The PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo was a highly anticipated event for several reasons. In the first place, it was the first PokerStars Championship festival to take place in Europe. And it was the event to represent the successor of the extremely popular European Poker Tour Grand Final.
Fresh from the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo experience, we can say that the festival managed to meet high expectations and to bring back sweet memories from the EPT era. Its schedule featured a big plethora of events of different formats, which is a must for every self-respecting live poker festival.
Placing big money at big risk, high roller tournaments always attract wider attention. Poker is a game equally entertaining to participate in and to watch. And given the fact that higher buy-in events usually draw poker’s biggest names, it is immensely entertaining to be a spectator of battles of titans.
The PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo featured quite a few high rollers and Casino News Daily believes that their champions need a special article to celebrate their achievements. Here are the winners of the highest buy-in events to have taken places throughout the festival, kindly hosted by the French Riviera and Monte-Carlo Casino.
Bryn Kenney
Kenney is a player of great poker capabilities and he proved that on one more occasion. He bested the field of the €100,000 Super High Roller for a first-place prize of €1,784,500. The player was the last one standing out of a field of 61 competitors. Viacheslav Buldygin from Russia was his final opponent. The player earned €1,290,800 for his runner-up finish.
As for Kenney, it is interesting to note that he became the first-ever player to win two $/€100,000 PokerStars-sponsored events. In January 2016, he topped the 58 entries of the PCA $100,000 Super High Roller for $1,687,800.
Adrian Mateos
Mateos emerged winner from the €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight-Max Shot Clock. The player had to storm through 64 entries in order to grab the title and the largest share of the €3,104,740 prize pool. He earned €908,000 for his efforts.
Poker people certainly remember that Mateos won the EPT Season 11 Grand Final €10,600 Main Event back in 2015.
Julian Stuer
The German was another big winner at the inaugural PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo. The player took down the €25,750 PokerStars Championship High Roller Eight-Max for €1,015,000. Stuer performed terrifically at the final table and defeated 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event winner John Juanda to lay hands on the High Roller title.
Philipp Gruissem
Gruissem was the other German to score a high roller victory during the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo. The player took down a field of 85 entries for a first-place prize of €485,135. It is also important to note that the German faced high roller machine Steve O’Dwyer heads-up, which makes his accomplishment even greater.
Timothy Adams
The Canadian took down the final €25,750 Eight-Max Shot Clock. His achievement included speeding through a 45-strong field and busting Argentinian poker star Ivan Luca heads-up. Adams collected €366,500 for accomplishing the task beautifully.
