Europeans won five of the top eight prizes in the recently-concluded European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monaco while North Americans won just three, but among those three were the top two finishers.

Gavin Griffin, 25, of Los Angeles, Calif., USA, defeated more than 700 other entrants to win the EPT’s third-season Grand Final, which was heldat the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino in Monte Carlo, Monaco, from March 28 to April 2, 2007.

The results were as follows:

• For his winning efforts in the no-limit, Texas hold ‘em poker tournament, Griffin took home the top prize of 1,825,000 euros, which is equal to about 2.4 million U.S. dollars.
• Finishing second in the tourney was Marc Karam of Ottawa, Canada, who won 1,061,820 euros.
• Third was Soren Kongsgaard of Skive, Denmark, who won 610,550 euros.
• Fourth was Kristian Kjondal of Oslo, Norway, who won 471,180 euros.
• Fifth was Josh Prager of Yuba City, Calif., USA, who won 391,550 euros.
• Sixth was Steve Jelinek of Birmingham, England, who won 305,270 euros.
• Seventh was Andy Black of Dublin, Ireland, who won 238,910 euros.
• Eighth was Ram Vaswani of London, England, who won 159,270 euros.

The 10,000-euro buy-in tournament, which had a field of 706 entrants, had a total prize pool of 6,636,400 euros, which is equal to about 8.8 million U.S. dollars.

The 706 participants hailed from 39 different countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Norway, Argentina, Turkey, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Monaco, Lebanon, Belgium, Israel, New Zealand, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Morocco, Costa Rica, Brazil, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Japan and India.

Some of those who qualified for the tourney did so by winning less expensive online poker tournaments, including Griffin, Kongsgaard, Prager and Jelinek.

A few weeks before the tournament was held, tournament organizers predicted there would be more than 600 participants, but never said they expected to surpass 700.

Last year’s EPT Grand Final, also held in Monte Carlo, was also won by an American.

Then-19-year-old college student Jeff Williams of Atlanta, Ga., won the top prize of 900,000 euros, which is equal to about 1.1 million U.S. dollars.

The 2006 event had 298 entrants and a total prize pool of 2.98 million euros.

Of this year’s tourney, EPT director John Duthie said: “This season has seen the EPT turn into something truly incredible—sell-out events across Europe with record numbers of players and record prize pools.

“The Grand Final attracted the toughest field ever seen for a poker tournament in Europe, including stars like Marcel Luske, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Vicky Coren and Phil Hellmuth.

“Two of Europe’s finest playersm Ram Vaswani and Andy Black, both made the final table. I am gutted that I couldn’t play myself.”

Article Written by Tom Somach