Gilles Simon Wins First-Ever European Poker Tour Cyprus Main Event

A handful of years ago, Gilles Simon was primarily playing low-stakes online poker tournaments. On Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, the Dutch player defeated a field of 1,320 entries in the first-ever PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event to earn $1,042,000.

“It’s absolutely insane. It’s been a crazy ride the last five years,” said Simon after the win.

Back in 2019 Simon had won a competition put on by PokerStars called ‘Dare To Stream’, which saw his broadcasts of low buy-in online play earn him a seat in the $25,000 buy-in the PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC) that year.

Streaming is no longer a focus for the 24-year-old based in Valkenburg, Netherlands. In recent years he has worked his way up the online tournament stakes. He even won a World Championship of Online Poker title earlier this year. This was his first seven-figure tournament score. It brought his recorded tournament earnings to nearly $1.5 million.

In addition to the title and the money, Simon also secured 1,920 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his first qualified score of 2023, but it alone was enough to catapult him up the rankings and into 186th place on the POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker.

“In the end, all you need is the right timing, a very dirty mustache, and a lot of luck,” Simon said of his breakout win.

This event ran from Oct. 16-22 inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Cyprus. It featured two starting flights and then took four more days to narrow the field of 1,320 down to seven contenders. The top 199 finishers earned a piece of the $6,402,000 prize pool, with $162,925 locked up by the time the final day began with Simon in the lead.

Bjorn Kozenkai (7th – $162,925) was the first to fall, running K-10 into the A-10 of Jose Gonzalez Sanchez. Nikita Kuznetsov (6th – $211,850) soon followed, with his pocket fours unable to come from behind against the pocket kings of Simon.

A classic preflop race resulted in the next knockout. Yannick Schumacher got all-in with AQ facing the JJ of Halil Tasyurek, which improved to jacks full by the turn. Schumacher earned $275,425 as the fifth-place finisher.

Despite scoring that elimination, Tasyurek was ultimately the next player to his the rail. He got all-in in a battle of the blinds with A-Q leading the K-J of Andrea Dato, but a king-high runout saw him finish fourth for $358,075.

Jose Gonzalez Sanchez was also busted by Dato, who once again was holding K-J. It was an open-shove from the small blind with Q-6 for Sanchez and a call from the big blind for Dato. Both players flopped a pair, but Dato made kings and hacks by the end to lock up the pot. Sanchez earned $465,425 as the third-place finisher.

Heads-up play began with Dato holding more than a 2:1 chip advantage over Simon. The roles were soon reversed, with Simon first closing the gap and then overtaking the lead when his kings and nines with a ten kicker bested the same hand with a lower kicker for Dato.

Simon remained well out in front by the time the final hand was dealt. Dato min-raised raised to 1,600,000 from the big blind with AJ after Simon had limped on the button with K8. Simon called and the flop came out 872. Dato bet 500,000. Simon raised to 1,500,000. Dato moved all-in for 5,350,000 and Simon quickly called. The 3 turn and 6 river were no help to Dato and the Italian was eliminated in second place, earning $652,200 for his efforts.

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

Photo credits: Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.

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