Alexandru Papazian Wins 2016 EPT Grand Final €25,750 High Roller

Alexandru Papazian came into the 2016 European Poker Tour Grand Final €25,750 no-limit hold’em high roller event with less than $200,000 in prior live tournament earnings. The 27-year-old was far from inexperienced in poker, though, he simply had found most of his success so far in the online realm where he plays as “steakaddict” on PokerStars. The Romanian navigated a record field of 231 entries to win his very first live tournament title and the massive top prize of €1,197,000 ($1,365,358 USD).

In addition to the title and the money Papazian also scored 1,344 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him into 47th place in the standings.

Papazian had to contend with a tough final table that featured the likes of Max Silver (7th – $230,468 USD), reigning Player of the Year champ Anthony Zinno (6th – $315,675 USD) and 2015 WSOP November Niner Zvi Stern (4th – $525,497 USD).

In the end it came down to a heads up battle between Papazian and fellow online poker specialist Alexandros Kolonias. Papazian began heads-up play with over 10 million of the roughly 11.5 million chips in play and it looked like he might run away with it until Kolonias found three double-ups in order to essentially even up the stacks.

The two battled back and forth for several hours but in the end Kolonias got his last chips all-in preflop with pocket nines against Papazian’s A4. Kolonias looked like he was about to double up again as the flop brought the 432 and the turn the J. The A on the river changed everything, pairing Papazian’s ace to give him the superior hand and send Kolonias to the rail as the runner up with €805,900 ($919,250 USD).

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

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