With the EPT quickly gaining in popularity, the Deauville event wasn't short of big names with Marcel Luske, Rob Hollink, Roy Brindley, Barny Boatman, Juha Helppi, Julian Garnder, and Isabelle Mercier all present. Not to mention the homegrown talent in Pascal Perrault and Jan Boubli. Also impossible to miss was the 2004 WSOP champion Greg Raymer, although his tournament was to be short lived when he exited after just 3 hands to the ever-consistent Julian Thew.
With the first 40 being paid, the unfortunate bubbleboy, or in this case girl, was journalist Jen Mason. Her big slick was alas no match for John Hewston's pocket queens and the Hemel lass was forced to wallow on the rail, an unfortunate fate that was difficult to wish upon anyone.
The final table represented a mixture of nationalities, although chip leader was none other than England's own Ram Vaswani with over a million in chips. With Stuart Nash and Isabelle Mercier departing in 8 th and 7 th respectively, Patric Martensson and Ram Vaswani were soon to follow. At this point murmurs of a deal were heard, but, as per usual, details remain sketchy.
When the smoke cleared it was Mats Iremark who held up the coveted title. The 23 year old wonder kid was clearly overjoyed with his victory and is sure to be a major threat in future comps.
The official results are as follows:
2nd -- Mark Boudewijn (€259,000)
3rd -- Kirill Gerasimov (€155,300)
4th -- Theo Jorgensen (€118,500)
5th -- Ram Vaswani (€97,700)
6th -- Patric Martensson (€76,800)
7th -- Isabelle Mercier (€60,800)
8th -- Stuart Nash (€43,500)