Mohsin Charania Wins €1,350,000 Million at EPT Grand Final 2012
PokerStars qualifier Mohsin "Chicagocards1" Charania has won the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event for a massive €1,350,000.
Charania, 27, from Chicago, Illinois, beat fellow qualifier Lucille Cailly heads-up to take the title. Cailly, 29, from Paris, was the first woman ever to make the final of the EPT Grand Final and took €1,050,000 for her runner-up finish.
Today’s final, which was broadcast cards-up with a one-hour delay on PokerStars.tv and Germany’s Sport1 channel, also featured Italian Poker Tour San Remo champion Sergio Castelluccio (4th for €400,000) and EPT Warsaw finalist Clayton Mozdzen (7th for €185,000).
As well as his cash prize, Charania received a stunning bracelet worth €25,000 from Shamballa Jewels, the Official Bracelet Sponsor of EPT8 Main Events. He also secured a seat in tomorrow’s EPT Tournament of Champions €100,000 free-roll. A total of 40 EPT champions are set to play, with the event broadcast live on PokerStars.tv.
Charania took up poker while studying finance at the University of Illinois. Since then he's won over $3.5 million playing online, including a SCOOP side event victory in 2010, and just over $500,000 in live events. Today’s victory gives him by far his biggest live result. He said: “I feel great. This is my first trophy – I don’t think they give you these when you win a tournament online. I’ve spent two months playing poker in Europe and this is only the second time I’ve made the antes.” Charania, who his seat in a €33 re-buy satellite on PokerStars, beat Cailly when his QQ stood up against the French pro’s AK. The pair were among 160 players who won their seat to the event online on PokerStars.
A total of 665 players from 54 countries competed in this season’s EPT Grand Final Main Event creating a total prize pool of €6,650,000. A total of 97 players were paid; EPT Prague champion Martin Finger and American Andrew Badecker went out at the same time on the bubble so shared the €15,000 prize for 96th place between them.
Among those to make the money were Justin Bonomo, who won the €100,000 Super High Roller at the start of the Grand Final for €1,640,000, plus Team PokerStars Pros Matthias De Meulder, Richard Toth, Sandra Naujoks, Angel Guillen, Pierre Neuville, Max Martinez and Nacho Barbero.
Lebanese player Georges Dib won the Last Longer contest run by Skrill, the Official Payment Provider Sponsor for EPT Season 8. He finished 15th for €50,000 and got the full €10,600 Main Event buy-in credited back into his Skrill account. Skrill has been attending all EPTs this season to talk to players and chat about various account options, incentives and loyalty programmes.
The €10,000 Main Event was one of 37 tournaments taking place at Le Sporting Casino in Monaco as part of the eighth EPT Grand Final “Festival of Poker”, from April 23 to May 1. Season 8 has taken players all over Europe, as well as to the Bahamas in January for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
In other EPT Grand Final side events, Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren beat Melanie Weisner to take down the €5,000 NL Heads-Up event (the first-ever all-female EPT final); German player Khiem Nguyen won the €1k PLO side event for €43,700, thus securing his EPT Omaha Player of the Year title at tomorrow night’s Awards ceremony; American Daniel Smith won both the €5,000 NL and €5,000 NL Turbo side events for combined winnings of €412,150 and German pro Marvin Rettenmaier won the €2,000 NL event for €118,330. The €25,000 High Roller is now in the money with Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, Philipp Gruissem and Phil Ivey vying to take the chip lead through to tomorrow’s final table.
Source: www.pokerstars.com
