2009 PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw

Congratulations to Christophe Benzimra, 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw Champion!

In just under eight hours of final-table action, the last eight players have been whittled down to just one.

Christophe Benzimra of France stands alone as champion tonight after outlasting a tough field and collecting every chip on the table. The man who says "To me, poker is more about having fun than making money," is the man walking away with all the cash -- 1,493,170 PLN in all.

After coming into the final table sitting in sixth in chips, Benzimra won the largest and most important pot of the day when he got it all in with pocket jacks against Rusland Prydryk's queens and Oleksandr Vaserfirer's aces. If it wasn't for a jack on the flop, Benzimra would have been out of here a long time ago. Instead, he stormed up the leader board, nearly overtaking Vaserfirer for the chip lead.

From there, he picked his spots well and was able to picks up chips here and there to work his way to the top. Benzimra almost eliminated his eventual heads-up opponent, Alfio "aLFioSn0b" Battisti, when four handed, but a lucky river card saved Battisti from the rail. After that, Benzimra went on to bust a crippled Luca Pagano in fourth place. Battisti busted Vaserfirer in third.

After a break in the action for dinner, Benzimra and Battisti returned to do battle and it wouldn't take long for the two to clash. They were involved in a lot of action and saw a lot of flops together. Battisti took his last shot on a flush draw, but failed to get there against Benzimra's two pair, eliminating him in second place.

Benzimra's played plenty of EPT's and his perseverance has finally paid off with a win here in Poland. He'll take home the prize money, the trophy, and an entry into the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Congratulations to all the winners and especially to Christophe Benzimra, the 2009 PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw champion!

So long from Poland and thanks once again for following PokerNews.com! We'll see you on the next stop.

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