Sotirios Koutoupas Crowned EPT's First Greek Winner
Monday, 3 February 2014
The European Poker Tour has crowned its first Greek winner after Sotirios Koutoupas triumphed in Deauville.
Koutoupas was runner up at last year's EPT Prague Main Event and made no mistake this time round, seeing off a final table that included Brits Harry Law, Eli Heath and Oliver Price and Eugene Katchalov.
The Ukrainian came tantalisingly close to a Triple Crown but was unable to beat the red hot Koutoupas.
“At this point in my career I'm obviously looking for first places and the Triple Crown is always in the back of mind, but at the same time I realise how hard it is to win a tournament,” said Katchalov. “I think I was a lot more upset in Barcelona. I think I've grown up and don't put so much pressure on myself to win. I'm satisfied with second place. I've got a lot of money to soothe my wounds!”
Koutoupas was on the right side of the flips in heads up play and needed a slice of luck to seal the title, flopping trips with A3 to crush Katchalov's AK.
“It was my time now, it was my time to win,” said the 31-year-old, who pocketed a career best score of €614,000. “I was very lucky today in some situations but that’s poker. Everything went well for me. After Prague, I had some more to do.”
1. Sotirios Koutoupas, Greece, €614,000
2. Eugene Katchalov, Ukraine, Team PokerStars Pro, €379,500
3. Oliver Price, UK, €271,200
4. Eli Heath, UK, €207,800
5. Harry Law, UK, €164,600
6. Rustem Muratov, Russia, PokerStars qualifier, €128,200
7. Carlo De Benedittis, Italy, PokerStars qualifier, €93,000
8. Anthony Lerust, France, €63,900
The EPT heads to Austria for its next stop. The EPT Vienna festival runs from 19-29 March with qualifiers up and running at PokerStars.
Image courtesy of Neil Stoddart at PokerStars.