Philipp Gruissem Wins EPT Grand Final €25,000 High Roller

The 2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €25,000 no-limit hold’em high roller drew a record field of 214 entries, building a prizepool of €5,243,000 ($7,271,855 USD). The top 31 finishers made the money, but after three days of high stakes action only one player would away victorious. In the end German high roller extraordinaire Philipp Gruissem was that player, capturing his 14th career tournament title and the first place prize of €993,963 ($1,378,592 USD). As a result the 27-year-old from Aachen increased his lifetime live tournament earnings to over $9.4 million, enough to overtake Pius Heinz as the highest earning German player in live tournament history.

In addition to the title and the prize money Gruissem also earned 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to catapult him into 40th in the overall POY standings. This was his first final table showing in 2014 after making seven in 2013, winning three titles and cashing for nearly $4.5 million throughout last year.

Gruissem entered the eight-handed final table in the middle of the pack, but made it down to heads-up play with American pro Scott Seiver with a solid chip lead after eliminating third-place finisher Davidi Kitai. Seiver and Gruissem, who had played heads-up for a super high roller title last fall at the WPT Alpha8 London, made a deal that guaranteed the former €857,637 and the later €993,963. They also agreed to flip for the title and the trophy.

On the first hand Seiver was all-in with 32 and Gruissem somehow picked up the QQ. The board ran out K104A8 to secure the pot and the title for Gruissem. Seiver took home his prize money and 1,050 POY points. This was his third POY qualified final table of the year, having finished fifth in the Aussie Millions $25,000 event for $233,408 and seventh in the Aussie Millions main event for another $152,235. He also won a small €5,200 pot-limit Omaha side event at the EPT Grand Final just days prior to this event. As a result of all of that Seiver now sits in 15th place in the overall POY standings.

Fifth place finisher Byron Kaverman, who finished runner-up in the World Poker Tour Championship at Borgata last week, earned another €337,650 and 525 POY points. These two scores and a smaller final table finish in a $1,000 event at the Borgata in January combined to move Kaverman into 12th place in the POY rankings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Photos courtesy of PokerStars / Neil Stoddart.

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