Jan Bendik has won the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event. The 51-year-old defeated a record field of 1,098 entries, the biggest in tournament’s 12-year history, to become the primary ever Slovakian EPT champion and win the €961,800 ($1,097,077 USD) first-place prize.
“I’ve been trying for this my whole career. Before this, the most important tournaments I’d won were €2,000 [events]," Bendik told PokerStars reporters after the win. “I’ve played a large number of final tables, so I wasn’t thinking specifically about EPT Main Event ones today. But when you look me up, when I’ve made it to heads-up – with the exception of one time, I’ve always won. That’s why I didn’t intend to make any deal, I trusted myself to overcome my opponent heads-up. A LARGE NUMBER OF luck needed to be involved to make that happen but that’s a part of the game.”
Bendik came into the overall day in third chip position a few of the six remaining players, but was well behind the leaders in Adrien Allain and Jimmy Guerrero. He busted Oren Rosen in sixth place to make up some ground after which survived to a few handed play as Allain and Guerrero sent the opposite finalists packing. Allain eliminated Guerrero in third place to take a 2-to-1 chip lead into the overall showdown.
As Bendik mentioned he declined to make a deal after reaching heads-up and the overall two batted it out for 136 hands. In any case Allain got all-in preflop with the 8
8
against Bendik’s 10
10. Allain flopped a collection on a A8
4. Bendik caught back up in a rush when he spiked the 10 to make a better set. The 3 completed the board and Allain was sent to the rail because the runner-up, earning €577,800 ($659,068 USD).
In addition to the title and the money Bendik was also awarded 1,920 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year however it alone was enough to peer him jump into 15th place within the standings. Allain’s 1,600 points moved him into 30th within the rankings.
Here is a glance on the payouts and POY points awarded on this event:
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
| 1 | Jan Bendik | $1,097,077 | 1920 |
| 2 | Adrien Allain | $659,068 | 1600 |
| 3 | Jimmy Guerrero | $464,073 | 1280 |
| 4 | Asan Umarov | $348,651 | 960 |
| 5 | Pierre Calamusa | $266,684 | 800 |
| 6 | Oren Rosen | $194,994 | 640 |
| 7 | Antoine Saout | $146,308 | 480 |
| 8 | Dario Sammartino | $104,720 | 320 |
Winner photo courtesy of PokerStars / Neil Stoddart.
Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]
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