of the notable players that we mentioned in last update made it to the final table of EPT Monte Carlo this year. Instead it came to be a battle between Pieter de Korver, Holland, and Matthew Woodward, USA.
The final table players (left to right): Alem Shah, Eric Qu, Daniel Zink, Pieter de Korver, Peter Traply, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Matthew Woodward, Mikhail Tulchinsky
First to leave the tournament was Peter Traply (second in the chips when the final table started), he was knocked out by Dag Martin Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen had over 11 million chips after this hand, and then he knocked out Daniel Zink in 7th place as well. Many people thought at this stage that Mikkelsen would go all the way. But as we all know, anything can happen in poker, and so it did as Dag Martin Mikkelsen was knocked out in 4th place. This left only 3 players to fight for the first prize of €2.3 million - Pieter de Korver (Holland), Matthew Woodward (USA) & Mikhail Tulchinskiy (Russia). Matthew Woodward shortly after they started playing 3 handed poker sent home the Russian when he got his money in with 3-3 that stood up against Tulchinskiy's Q-T.
Down to heads-up
Left in the tournament now were only Matthew Woodward and Pieter de Korver. Matthew Woodward who had been playing some great poker during the final table didn't have an easy time playing heads-up against Korver. Pieter de Korver really wasn't afraid of the American as he was pushing him around with big re-raises in pots where he didn't have good hands. This really paid off and soon the American was short stacked as they were about to play the hand that gave Pieter de Korver the win and €2.3 million in first prize. In the final hand the flop came 5-T-6 and both players got their money in. Both of them had pair of nines, but Korver had the best kicker. This gave him the pot as turn and river wasn't to any help for Woodward that probably wasn't that unhappy with his second prize of €1.3 million?
