Nottingham’s own legend Julian Thew takes the Monte Carlo title as he wins the £291,000 event!
Outside the traditional slot of December, our third £1000 Monte Carlo Event comes to a close. Simon Trumper reports on the weekend’s success.
With a guaranteed £250,000 prizepool, £50K higher than that in December, we finally ended up with 291 players, which produced a £90,000 first prize. As usual, our Monte Carlo attracted some fine tournament poker players, some of which included James "Flushy" Dempsey, Stuart Fox, James Mitchell, Toby Lewis, Jack Ellwood, Jake Cody, Jon Kalmar, Julian Thew and Devilfish.
104 players started Day 1A and 187 Day 1B. After 10 1-hour levels in both, 107 returned for Day 2, playing down to the last 20, who then returned for the final on Sunday. Players on Day 3 included local champion (and chip leader) Julian Thew, winner of 2 GUKPT's and an EPT. Also still in play were both previous Monte Carlo winners Waheed Ashraf and Fraser Bellamy.
Incredibly, by the time we reached the final 9 both previous champions were still in with a chance of achieving their second title. Sadly it wasn't to be Fraser’s. His run of four finals four wins, came to an end after flopping a set and getting outdrawn. Fraser finished in 8th adding £6939 to his bankroll. Waheed only managed one spot better, running into a very unlucky flop. His QQ was up against AQ that flopped an A. By the time we got to the final 3, the chip counts were 1,900,000 for Sunny Chatta, 2,900,000 Tom Mcdonald and 3,900,000 for Julian Thew. A deal was agreed giving Julian £62,547 and the trophy and title, with £60,000 for Tom and £52,000 for Sunny. Congratulations to three great players!
Running throughout the Monte Carlo was the Party Poker 48-hour Big Cash Game. It started 8pm on Friday with a line up including Sam Trickett, Jennifer Tilly, Neil Channing, Annette Obrestad, Bruno Fitoussi, Devilfish and Tony G, and ended with Devilfish, Trickett and Channing returning after some sleep to join the likes of Andrew Feldman, Roland De Wolfe and Mike Matusow. The game attracted big audiences both live and via online streaming, and helped to create an immense atmosphere in the club.
In case it’d slipped our minds on why Dusk Till Dawn is recognised as one of the top card rooms in the world, on Sunday, the club breezed 3 tournaments simultaneously, as well as 14 cash games, reminding us all what a phenomenal poker facility we have. Well done to all the team at the club who contributed in putting on an astounding show of poker.
Next up is our €80,000 guaranteed Grand Prix III event in May. The event is guaranteed at 1,600 entrants, and is set to break the record once more for the biggest UK poker tournament of all time.