EPT8 Sanremo Winner to Defend Title at This Year’s Event
Russian poker pro Andrey Pateychuk is returning to the Italian Riviera at the start of October to defend his EPT8 Sanremo crown. Pateychuk, who won €680,000 in last year’s main event, has qualified for the €5,300 Main Event via a €530 PokerStars online satellite.
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Last October Pateychuk came through a tough field of more than 800 players to reach the final table, and won a nail-biting last hand against Bulgarian player Dimitar Danchev to take the title and €680,000 at the Casino Sanremo. The win is still his biggest to date, but it proved to be the start of a special 12 months for the 22-year-old, with a win at the WPT Prague event for €450,000, a 12th-place finish at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand final, and two cashes at the World Series of Poker.
Sanremo stars
It’s not just Pateychuk who has experienced the star-making qualities of the Italian stop of the European Poker Tour. Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree and Jason Mercier shot to fame with first-place finishes at this event. So far none have successfully defended their crown, so will Pateychuk be the first or will another future poker star be revealed to the world?
In addition to these former Sanremo champions, the upcoming Italian festival will be attended by a host of EPT stars including Nicolas Chouity (EPT6 Grand Final winner), Mohsin Charania (EPT8 Grand Final winner), JC Alvarado (second in the EPT9 Barcelona €50k Super High Roller), and online poker legend Shaun Deeb. There will also be a strong Team PokerStars presence with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, Angel Guillen, Jonathan Duhamel, Vanessa Rousso, Chris Moneymaker, Lex Veldhius (15th in Sanremo last year) and Fatima Moreira de Melo (16th at EPT Barcelona in August) in attendance.
“Sanremo is one of the best attended stops on the European Poker Tour thanks to Italy’s growing poker market. In fact, the tournament has averaged close to a thousand runners for its main event since its inception making it one of the most lucrative tournaments in the world,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly. “More tournaments, better structures, 22 trophies to be won, and three previous Sanremo winners will ensure this year’s event is one to remember.”
Online qualifiers
The EPT Sanremo festival will run from October 3-11 and feature 22 events with buy-ins starting from as little as €120 right up to €10,000. Qualifiers are running now from as little as €1.10 at PokerStars.com.
EPT Live webcast
Poker fans around the world can also watch the €5,300 Main Event final table ‘as live’ (one-hour delay) – with cards showing – on PokerStars.tv on Thursday, October 11 at 16:00 CET. The webcast will have commentary in English and Italian from a variety of Team PokerStars Pros, and there will be opportunities for viewers to take part in exclusive freerolls.
