Italian Mustapha Kanit has won the €50,000 buy-in European Poker Tour Monte Carlo High Roller after defeating the Canadian, Mike Watson, in heads-up action, to take the first prize of €936,500.
Mustapha Kanit is currently the #1 ranked Italian poker player according to the Global Poker Index (GPI). Keep this run up, and it’s inevitable that he will one day break into the world’s top 10.
The first-ever, one-day €50k buy-in event attracted 66 total entrants (54 unique & 12 re-entries). A few taps on a calculator will tell you that raised €3,201,660 to be distributed amongst the top nine players. It’s not bad work if you can get it, and certainly beats trying to make your way through a field of thousands.
It was the second largest event of the 78-event schedule. The €100,000 buy-in Super High Roller (SHR) went the way of Erik Seidel, and there were two faces that featured on the final table of that one, who also joined Kanit on the less expensive version.
World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) champion, Fedor Holz, came seventh in the €100,000, and he would finish fourth in this one. That means he has grossed €667,300 in the past two tournaments, but more importantly, it has given him even more experience playing with the very best in the world in the live setting.
The other player who made both final tables was Scott Seiver. The GPI #1 ranked player was the first to be eliminated at the final table of the €100k event, and that habit stuck, when his 9bb shove, holding KTo, was picked off by Martin Finger and Kanit, who both held queens. The king stayed in the deck, and Seiver had to settle for a €92,860 score.
But this was all about Kanit. The only player to win two side events in a single Aussie Millions festival; a member of the Global Poker Masters winning Italian side, and the recent winner of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event, must have known it was his for the taking when he moved all-in, from the small blind, holding [9d] [2s], saw Mark Teltscher call with [Kh] [Td], and then rivered a nine to send the man from the UK to the rail in seventh.
The likes of Fabian Quoss (5th) and Martin Finger (3rd) would also bite the dust before the heads-up action came down between Watson and Kanit. The Canadian held the chip lead. It wouldn’t last long. A lopsided AK v KQ clash gave it to Kanit, and he later rivered a straight, and got paid, to extend that lead, before finishing SirWatts off with a K7 v K5 all-in confrontation.
Final Table Results
1st. Mustapha Kanit, Italy, €936,500
2nd. Mike Watson, Canada, €672,300
3rd. Martin Finger, Germany, €437,000
4th. Fedor Holz, Germany, €329,800
5th. Fabian Quoss, Germany, €256,100
6th. Andrei Streltsou, Belarus, €198,500
7th. Mark Teltscher, UK, €156,900
8th. Ivan Luca, Argentina, €121,700
9th. Scott Seiver, USA, €92,860
