EPT Season Six Recap

The sixth season of the European Poker Tour came to a close this week. Thirteen events took place starting in Kiev last August and ending in Monte Carlo last week. Thirteen new EPT champions were crowned; the tour has yet to have a repeat champion although Mike McDonald came close when he finished 3rd at Deauville in January. online poker 468x60 Largest Payday The largest payday of the year went to Lebanon's Nicolas Chouity who won the Grand Final in Monte Carlo for $2,263,000. Not far behind him was PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) winner Harrison Gimbel who pocketed $2.2 million. Although attendance on the EPT has continued to increase year-over-year since its inception, neither of these scores were as large as previous winners of the same events. The EPT instituted a flatter payout structure so although the PCA had nearly 200 more players this year than last, Harrison Gimbel's payday was $800,000 smaller than Poorya Nazari's. Player of the Year EPT Season Six Player of the Year went to Russian pro Max Lykov. The 22 year old got off to a great start on his quest for POY by winning at Kiev, the first event of the year. A 13th place finish at EPT Snowfest, which was a new event on this year's schedule, along with a couple of strong finishes in preliminary events, was enough for Lykov to hold off any competition. EPT Achievement of the Year The EPT Achievement of the Year, an award voted on by players, went to Danish pro Allan Baekke. After winning EPT Snowfest for €445,000, Baekke finished 12th in a field of 1,240 at San Remo just a couple weeks later. Players' Choice Award American Kevin MacPhee won the EPT Season Six Players' Choice Award. MacPhee won the first EPT event held in Berlin for €1,000,000. On receiving the vote of his peers, MacPhee commented, "I feel awesome about winning this because I'm American and this is the European Poker Tour. I've made a lot of friends in every single place I've gone and I feel like I have friends in every single country in the world now. To be voted by them is really special." List of Winners Here are the 13 winners, their country of origin, and their first place prize money from EPT Season Six: Kiev - Max Lykov (Russia) €330,000 Barcelona - Carter Phillips (USA) €850,000 London - Aaron Gustavson (USA) £850,000 Warsaw - Christophe Benzimra (France) €358,000 Vilamoura - Antonio Matias (Portugal) €404,000 Prague - Jan Skampa (Czech Republic) €682,000 PCA - Harrison Gimbel (USA) $2,200,000 Deauville - Jake Cody (UK) €847,000 Copenhagen - Anton Wigg (Sweden) DKK 3,675,000 Berlin - Kevin MacPhee (USA) €1,000,000 Snowfest - Allan Baekke (Denmark) €445,000 San Remo - Liv Boeree (UK) €1,250,000 Monte Carlo - Nicolas Chouity (Lebanon) €1,700,000