Mike Watson Takes Down EPT Monte Carlo Main Event for €749,425

Mike “Sir Watts” Watson took down the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event, the Canadian bagging his second EPT title and €749,425 ($823,558) after a heads-up deal with Germany’s Leonard Maue.

A monster field of 1098 entries at €5300 per head produced a prizepool of €5,325,300, with 159 players making the money in the 6-day event at the Casino Monte-Carlo in Monaco.

Among those reaching the paid spots were well-known names such as Maria Lampropoulos, Sam Greenwood, Ben Spragg, Dario Sammartino, Davidi Kitai, Daniel Dvoress.

There was one player in particular who was under intense scrutiny, newly dethroned ex-World Chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, who gave up his title without a fight.

Poker seems whet his appetite for competition and the Norwegian genius made plenty of headlines before falling in 63rd spot for a €15k cash.

By the time they reached day six and the final table, Leo Worthington-Leese held the chip lead, the English pro in the headlines recently for making some loud and dubious claims about Will Kassouf at the Irish Open in Dublin.

No such drama unfolded in Monte Carlo, but there was €2.5million up for grabs. Arnaud Enselme had to settle for 6th place after running into Watson at the wrong time, all the chips going in on the flop...

Enselme: 10♦ 10♣
Watson: J♠ J♦

Flop: 3♦ 6♦ 9♣
Turn: K♥
River: 6♥

The second Frenchman at the table fell next, Samy Boujmala dominated by Worthington-Leese, and then Norway’s Joachim Haraldstad hit the rail in 4th for €305,750 courtesy of Watson.

Worthington-Leese had to settle for 3rd place when he got it all in with a flush draw against Maue’s overpair...

Worthington-Leese: 10♦ 5♦
Maue: J♠ J♦

Flop: 9♣ 7♦ 3♦
Turn: 5♣
River: 6♠

Heads-up would decide whether or not Watson joined Victoria Coren-Mitchell and Mikalai Pobal as two-time EPT winners and the end can be seen below, after a deal had been struck that left €33,340 and the EPT Main Event trophy to play for.

Final results

*after heads-up deal

“It's an amazing accomplishment,” Watson told PokerNews after his victory. “You know, winning two main events on the same tour is really hard. And yeah, I just feel really lucky that I was able to pull it off today.”