Zimnan Ziyard Wins EPT Loutraki Main Event

British poker professional Zimnan Ziyard defeated a field of 336 players to win the first ever European Poker Tour event in Greece this week.

The €4,400 EPT Loutraki main event featured a €1,344,000 total prize pool, and awarded €347,000 to Ziyard for becoming its inaugural champion.

After quickly getting down to three-handed play, it took a number of hours to lose third-place finisher John Taramas (€134,000).

Ziyard then began a two hour heads-up battle with German Hauke Heseding. Eventually, Ziyard picked off an all-in bluff with two pair against Heseding’s missed flush draw to win a massive pot.

The exact chip counts were unclear, but when they counted down the stacks it was found that Ziyard had Heseding covered by one big blind, and that he had indeed won the first ever EPT Loutraki main event.

The €347,000 is by far the largest score of Ziyard’s career. The 25-year-old Eastbourne, UK native had some prior success on the tournament circuit, with his largest cash coming from a sixth-place finish in a World Series of Poker $3,000 pot-limit Omaha event for $71,548.

Here is a look at the final table results:

1. Zimnan Ziyard — €347,000

2. Hauke Heseding — €221,800

3. John Taramas — €134,400 

4. Florian Schleps — €100,800

5. Pierre Mothes — €67,200 

6. Andras Kovacs — €53,700

7. Charalampos Kapernopoulos — €40,300

8. Mario Puccini — €27,000

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