Atanas Malinov Wins France Poker Series Monte Carlo Main Event

More than two thousand entries were made in the kickoff event of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo festival that is currently ongoing at the Sporting Monte-Carlo in Monaco. The 2,096-entry field for the France Poker Series €1,100 no-limit hold’em main event, was ultimately narrowed down to one player: Bulgaria’s Atanas Malinov. The 33-year-old emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of €303,190 ($327,445 USD).

This was the largest recorded live tournament score yet for Malinov, surpassing the $190,000 he earned as the runner-up in a $5,000 buy-in Merit Series of Poker event back in 2015. He now has more than a million in career tournament earnings to his name.

Malinov was also awarded 1,080 Card Player Player of the Year points for the victory, and is now situated inside the top 90 in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

The top 314 finishers earned a share of the €2,012,160 ($2,151,402 USD) prize pool in this event, with six-figure scores for the final four. After four starting flights and two more days of play, the sea of entries had been narrowed down to just six contenders remaining.

Malinov held the lead when play resumed, and added to his advantage throughout the final day by scoring each and every knockout on his way to the title. He first dispatched France’s Remy Murcia (6th – $66,442), who was on fumes after a hero call gone wrong against Marco Gambini.

Bracelet winner and 2019 EPT Prague main event fourth-place finisher Gaby Livshitz was the next to fall. His A-Q suited was unable to hold in a battle of the blinds against the A-5 of Malinov, which improved to aces full of fives by the river. Livshitz earned $86,378 as the fifth-place finisher, growing the Israeli player’s career tournament haul to over $2 million in the process.

Canada’s Guillaume Nolet was awarded $112,288 as the fourth-place finisher when his A-J was outrun by Malinov’s J-6 suited. Malinov flopped a six to turn the tables, and then made sixes full of tens by the river to make the knockout official. Nolet is approaching $2.2 million in career earnings after this latest deep run.

A classic coin flip spelled the end of Gambini’s tournament. The Italian’s A-9 outflopped the pocket fours of Malinov after all of the chips went in preflop, but a four on the river gave Malinov a winning set. Gambini earned $145,973 as the third-place finisher.

Heads-up play began with Malinov holding more than a 10:1 chip lead over Virgile Turchi. The Frenchman earned a couple of double ups early on, and was in good shape to double again when he got all-in with K7 leading the 107 of Malinov. The board ran out 108646, though, giving Malinov tens up for the win. Turchi secured $204,358 as the runner-up, by far the largest score on his resume.

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

Photo credits: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Eloy Cabacas.

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