This year’s MCOP €4,250 Main Event title will stay in the Netherlands as local player Hakim Zoufri won the tournament on Saturday. To celebrate his victory, the winner received €275,608 in prize money, the special MCOP champion’s plate, and a gigantic Heineken mug. The player will also remain in the most popular Dutch festival’s history as the big champion of its 25th anniversary edition.
Zoufri emerged victorious on the tournament’s additional fifth day. The MCOP Main Event was originally scheduled to be concluded on Friday with the champion posing with their check and other prizes. However, two-handed play between Zoufri and his heads-up opponent Fabio Sperling from Germany extended to 3 am on Friday night and organizers decided to call it a day and to have the two players finish what they had started on Saturday afternoon.
The heads-up opponents were received at Holland Casino Amsterdam at 4 pm to play down to a champion. Zoufri was holding the chip lead at that time but Sperling was really close behind him. Although the German dominated the greater part of final-table play the previous day, he did not have much chance to improve on Saturday. Zoufri started extending his advantage from the very moment when cards were thrown in the air and needed no more than half an hour to finish off his last remaining opponent.
On the last hand in play, Sperling had 3,440,000 left in chips and moved them all-in pre-flop. Zoufri gave it a second of thought and then called with [7h][7s]. Sperling tabled [As][Qs]. The flop ran out [3s][6c][Kc] and was of no help to neither player. The [9s] came on the turn, opening a number of outs for Sperling. However, the [4h] hit the river and it was all over for the German player. His share of the prize pool amounted to €184,820.
Prior to yesterday, Zoufri had ten in-the-money finishes in live poker events but no major tournament victory. Including his 2016 MCOP Main Event first-place payout, the Dutch player’s live tournament winnings now amount to $409,363.
The MCOP €4,250 Main Event drew 356 international entries this year. The created prize pool of €1,409,760 was split among those who occupied the top 53 positions, with all of them being guaranteed a minimum payout of €7,895.
