EPT Grand Final Side Event Review: Dan Smith Wins Fourth €5,000 Event in Monaco

May 10, 2015

Last week, we took a look at the first batch of side events from the 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. At the time, there were nearly 30 non-satellite events from the 78-event schedule completed and winners such as Scott Seiver and Bryn Kenney highlighted the results page.

Now we'd like to wrap up the remainder of the events, which were once again highlighted by some big names taking home trophies.

First off, the three events with a buy-in of €5,000 were each won by notable faces. First, the €5,300 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed event that attracted 121 entries was won by German poker star Philipp Gruissem. Gruissem took home €147,700 and beat a stacked final table that included Sylvain Loosli (2nd - €99,800), Fabian Quoss (3rd - €64,800), Shyam Srinivasan (4th - €53,700), Joao Vieira (5th - €43,300), Mayu Roca (6th - €34,200), and Jason Mo (7th - €26,100).

Other notables tho cash in the event Gruissem won were Sorel Mizzi (10th - €12,000), Benjamin Pollak (13th - €10,500), and Nick Petrangelo (15th - €9,700).

In the €5,200 Hyper-Turbo No-Limit Hold'em, 82 entries were generated and none other than Dan Smith took top honors for €109,370. This marked the fourth €5,000 buy-in event that Smith has won at the EPT Grand Final in Monaco. In 2012, he famously won three €5,000 events within a week's time for a combined take of €521,480.

Notables to cash in the event Smith won were David Dayan (3rd - €50,900), winner of the earlier €5,200 Turbo No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed event, [Removed:17] (4th - €39,170), and Salman Behbehani (9th - €11,335)

Lastly in the trip of €5,000 events on the second half of the schedule, Jason Koon scored a €21,830 victory after winning the €5,200 Turbo 8-Game 6-Handed event. Although only nine players were in the field, Koon had to defeat George Danzer (€13,100) in heads-up play and battle with Scott Clements, who finished third (€8,720). Koon joked that he only knew how to play two of the games entering the event, but said that both Danzer and Clements were kind to show him the ropes while they played.

This event marked the first live tournament cash for Koon in an event other than no-limit Texas hold'em. Welcome to mixed games, Mr. Koon.

Another event that drew a large top prize was the €3,250 Escalator No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed tournament. In that event, Italy's Rocco Palumbo topped the pack to win €71,850. He had to contend with a lot of top players in the money, with Daniel Dvoress (3rd - €33,000), Andras Nemeth (7th - €12,850), Simon Deadman (9th - €7,580), Fedor Holz (10th - €5,850), and Jake Cody (11th - €5,850) all going deep.

Lastly, the €10,200 Turbo No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed event, which is always a favorite for top pros to close out the series, was topped by Ukraine's Igor Yaroshevsky. He pocketed €218,300 and defeated Connor Drinan heads up. Drinan took €155,190 for his second-place result.

Poland's 19-year-old poker genius Dzmitry Urbanovich took third for €101,600, Scott Seiver finished fourth for €78,190, and Martin Finger finished in seventh for €38,100. Ilkin Garibli (€29,770), Yan (€22,620), Ivan Luca (€19,850), and Behbehani (€19,850) all made the money in places 8-11.

Side Event Results

For more information on the results from the side events, please click here.

_{*Lead photo courtesy of PokerStars.}

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