PokerStars player Will Fry, from Nottingham in the UK, has been crowned the first champion of PokerStars.com EPT Budapest. The 28-year-old poker pro won the €595,839 first prize after defeating 531 players in the €4,350 sell-out event. Fry, who also wins a seat to the €10,000 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, has been playing poker since he was six years old but only took up Texas Hold’em eight years ago. For the past five years, the former croupier and art student has made poker his full-time job, specialising in online cash games. This was his first major live event.
Fry triumphed in the Hungarian capital when his pocket jacks beat the 35-year-old Romanian Ciprian Hrisca’s A-6. Fry said: “They were the first good cards I’d had in ages. Up until then I’d been reraising with rubbish, but if I get good cards, I can be pretty dangerous.” He now plans to travel for a while and give some of his winnings to charities that raise awareness of third-world poverty.
The PokerStars sponsored player Johnny Lodden (below), who has cashed at six EPT events but has never previously made a final table, missed out on his first EPT title when he was eliminated in eighth place for €53,200.
The inaugural EPT Budapest tournament follows the success of debut events in Prague last season and Warsaw the season before, and attracted players from all over the world including 71 Hungarian players. Hungarians have proven an increasingly impressive force on the international poker scene and the field in Budapest included Denes Kalo, who was a runner up twice on last season’s EPT, and Valdemar Kwaysser, who won the Latin America Poker Tour event in Costa Rica this year. But it was the businessman Zoltan Toth, 41, who carried Hungary’s hopes heading into the final, ending in seventh place for €78,736.A total of 157 PokerStars players played in the four-day event, including 104 who won their seats online. Alex Kravchenko fared best out of the eight Team PokerStars Pros in the field, finishing 23rd for €10,640. EPT presenter Kara Scott was also sponsored by PokerStars, and followed her 104th place finish in the WSOP Main Event with another cash here. Scott took 52nd place for €7,448.
The EPT founder John Duthie said: “The EPT has once again proved that we can move into emerging markets like Hungary and provide a sell-out tournament. The support from the local players has been overwhelming and players have also been happy to travel from all over the world to attend the inaugural event in Budapest.”
1st Will Fry -- €595,840
2nd Ciprian Hrisca -- €342,608
3rd Martin Jacobson -- €197,904
4th Albert Kirk-Iversen -- €153,216
5th Marino Serenelli -- €127,680
6th Gino Alacqua -- €100,016
7th Toth Zoltan -- €78,736
8th Johnny Lodden -- €53,200
2nd Ciprian Hrisca -- €342,608
3rd Martin Jacobson -- €197,904
4th Albert Kirk-Iversen -- €153,216
5th Marino Serenelli -- €127,680
6th Gino Alacqua -- €100,016
7th Toth Zoltan -- €78,736
8th Johnny Lodden -- €53,200